[Aberrant] Second Generation Novas in the new edition

[NewK]

In 1e second generation novas were a later additoin--I think rules were in either the player's guide or one of the unpublished supplements.

But, at this point the setting is somewhat different--for one thing, there's no conspiracy to keep novas from having kids. So for settings that go a little past the current time, where the children of existing novas might be PC's what do you think the rules would be like. I have a few thoughts for possibilities:

1. THey're novas. No different. The fact that you may have a better chance to erupt doesn''t make the eruption any different, and in fact might make it worse, as children erupt early and start pressing their boundaries, with all the consequences, social and personal, that brings.

2. They are more likely to erupt but the power comes more naturally, both protecting them and keeping them from making short cuts.

In rules form this would mean that they cannot buy traits for a discount by accepting transcendence. Flux might go up to 15 or 20 before a point of transcendence is added.
Quantum would still add transcendence, as that's not a mutation as much as it's an evolution o something different.

3. The children actually never "Erupt" as such. They're born with very weak powers and abilities that gradually grow as they mature.

4. Some combination of the above.

What do others think?

[Shepherdboi]

They all sound good. Another option is that they're the same, but qualify for special 2nd gen only Edges.

[Eldagusto]

I like the idea that maybe Novas are only likely to be godlike in the first generations and then the powers homogenize and stabilize as they replace humanity and this is how quantum species evolved elsewhere.

But I also not the fondest of the idea that Nova powers are rando each time, I know there is the subconscious aspect but I like the idea that it has a genetic aspect, hence why the Covenant spliced some of the powers from human Nova genetics. I like the idea children of Novas have some aspect of their parents potential, like Cable having Jean Grey's powerset but a bit beefed out, but sometimes things can be unpredictable like Franklin Richards coming from Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman.

[LordHeru]

I like the idea that it takes more Flux to get Transcendence. I also like the idea to maybe increase the amount of safe Quantum before Transcendence is gained.

Another option is to provide certain specialized Edges that have '2nd Gen Nova' as the prerequisite. This could provide boosts to abilities and safety harnesses and such.

I also like the potential of there being a much more organized system of powers. I am definitely NOT saying something like the Aptitudes and Modes of Psions but that powers flow in certain patterns that are safer to use and such.

Honestly, and I get why they did this mechanics wise, but I was a bit less of a fan of how whatever nova powers are as I like the more structured abilities of say the Inspired and Talents and Superiors and such. (In some ways its why I really like Mega-Attributes and Mega-Edges, those power categories are super interesting to me.)

Basically though, with all the above said, I would probably mechanically go more Flux to Transcendence and high Quantum scores before Transcendence is gained as an automatic.

As a hmmm idea I wonder if reducing the cost for Quantum traits from 12 to say 10 or whatnot could be a way to represent the easier growth of powers for those whose very beings are connected to Quantum.

[Mateus Luz]

Eruption requires both the genetic capacity and the exposition to quantum. The genetic capacity is the big question, if the genetic mark is there, the baby will probably erupt at some time, when exposed to enough quantum, otherwise quantum will turn the baby into a sub Aberrant or kill it.

My opinion is, the baby of a Nova mother will be a Nova (if have the nova genetics) or a Sub Aberrant (if don’t) just for the exposition to Quantum Flux during pregnancy, if the baby survive at all. There is just too much quantum flux inside a Nova to not affect a baby, even a low quantum nova.

If the father is a nova and the mother isn’t, then the baby may have (or not) the gene and erupt accordingly when the time comes. Probably early in life if keeps Contact to the Nova father and other novas.

It’s possible that the genetic mark make the baby a Psiad or a Talent, not sure about how it works. If the baby is a future psiad, even born from a Aberrant mother would not turn the baby into a sub Aberrant (the noetic pattern would not allow), then the baby would die, but, as I said, it’s hard to tell, as I am not sure how it works.

