Aberrant (Trinity) White Wolf. : A unknown Hero RPG.

[DecoyGirl]

At this point, in my GMing journey, I have gotten to the point that I will only really GM maybe 3-4 game systesm.

Pathfinder 1E

Mutants and Masterminds

Heroes Unlimited

Star Wars RPG. (The only before SAGA, but SAGA is good also)

The only two that overlap are MnM and HU, I love both for vastly different reasons.
MnM Is without argument the most balanced and playable system I can think of. That's also it's weakness. You can end up in a game where your Batman is having a fistfight with your Superman and win.. Without any GM shenanigans.
By contrast, Heroes Unlimited is the most gloriously unbalanced game ever. You can end up in a game where the Avengers are basically your team one of you just has a bow while another player is a literal god. And both are great fun, for the very reasons that make them problematic sometimes.

This however brings me to the system at hand: Aberrant.
Made by white wolf game studios.
The middle setting in the "Trinity Universe"
After "Adventure!" A kind of 1915-1920s pulp comic game where you are playing costumed crime fighters. (It's fine)
And before Aeon where humans are now all psychics in space. (It's... bad)

 

Aberrant is however a strait forward super hero game on its cover.
With it's own setting and system.

The System is.... not good, it's not bad but it's not good.\

 

But...
The Setting...

I love this setting so much it's actually hard to describe. It does a better job of making a believable but still "Superhero" Setting then anything I've ever seen with the exception of actual comics and even those it's only snap shots of DC/Marvel. There is an overarching story that the players are in, and the amount they know depends on a lot of things. You can just be a hero in the world as the events play out and you play disconnected clean up and it's great. Or you can be in the thick of it and it's great.

This is not surprising considering it was made by white wolf. A company that has always been rules "Okay" Storytelling Good.

So my go to way to do a Heroes game is to use the MnM or HU system and just... play in the setting of Abbarant. I've never met a player who was not blown away by the setting once they got into to the point that we kind of agree someone should really pick this up as a show at some point. Would put Invincible/The boys to shame to be honest.

So I kind of had three questions.

#1: Has anyone else ever looked at / playered / come across this game sysetm?

#2: If you have ever played it with another ruleset if yes.

#3: How interested are people in a Heroes setting that really takes some actual work to get into the setting?

[Papa Bear]

I bought the book way back when it first came out but never got to play. Heck, I barely even remember anything about it 😄

[Jedaii]

Agreed that the Aberrant setting is very good. Not sure I can play but I'll keep an eye on this forum.

[serraph]

Have you looked at Psion? It's a modern heroic game that draws on mythology by White Wolf. You might find it to your taste.

[DecoyGirl]

On 6/2/2023 at 4:49 PM, serraph said:

Have you looked at Psion? It's a modern heroic game that draws on mythology by White Wolf. You might find it to your taste.

Yes I am aware of it.
It's a pretty nice system overall.
I don't know that the setting grabbed me in the same way however.