ABERRANT! The Nova Age

[Dead Cruiser]

March 23 2018, 12:18 p.m. GST
The orbital research station Galatea explodes, killing all astronauts aboard and dumping experimental radioactive materials into the Earth's upper atmosphere.

March 23 2018, 3:31 p.m. GST
Randel Portman, a firefighter in New York City, spontaneously generates superhuman powers. He is caught on camera absorbing all of the heat and flames from a multi-alarm apartment blaze.

The Nova Age begins.

January 1 2028
There are estimated to be at a minimum 2,000 active Novas living worldwide.

It has been 10 years since the first recorded emergence of Homo sapiens novus, a humble firefighter from Manhattan. Novas, as normal, "baseline" humans typically call them, are people who have spontaneously developed the ability to use quantum energy to manipulate physical reality. Such omnipotent power in its raw form is too great for the human mind to bear, and so during the "eruption" that heralds a Nova gaining their powers, their abilities manifest in specific forms, shaped by the Nova's emotions and subconscious. Nova powers come in an endless array of dazzling forms; mastery over natural and exotic elements, transforming yourself or the world around you, quantum-powered intelligence, or merely strength and speed that seems to defy the laws of physics. Such unusual abilities barely scratch the surface of what Novas are capable of.

Global society has been completely transformed into what some call "the Nova Age." Novas have captured the public eye, and are the new idols and icons for the new era. Technology and economics have both been revolutionized by Nova-developed technologies such as eufiber and hyperfusion. War, famine, pollution, and disease as we might know them have been eradicated thanks to the efforts of Project Utopia, a nonprofit corporation that works hand-in-hand with the UN and many world governments. Project Utopia's mission is to facilitate cooperation and understanding between humans and Novas, so that they may march together into the future. Part of their efforts includes Team Tomorrow, a worldwide league of Novas dedicated to protecting the world and its population from natural disasters, extraterrestrial threats, and rogue Novas. T2M is divided into distinct teams scattered across the globe, and has various subdivisions as the Daedalus League, a team of Novas committed to expanding mankind's exploration of outer space, the Team Tomorrow Academy (aka Teen Tomorrow), a facility to train prospective candidates for T2M, and there are even rumors of a covert Team Tonight, though Project Utopia denies the existence of T2N.

However, the world does not rest easy in the Nova Age. Tension between Novas and "baselines" runs deep, as there are many on either side that believe the other intends to eradicate them. While the Zurich Accord affords equal human rights and treatment to Novas, there are many prominent legislators as well as clergymen that have spoken out against the "Nova threat." Principle among their fears would be the Teragen, a loose association of Nova political extremists that believe Novas are the next step in human evolution, a superior species that should reign over mankind. The Teragen have what even they would call violent radicals among their own ranks, a throng known as the Aberrants, who commit terrorist attacks and assassinations worldwide at the behest of their mutated leader. While there has been an end to war between nations, world peace is still a long way off, as struggle over resources and territory continues in the developing world. Exacerbating these brush wars and territory skirmishes have been the interference of mercenary corporations that employ Nova "Elites." While not all Elites are mercenaries, all of them are superhumans for hire, and sometimes the business is murder.

---

Okay so that should suffice as a setting write-up. This is me taking a crack at the White Wolf/Onyx Path tabletop game Aberrant, which is meant to be a game mostly about superheroics and celebrity. However, there are a lot of different directions we can take this, as I mentioned a lot of plot threads and different factions we could work with or against.

It's a pretty open and flexible original superhero setting, and so I'd be really interested in feedback for what people would want to play. Team Tomorrow saccarine heroics, Teragen terrorism, Elite headhunting, the list goes on.

As far as Nova powers go, I've been debating adopting some light mechanics from the tabletop, at the very least to help put our powers into perspective. Also let me know how you feel about this idea, some light stats, as I'm not married to the idea.

And of course, please tell me any character ideas you might have. I'm very interested in hearing about superhero OCs you'd want to play, and also I can make sure they fit into the setting.

[Dark Cloud]

@Dead Cruiser Is this anything like the Fantasy Games Unlimited Villains And Vigilantes? Either way I'm always down for an TTRPG. And my idea; People with superpowers that never wanted to have superpowers. I've been watching Doom Patrol lately that's why.

