Hey guys! I've been talking with several different players here about starting a new Abberant game her on N!Prime that somewhere between the open posting on 2018 and the moderated ST-run games like Long March. Here's my initial proposal for people to peruse, ask questions, and suggest changes. Please let me know if you'd be interested in playing, so I have an idea on how viable this is. Please also let me know if you would like to be one of the initial moderators. Thanks!




“The Middle Children of History” Orientation

Introduction -

The Middle Children of History (MCH) is a hybrid of the open posting forums and the more traditional style games run on N!Prime. Players will be able to post fictions and OpNet conversations such as the 2010, 2018, and 200X forums have; moderators will also run primarily large-scale and long term plots as representations of the major world events occurring in the game. MCH will begin in 2025 and advances each month on the first of the month to allow for fiction/plot time distortions due to the nature of posting boards. Because of the rather elusive nature of canon writing during this time period and the enjoyment of seeing a world molded by player action, MCH will hold to the canon history before start of game, but will progress naturally from there.

MCH is at its opening slated for a one year testing period to see if the format agrees with the writers of the site. At the end of the first year a discussion will be hosted on whether or not to continue the board.


Character Creation Rules -

Character sheets must be posted in the Characters board in a separate thread for each character. An example is posted and it is requested, though not required, that players use the character sheet template found in it. Backgrounds may be done in any style the player wishes. The Novapedia is well established at this point and can be a good start for public character knowledge.

All characters begin with the standard baseline package 7/5/3 Attributes, 23 Abilities, 7 Backgrounds and 15 Freebie points. Players may play any number of basic characters they wish; however they are restricted to a set number of higher powered characters: Players are allowed to recreations characters from other boards, but they are recreations. MCH does not use the other boards as history, as those games are still being played, but personal storylines are fine to bring over, if you wish. Also, players may choose to play Psiads, though they should keep in mind the large disparity in power between novas and Psiads. Psiads are made per the book (APG, pg. 49) though the NP count will be left as the same for nova characters to avoid excessive confusion.

High NP: 1 per player at a time, no more than 2 different High NP characters per year. Character begins with 90 NP. High powered characters are subject to moderator approval before play as they may be allowed to start play with Quantum 6 and thusly easily play globally affecting roles in the formation of the MCH timeline.

Mid NP: 1 per player at a time, no more than 2 different Mid NP characters per year. Character begins with 60 NP. Mid powered characters may take up to Quantum 5.

Standard NP: 2 per player at a time, no more than 4 different Standard NP characters per year. Character begins with 30 NP. Standard powered characters may take up to Quantum 5.

Basic NP: No restrictions, but please keep it reasonable and avoid the ‘character of the week’ syndrome as much as possible. Character begins with 10 NP. Basic characters may take up to Quantum 3.


As this game is starting in 2025, there is the option of playing second or third generation characters. Players may play any flavor of nova (M-R node through 3rd generation). These are the rules for 2nd and 3rd generation novas:

2nd Generation Novas: Node 3 required, cannot take Dormancy. Clades will be used from the Breed Apart fan book in the following manner: 2nd generation characters gain either the Taint Resistance merit (as Trues), or an Archetype and Chrysalis 1 (as a 2nd generation Terat) for free. 2nd generation characters may not purchase Tainted Traits at character creation, but begin with Quantum 2 for free. Trues cannot gain more than 5 Taint, Terats do not have this restriction. 2nd generation characters also do not gain Taint from high Quantum or Node. Players wishing to play second generation characters over the age of 27 need moderator approval.

3rd Generation Novas: Node 5 required, cannot take Dormancy. 3rd generation True novas gain Taint Resistance or Archetype and Chrysalis 1 for free, but also accrue the 4 point version of the Child/Adolescent Flaw as such characters should be between the ages of 7 and 12. A player who desires to play a 3rd generation character older than 12 years old needs to have the character approved by a moderator with a background to explain how this occurred. Moderators are suggested to apply other Flaws as appropriate for the character instead. 3rd Generation characters begin with Quantum 3 and gain no Taint from high quantum. 3rd generation characters cannot accrue permanent Taint, though Terat 3rd generation characters may still channel temporary Taint into Chrysalis.

While Apotheosis will be a setting phenomenon, there will not be the 50 to 100 NP bump to characters, nor will there be the lower xp cost advancement option. Characters that wish to run through Apotheosis storylines may either hold character creation points in check or bank experience for a large bump in power at the end of the storyline.

Strengths and Weaknesses are allowed, with the restriction that the points garnered by weaknesses for a power may only be spent on strengths. This allows customization but avoids most of the abuses of the Strength and Weaknesses systems. Anyone looking to use the Permanent Strength on a character must have the character approved by a moderator before they may play the character (or before they may add the Strength on a power to an already existing character).

