Grailknight

Re: The Authority:What the heck? The lack of recurring enemies seems to be part of the basic philosophy of the series. After all, if they had a recurring enemy, they'd be just another superhero comic.

Oh, I'd allow it also but I would still point it out and make the player justify it. Otherwise no one ever blows a deflection roll because it cost nothing in an MP to pump it up. Sorry my apprenticeship under powergamers is showing:)

Dieties are supposed to be crazy, it's in the fine print.

I have no problem with that but putting special powers in frameworks triggers my munchkin alarms and DM psych lims.

Not to dredge DD vs Tak, but DD "cheats" to have EGO Def in his VPP. Special powers are still verboten in frameworks.

I like to save my DM power abuse for special occassions

Reflection vs DrD CHEATER! Actually, this comment came from one of my newbie players who had just read FREd for the first time. It seems that pluses to OCV with deflection are considered skills under 5th and therefore can't be placed in frameworks without GM permission. Old rules had OCV plusses as an adder. Live and learn, but it's embarrassing to be lectured by a newbie after 20 years

Cool! Can you post a link to your source page for their Aberrant writeups? The adresses in your post don't go anywhere.

Try doing the Taint as linked Transform with an 8- activation roll. Make it a partial Transform that adds a DF, Phys Lim or Psych Lim randomly. Can I vote for Geisha to be next?

Another good job and an excellent example of why Aberrant is so deadly. Can you imagine the lifespan of a frontline mentalist with her attacks and defenses in a Champions game?

I've always loved adjustment powers as a DM and as a player. A drainer can be very effective without being overbalanced in most AP limit games. The changes made in 4th and carried on for the most part to 5th made them viable but like every rule they could stand some tweaking. So let's examine your conclusions: Conclusion 1: No maximum as a +1 adv Can't agree with this one totally. This would be better handled with Cumulative. Conclusion 2: No fade rate as a +1 adv - restored pts only Again can't totally agree with this. In my house rules Aid and Absorption are both 10pts/die and the no fade is free. Healing doesn't exist and Aid costs END. They also fade immediately if in an MP or VPP and the slots are switched out. This is balanced for my game, YMMV. Conclusion 3: Transfer should act as Drain after max reached I agree totally with this one. I also allow Cumlative to increase the max but at 2x cost. I personally eliminated the buying up the max mechanic for Cumulative. It prevents people from trying to build the infinite buff character.

It all comes down to game balance. There is no other reason that I can find to restrict EC's more than MP's or VPP's. In my experience, almost all MP's would and should fall under the drain one-drain all rule used for EC's with the exception being for gadgeteers.

I'd like to see something along the lines of the Universal Brotherhood from Shadowrun. DEMON uses fronts as self-help charitable organization to recruit streetpeople and people in emotional distress. Most remain ignorant of anything wrong (It's run as a real charity/new wave church), but a small percentage get to see the inner workings of DEMON in various-usually unpleasant ways. This gives DEMON a constant source of income, a creditable front and a steady supply of sacrifices who won't be missed. The UB storyline was probalby the best done thing in the Shadowrun universe in terms of foreshadowing and story.

Aberrant is definitely the game that models THE AUTHORITY best, in fact THE AUTHORITY almost seems like the reference used to design the game sometimes. In Aberrant, the best defense is taking the other guy out first. Unless you spend roughly 1.5x more on your defenses than your attacks, plan on seeing some hospital time after major battles.

Good job, he's about as ludicrous as he should be. Minor quibble, the taint resistance can only stop outside effects, side effects automatically bypass your defenses.

Maybe I was a tad too harsh but not much. The game is far too heavily weighted towards bricks in combat damage. To be fair, some of this was inherent in the game design based on the world they wanted to model. But it still seems as though the designers never actually played the game. I can roleplay any system but a game that features combat should have a playable combat system.

I think you did a very good job with these guys but its hard to over come the disparity between attacks and defenses inherent to the system. Playing Aberrant reminds me of reading The Authority, death is just that common and the only way to avoid it is to be a tank because Nothing makes you harder to hit.

