Good Aberrations for a Nova with Temporal Manipulation?

[Daredevil]

I'm dusting off an old Temporal Manipulation focused Nova, & I am considering making a version of her with multiple Aberrations.

I'm not sure what types would be best for a Temporal Manipulator, though. Any suggestions? Would it be better to create new ones?

How could this be handled differently between editions?

(I'm currently using 1st Edition, but I love to hear about 2nd as well.)

[Dataweaver]

If I recall correctly, in 2e temporal manipulation is largely reserved for the likes of Max Mercer, and isn't really available to Novas. I could be wrong about that, though.

[Daredevil]

I guess we'll have to wait for someone else to weigh in to confirm, but either way I would love to hear what kind of Aberrations do you think would be interesting with this power theme?

[Mateus Luz]

Second edition is all about power effects, so you can create many powers by thinking what is the resulting effect and adding the fluffy to explain.

For example, Temporal Manipulation can be handled by:
- Mega Speed, Quickness and Multitask Mega Edge for the accelerate time (maybe with the bestow tag, if possible)
- Quantum Attack causing Only entangle/paralize for the time stop
- Quantum Attack aggravated, deadly maybe other things for the aging
- Healing for the de-aging.

On the Aberration (now called Transformation) I think I would make him kind of out of sinc, mental aberrations basically, things like not paying station to people, anti social as people speak too slow and he speaks too fast to people understand, maybe a ever lasting hunger as he must eat every few minutes (equivalent to several hours to his time frame).

In general temporal manipulation is a Talent thing, but Novas can do a lot o things. Time travel and cross-time travel is out of limits, though.

[Shepherdboi]

If you're looking for physical Aberrations, you could go the 'evolutionary' route, having the character develop either atavistic 'cave man' traits or 'Roswell Gray' features. I think either would be very cinematic.

[Ian Turner]

Random thoughts;

Age related appearance aberrations, either the character always looks like a child, and has the equivalent of the Child flaw, or always appears as a withered old person (and yet, paradoxically, has no age-related ability deficits?), or even a mix of the two (appears as a Child with progeria).

Unliving objects in your immediate vicinity, particularly items you wear or carry with you, seem to age and wear out at 10x the normal rate. Watch batteries drain daily, it seems. Holes wear in your socks, or the armpits of your t-shirts. Shoe soles wear thin. Etc. This occurs over hours, so isn't generally of any use trying to break stuff in combat, although, in theory, if chained up for a long time, the chains will rust and degrade 10x faster than normal, so you might be able to break free in mere years, instead of decades...

Living creatures experience the effects of time passing more rapidly around you. People and animals just get tired faster, but small insects and flowers visibly wither and die within moments of touching you (or even just being around you for too long).

Your shadow or reflection is 'out of chronal synch' with you. When you stand in front of a mirror, your reflection might not appear for long minutes, or seemingly, at all, and when it does appear, it might persist long after you've left for the evening. This effect is totally unpredictable, and there have been occasional when people have been able to 'predict' your arrival because your reflection showed up an hour before you did (and was long gone and nowhere to be seen by the time you actually arrived). This can be annoying, like that time everyone in the Amp Room knew you were going to be there soon because your reflection was dancing up a storm in the mirrored ceiling, while you were still on the way there, and the paparazzi were waiting... Rarely it can provide glimpses of future knowledge, at the ST's discretion. "Wait, why does my reflection have a black eye?"

Rubber-banding. You interface with time oddly, moving in fits and starts, seeming to be unnaturally still, and then moving in an apparent burst of speed, before stopping again, frozen in place, even when engaged in a normally continuous motion like running or swimming.