Merits and Flaws are allowed in MCH, but Flaws will only award a total of 7 bonus points to any one character. Further Flaws may be taken but do not confer additional points. Flaws or Merits worth 5 or more points by themselves must be approved by a moderator.

Players that wish to have a character to begin with Taint 6 or higher must have their character approved by a moderator before they begin play.


Character Advancement and Record Keeping:

Advancement in MCH will use experience points instead of nova points, as the cost chart for nova point expenditures does not reflect the increasing difficulty of advancing skills or expanding powers. Moderators will award characters a standard experience point award for every month that they are active (i.e. that the character has made a post in) of 20 experience points. These points will be awarded on the first of the month for the previous month. Also, moderators may award experience points for characters in moderated plot threads as appropriate.

Experience accrual will be tracked in the same thread that the character’s sheet and background are posted in. When a player wishes to spend experience points for advancement they merely need to post it in the thread and the moderator will adjust the character sheet and give a new accounting in a subsequent post. This provides a record of character advancement and ensures that the player can easily find how much experience their characters have accrued, where it came from, and where it was spent.

New characters brought after the initial start up of MCH have the same starting rules as the original MCH characters, with no adjustment in starting NP’s or experience. The reward to playing one character with regularity is the advancement of that character through experience points.

The experience point cost table for advancing various character traits is as follows:

Attribute: Current Rating (CR) x4
Ability: CR x2
Background: CR x2
Mega-Attribute: CR x5
Quantum Power (Lvl 1): CR x3
Quantum Power (Lvl 2): CR x5
Quantum Power (Lvl 3): CR x7
Quantum Power (Lvl 4): CR x9
Quantum Power (Lvl 5): CR x12
Quantum Power (Lvl 6): CR x15

Willpower: Current Rating
Quantum: CR x8
Quantum Pool: 3 xp per dot
Initiative: Current Rating

New Traits:

Ability: 3
Specialty (max. 3 per Ability): 1
Background: 2
Enhancement: 5
Mega-Attribute: 6
Quantum Power (Lvl 1): 3
Quantum Power (Lvl 2): 6
Quantum Power (Lvl 3): 9
Quantum Power (Lvl 4): 12
Quantum Power (Lvl 5): 15
Quantum Power (Lvl 6): 18

For players creating characters at the very beginning of the board, there will be a one month period of moderator-run or over-sighted prologues to allow the moderators to seed the openings of the first plotline. Requests for NPC ties, powerful positions within canon organizations, or the introduction/integration of player-created powerful organizations will be handled at this time. Mostly, this gives the initial moderators time to put the wiki together, see where players seem to be most interested, and start the first plotiline off with a bang.


Moderator Responsibilities and Elections

Moderators will be elected by the board once a year to serve for a year. In the case of an early retirement or a referendum by the board to remove a moderator, a call will be made for a new moderator for the week after and voting held the week after that. Referendums may be called so long as at least 25% of the board backs the initial referendum post and 75% of the board votes in favor of prematurely removing the moderator from office. Normal elections will be won by simple majority. Should no candidate hold a simple majority, a run off election will be held for the top candidate (starting at the highest-voted candidate and adding candidates until their combined votes equal more than 50%). I know that sounds kind of complicated, but it really isn’t and works well.

There are three elected moderator positions: General Board Moderator, Administrative Moderator, Continuity and Storyline Moderator.

The General Board Moderator is responsible for the board as a whole, handling OOC player requests and complaints, and ensuring the other moderators are performing their assigned tasks. In OOC player disputes, the General Board Moderator has final say in arbitration. The General Board Moderator also takes up the responsibilities of any vacant moderator positions until a new vote has been called and tallied for the vacant position. The General Board Moderator would be expected to check the boards on a regular basis, as near to daily as possible, and should reply to PM’s and thread questions as frequently. The General Board Moderator does not appoint assistant positions.

The Administrative Moderator is responsible for auditing character sheets and updating character logs. The Administrative Moderator would be expected to check the boards on a regular basis, as near to daily as possible, and should reply to PM’s, character requests, and xp expenditures as frequently. The Administrative Moderator may appoint assistant moderators as necessary.

The Continuity and Storyline Moderator (C&S Moderator) is responsible for ensuring that moderator run plotlines maintain a coherent timeline and are updated through NPC’s and world events in a timely manner. The C & S Moderator is also in charge of running plotlines, maintaining and updating the wiki site for NPC’s and organizations, and appointing assistant moderators as needed to handle storyline and player needs.

The first moderator elections will be held three months after the start of the game, to allow for players on the board to get to know one another and potential moderators to decide if they wish to run. The first three months moderation will be done by myself (Malachite) and volunteers that show they have the time and dedication for it. A thread in the OOC board will be made for those to show their interest.