I've tried a campaign using hit locations and we didn't like it. It made normal damage into the stun lotto. The one shot stuns on 12/13 rolls were balanced numerically by the no effect arm and leg shots but all it takes is a 1.5x at the start of battle to ruin a scene. We did use it for killing attacks and found it works better than the stun lotto.

power level Ahh Aberrant, the only game I've seen that has RULES for creating a UNIVERSE in your character's image. The game has some very interesting ideas but suffers from a fatal flaw. It's a Superhero game where combat is DEADLY!! Despite that I recomend it wholeheartedly as a setting or an idea mine.

Bion- The Rock less the attitude and more of an inspirational leader. Racer- Wesley Snipes, Denzel is too pretty

Power Levels You're rightabout that LL, CKC was a definite sign of a change in power levels in official products. Strikeforce is one of the Hero classics but I actually felt that the heroes were underpowered compared to their main nemesis: Overlord. His main attack does BODY to all but 2 Characters and only 3 can penetrate his defenses which are up close to Gravitar's. 53/50?

Minor correction, Drain does not have a cap.

Definitely a Major transformation, might be better with a cumulative Mind Control

My big arguments are easily house ruled around so I don't get too worked up over them STR and Char in general-Leave them alone, take away figured stats and you get another game entirely. Damage Shield was fine at plus 1/2-just keep control of the other advantages on the power and you won't have a problem. Kyrptonite Man situation- Its a disadvantage and you shouldn't have to pay fot it. The Human Torch wouldn't cost more if he was fighting Iceman and vice versa. Shape Shift and Images do have conficts but each has just enough that the other doesn't to stay as separate powers. Instant Change and Regeneration were both bad calls IMO-I agree with the idea of fewer powers, but these special cases take up more space for explantion than the old separate powers would have. +1 Stun Multiple- Make the 1st level +1/2 and then +1/4 from there. Cumulative Supress- Not a problem as long as you remember that as as adjustment power it still has a maximum, that it still costs END and breaking LOS should make it go away.If it still bothers you relative to Drain then take its range away. My personal arguments MEGASCALE-too much too easily, first step should be 10m at +1/2 then 100m and so on for +1/4. Flash-too cheap for what it does-unfortunately IMO this is one of those genre vs game simulation powers that don't match up well. At 5 pts/die your typical MP Flash slot will cost your opponnent 1-3 near helpless actions. The problem is that you can do this over and over as long as you make your to hit roll. In genre, Flash is a once per battle suprise attack and is usually only used to heighten suspense or to help an overmatched foe put up a fight. Cost of defense is too high relative to the penalty for not having any defense. Honestly, How many PC's have you written that had Flash defense that wasn't sufficient make you immune to what agents might carry? Adders-They should be adders and not part of the power and subject to advantages and disadvantages. Megascale is so popular because it costs too much to be a speedster under 5th. At the very least bring back the idea that adders don't affect END cost. Any adder that you feel is too good under this system is shoud be a power advantage. Adding damage rule- This is because the hand attack rules that what is supposed to be a disadvantage[limited power] and turn it into a special case power that is not consistent with the older rules for analogous powers( HTH KA). The idea that this disadvantage allows free advantages on your STR when you have to prorate STR for HTH KA is the biggest inconsistency I've seen in 5th. EC's- Back in 4th, some powers - most notably the spot defenses and LS were classifed as special powers and couldn't be placed in ANY framework. This worked pretty well as long as you changed Damage Reduction to a special power. It allowed any of the other powers to be placed in EC's or multipowers without trouble and that seems to bethe way most of us houserule it. Drain one, drain all is too restrictive because it affects too many special effects. Munchkin hint : Drain Flight -you'll be more hated and go down quicker than a mentalist. Also why are Multipowers, which are more efficient and should be just as tight a concept immune. Again, all of these are just my opinion and what I and my players use as our house rules. Do what's fun for you

Damage Shield isn't abusive at the +1/2 level anymore than any other power is. Abuse comes when lots of other advantages are piled onto the power. Personally, I've never run into any one who would rule that AF on DS would hit with all the shots fired. The character with the DS didn't make an attack roll so the DS should only do once per time the attacker hits it.