National Novel Editing Month Something

Back in November, I cranked out 50,000 words about an old Aberrant campaign. Getting those 50,000 words was my primary goal at the time, but now I realize that making those words readable is the next big challenge. My designated National Novel Editing Month (January) came and went with only a few scant pages marked for clean up. 

As I think about it, the best way for me to police myself on this tedious really enjoyable task is to commit to posting updates of edited pages. Enjoy.

Click through for slightly larger picture.

Timewalking Archive Trap: The End of Aberrant

Like anyone whose desire to say something is matched only by their desire to waste time saying it on the internet, I've been blogging for a while. Timewalking Archive Trap is presents select treasures (for very liberal definitions of "treasures") from yesteryear for the sole enjoyment of my readers. This one is dated 2006:

So it's over. The plot twists, the character development. The plot holes and character deconstruction. The puerile secrets, the highs, the lows, the intricately detailed non-player extras who were both the recipients of a great destiny and one of so many nameless bodies thrown on an indifferent pyre, the other non-player characters with hastily-hatched names and concepts to match ideas that were quickly constructed, vaguely defined, and much loved.

The best parts of life are the ones we do not plan for. We hope in those irregular occasions and events that we anticipate, but somewhere between the honest satisfaction and honest disappointment we lie at the end of a rainbow, under a continued hype that keeps us believing things were as good as expected--or at least better than they were--if not out of the simple need of hope for a varied, exciting, and worthwhile life, then out of a plain refusal to believe in failure.

In boredom.

In a daily regularity not worth sharing.

Not worth remembering.

Not worth telling.

Not worth living.

Not worthy.

It is the irregularities that make life more or less than this. It is the unusual which makes one's life special or miserable. It was the unexpected that found us in Aberrant. My controlled chaos, my friends' chaos and control. I have, at times, seen myself as a Disney villain. It fits the toothless acrimony of my villains and make them particularly suitable for portraying comic-action villains. I monologue, I underestimate my players, build superweapons that disable the heroes' superpowers and forget that Warlock carries a shotgun and a flack jacket.

In fact, I don't think Warlock's done much non-dramatic warlocking in a while...

We had characters that were complicated, and some that were simple. A bravo driven to overcome any opponent; one of the most powerful beings on Earth, who when he hears that an experimental compound has exploded in Nebraska calls his parents in Denver to see if they were safe, then flies out to cauterize a giant's knees off.

A redeemable Irish kid who made Spiderman look about as lucky as a millionaire playboy Bruce Wayne. He gives up, but when history gives him the opportunity--the hope--to change things for the better, he steps up like a hero.

It wasn't perfect--nothing is--but it was good fun. The adventures were too big sometimes, the tasks too easy, the separation between honest roleplaying and self-insertion was thin at times (on both sides of the storyteller's screen), but we had fun. That's what we were there for, and that's what we left with most days.


"Death is not the end of a character, it is the final piece of character development."

The Doom Effect-Telekinesis/Telepathy

Telekinesis

Level: 3
Quantum Minimum: 4

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Telekinesis
Range: (Quantum + Power Rating) x 10m

Area: N/A
Duration: Maintenance

Effect: The character moves things with thier mind.
Action: Full Action

Description: This power allows a nova to move objects and even living beings with their mind.

This is a technique power. For each dot the nova has in this power, they choose one technique which they may use. Novas may use techniques they haven’t chosen, but doing so incurs a +1 difficulty and costs and extra quantum point.

With the exception of Flight, Telekinesis does not have any action/reaction forces associated with it, a character cannot be pulled or lifted by pushing off of something larger than they are or by holding something they are pushing.

You may not have more successes on a Telepathy roll than twice your Telepathy Power Rating.

Blast/Crush: The nova can use their Telekinesis to crush bones and inflict other wounds on a target. Does [Quantum x 2] levels + (Power Rating x 3) dice of bashing damage. It can be dodged normally.

Guide: The nova can guide a physical attack, adding dice equal to their Power Rating to its damage and/or attack. The nova divides up to his Power Rating in dice amongst the attack dice pool or damage dice pool of a physical attack. This is usually a held action triggered by a friendly attack.

Example: Pull-Man has Telekinesis 3 and Guide. He uses Guide to help with the attack of his ally, The Green Samurai. He spends three quantum points adds 2 dice to The Green Samurai’s attack, and 1 dice to his damage dice pool before The Green Samurai attacks.

Levitation: The nova can lift themselves into the air and fly. They can fly (Power Rating x 2) + 20 meters per action, or (40 x Power Rating) km/hr out of combat.

Lift: The nova can 25 * 2^Successes kg. And move it Power Rating x 5 meters as a minor action.

The nova may also use their Telekinesis against a living target as a Hold attack (pg 244), which is sustained as a minor action, as long as it is successful.

Telepresence: The nova can manipulate objects within their Telekinesis range as if they were there. For any roll requiring manipulation of physical objects, the nova may as if they were performing that action. The nova is limited by the smaller of their dice pool relevant to the action or their Telekinesis dice pool, in addition for any other penalties for not being present (being unable to see screens or readouts, not being able to hear warning signs, etc., etc..).

