Nova Antagonists

[TravisLegge]

can anyone figure out how they are calculating the defense in these stat blocks?

Antagonist stat blocks are based on the category of the threat, modified by powers/armor as needed

[Shepherdboi]

I can assure you this is not the case. Plenty of moving parts in a book this big and if there are mistakes in the sheets those typically fall directly to me. I greatly and deeply appreciate the feedback and effort, but please refrain from disparaging my team. Lots of folks worked very hard on this book, there are many moving parts, and there are bound to be errors.

I apologize if I came across as being disparaging of the writing team, as that was not my intent. I am fully aware that Onyx Path writers are freelancers and therefore are not initiating major content decisions regarding these books. If there are systematic issues regarding formatting in the stat blocks, it it likely a communications issue from higher up the command chain. I am mostly wondering why there are so many such issues with this particular book, when the N!WE and Novas Worldwide books both came out months ago and didn't have nearly this many stat block formatting issues during their public errata passes.

It is difficult for me as a reader to provide proper errata form feedback when entries are so wildly variable that I frequently can't tell which of the formatting choices are purposeful and which are mistakes; and given that I spent ten years as a full time proofreader for a Tribune Company subsidiary in New York, followed by an additional ten years supplementing my income with occasional freelance reporting jobs for a Florida newspaper and a local business magazine, I can barely imagine the sort of problems faced by readers who lack such experience.

[TravisLegge]

I apologize if I came across as being disparaging of the writing team, as that was not my intent. I am fully aware that Onyx Path writers are freelancers and therefore are not initiating major content decisions regarding these books. If there are systematic issues regarding formatting in the stat blocks, it it likely a communications issue from higher up the command chain. I am mostly wondering why there are so many such issues with this particular book, when the N!WE and Novas Worldwide books both came out months ago and didn't have nearly this many stat block formatting issues during their public errata passes.

No worries, I apologize if I came off overly defensive of them. At the end of the day, I am the dev on the book, and the buck stops here regarding formatting.

It is difficult for me as a reader to provide proper errata form feedback when entries are so wildly variable that I frequently can't tell which of the formatting choices are purposeful and which are mistakes; and given that I spent ten years as a full time proofreader for a Tribune Company subsidiary in New York, followed by an additional ten years supplementing my income with occasional freelance reporting jobs for a Florida newspaper and a local business magazine, I can barely imagine the sort of problems faced by readers who lack such experience.

I'm not sure how to respond to this exactly. Due to a whole host of issues (it's been a bit of a week) I still haven't gotten my hands on the copy that rolled out, so I'm not *exactly* sure what or where the errors are, but based on the discourse I'm seeing it's pretty clear I'll just have to do a ground up-reassessment of each individual entry, because clearly something went sideways somewhere. I appreciate the efforts on your part, and I can only apologize and assure you it will be corrected.

[econclark]

To be more precise in my question, for several of the entries, both the "standard version" and the "antagonist version" have defense higher than 1. Geryon, Tejido, and Tank are three examples. I understand the antagonist part, but not the "standard version" part. I was wondering if I had missed something in the rule set, or if this was an errata issue.

[econclark]

I do really like the book! There are a few novas from 1e I was hoping to see that aren't included, but you can never get them all. There are also a lot of new faces/names/aliases. Overall, top-notch. Final post-errata product will be amazing! for those that don't have the preview.

[TravisLegge]

To be more precise in my question, for several of the entries, both the "standard version" and the "antagonist version" have defense higher than 1. Geryon, Tejido, and Tank are three examples. I understand the antagonist part, but not the "standard version" part. I was wondering if I had missed something in the rule set, or if this was an errata issue.

Likely an errata issue on the player sheets.

[TravisLegge]

I do really like the book! There are a few novas from 1e I was hoping to see that aren't included, but you can never get them all. There are also a lot of new faces/names/aliases. Overall, top-notch. Final post-errata product will be amazing! for those that don't have the preview.

Thank you very much!

[logansrun68]

Will it be available for purchase soon

[Florin]

Will it be available for purchase soon

I figure maybe another few weeks for errata gathering. Some more weeks for review and input. A pass to make sure the changes didn't break layout. Get a PoD test printed. Review it. Approve it. Then it goes up for sale. So, I would guess we're a couple months out from seeing it released fully. Especially with the US holiday season kicking up.

[Shepherdboi]

Will it be available for purchase soon

Yeah, for books like these, they usually keep the errata document active for a week or two to get feedback. Once they either go through that period or they go about a week with no feedback, they close the form and move into errata implementation. Barring major problems, that'll usually take a few weeks before they put the final version up on DriveThruRPG.

I just finished submitting the last of my errata to the form today. A quick count puts it at 237 submissions. Chapter one was pretty much just minor typographical problems that can be implemented in seconds without even messing up the layout. Chapter two had a large number of formatting issues, but most of that can be handled by changing numbers to dots or vice versa, moving stuff from one heading to another, or standardizing how certain things are presented (ie. None vs. N/A vs. no entry at all, Soft X/Hard X vs. Hard X/Soft X, etc.). The biggest problem there is if these changes alter the size of the entry enough to move things from one page to the next, thereby setting up a cascading layout problem.

One layout issue they're going to have to find a way to work around is that two of the characters flat out don't work without reprinting the Selective (2) Tag from page 24 of Novas Worldwide.

Violet "Tank" Chao has the power to protect crowds of bystanders via Quantum Deflection. The problem there is that neither of the current tags (Impervious and Range) appear to be appropriate. The Impervious Tag is meant to allow armor to counter Piercing attacks, but Quantum Deflection doesn't provide armor, it raises Defense. Range is meant to increase the range of an attack that affects others, but Quantum Deflection is a personal power. In order to get it to do what they want, they have to swap the tags for Area (4) to target everyone within Short range (approx. 100 feet) of Chao, then add Selective (2) from Novas Worldwide so she's only protecting bystanders instead of bad guys.

Jennifer "Slider" Landers has Teleport with the Distance, Area, and Impose Tags. Distance lets her teleport anywhere on Earth, Area lets her affect multiple people, and Impose lets her teleport others with a touch. Good so far, but Area affects everyone in range. Every time she teleports herself, everyone in range rolls to resist or they come along for the ride. Every time she teleports someone else via touch, everyone in range rolls to resist or they come along for the ride (including her). She needs that Selective Tag so she can choose who does and does not get teleported.

So somewhere in this book, they'll have to add a sidebar with that Tag. Maybe they can stick it in the empty space after Cestus Pax's entry and add a (p. xx) pointer in the character entries?

[Astromancer]

Why not rework fictional characters for antagonists?

Dolores Umbridge wouldn't be that hard to make into a truly brutal Nova. Power mad and ice hearted, a monster in anyone's book.

Squire Trelaine (Squire of Gothos) a powerful Nova with a lack of responsibility and maturity would be scary.

Becky Sharp isn't evil but she is ruthless, callous, and narrowly focused. Her goal wouldn't be the issue, it's the collateral damage.

Ralph Nickelby was self centered and cold. The one time someone penetrated his shell led to his suicide. Ralph would follow his goal to destruction.

Uncle Charlie from Shadow of a Doubt. He was a serial killer with a twisted moral vision. His charm masked his venom.

Merlin from Last Defender of Camelot. A fanatic with power and charm. His pursuit of justice is noble, his inability to acknowledge collateral damage makes him a monster.

[Astromancer]

El Dorado from the old Super Friends TV show is really a scary opponent. Invisibility, telepathy, teleportation, and illusion projection. It wouldn't be long until he got the PCs to kill each other.