Mar 28, 2019 11:06 pm
I’m considering running an Aberrant game, and so I wanted to gauge people’s interest. For those unfamiliar with the game, it is a pathos-rich superhero setting that takes a grittier, more realistic look at what a world with super beings would be like. The game ditches the tropes common to four-color superhero comics, instead choosing a more deconstructionist approach to the genre. The setting has a similar feel and scope to Watchmen, DC’s Kingdom Come, and some elements of the Wildstorm Universe.
The system is a modified version of the Storyteller System used in the Old World of Darkness.
The system is a modified version of the Storyteller System used in the Old World of Darkness.
[ +- ] Setting Info
Aberrant was originally released in 1998 and set in the year 2008. My game will be set in the present: 2019.
Back in 1998, the destruction of a space station in Earth orbit increases radiation levels worldwide, triggering a mutation in certain people and causing them to "erupt" as "novas", people with a node in their brain that allows them to manipulate quantum forces. In short, novas have the potential to do anything they can imagine. In practice, they’re more limited, but they still have the kind of power accorded comic-book super-heroes or mythic demigods
What do novas do with their power? Lots of things. In the world of 2019, twenty-one years after the emergence of the first novas, there are an estimated 10,000 novas worldwide, from every nation and all walks of life. Many have chosen to join Project Utopia, an organization devoted to harnessing nova power to cure the world’s ills. They’ve made considerable progress: cleaning up the environment, breaking the back of organized crime, producing cures for cancer and AIDS, averting natural disasters, and terraforming Ethiopia into a tropical paradise. Mega-intelligent nova inventors and scientists have accelerated technological development by leaps and bounds; the world now has tech once relegated to science fiction: portable energy weapons, flying cars, nanotechnology, and more.
Real "super villains" are a rarity in the world. Why use your tremendous powers to rob banks when you can become a spokesperson for Nike or earn millions doing the talk-show circuit? If you have the power of a god, maybe you should be worshipped as one? A lot of novas seem to think so, and nova-led cults and new religions are all over the place, while the appearance of living gods has its impact on existing religions. Then there are nova mercenaries that fight wars like one-man armies, and super-powered nova athletes and wrestlers in the XWF (Extreme Warfare Federation). You also have "novox" rock stars and actors, as well as nova businessmen and super models, using their superhuman charisma or looks to make a living.
Then there’s the Teragen Movement, novas who follow the philosophy of the mysterious nova demagogue Divis Mal. His Null Manifesto declared novas outside human law, authorities unto themselves, and the Teragen refuse to be governed by anything other than their own consciences. Many consider them terrorists, and the individual beliefs of some Terats have led them to commit acts of terror, like the assassination of anti-nova politicians.
Back in 1998, the destruction of a space station in Earth orbit increases radiation levels worldwide, triggering a mutation in certain people and causing them to "erupt" as "novas", people with a node in their brain that allows them to manipulate quantum forces. In short, novas have the potential to do anything they can imagine. In practice, they’re more limited, but they still have the kind of power accorded comic-book super-heroes or mythic demigods
What do novas do with their power? Lots of things. In the world of 2019, twenty-one years after the emergence of the first novas, there are an estimated 10,000 novas worldwide, from every nation and all walks of life. Many have chosen to join Project Utopia, an organization devoted to harnessing nova power to cure the world’s ills. They’ve made considerable progress: cleaning up the environment, breaking the back of organized crime, producing cures for cancer and AIDS, averting natural disasters, and terraforming Ethiopia into a tropical paradise. Mega-intelligent nova inventors and scientists have accelerated technological development by leaps and bounds; the world now has tech once relegated to science fiction: portable energy weapons, flying cars, nanotechnology, and more.
Real "super villains" are a rarity in the world. Why use your tremendous powers to rob banks when you can become a spokesperson for Nike or earn millions doing the talk-show circuit? If you have the power of a god, maybe you should be worshipped as one? A lot of novas seem to think so, and nova-led cults and new religions are all over the place, while the appearance of living gods has its impact on existing religions. Then there are nova mercenaries that fight wars like one-man armies, and super-powered nova athletes and wrestlers in the XWF (Extreme Warfare Federation). You also have "novox" rock stars and actors, as well as nova businessmen and super models, using their superhuman charisma or looks to make a living.
Then there’s the Teragen Movement, novas who follow the philosophy of the mysterious nova demagogue Divis Mal. His Null Manifesto declared novas outside human law, authorities unto themselves, and the Teragen refuse to be governed by anything other than their own consciences. Many consider them terrorists, and the individual beliefs of some Terats have led them to commit acts of terror, like the assassination of anti-nova politicians.
Last edited March 30, 2019 2:17 pm