Inherent in Telepresence is the character’s ability to ‘feel’ the weight and resistance of certain objects within their Telekinesis range by ‘frisking’ them. This allows the nova to use their Perception in areas they can’t physically be in, again limited by their Telekinesis dice pool. Note that they can only tell rough masses/resistances of things. If an object resists a telekinetic probe, it could either be very heavy or well secured. A successful Perception roll by a suspicious party can reveal a Telekinetic frisking of a room, though a botched roll can reveal it just as well.

Telepathy

Level: 3
Quantum Minimum: 3
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Telepathy
Range: Variable

Area: N/A
Duration: Variable

Effect:
Action: Full Action

Description: A technique power focusing on reading minds (if you can believe it). To use Telepathy, roll Manipulation + Telepathy against the target’s Willpower (unless the target is willing), then choose a power to use.

Like other technique powers, you choose one technique that you're trained in for each dot you have in Telepathy. You may use 'untrained' techniques at a +1 penalty and the cost of 1 additional quantum point. Unlike other uses of Telepathy, you must declare what untrained technique you're using before you roll. 

You cannot have more successes on a roll than twice your dots in Telepathy.

Alter Memory

Range: Line of Sight

Duration: Maintenance

Prerequisite: Read Minds & Speak

The nova may alter the subject’s memories. Successes on the roll determine how extreme those changes can be. One success can change trivial memories, two successes can change minor memories such as birthdays and anniversaries. Three successes can pull up important memories like vital personal information and embarrassing secrets. Four successes can change anything; national security codes, dark secrets, and traumas too deeply-seated to even be consciously thought about.

The altered memories only last until the power wears off, though they may be made permanent by spending a dot of permanent willpower. Like Read Mind, the subject is aware of the nova invading their mind and can stall the changes for a turn with the expenditure of a point of Willpower.

Fool

Range: Line of Sight

Duration: Maintenance

Successes on the Telepathy roll act as automatic successes versus any attempts for the target to detect the nova. If the target doesn’t suspect the nova is around, then they cannot even roll to detect them.

The use of enhanced senses does not reveal the nova because this effect is mental in nature. However, Psychic Shield dice may be added to the subject’s roll.

Every attack against the target by the nova reduces the nova’s automatic successes by one, until the nova reuses their Fool or becomes visible.

If the target succeeds, the nova is fully visible. If they fail, but are still aware of another presence, they may attack the nova as if blinded.

This power only works against one target at a time, and only protects the nova.

Overload

Range: Line of Sight

The character may roll Telepathy versus the target’s Willpower. Successes deal bashing damage to the target.

Read Minds

Range: Line of Sight

Duration: Maintenance

The nova can read the mind of someone. They can’t necessarily talk with them, but the person knows that someone can read their mind. They know who the reader is immediately; if they know the nova, they can put a name to the face. If they don’t, they’ll recognize the nova instantly should they ever meet.

This allows the nova to read that person’s surface thoughts, as well as to find one simple fact per success per full action. More private or complicated facts may require additional successes, and the target may spend Willpower to prevent the release of any facts for a turn.

Speak

Range: Line of Sight

Duration: Maintenance

The nova speaks to the target. The target may respond in kind or simply attempt to ignore the nova. A nova may speak with up to their Telepathy Rating other characters, and maintain that connection (either on ‘separate lines’ or on a ‘conference call’) indefinitely, even if the characters are no longer within line of sight.

Other characters with Telepathy may Channel powers through this connection or use Read Mind to break into it with a successful opposed Telepathy roll. Other characters with Telepathy (whether they have Speak or not) do not count towards the maximum characters a nova may support. In fact, multiple telepathic novas may ‘network’ in this way to support a larger set of characters.

Channeling

May use other Mental powers and Telepathy techniques through Detect Mind, bypassing Line of Sight ranges on many Telepathy techniques. Non-Telepathy powers used this way have a dice pool limited by the character’s Telepathy dice pool.

Detect Minds

The character has Sense (Sentient Minds). The character can also seek a specific mind within the area of their Sense(250 meters per dot of Telepathy). If they seek someone they know, they only suffer a +1 penalty. If they have only a vague idea of who/what they’re looking for (like “hot dog vendor” or “whores”), they suffer a +2 penalty. If they’re looking for a specific person with very little information about them (“the hobo I almost hit while running at Mach 5 last Thursday”), it’s a +3 penalty. One success on the roll gives a general sense of the target's location and direction. Five successes will tell you exactly where they are.

The Doom Effect-Enhancement Powers

Enhancement Powers

Enhancement Powers are Quantum Powers based on Mega-Attribute enhancements. They do not have an associated Mega-Attribute associated with them, and if you later get that Mega-Attribute, you will not be able to use them together. Enhancement Powers should only be taken if you want an enhancement, but the associated Mega-Attribute will not be something your character would ever need.

