Natural Novas

[glamourweaver]

I always thought that superiors were a form of artificially created talents, well that was a surprise.

Superiors whole thing is their incredible Attributes, which is a thematic part of the Stalwart/Nova package, without the physical mutation and external external energy/matter manipulation stuff (is sub-Aberrant Mutants ever got covered as a Tier 2 character type, I think they'd be other half of that equation). Talents are all about probability.

[johntfs]

I don't think you must take that part of the book as the "Meta Plot" behind TC: Aeon. My view of that is, the characters will do their parts, but can't do it all by themselves, so someone will do the rest when you are not looking.

The proxies are as failed as they were before, but now there is a general increased hope that missed in 1e. To be fair, 1e characters were considered doing everything only if you follow all the adventures written, much like what happens in Aberrant 1e, where you are hunting/finding Antaeus in the jungle and latter helping with the election, and later you are scouting Corbin, and latter you are killing Elites or Utopians, basically all the main plot points are covered by the characters because yes.

You can have a sequence of events that guide your characters to all the places and situations needed to cover all the plot points, but you don't have to as a SG, basically because the characters are not alone in a universe of useless people, or at least people too busy to avoid world end...

Sure, but at the same time the PCs should be the focus and fulcrum of any scenario. They're the ones whose choices and actions should most matter - for good or bad. PC actions and decisions should be consequential. They should affect the world - at least slightly. And by "the world" I mostly mean "their world." Their world doesn't need to be the whole campaign setting, just their corner of it. If the PCs are a small group of Psiads, Superiors and Free-lance Psions making their way on Luna and they fail to stop the robbery-homicide at their favorite bar, they lose that bar. Maybe Path rolls are a little more difficult. On the other hand, if the foil the robbery and prevent deaths, maybe they get a "rep boost" that helps with Path rolls. The consequences don't have to be mechanical in terms of rolls, but they should always .be meaningful

[Mateus Luz]

Agree with you. In fact I think the characters are what matter in the setting, while I really enjoy the story we follow in 1e.

What I mean is, if the characters want to go to Luna and save the bar, the world is not going to end. If the idea is place a campaign after the Aeon era, you have a reference of how it’s going to be (at least an idea) without having to go through a lot of books and plots.

I am trying to make some stuff more story related in my game, but it’s far from being anything yet. The idea is something close to Psionic or quantum powers that can only be bought with special XP and Paths that evolve on them selves as you use and work for it.

[NewK]

One thought is that: why didn't pre-aberrant novas go nuts with power? A crazed Transcendence 10 nova going Godzilla on DC in 1962 would probably be headline making.

I have some thoughts as to why:

1. Some did. The pre-nova era isn't really covered, and we may find that when ADventure comes out that there were cases of monstrously mutated villains who might very well have been crazed novas.

2. There wasn't teh same "urge" to gain power. Which is to say in the Nova era, you have too many Novas (aluded to in the text) and that means more and more competing novas, and both good and bad guys have to "keep up with the Jonses" because if Dr. Devastation is maxing out and adding powers, his stalwart heroic counterpart also has to do that unless he wants to get curbstomped--and then he starts believing he's a god or explodes into tentacles. Long story short, if you're the only Nova around in 1935, it's less likely that there would be the immediate arms race that forced so many novas to press themselves beyond safe limits (because normally, if you start showing any signs of mutating, my bet is that absent some real force to the contrary, most people would freak an dstop).

3. Divas Mal's action didn't just trigger a lot of Nova's, it radically upped the "ambient flux" of the world. Becoming a nova is easier, gaining power is easier--as is mutation.
Novas in the past, probably started out with lower powers (less XP to play with) and had a harder time quickly increasing their quantum, but conversely had less of a danger of gaining transcendence, so pre-Galatea novas were known for slower, more predictable power increases, rather than the "we shoot up to god/demonhood" actions that led to the Aberrant war.

[johntfs]

One thought is that: why didn't pre-aberrant novas go nuts with power? A crazed Transcendence 10 nova going Godzilla on DC in 1962 would probably be headline making.

I have some thoughts as to why:

1. Some did. The pre-nova era isn't really covered, and we may find that when Adventure comes out that there were cases of monstrously mutated villains who might very well have been crazed novas.

2. There wasn't teh same "urge" to gain power. Which is to say in the Nova era, you have too many Novas (alluded to in the text) and that means more and more competing novas, and both good and bad guys have to "keep up with the Jonses" because if Dr. Devastation is maxing out and adding powers, his stalwart heroic counterpart also has to do that unless he wants to get curb-stomped--and then he starts believing he's a god or explodes into tentacles. Long story short, if you're the only Nova around in 1935, it's less likely that there would be the immediate arms race that forced so many novas to press themselves beyond safe limits (because normally, if you start showing any signs of mutating, my bet is that absent some real force to the contrary, most people would freak an dstop).

3. Divas Mal's action didn't just trigger a lot of Nova's, it radically upped the "ambient flux" of the world. Becoming a nova is easier, gaining power is easier--as is mutation.
Novas in the past, probably started out with lower powers (less XP to play with) and had a harder time quickly increasing their quantum, but conversely had less of a danger of gaining transcendence, so pre-Galatea novas were known for slower, more predictable power increases, rather than the "we shoot up to god/demonhood" actions that led to the Aberrant war.

I think there's mix of "all of the above" plus a couple more.

