Just managed to pick up some of the books for White Wolfs Aberrant RPG and i was hoping to get some advice on running an Independant/Elite campaign.  Was also interested in what people thought of the system in general and if anyone had come across any obvious problems that needed fixing.

I am currently runing a campaign and its good fun but there are a few flaws. My first question is whether you are looking at the d10 version or the d20 version? You said "White Wolfs" so I am assuming their usual d10 dice pool version. In which case, the biggest imbalance is the disproportionate power of Mega-Stats.

Normally, White Wolf dice pools run off Stat+Skill for a dice pool. 1-5 for stat, 1-5 for skill, for a normal range of 1-10. Mega-stats not only give an extra 5 dice on the stat side, but a 7-9 gives 2 successes and a 10 gives 3. The net result of which means that the best mechanical way to get results from your powers is to have superhuman stats.

To use a comic book example, Professor X is a telepath. Telepathy in Aberrant runs off Perception+Telepathy as a dice pool. To be the best telepath in the world, Professor X needs to have Mega-Perception at the kind of levels that gives him better senses than Daredevil.

One possible fix for this flaw is to allow the Power Rating to roll as Mega-dice when using powers, and the Mega-Stats to only roll as Mega-dice when using the Stat+Skill.

Leading from this is Mega-Strength. This is pretty insane. Each dot of Mega-Strength gives you +5 automatic damage successes (thats successes, NOT dice), in addition to whatever weapon you are using, in addition to non-mega-strength. It is worth mentioning, 'cos the rule is well-hidden, that Mega-Strength DOES NOT roll in a Strength+Brawl attack. Otherwise the Hulk would be as accurate as Spiderman (or anyone that uses Dex+Martial Arts in hand-to-hand).

The damage levels are very high. In theory, you can have +25 automatic damage if you just focus on Mega-Strength. Thats enough to take people round bruising and into lethal multiple times. The same is true of the automatic damage successes of Quantum Bolt and several of the attacks.

The defences for Soak etc are not so good. However, the advantage there is that they stack. You can combine Stamina, Mega-Stamina, Armour, Force-Field etc. The trouble is that if your characters have the means to withstand a Mega-Strength 3 attack (around 18 health levels in one go) they will probably never be afraid of "man with a machine gun" who can usually muster around 4 health levels in an attack. You will find yourself relying on the heavy weapons section a great deal.

Saying that, if you keep your people vulnerable to "man with a machine gun" then the Hulk will turn your PCs into paste.

Its one of the finest balancing acts of any game system I've been involved in. I've had to fight the temptation to not abuse the abilities that by-pass PC defences in EVERY session (such as mental attacks etc). You may wish to encourage the use of the Invulnerablity power instead of armour. It offers affordable protection but does encourage built-in vulnerability and weakness just to keep things interesting.

Finally, there is the problem with the Quantum Pool. It tends to dry up fairly quickly. Arguably this is good in limiting power useage, but against that, it again favours Mega-Stats which have very little quantum expenditure. The Hulk gets to use his Strength and Stamina all week long, whereas the Human Torch gets to fly for a bit and throw a limited number of flameblasts before needing to rest for a bit.

If you wish to discuss this any further, or bounce any campaign ideas off a GM who has run the game for 4 years for around 30 PCs, then I'm happy to froth.

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PD: "..."
LT: [Not allowed a speaking part.]
Riftworld: "This? This is not a problem, its a challenge. Now can someone help me open this jar?"

Thanks for the offer, if i have any other ideas i'll stick them up for you to look at. 

"MADE OF SOLID MING"

The one thing I would say is that mind control beats most things just because you need to buy special defences against it - most people take defences against or ways around physical attacks, but fewer take social / mental defences. Physical abilities - well, MegaStrength 5 and its consequences are easy enough to figure out, but 80% of characters with a similar point score are going to be able to beat that (MegaDex, Hypermovement, Invulnerability (Physical), time, element or gravity control, teleportation, Warp, Shield... hell, even Quantum Bolt beats MegaStrength point for point in a straight fight).

The problem I had was making the world big enough to be realistic without breaking it. Unless you make very strict restrictions on character gen (which I'm not *that* fond of) you get characters who strictly beat the fluff characters in terms of ability. Property destruction on a massive scale follows - "Which *idiot* levelled Manhattan?" - and if you aren't that careful your characters can either run a bit out of control or feel that the world is losing its verisimilitude.

In my opinion, Aberrant does comic book - and I'm talking the grittier, more 'adult' comic book style here - very well indeed. And as long as your players are prepared to stick to that genre and not act outside it you can have an amazing game. Just like Trinity and pulp sci-fi, and Adventure! and pulp action. But in common with all White Wolf's games it lends itself well to gonzo brainless action, and the world breaks quite easily if players wish to discard genre convention.

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Maelstrom: Auriel, Seraph of Fire and Stone, Lieutenant of the Teacher's Host in the Lands of Hell, Celestial Messenger of Lord Sun.

CUTT Head Ref 2007/08