Enhancement Powers are all Level 1 with a Quantum Minimum of 2. Their effects and durations are all identical to those of their associated enhancements, with the exception that any use of their associated Mega-Attribute (either from a die roll or static rating) is replaced with their Power Rating. They are technically called Enhancement Name + “Power.” The quantum point cost for using these powers is a base of 1 unless the enhancement lists a higher cost, and increases by 1 for each extra the power has (with the exception of the Reduced Quantum Cost extra, of course).

Only enhancements whose abilities are tied to their Mega-Attribute enhancements can be taken this way.

Example: Terran wants a movement power that represents the Earth tossing him through the air and  softly gently receiving him several miles away. He doesn’t want flight and never plans to have any Mega-Strength, but he looks at Mega-Strength’s Quantum Leap enhancement and decides to take Quantum Leap Power. This allows Terran to make a jump roll with a horizontal distance of two kilometers per success multiplied by his dots in Quantum Leap Power. It also allows him to make normal Dodge rolls against area and explosive attacks.

Example: Tam controls sound to make his punches extraordinarily tough and strong. He also wants to move more quietly, but he never really intends to get Mega-Dexterity. He wants to get Catfooted Power, but he can’t because the Catfooted enhancement’s effect isn’t based on the user’s Mega-Dexterity score. The same would apply for Accuracy, Physical Prodigy, and Fast Tasks. Tam chooses to take two dots of Enhanced Movement Power instead, multiplying his walk, run, and sprinting speeds by three (1 + dots in Enhanced Movement Power) whenever he pays 1 Quantum Point.

The Game's the Thing: Experience in Multiple Techniques

For players, experience is a very simple thing; it's a bridge from the baby's first badass of their new character to the final boss battle badass that always seems inevitable just a few sessions before the campaign falls apart. It's a measure of progress and a return on their investment on having fun. What's the reward for playing your Batman-themed player character? Playing a better Batman-themed player character. For the min/maxers, it's bragging rights. For serious roleplayers, it's their character's mastery over things which have previously alluded them. For smartass snarkers, it's a license to snark to slightly more dangerous NPCs. For social roleplayers, it's...actually kind of a hassle.

The Doom Effect: Proper Introductions

It should come as no surprise that if I’m going to run an Aberrant game set in the Marvel Universe that Victor VonDoom would play no small part in it. While I do not have (and do not plan to have) a coherent story for it, ‘The Doom Effect’ is a general enough name for it that it could mean anything.

I’m trying to run this as a series of one-off stories that will eventually cut out when interest dies down (Maybe I should call it The Atlas Effect) which means I can’t plan because planning is the campaign-killer. This much I know definitively.

Now, none of my players are familiar with the Aberrant system. They know it’s D10, but not much else. To help with that, I’ve included a quick and dirty primer distilled from my regular old dirty primer (which, by the way, is available upon request via email).

Aberrant character sheets can be found here.

The Game's the Thing: Everything You Know is Wrong

So, Terry proposed a collaboration on his new Aberrant campaign. He said he wanted to make Project Utopia believable in their role as savior of the world, removing most of the cynical and look-at-all-the-stupid-sheeple undercurrent of the canon Aberrant setting, where any moron could see that under the guise of being jerks, Project Utopia housed a dangerous, pro-human element. Sleepily, I agreed, suggesting a plot point where Project Utopia’s Team Tomorrow breaks protocol to help the PCs out, while he pitched the foundations of a ‘contact’ NPC within Team Tomorrow that humanizes the team.

Today, my boss took four hours of his morning to do his taxes. When he got back, I heard a random spiel about how the government messed up and wouldn’t start reviewing taxes until the fifteenth of April and all the returns would be late and it was all Obama’s fault, etc., etc..

The Game's The Thing: The Best of the Marvel Universe

So Terry’s going to be kicking around an Aberrant Campaign. He wasn’t sure at first if he was going to run a straight Aberrant campaign, use one of the stock ‘super universes’ (DC or Marvel), or go with something in between.

Now, if it’s one setting I love in comics, it’s the Marvel Universe. Yes, it’s ridiculous and stupid sometimes, but it’s not as abstract as the DC Universe. That is, cataclysmic, world-destroying events don’t happen every week. For the most part, it’s a normal world where normal things happen and the biggest, strangest things are usually confined to the superhuman community. While there are a few crossovers in Marvel that involve the entirety of Earth (Secret Invasion, Infinity Gauntlet), most don’t (Onslaught/Heroes Reborn, Secret Wars, Civil War, Dark Reign). As widespread as House of M was, I don’t think the rank and file citizen of Earth really even noticed anything happened. And while Ultimate Galactus managed to create cults all over the world and even (if I remember correctly) have a certain level of psychic presence as it approached, the 616 Galactus was just another giant guy with a giant, world-destroying machine. Unless he had destroyed the world, no one would’ve cared.

I like the Marvel Universe, because it seems more like the universe I’m familiar with and the heroes in it are essentially struggling to get by in the same world I am.