You leave chronal echoes behind. The more intense an emotion or experience, the more likely that an occasional ghostly image of you re-living that moment will appear briefly and unpredictably at a location, sometimes for weeks, or even months. Your home is a 'haunted house,' filled with chronal echoes of you puttering about, and is generally a surreal place to visit. You move from room to room, seeking peace and quiet from your own 'ghosts' re-enacting various emotionally charged tableaus like that frustrating argument with your agent where you threw your phone, or that intense breakup with your ex. This can be a huge deal, not just because all your 'dirty laundry' is on repeat in your home for any visitor to see, but also because you tend to leave potentially incriminating proof of your presence (and activities) at any place you visit where something ends up happening that local authorities might find 'interesting.'

[Daredevil]

On the Aberration (now called Transformation) I think I would make him kind of out of sinc, mental aberrations basically, things like not paying station to people, anti social as people speak too slow and he speaks too fast to people understand, maybe a ever lasting hunger as he must eat every few minutes (equivalent to several hours to his time frame).

Those are neat ideas. I like the 'speedster' vibe from them. The hunger requirement is a particularly interesting one.

In general temporal manipulation is a Talent thing, but Novas can do a lot o things. Time travel and cross-time travel is out of limits, though.

Huh. I'm a little sad about that. I'm guessing it's to make Max Mercer more unique?

If you're looking for physical Aberrations, you could go the 'evolutionary' route, having the character develop either atavistic 'cave man' traits or 'Roswell Gray' features. I think either would be very cinematic.

Lol! I like the visuals of both possibilities.

I picture a neanderthal looked nova, boasting of his power...

“Grog is most evolved Time Lord! No one is stronger in time then Grog!” Grog beats chest.

I hope to respond to Ian Turner’s awesome post latter.

[No One of Consequence]

Aging in reverse.

[johntfs]

If I recall correctly, in 2e temporal manipulation is largely reserved for the likes of Max Mercer, and isn't really available to Novas. I could be wrong about that, though.

Figure it depends on how your manipulating the temporal. Time/dimensional travel is right out. So is Pre/Post cognition. However, nothing says you can't affect the rate at which time flows. So, you could do stuff like Healing/Regeneration (increasing the flow of time to let yourself or somebody else heal faster); Suspended Animation (slowing time around yourself) or Entangle/Paalysis (greatly slowing time around another); Superspeed (increasing the rate for yourself or another); Agg. Damage (aging) or even Disintegration (aging someone/something to the point that their very atoms decay into nothing). Figure those last two might have some limitation that they only affect organic matter (something that would realistic "rot away.")

[LordHeru]

All I am going to say is that time/dimensional travel is only out when you consider having to keep the balance of Novas and Psions. If you are just having a Nova game without any worry about the greater setting then I think time/dimensional travel fits perfectly. (I have zero interest in thematic and niche protection, especially one that seems to give more benefits to psions then novas.) Same with the other fields that novas are supposedly unable to do, most of which I object to strongly. (Looking forward to when fan books come out that step on niche protection in all the fun ways.)

So yeah, those ideas presented above about how to use the mechanics of the game to fit the themes one wants is brilliant.

[Dataweaver]

For what little it's worth, the “no time travel” restriction is less about “niché protection for psions” than it is about Talents; psions can't really do the time travel thing either.

And what's really ironic is that neither can Talents, outside of the likes of Max Mercer.

[LazyGM]

Without looking up the rules if there are appropriate aberrations, I figure there are those with social/mental penalties that could be re-skinned for a temporal nova that becomes confused by remembering things from parallel timelines. Or like Dr. Manhattan, having trouble relating to those of us that perceive time linearly.

[Doctor Zero]

I recommend watching the miniseries, "Golden Years" about a janitor who gets accidentally exposed to a time travel experiment, and goes on the run from the CIA. He starts to age backwards, the sun races across the sky at supernatural speed, and other weirdness. Perhaps if a roll fails, flowers could quickly wither eggs could unscramble. Perhaps the Nova could be haunted by innocents failed to save in the future. Perhaps time demons could hunt to exploit a mistake. There is some cool stuff from Doctor Who that could be used.