[Rapid Reader]

Interested, White Wolf RPGs are great, so any RPs inspired by them are always welcome in my book. That and I've been meaning to flex my superhero writing muscle to so I am hyped.

I'm really down to clown in any sort of context, I guess the only thing I don't really find compelling at all is the classic "teenage superhero academy/highschool" start (it just bores me on every level).

I'm a massive fan of using stats or some form of light table top rules to keep people on a similar power level. In reality, I don't think it usually matters nor do I particularly care how strong characters are, but by nature of the genre, superhero stories feel very dependent on good scale. My observation has generally been that it is harder to tell a nice story and have good RP flow if people are all over the scale in terms of power (e.g., it's pretty hard if your character is barely above a base human in power and my character can destroy the entire city without help).

My final thought is: please not a sandbox plot (lol).

[Dead Cruiser]

@Dead Cruiser Is this anything like the Fantasy Games Unlimited Villains And Vigilantes? Either way I'm always down for an TTRPG. And my idea; People with superpowers that never wanted to have superpowers. I've been watching Doom Patrol lately that's why.

@Dark Cloud

Can't say I'm familiar with the game you mentioned. I'll keep the suggestion in mind, see what other people are interested in as we start up.

Interested, White Wolf RPGs are great, so any RPs inspired by them are always welcome in my book. That and I've been meaning to flex my superhero writing muscle to so I am hyped.

I'm really down to clown in any sort of context, I guess the only thing I don't really find compelling at all is the classic "teenage superhero academy/highschool" start (it just bores me on every level).

I'm a massive fan of using stats or some form of light table top rules to keep people on a similar power level. In reality, I don't think it usually matters nor do I particularly care how strong characters are, but by nature of the genre, superhero stories feel very dependent on good scale. My observation has generally been that it is harder to tell a nice story and have good RP flow if people are all over the scale in terms of power (e.g., it's pretty hard if your character is barely above a base human in power and my character can destroy the entire city without help).

My final thought is: please not a sandbox plot (lol).

@Rapid Reader

Thanks for the feedback, I'm considering just using WW style 1-5 dot "stats" for things like powers, I only hope it isn't too confusing.

Too bad you don't like Teen Tomorrow, I may have secretly been hoping to do that one, lol. But rest assured I want to do a plot, not just a free for all of nonsense.

[GubGar]

Put me down for interested. I'm a big Superhero guy and am looking to scratch that itch.

I'm not familiar with the source material this is based off of, having only recently made my foray into non-D&D TTRPG (thank you to my friend who showed me Lancer), but I don't think that should be a problem if it's only gonna be light tabletop rules/stats, which sounds good to me. I like a loose but stable ruleset to keep things steady.

As for what types of campaigns I'd be interested in, all & any, I really don't mind. Though I have a personal soft spot for very 'human' superhero stories, I'm a fan of normal life mixing with superheroics. Makes the latter feel more important IMO.

[Dead Cruiser]

Put me down for interested. I'm a big Superhero guy and am looking to scratch that itch.

I'm not familiar with the source material this is based off of, having only recently made my foray into non-D&D TTRPG (thank you to my friend who showed me Lancer), but I don't think that should be a problem if it's only gonna be light tabletop rules/stats, which sounds good to me. I like a loose but stable ruleset to keep things steady.

As for what types of campaigns I'd be interested in, all & any, I really don't mind. Though I have a personal soft spot for very 'human' superhero stories, I'm a fan of normal life mixing with superheroics. Makes the latter feel more important IMO.

@GubGar

Thanks for your interest.

The backstory is relatively easy to sum up (as you can see that I did so above) and largely concerned with the specifics of characters in the metanarrative. Probably the most important among them, who went unmentioned by me, is Divis Mal, the "leader" of the Teragen movement and author of its founding document, the Null Manifesto, which he delivered using his supreme Nova abilities to every communication device on Earth simultaneously.

I will pose the question to other interested parties whether they want just superpowers ruled by stats, or if we also want to get into the weeds of Skills and Attributes, which do have some interplay with powers, but could be ignored and ruled on a narrative basis easily enough. For powers, I will probably ask players to describe to me what their characters can do, and suggest stats and powers accordingly. Novas can have their powers distributed a variety of ways, from a single primary power with many applications (say like Static Shock) to a character with many different, subtle powers (Spider-Man), to a genius character with powers derived from technology (power suits like Iron Man, or gadgeteers like Batman). Or any combination of the above, if you're willing to pay in Transcendence (i.e. mutation).