4. If you're pretty much the only Nova in the city/state/nation, you probably don't know a lot about how to increase your power. By 2028 there been a lot of experimentation with a lot of Novas and a lot of it is on the web/Opnet. The Manhattan Project was a closely guarded secret. The Rosenbergs were executed for giving the H-Bomb plans to the Soviets. Now you can download at least the basic plans from the internet.

5. And speaking of the Manhattan Project figure there was a lot less ambient electromagnetic and nuclear radiation back in the 30s. Then you had nukes and nuke testing and holes in the ozone and satellites and WIFI so you had a bit more Quantum fuel. Then Divis Mal used it to start everybody's engine.

[Shepherdboi]

According to pages 357-358 of the Aeon book, "Over time, the effects of the Hammersmith event diminished. Eventually, no new people gained powers, and many inspired had their powers fade as they grew old." If some of those people with powers that faded were Novas, that implies they didn't go Aberrant because - in many cases - their powers slowly faded instead.

[glamourweaver]

According to pages 357-358 of the Aeon book, "Over time, the effects of the Hammersmith event diminished. Eventually, no new people gained powers, and many inspired had their powers fade as they grew old." If some of those people with powers that faded were Novas, that implies they didn't go Aberrant because - in many cases - their powers slowly faded instead.

As far as we currently understand, the Hammersmith eximorphs were Stalwarts, which are of the same nature as Novas, but a lower degree of power (outlying exception being Michael Donnighal/Doctor Primoris/Divis Mal, who due to proximity to the Hammersmith blast went full Nova).

[johntfs]

According to pages 357-358 of the Aeon book, "Over time, the effects of the Hammersmith event diminished. Eventually, no new people gained powers, and many inspired had their powers fade as they grew old." If some of those people with powers that faded were Novas, that implies they didn't go Aberrant because - in many cases - their powers slowly faded instead.

Well, depending out how similar they are to 1ed Stalwarts, they might have used Inspiration instead of Quantum. Once the "Call to Adventures" becomes "Oh, I hope the grocer got some bran and prunes in" figure the spark of Inspiration has kind of faded away.

Meanwhile, figure in Aeon you're kind of getting the "common knowledge" version of history. Did some of the original Inspired just fade or die of old age? Probably. But that doesn't mean that all of them did. There might be a few beyond the "big three" of Mercer, Donnighal and Bhurano that lived into the Core age and beyond. And even if they didn't it's possible that some of the weird crap that they made did.

[Mateus Luz]

In 1e there were more than a few that lived all the way from Adventure to Trinity, at least Whitley Styles and Danger Ace show up in both lines.

[andrewm9]

Ah good old Whitley Styles, one of the most dangerous men alive, and English to boot. I love it.

[LordHeru]

While I don't automatically feel that one needs to transition from Stalwart to Nova the idea that a Stalwart could loose their power or whatnot doesn't fly with me. Like not at all.

That said imagine how cool a campaign it would be if it started in the Adventure! era with Stalwarts and Mesmerists and saw them grow in power till they 'awakened' as Novas and Psiads and then continued onward at that higher power level.

By the way, with my only expectation being how cool Talents are, I really am looking forward to Adventure! and its Stalwarts and Mesmerists.

[johntfs]

In 1e there were more than a few that lived all the way from Adventure to Trinity, at least Whitley Styles and Danger Ace show up in both lines.

True, but that was then and this is now, so I guess we'll see.

[Aliasi]

While I don't automatically feel that one needs to transition from Stalwart to Nova the idea that a Stalwart could loose their power or whatnot doesn't fly with me. Like not at all.

People do get weaker with age, though. Literally, as my knees continue to remind me. It might take a longer time with people of supernatural might, but that's hardly the most unbelievable thing.

[IanWatson]

Well, depending out how similar they are to 1ed Stalwarts, they might have used Inspiration instead of Quantum.

That's not a thing.

"Inspiration" (or telluric energies, or Z-waves) are what the pulp era calls these esoteric energies that they do not understand. As time progresses, they'll tease them out and label them separately as Quantum, Psi, and Flux. Three different forms of energy, rather than three different reactions to one form of energy.

Stalwarts always manipulated Quantum, even in 1e, there was just not the understanding that allowed them to more accurately define it separate from the other forces.

[Dataweaver]

…which brings up an interesting point that I hope that TC:A! addresses: is all well and good when the characters in game don't understand the difference; but if they're three distinct kinds of things, the rules ought to address them as such. Otherwise, you get gamers claiming that Telluric Energy is a blending of the three.

And there are practical differences between them, such as Quantum having some sort of ability to max out, Psi having synergistic effects that make psychics more capable when working together, and both having energies that are considerably easier to acquire than a Talent's Flux is. Not to mention that Quantum Super-Science ought not be able to be powered by a psychic's energies or vice versa; and neither should be able to be powered by Talents, as there is no Talent-powered super-science. Plus, Dramatic Editing is something that Flux can do, but Quantum can only simulate in limited ways (e.g., the handful of Mega-Edges in TC:Ab that refer you to the Dramatic Editing rules under certain limited conditions) and Psi has thus far shown no affinity for.

Which is not to say that I don't want some fuzzy edges between the three in TC:A!; I do like the notion of Stalwarts and Mesmerists being handled mechanically using variations on the Talents rules found in TC, with Stalwarts getting Dynamic Gifts and Mesmerists getting Psychic Gifts. But if Telluric Energy isn't a blending of Quantum, Psi, and Flux, then Stalwarts and Mesmerists shouldn't wield Inspiration.