Another project which I started a few years ago was the New World of Darkness conversion of the less popular white wolf D10 game, Aberrant.
Aberrant was the second of the Trinity line, based on a separate universe from the main world of darkness line.
Aberrant is a super powered genre, where normal humans erupted into super powered beings with immense powers. However unlike the comic book world... people didn't dawn tights and fight crime. Some decided they were more then humans, some decided to make alot of money using their powers for constructive purposes, and some dedicated their lives to a better humanity (for 6 figure salaries and royalties on the action figures).
The world was incredibly diverse with several factions running around with their own ideals and tactics... and the powers you wield were as diverse and customizable as the human spirit.
The down side to the game, it was incredibly broken rules wise and easily lead itself to being overpowered (i.e. I roll 25 dice for damage... you can die now).
Some years pass and White Wolf came out with the New World of Darkness line. They gutted their old D10 system, which was the basis for Aberrant and the World of Darkness, and rethought the system. The product was a much cleaner, more streamlined system. Gone are the days of 3 hour combats that take 1 1/2 minutes in game time. Also the NWoD system created the Live Action Role Play system around the same sheets, which can thus be traded back and forth between system.
However the trinity line was canceled, never slated to have a NWoD conversion... pretty much like the entire genre line.
I found the starts of a conversion based on the NWoD system... and it seem to have a good base set up... after failing to contact the author of the original project, I decided to start tinkering with the system some more, re-balancing powers, making other powers make sense... and of course... make it much easier to customize powers on the fly.
Recently I've found a group of rotating players to test out these rules... hash out the weak spots in play, then rethink and re-tinker until I get some pretty solid results.
Through out this blog, I'll be posting those experiences... and possibly getting feedback from potential followings.
Today's Note... the most broken aspect of the old game... Mega-attributes (most notably strength).
Mega-Strength allows you to lift incredible amounts, and hit really hard. In the old system, you would receive 5 automatic success on damage and strength rolls per rank of the power (ranking from 1-5 dots)... that means you could potentially hit for 25 automatic damage. The problem is most heroes would be hard pressed to attempt to soak more then 10 max. In most cases 15 damage (presuming that the hero was maxed out and very lucky with dice rolls) would knock out... if not outright kill several average starting heroes.
In the NWoD conversion, I've scaled the dice advantage back a bit and made it universal for all attributes. Per each rank of the mega-attribute... the nova (name for the common players) receives 1 automatic success towards his roll, so long as he has one success. Further, at 3 ranks he may reroll 9's and Rank 5 he can reroll 8's.
This way, the character has a major advantage for having such a potent power, but it wont necessarily be an instance knockout each time. Other stats are affected by the mega-attributes, and are reflected accordingly.
So get ready to hulk out! Next I tell some of the tales of the aberrant play testers.
Aberrant was the second of the Trinity line, based on a separate universe from the main world of darkness line.
Aberrant is a super powered genre, where normal humans erupted into super powered beings with immense powers. However unlike the comic book world... people didn't dawn tights and fight crime. Some decided they were more then humans, some decided to make alot of money using their powers for constructive purposes, and some dedicated their lives to a better humanity (for 6 figure salaries and royalties on the action figures).
The world was incredibly diverse with several factions running around with their own ideals and tactics... and the powers you wield were as diverse and customizable as the human spirit.
The down side to the game, it was incredibly broken rules wise and easily lead itself to being overpowered (i.e. I roll 25 dice for damage... you can die now).
Some years pass and White Wolf came out with the New World of Darkness line. They gutted their old D10 system, which was the basis for Aberrant and the World of Darkness, and rethought the system. The product was a much cleaner, more streamlined system. Gone are the days of 3 hour combats that take 1 1/2 minutes in game time. Also the NWoD system created the Live Action Role Play system around the same sheets, which can thus be traded back and forth between system.
However the trinity line was canceled, never slated to have a NWoD conversion... pretty much like the entire genre line.
I found the starts of a conversion based on the NWoD system... and it seem to have a good base set up... after failing to contact the author of the original project, I decided to start tinkering with the system some more, re-balancing powers, making other powers make sense... and of course... make it much easier to customize powers on the fly.
Recently I've found a group of rotating players to test out these rules... hash out the weak spots in play, then rethink and re-tinker until I get some pretty solid results.
Through out this blog, I'll be posting those experiences... and possibly getting feedback from potential followings.
Today's Note... the most broken aspect of the old game... Mega-attributes (most notably strength).
Mega-Strength allows you to lift incredible amounts, and hit really hard. In the old system, you would receive 5 automatic success on damage and strength rolls per rank of the power (ranking from 1-5 dots)... that means you could potentially hit for 25 automatic damage. The problem is most heroes would be hard pressed to attempt to soak more then 10 max. In most cases 15 damage (presuming that the hero was maxed out and very lucky with dice rolls) would knock out... if not outright kill several average starting heroes.
In the NWoD conversion, I've scaled the dice advantage back a bit and made it universal for all attributes. Per each rank of the mega-attribute... the nova (name for the common players) receives 1 automatic success towards his roll, so long as he has one success. Further, at 3 ranks he may reroll 9's and Rank 5 he can reroll 8's.
This way, the character has a major advantage for having such a potent power, but it wont necessarily be an instance knockout each time. Other stats are affected by the mega-attributes, and are reflected accordingly.
So get ready to hulk out! Next I tell some of the tales of the aberrant play testers.
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