I think the vibe I'm getting is that we want a low-level, perhaps "Street Hero" campaign? Unless I'm getting the wrong idea.

[Dark Cloud]

"Street Hero" sounds fun.

[malmshodes]

Hi there!
How's everyone doing today!
This does look like a lot of fun. I'm not very familiar with TTrpgs, but I'm open to the ideas of stats and would love to learn.

As far as heroes go I like the idea of street level.

[Rapid Reader]

Low-level / Street Heroes sounds fine by me.

In terms of stats, I like the idea of players pitching powers and you (the GM) giving some suggestions for stats (I think that cuts out people freaking out because they find the stats confusing or whatever).

[Dead Cruiser]

In any case if you want to start working on characters, maybe come up with what circumstances surrounded their Eruption (which is usually caused by a stressful or traumatic event) and what their powers are like.

[GubGar]

Street Hero seems like the most fun to me as well. I'll start considering possible characters & what caused their Eruption.

Also, I'd be completely fine with just stats but have absolutely no qualms with adding depth with skills & attributes, especially since the latter might get us to go more in-depth into how our characters act.

[rocketrobie2]

I've been lurking around but now I think I'll throw my hat into the ring. Save for some outliers I haven't had a ton of luck with superhero games but I'd love to give this a shot! As for stats and stuff my vote is for as many stats and TTRPG mechanics as possible. Like most of the othersI'm not all too familiar with the system but I think I could pick it up!

Already got the basics of my character thought up but I'm gonna wait to see what the ruling on stats is gonna be before I put pen to paper with anything.

[Dead Cruiser]

The one think I don't want to tussle with is actually rolling dice, which would be what listing individual skills and attributes would ostensibly be for. Giving stats to powers at least produces a sort of reference for the scale of our abilities. For instance someone with the power of Mega-Might 2 (super strength in other words) is as strong as a gorilla. Someone with Mega-Might 4 has as much power as a wrecking ball.

[rocketrobie2]

Oh I gotcha, we'll just be using them more so for comparisons and benchmarking stuff, I gotcha. I'm down for that! Truth be told I always like the randomness of dice rolling but narratively I think it'll do good to not leave stuff up to actual chance.

On that note though, will there be any sort of levelling up or will our starting stats be the same for the rest of the game? For superheroes I always like to leave room to grow power-wise but I'm also cool with having 'em be at peak power to start with.

[Dark Cloud]

WIP CHARACTER CONCEPT

[Bork Lazer]

It's time.

[Dead Cruiser]

Oh I gotcha, we'll just be using them more so for comparisons and benchmarking stuff, I gotcha. I'm down for that! Truth be told I always like the randomness of dice rolling but narratively I think it'll do good to not leave stuff up to actual chance.

On that note though, will there be any sort of levelling up or will our starting stats be the same for the rest of the game? For superheroes I always like to leave room to grow power-wise but I'm also cool with having 'em be at peak power to start with.

@rocketrobie2

I think we'll cross the bridge of character advancement if and when we get there. But it is important that you grow, if we get to that point, as a Nova's Eruption is merely the beginning of a metamorphosis, it's not a singular event.

It's time.

@Bork Lazer

Time as it may be I'm going to insist that we play human characters; there haven't been any Erupting platipi.

[Rapid Reader]

The man, the myth, the platypus.

---

Concept wise I think I've settled on a punk rocker (a bad one), turned vigilante with the ability to phase into and out of the tangible universe. Being super creative, I plan to call her Spook.

[Dark Cloud]

Concept-wise; A washed-up childrens entertainer, once a hired magician to entertain birthday parties and etcetera. I'm still not sure though.

[Dead Cruiser]

The man, the myth, the platypus.

---

Concept wise I think I've settled on a punk rocker (a bad one), turned vigilante with the ability to phase into and out of the tangible universe. Being super creative, I plan to call her Spook.

@Rapid Reader

Sounds spooky. Like I said over priv, if you can come up with some other powers for her, they can easily be included. The average Nova is pretty strong!

Concept-wise; A washed-up childrens entertainer, once a hired magician to entertain birthday parties and etcetera. I'm still not sure though.

@Dark Cloud

Don't see why it couldn't work. What do you think he'd be capable of?