Review of Aberrant

Aberrant Review Summary

Capsule Review
July 30, 1999
Edited: August 28, 2017


by: G Dog


Style: 4 (Classy & Well Done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)



G Dog has written 1 reviews, with average style of 4.00 and average substance of 5.00

This review has been read 603 times.

 

Aberrant Product Summary

Name: Aberrant
Publisher: White Wolf Publishing
System: Storyteller System: Trinity (1e)
Setting: Aberrant
Author: Aeon team + more
Category: RPG

Cost: $24.95US
Pages: 296 p.
Year: 1999

SKU: 8500
ISBN: 1-56504-626-9


Review of Aberrant


Goto [ Index ]
I picked up Aeon the day it arrived on the shelves, and really liked it. The revised Storyteller system rocked, the division of flavour and "nitty-gritty" sections.... Best of all... angst-free!

However I never got around to running a game in Aeon/Trinity. Now I can't wait. I loved Aberrant so much that it not only compels me to run an Aberrant game, but to run Aeon in 2120 as well.

Simply put, Aberrant strikes a beautiful balance of flexibility and simplicity. You create your human character, then you make him into a nova (what Aberrant's superhuman namesakes are generally called in the game's 2008 setting). The chargen system is smooth and intuitive, starting off with WW's standard Attributes, Abilities and Backgrounds, which are fortified with Bonus (freebie) points. You then take your modest "baseline" and turn him into a superhuman (or uberhuman) with Nova points. You can buy Mega-Attributes, Quantum Powers, or plain old skills and attributes.

It also allows you to create characters of wildly varying power. You can go the relatively humble "Captain America" route, or you can go the powerful "Superman" route. Granted, this necessitates some Storyteller intervention during character creation to match the players' power levels to the story, but I personally appreciate having the options.

Aberrant is also tremendously flexible in its mood. You can play up the Justice League aspects, you can play it silly, you can play it tragic (after all, your "heroes" are the supervillains of the 22nd century) or you can just roleplay a normal Joe who becomes an overnight superpowered celebrity.

I found Aberrant to be a real breath of fresh air. It has robust rules, it has fun (and useful) background info, and it doesnt beat you over the head with the pretensiousness that has marred much of WW's other material.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Copyright © 1996-2026 Skotos Tech and individual authors, All Rights Reserved