Combat:
Combat in MCH is handled in two separate groupings:

1) Combat in free-post collaborative fiction stories are to be done however the authors of the story wish it to be done. All must agree to the method and stand by their decision after the results. It is highly recommended that it be done by scripting. Any disagreement resulting from conflict should be brought before the three Moderators for a ruling. That ruling is final.
2) Moderated threads that lead to combat will be at the will of the moderator, though it is advised to get the general consensus of the players involved in the thread. However, a moderator may call for rolled combat even against the consensus of the players in situations where NPC’s or probable PC character death is present. Any disagreement resulting from conflict should be brought before the three Moderators for a ruling. That ruling is final.

The Puny Human rule is also in effect for MCH, to help highlight the horror of the difference between homo sapien, and homo sapien novus.


The Various Boards:
There will be an IC Novas-only board, a Fictions board for collaborative unmoderated fictions, and a moderated board for the moderator-run plots and an OOC board. On the IC Novas-only board there will be a thread for News Posts, as well as thread for baseline questions and comments (think mostly like a guestbook for the site). The last board, Characters, will be for character sheets, backgrounds, and experience point logs.

Errata for the Novas-only board: Verification for the board can be achieved several ways – if the character has a Novapedia entry, a public identity as a nova, backing of an organization that can provide verification (such as Project Utopia, the Directive, even the Teragen) also qualifies, though some may not wish to use such references. Beyond that, getting a number of novas to vouch for them to the board moderator also works (i.e. have other characters send a PM to the General Board Moderator vouching for the character). This avoids the endless OOC (and at times, IC) questions of how a character becomes verified for the site.

Colour me interested, both in playing and in volunteering for moderator duty. 2025... wheee!

Hell I'm in.

I would also be interesting in Mod duty.

A few issues:

20 XP a month is too much. The board will be burned out too quickly with far too many Caestus Paxes.

3rd Gen can go into Chrysalis, but accrue no permanent Taint? What kind of crackheaded stuff is that?

You've listed Experience costs for Level 6 powers. I don't like what that implies...

game isn't limited by canon....

Alex:

What would you consider a better xp progression? I put twenty in from finding an average xp comparison to an NP, then I took the 4 NP/6 months that the 200X board had and came up with about 26.3 xp per months equivalent and rounded down.

My understanding of Chrysalis (and it is limited, I'm still new to Abberant and this is why I'd really love those that know the mechanics and storylines inside and out to come on board as moderators), was that you still ended up with the same social penalties that Taint gives you, so I didn't think it'd be much of an issue. Please explain more than 'crackheaded' so I have some idea how to address the issue better.


As stated under character creation rules, the High NP character slot may be allowed to start play with Q6. That's the major reason why all High NP characters require moderator approval.


Thanks for the responses so far!

Also, we need a nifty thread to record all changes made to canon setting, so newcomers aren't bewildered and for quick reference.

*nods* on the Chrysalis thing, Malachite. It still generates aberrations and social penalties.

Then I don't know that I see a problem with it for the 3rd gen'ers. The point of them is that they are a more perfected ideal of what the Teragen want in novas.

Problem is there's no risk of failure to convert, just a pure XP discount.

I like the 20 xp per month. What concerns me is the unlimited characters. One of the things that killed 2010 from what I've heard is people cramming character in with no intention of playing them seriously just to get the xp and have them getting bigger.

I think you'd get much more dedicated characters with restrictions on overall numbers.

What you've posted is very similar to what I had in mind for a game/board. I like it. I think the semi-ST board environment would be a nice medium between what has happened in the other boards and the nice calm environment we have in the ST run games.

On second thought, I have no issue with 20 XP a month.

Ok, the "What's OK" question....

Brainwaves
Forceful Personalities
Aberrant Compendium(lots o' enhancements and aberrations in here)

Well, on Chrysalis, perhaps an alternate failure issue could be instituted, or as with Apotheosis we let is stand as a setting piece with no lowering of xp cost.

ZerO, I have all those books, but I'm in another city atm. I'm going to look them over when I get home. There's probably going to be at least a few specific mechanics that are not allowed or restricted, but I don't much see banning entire books.

I like this idea.

And don't forget A Breed Apart, Zer0.

Honestly, it'd be my vote too. Cuts down on the cheese while still letting each of the groups have their own flavor.

I really like this idea.

I also humbly offer my services as a moderator.

I think there also needs to be a limit on the number of Basic characters. With that kind of XP, they're nothing to be trifled with; we could quickly find ourselves awash in a sea of Basic novas whose only purpose is to sit and gain XP and maybe post once a month.

Well, following the scheme I set up for character # vs. NP, perhaps 4 basic characters, no more than eight a year? The basic characters were mainly there for people to play around with concepts they didn't want to dedicate higher NP slots to.

That works. I'd just like a solid limit.

I'm groovy with that, Malachite.

I would like to join, too.

