That's good because you're one point away from madness.

Sorry about that. To be clear I don't mind doing that on the likes of Stalin & Lenin, or even a paper hanger in Germany (this might be before Hitler went evil). Those guys are wearing big black hats.

But we are going to have to do this to civilians, and we are going to have to do this to people wearing white hats. I'd like to keep that to a minimum... but if Steve needs to choose between 5 billion deaths and mind washing some noisy reporter, then Miss Lane might be pretty, good, and a nice person, but 5 billion is a big number.

Just for the record. I don't have a bias against those kind of uses of telepathy in this game. The watchers might, but they aren't present.

One of the problems I've always had with Aberrant. Nothing on you as a player or even the character. Just want to be clear there.

Aberrant was meant to be a game of sacrifice and we know from Trinity that the Aberrants were by and large supposed to go taint mad over time. The system however was poor in mechanics when it came to taint. At character creation taint was an easy low impact no risk way to gain an extra handfull of nova points (up to 6 I think without penalties). Once the game had started it was incredibly easy to avoid further taint and the power max rules and other methods for gaining temp taint just weren't good enough for the risk/reward to be balance IMHO.

My perspective on Cody fitting in the game...

I think that Cody is an interesting character and to the extent that he and Andrew have interacted Cody provides a bit of a counterpoint. Andrew has limited taint and may gain more if I think there is something to gain from it in the roleplaying but really his loosing touch with his own humanity is his own doing by way of his powers and his choices. As a counterpoint Cody has lost touch with his humanity (or at least has gained distance) due to the taint and not of his own choosing.

In a way Cody also represents everything we are fighting for. If we can create a better world and eventually find a cure or treatment for taint (or even just make it so that novas understand the Taint mechanism) Things will be better for everybody, Cody is a product of the old timeline, if we succeed maybe this timeline's equivalent of Cody will erupt into a person with less taint or less agressive powers, or be able to control their telepathy to not cause pain etc etc.

That said I understand what you are going through. I built Carter with a totally different style game in mind and his just didn't work at all in this game, there were no opportunities for him to work. If you feel restrained by the character make a new one, better to have fun with a second choice character than miserable with your preferred character.

*****

As a side note are we in a slide or is there a reason why there has been no posting in game in 5 days?

One of the problems I've always had with Aberrant... we know from Trinity that the Aberrants were by and large supposed to go taint mad over time... Once the game had started it was incredibly easy to avoid further taint..

Yes and no. It's like if we were RPing 21th century types (i.e. Real Life). It's easy to not have a heart attack, don't smoke, don't be overweight, excersize, etc. But when push comes to shove, heart attacks are the #1 killer.

The causes of taint weren't well understood until about 2008 or even later. We the PCs are blessed with that knowledge, but we are the exception. Getting rid of temp taint is extremely hard, it requires a month of down time with no power use. Many, MANY occupations are going to encourage the gaining of temp taint and/or the use of powermaxes.

You're a DVNTS elite, or with PU, or on the run from Project Pro... how many people actually have the time to take a month off? How many are going to be in a hard situation and require a powermax?

I see players use power maxes all the time. Granted, not everyone... but not all novas go mad. Say only half do and that fits the info right there.

Problem is not every powermax results in taint, by the book rules you need to botch meaning that its actually easier to avoid taint as you gain power (more power = more quantum (usually) = more dice = less chance of a botch).

Again my biggest issue was that the system did not support that taint was a problem all novas need fear. Power at the sacrifce of humanity was supposed to be the theme of Aberrant, but to my mind it doesn't come through as it's pretty easy to avoid taint. The only way that taint is FORCED onto PCs is through Q5+ and Node 3+. While I don't believe in forcing anything on players (I hate being railroaded and I try not to do it in my games) I think that taint needs to be either A) More of a drawback from the get-go or B) more tempting to players.

This may all be in my head as I have the least experience with Aberrant out of the three games having run or played in more Adventure and Trinity games. So perhaps my limited experience is hampering my view, if so ... well what can I say, I admit to my failings.

****

Returning to game related talk, we are in a predicament, as somebody pointed out if we skip time to see how our changes have cascaded down the years we risk weakening ourselves in comparison to possible enemy novas (Mal specifically), as such we need to decide how we want to deal with that. I guess to an extent that also depends on what Fox has in mind for this story.

Sorry about the delay guys. My wife just got out of the hospital. She's fine now, and I should have something up later tonight.