Now, for novas that were born after eruption (or erupted before during early infancy), I would say they may learn to develop their powers easier, but still not that easy. The idea of lower XP may be a option, but I think what would be, instead of gaining skills and edges, the little Nova would gain experience during char gen, and spend it as they wish, what would naturally end up with more powers and less skills and edges, as the kid will amend more Nova stuf because it’s more fun.

A more natural form of Chrysalis may be also possible, as the kid have a more natural way to deal with flux.

[Eldagusto]

Eruption requires both the genetic capacity and the exposition to quantum. The genetic capacity is the big question, if the genetic mark is there, the baby will probably erupt at some time, when exposed to enough quantum, otherwise quantum will turn the baby into a sub Aberrant or kill it.

My opinion is, the baby of a Nova mother will be a Nova (if have the nova genetics) or a Sub Aberrant (if don’t) just for the exposition to Quantum Flux during pregnancy, if the baby survive at all. There is just too much quantum flux inside a Nova to not affect a baby, even a low quantum nova.

If the father is a nova and the mother isn’t, then the baby may have (or not) the gene and erupt accordingly when the time comes. Probably early in life if keeps Contact to the Nova father and other novas.

It’s possible that the genetic mark make the baby a Psiad or a Talent, not sure about how it works. If the baby is a future psiad, even born from a Aberrant mother would not turn the baby into a sub Aberrant (the noetic pattern would not allow), then the baby would die, but, as I said, it’s hard to tell, as I am not sure how it works.

Now, for novas that were born after eruption (or erupted before during early infancy), I would say they may learn to develop their powers easier, but still not that easy. The idea of lower XP may be a option, but I think what would be, instead of gaining skills and edges, the little Nova would gain experience during char gen, and spend it as they wish, what would naturally end up with more powers and less skills and edges, as the kid will amend more Nova stuf because it’s more fun.

A more natural form of Chrysalis may be also possible, as the kid have a more natural way to deal with flux.

Oh that is an interesting idea to have it the Novas have Psiad kids instead of other Novas. Marvel kind of did it that way before the late 2000's, it used to be human mutates like Spiderman and the FF would have a higher likelihood of their offspring being mutants rather then one off supers like them or a new species with the same power template.

I like to think its not exactly genetic capacity equals guaranteed Eruption with exposure to Quantum, I think its more genetics gives a higher likelihood you erupt and it probably also has a situational factor probably revolving around emotions/stress. Like all Novas didn't erupt at once the ambient power allowed for their eruptions to happen in adequate conditions.

[Aliasi]

I pulled up a PDF of the "A Breed Apart", the old Eon Online fan-supplement for 1st edition to see how that treated it; not exactly canonical, no, but it's a starting point (and I'll be using 1st edition terms here since I'm referencing).

There, it had 3 clades of 2nd generation novas: True, Terat, or Trog. All three had relatively weak powers until puberty, when they underwent mini-eruptions that brought them up to spec. Mechanically, none of them gained Taint from high Quantum, they could not buy 'tainted' dots of power at half-price, and could not take the Dormancy background (because they had no 'baseline' self).

True children were born to parents with very little Taint, drawing from stuff hinted at in the old Player's Guide. They didn't gain it from high Quantum and started with the Taint Resistance merit, and otherwise used the "Very Low Taint" rules from the Player's Guide. They still had aberrations in the form of mutations passed down from their parents, however, and they had a few other minor drawbacks I won't delve into the weeds on here.

Terat children were born to parents who had undergone Chrysalis at least once. They had less Taint resistance than Trues, although they still did not gain it from high Quantum and could not buy tainted powers. However, they naturally had the ability to undergo the Chrysalis and had better rates than most for improving powers while under it, plus they did not have to enter it for as long.

Trog children were born to high-Taint parents, and are basically meant to be the Aeon/Trinity-era Aberrants. They had no resistance to Taint and actually gained it faster, being capable of gaining more than ten Taint dots. They were also more vulnerable to noetic/psi energies.