You know I've been down since you first mentioned it. Would be a chance to play ideas that weren't suited for 200X, or ones that I could never fit into lower caps. (And I have a character nearly ready for submission over there for anyone who's been wondering).

Can we get more of an idea of your initial ideas for plots or does that come later? I assume you malachite and perhpas some of your friends will be the STs?

Right now I have myself, Ptesan-Wi, Drew, and The White Rat volunteering to moderators. I'm probably gonna hold on to the General Board Moderator position for the first three months, and I'll talk with the three volunteers I have right now and anyone else that pops up over the next few days. For this initial moderation period it is pretty much going to be just going "ummm....okay, from what I know of these people I'm gonna ask so-and-so to do this, and so-and-so to assist them." Then three months after we start we'll hold elections.

As for storylines, I have one or two I'm playing with and fleshing out, but I'd love suggestions. The C & S Mod will be the one with final say on it, once they're appointed.

Considering my current mood and desire to lay waste to a good majority of characters that exist, I don't feel me being a moderator is healthy for anyone at this time.

I'll help those who have questions or are looking for ideas on how to make a concept work however.

so how's work on this proceeding?

Indeed, consider this a 'poke'
You people still alive over there?

I am duly poked, a giggle inappropriately.


We're waiting mostly on Chosen getting back from being out of town, to set up the board so we can get characters and moderators set up.

Other issues that have come up in discussion or pm's:

Lvl 4 Powers cost 7 NP, lvl 5 costs 10 NP, lvl 6 costs 13 NP. I know that at character creation players will not be able to buy as high as I've outlined, but for those that choose to bank NP's for later use, there it is.

Also, on xp expenditures: moderators will have the right to refuse xp purchases for a character in the middle of a moderated storyline (no convenient purchasing of the 'I Win' power mid-storyline), and some explanation for how the power was acquired would be appreciated. Spend a boatload of xp on powers or Megas that have nothing to do with what the character has been engaged in will be met with taunting and your very own cheese-monkey sticker. Unless it makes a good story. Then you get a gold star. Seriously, mods are going to be harder on rp-supported purchases the higher up the power scale you go. Make it make sense, or keep in on your lower powered characters. Even then, just a smidge of sanity would be nice.

I will be going over the powers in the Eon books just as soon as I pin down my roommate and get a hold of her cheat-sheet that has all the powers on it and what book they're from. I'm also starting work on the wiki today, so I should have a link for you guys to start messing with it yourself by tonight. I don't forsee many restrictions on what powers people are allowed to buy, just the cheesey it is the more likely a moderator will either refuse to sanction the character for play (for High NP characters) or refuse to allow the character in the moderator storylines (or at least the use (or unlimited use) of the cheesed power in the story).

Can I get a roll call from those interested with the following information please?

1. If you are interesting in moderator or assisting the C&S or Admin Mod, and which moderator position you would prefer.
2. For each character you wish to begin with, the power level and group affiliation (if any) of the character.
3. The themes, style, and scope of moderator run stories you would like to see, including any specific events/situations you would like to see in the first storyline.
4. Any alterations or additions to the MCH Orientation that have not already been discussed and resolved in this thread.
5. If you would be interested in assisting on the basics of the wiki site, The Middle Children of History Wiki btw, everything from typing to creating a neat unique skin to hunting down fun images to use in the site.
6. Anything else you can think of that has not been addressed and needs to be.

Hyoseph -- Yay!!

1) Unfortunately, not atm. I'm trying to get Hounds of Zaroff off the ground.
2) High-Powered character, 3rd Gen Nova kidlet, no affiliation atm. Power set depends on moderators...
3) I'm pretty open to anything the mods have to offer. Storyline = good :P
4) Banking NP? Explain, please.
5) How involved will the mods be in the overall flow of the game? Example: If I was to play an Influence-based character or a Precog, odds are good that unless there was a mod involved at at least some level, those two things would be pretty close to useless.

How can you bank NP when it's an XP driven story?

The banking of NP's was mostly to allow for two things: characters to experience a slow eruption opening story, or for Apotheosis for 2nd and 3rd gen characters. As with everything in the game right now, this is open for discussion, opinions, and pretty much everything but cussing. :p

The Apotheosis stuff I'll admit was my big thought on this. If people are uncomfortable with the idea of unlimited banking of NP's perhaps we could limit it to a % of the character's starting NP, an amount of time to spend it in after character creation (say, a month or three months, something like that), or only available for 2nd and 3rd gen characters and only for an immediate post-Apotheosis expenditure.

Or some combination of the three. What do you all think?

Hyo - For modded storylines, it would be the responsibility of the moderators to ensure that powers like Precog had use but did not break the game, ditto on Influences. I loved the Influence system in the old Mind's Eye Theatre books, and perhaps something like that for moderated stories could be used. It's a wonderful system and once up and running not that hard to maintain. It also makes for great plot devices and hooks.