Thanks for your patience.

Glad to hear she's ok.

Ditto.

A short post just to get things started again...

True... but it's also true that more dice means you feel free to powermax more. Even at Q5 you have a 8% chance of failure. Powermax once per week and that's 4 points of temp taint a year, or +4 Perm Taint per 10 years. Q4 makes that 13%, & +6.7 respectively. The time frame that abby works in means that it's supposed to take novas years to go mad.

All? "All" is a Trinity convention and one only true in propaganda even there. "All Novas are Evil" or "All novas go mad". The hidden truth was that novas fought on all sides of the war, and some even stayed behind to help mankind.

A theme. And while it's possible to have a Q6, taint 2 nova... that's pretty hard.

We need to contact pre-Mal and tell him how to not generate taint. We need to make this information available to others as well, because there's a lot that you just have to know.

Ok, guys, once you know if Cody is actually there or not please proceed with what you have planned in Moscow. I'm waiting on you guys.

Courier pokes Cody.

sorry kids! Been busy or exhausted. Soon I promise! Ive been trying to get fox in the chat room...

hey now, I'm not that kind of ST!

I know I'm supposed to be without internet, but I got lucky in where I was working.

Since Omar has the Iron Will merit, it might not work too well. He has hinted that he can erect a wall to protect his mind to the beginning characters, but has not to the later ones. Therefore, that ability would not be known by Cody.

Although, it could be a way of get rid of Cody, so you could have him replaced. (jk)

Iron will only works against control powers like hypnosis and dominate.

I have always played where Iron Will protects the mind against all mind effecting/altering powers and abilities. According to the ST, as it is ultimately up to him:



It also protects against Social attacks involving Manipulation, Charisma, and Appearance.

Well that is cetainly a home brewed interpretation. I dont suspect it will help you against mind blasts and such though...for that you need psychic shield...

edit: iron will is supposed to be for things that make you do things against your will. I dont see how it should protect against thing like scanning and such...again thats what psychic shield is for...

Actually, I was probably a little off there. I would say that it would help you shrug off any attempt at domination or making you do things against your will, but wouldn't necessarily help prevent mind reading. For that you would need psychic shield.

its cheap too!

I would apply IW against all the various social extras as well.

I will most likely be out all of Tomorrow (Monday).

And...scene!

Cytorak Ruby also pokes Cody.

AAAhhh! Okay! So I havent told Fox yet, but i am going to stick with Cody...with a few minor adjustments. Should I post a lil fiction piece about Cody during Hammersmith? I'll need approval for the changes of course. Also, I *may* bring in a second PC a bit later...still working on the details.

I have an appointment to go to now but will return this evening and finally get around to it! I have been re-inspired!

Bump

Sorry to push things ahead, but things have been slow for the past week and I don't want folks to get bored. Also, sorry for using the craft without your permission Cody, but I figured you wouldn't mind.

Well its official! I am actually posting!

I edited my post to include Cody and what he planned on doing.

you still have to smack them Omar...Cody is just making them unable to act or react...just try and be somewhat gentle...they arent our enemy

Cody is of course a liguistic genius par excellance...but for reasons that have yet to be revealed cannot answer at this time...I beleieve Steve also speaks russian and have sent him a PM (unread as of yet) asking him the same. As this is information cody would know about Steve I was waiting for his reply..patience Omar! If Steve doesnt have russian Cody has a plan b....

Steve speaks Arabic and one of the oriental languages (local languages of the places he's served in wars). He doesn't speak Russia.

Morgan does from his military days.

Well then, looks like he's up.

Ok, the first historical adjustment has been made and a basic plan formulated. The latest member of the team has been introduced.

Everyone is now back aboard ship and will gather for breakfast in the galley as is customary.

Lets discuss the latest plans so everyone is clear as well as making the necessary introductions.

In the interests of moving the story along, after his tour with Phillip, Bradford will go and do his business with Mr. Carlisle and his father. He'll simply give Mr. Carlisle the cash, and he'll tell his father that he will be performing abroad for an unspecified amount of time.

Then, back to the ship to sleep, before the morning meal.

Sounds great.
If you feel the urge, feel free to post something to that effect in the Fiction category, that I'm about to create.

For the record, I do take things like posts outside the main storyline into consideration when awarding experience. (It does have to involve your character.)

Where is the fiction category?