Putting these into a Trinity Continuum context with the way things have been redone would be a little work, but I think the basic structure is still there. I'd probably make it so "True" Nova children didn't gain Transcendence quickly but are more restricted with how their powers work, perhaps paying more XP for the first dot of powers or Mega-Edges they did not already have. (They can still take on transformations to make them cheaper, but only at chargen to reflect things they were born with.) This would presumably give you something akin to an Eden nova, over time, and I'd probably cook up a Flux-loss scheme like the alternate genre-tone examples in the TC:Ab book.

Terat children also seem a reasonable concept, although I'd be wary of mucking about with cheaper XP costs given the munchkin horrorshow of 1st edition Chrysalis.Perhaps giving them an affinity for easy Chysalis + a lower Flux resistance (but still better than 1st generation novas) would suffice.

Given the way it's Transcendence, not Taint, I'd probably want to rework the Trog clade but the idea that a child bathed in high Quantum Flux would themselves accumulate it quickly seems apt enough.

[Mateus Luz]

My idea was vaguely based in A Breed Apart (I read it a long time ago), but I don’t like the idea of the kids being forced into one of the paths, instead I think it should be defined by choices made during char gen and development.

For example, a kid that would be a True would not pick their powers with transformations, while a Terat would have the Chrysalis Edge and a Trog would have a lot of transformations. It may be a choice made by the player not the character, the character may want to be normal, but eye player keeps giving transformations to him.

Another thing may be a gradual increase in the quantum limits, a newborn can have no more than Q1, at some point in infancy the limit increase to Q2, and at puberty to Q3 and at some point in late teens, the limit goes to 10 and the kid can increase the power to the infinite and beyond.

I really think the idea is to follow the same rules and let the rest be narrative.

[Queen Anne Country]

This is a great thread. Jupiter's Legacy - sans the limitations of transcendence - handled it by making the next generation of heroes spoiled brats who were celebrities rather than superheroes. Maybe all of the villains had been rounded up. And I appreciate spoiled, do-nothing celebrity is already boiled into the setting but it makes me think of the athletes-musicians-actors-politicians who have come after parents who are famous for the same thing and it seems like the offspring is either not as talented or is as talented (or more) but has aggressive emotional baggage / drug issues and whatnot. You could probably co-opt some Exalted rules for that BUT aberrations that hurt social rolls would be dope without new mechanics. All that said, I love the suggestions. It feels like we're all circling a few of the same ideas;

The children of Novas could be:
-well-adjusted: fewer issues with transcendence but possibly some cap on power (or it takes longer/more xp or if the character has powers outside of their sires' power suites, it's a longer path).
-golden child: no limits on powers or mega-edges, however regular edges, attributes and skills are more expensive and while transcendence is gentler on them, it's more devastating when you actually get to the higher levels.
-black-sheep: no limits on powers, etc, low-level aberrations occur earlier but top level transcendence - going insane etc - rarely occurs. Maybe skills and regular edges are more expensive.
-the favorite: never can exceed 3 Quantum, mega-edges are inexpensive as are powers within the parents' power sets.
-the other one: never can exceed 1 or 2 quantum, skills and attributes are less expensive (and both max out at 6 or 7). Mega-edges are regular price but powers are expensive.

There could be a whole suite of Second Gen edges including ones only available to those archetypes. As THE BABY in my family, maybe I have earlier access to edges and possibly could have one or two higher skills/specialties at CharGen. A HELICOPTER KID may have some bonus when using powers within some proximity to their parents or can re-roll when in proximity.

Love love love the expanded universe of Aberrant Year 18th Birthday over here.

[NewK]

I like the idea of at least some groups of the kids having a lower ramp up--limits on powers as the grow older and perhaps a way to burn off flux easier or just not get it so quickly.

The thing is, we already have some backing for that--the Bullseye aliens and other Nova style aliens appreantly didn't have the same "rocket to godhood" powers tha artificial novas did.

note that this also gives us a nice reason why second generation novas don't change the outcome of the Aberrant war if we're going with canon--yes, they were more sane, but being slower to gather power, they were quite simply unable to reign in their ever more insane, but incredibly powerful parents.

As to why there don't appear to be a lot of them--I like Eldagusto's idea that a nova parent might also get psiads, talents or superiors. Also, I'd expect that as quantum increases, you probably see the probability of a successful conception go down. A nova who is sitting at Quantum 8 is likely divergent enough that children are an unlikely product from any union. That being said, it's entirely possible that some children did survive through the war, maybe even up until the "modern" era, either having left earth or remaining very quiet. (One possibly idea, a quantum 3 nova with mostly megaattributes who has been working for Aeon behind the scenes).

[LordHeru]

I really like the potential of all this. The potential for a more stable nova development.

I also really like the potential that a completely sane stealth second gen (plus) nova is working for Aeon behind the scene. Especially if his powers are Mega-Attribute and Mega-Edge based as they are in general less blatent from an appearance basis.

But yeah I like the fact that despite being sane their lower power meant they couldn't truly stop their more insane parents/family from doing crazy things. That said nothing stops them from seeing the writing on the wall and using the abilities of teleporters to make offworld colonies. (heck, or even be part of the Eden colony for there are more novas there then we know about and so one of these sane stealthy novas could easily be there).

Though I obviously do not know how they are going to the the Anima tech thing I totally figure some sort of Inspired person at minimum or nova tech at maximum would need to be involved to make it so blatent in its paranormal multidimensional way that they seem to have hinted at.

Oh, I also LOVE the idea that the child of two Novas could become a Psiad or a Nova or a Talent; with the same maybe for the child of two Psiads. The idea that until it manifests humanity is special in having all three potentials even in the individual really calls to me.

Also yeah, the whole nature of the Bullseye aliens means there is the potential for more structured quantum users.

[Dataweaver]

Some of this sounds an awful lot like the Æon-era Superiors. Maybe in-setting, the leaders of Nippon became aware of these second-generation Novas, realized the benefits of their greater stability, and then sought out a means of artificially guiding the Edition process for Novas to produce something more “second generation” like than the wildly unstable Aberrants?

In short, say that the second generation Novas ended up being the inspiration for Nippon's Superiors.

[LordHeru]

While I totally see the potential for using something like a Superior to represent balanced lower powered quantum users the whole idea of the second gen nova is that while they are more stable the powers they use are still on the full nova scale - that is Mega-Attributes, Mega-Edges, and probably also quantum powers. Superiors aren't that powerful and such and so aren't really at the scale scale.

But yeah, that all said, I totally have zero problems with the idea of having faux-Superiors existing in the Aberrant times as a representation for a more balanced classification of quantum user.

[Dataweaver]

Note that I never suggested using the Superiors rules to represent second generation Novas; only that the latter may have been the inspiration for the former. I was tempted to suggest it; but I decided against it. As you say, they should still have Quantum, Quantum Powers, Mega-Attributes, and Mega-Edges; it's just that they shouldn't “level up” as quickly as their parents can, and any Transformations they undergo should be a lot more deliberate.

Basically, I'm thinking a bit more along the lines of the differences between psiads and psions: while the former have an advantage over the latter (in the form of far more flexibility in what they can develop), they also have a disadvantage in that their development is slower (in game terms, costs more experience points) and capped a bit lower. In this case, I'd go with less harsh rules for Transformation paired with an increase in the costs to develop their powers — the slower growth being the reason why they're not as likely to mutate.

[Mateus Luz]

The idea is 2gen as a more stable but less potent Nova is very interesting.

Maybe cap at Q5 as the ultimate power, with most of the, never passing Q3 is a good measure. Balance the game on the sweet spot (Q3 as I see, Q4 only to unlock “Meta Power powers”).