Novas in The World Of Darkness (WW)

These are rules that are designed to depower a Nova from White Wolf's game setting Aberrant. In that game, players are Novas who have a gene called the N-Shroud which gives all people who have it superhuman powers and abilities akin to a god. This shroud was activated when a satellite was destroyed.

In Aberrant any given Nova is very powerful, so powerful that they can take on a team of two or three beginning werewolves or vampires. But they are meant to be different universes and are not meant to be mixed. The house rules I present here are for the express purpose of depowering a Nova so they can be on par with any beginning Werewolf or Vampire in the World Of Darkness, should a player wants to run a Nova in the WoD.


RULES FOR ABERRANTS IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS


CHARACTER CREATION

7, 5, 3 for attributes, 13, 9, 5 for abilities, 5 background points, 15 freebie points.

Quantum rating starts at 1.

Quantum, Pool starts at 20 + (Quantum x 2)

Initiative is the same as WoD.

NOVA

Receive 30 Nova points

COSTS Nova points
Mega Attribute 3
(Mega Attributes come with one free enhancement)
Enhancement 3
Quantum 3
Quantum Power (Level 1) 1
Quantum Power (Level 2) 3
Quantum Power (Level 3) 5
3 Attribute dots 1
6 Ability Dots 1
5 Background dots 1

Quantum Powers can be bought tainted. A tainted power reduces the level by one to a minimum of level one. That is, a Level three power can be reduced to a level two power, and a level two power can be reduced to a level one power, but level one powers cannot be reduced. A tainted level one power will give two dots.

Adding an extra to a level one or level two power will increase the level by one. So a level two power
will cost five points, or three points if bough tainted.

Willpower works the same as in WoD.

Quantum Pool can be recovered as follows:

Relaxing (light paperwork, walking) 2 per hours
Resting (sleeping, doing nothing) 4 per hour
Node background Adds background rating


MAXING POWERS AND SPECIAL MANEUVERS

A nova can max out their power by spending a temporary willpower point and a number of Quantum Points equal to each die rolled. Each success may be use to boost the next use of Quantum Power, which happens on the following turn, and must be spent on the next turn and may not be saved.

The successes may be spent on the following:

May increase damage by one per success.

May increase soaking damage by one per success.

Each success spent doubles the range or speed.

Each success spent doubles the duration of a power.

TAINT

Any taint in the WoD comes from the Wyrm. The source of a novas' power comes from beasts that have been newly discovered by Pentex. These beasts contain a chemical that can alter humans DNA by a process Pentex has been unable to discover. It is highly poisonous, and often kills the subject experimented on. A Nova is an extremely rare occurrence, appearing even less frequently than vampires or Garou. For every ten thousand vampires or Garou, there is only one Nova.

It is unknown whether or not these are new beasts or ones that have previously existed but had just never been discovered until now.

All Novas begin the game with Zero Taint. There is permanent and temporary taint. The more taint a character gains the more inhuman they become.

Taint is gained in the following ways:

Having a Quantum rating above 5, one taint for each dot, so that a Quantum rating of 7 would give two points of permanent taint.

For having the background Node, if it is at 4 that is one point of permanent taint, if at 5 it is a two points at permanent taint.

Buying tainted powers imposes permanent taint at one point per power.

When a nova has gained ten points of temporary taint they gain one point of permanent taint.

There are two ways to gain temporary taint:

Power Strain happens whenever a player botches a power roll that in some way uses a point of willpower to max their power. They gain one point of temporary taint.

Rapid Recovery: Whenever the player wants to enhance their recovery rate of Quantum Points, they must roll a Stamina plus Node roll vs the number of Quantum Points spent above the normal rating. A failure gains one taint, a botch gains two.

Example: A nova wants to recover 5 Extra Quantum points and has a Node of 3 with a Stamina of 5. 5 extra is three points about the normal rate, so that increases the difficulty to 9. He has a dice pool of 8 and rolls 5, 3, 7, 8, 1, 1, 1 which is a botch. He gains two points of temporary taint.

Taint can be removed by any Garou or rite gift that cleanses all taint. However, permanent taint requires a difficulty of 9 to cleanse.

Temporary taint can be bled off. Once a month a character can make a Willpower roll. Each success bleeds off one point of temporary taint. A failure means that no taint is bled off. A botch indicates that two points of temporary taint is gained.

EFFECTS OF TAINT

Taint affects the character by causing Aberrations. Aberrations are physical changes which make the character look more inhuman or cause psychic drawbacks and even unhinge his mind. In some cases these physical changes can even be inhuman perfection.

A Nova suffers one detectable aberration when he receives 3 taint. He earns one more aberration for every point thereafter.

Temporary aberrations come from temporary taint and last a number of days equal to 15 minus (Stamina + (Mega Stamina x 2)).

When permanent taint rating reaches 4 he suffers a +1 difficulty to all social rolls. The difficulty increases by a further +1 at 6, and 8 for a total of +3.

With each point of permanent taint the character must subtract one die from any willpower rolls against any mental disorders.

When permanent taint reaches ten the character becomes too inhuman and must be cleansed immediately. Any failure means the character is lost for ever due to becoming too inhuman.

Abberations can be found on pages 151-153 on the core book.

MEGA ATTRIBUTES

Mega attributes do not replace Attributes but supplement them. This means that for each dot in a mega-attribute also adds one die to the related attribute. A mega-attribute may not be increased beyond the normal attribute rating. For example, with a Dexterity of 2 a player may not purchase more than two dots of mega-dexterity.

Mega attributes can be bought tainted. Tainted attributes gain one point of permanent taint per dot and will gain two dots per nova point spent.

A character may select one enhancement for free. Thereafter he must buy any further enhancements as a level one power. They may not be bought tainted.

Mega Attributes cost no Quantum points to use.

No mega attributes contribute automatic successes to their actions, but otherwise stay the same.

For example, on page 156 it says a Mega Attribute of 3 can lift 25 tons and gain a bonus of 15 automatic success to any die pools regarding mega Strength. In the WoD they can still lift 25 tons but will not receive that 15 automatic success.

In the World of Darkness there are no automatic successes for Novas.

When any enhancement says to add a certain amount of extra automatic successes, those are additional dice to the dice pool.

Quickness is bought under Mega Dexterity and not under Mega Wits.

Mega Stats are treated as Vampiric Discileplines as follows:

Mega Strength is treated as Potence
Mega Stamina Is treated as Fortitude
Mega Dexterity is treated as Celerity.

Except for the enhancements which must be bought as normal.

A Sample Character:

BARRY TELLER

NOVA

STR 2
DEX 4 lightning reflexes
STA 4 tireless

CHA 2
MAN 2
APP 3

PER 4 uncanny instincts
INT 3
WITS 4

ALERTNESS 4 traps
ATHLETICS 4 gymnastics
BRAWL 4 multiple opponents
DODGE 4 judo

FIREARMS 4 sniper rifles
MELEE 2
STEALTH 3
REPAIR 2
SURVIVAL 1

COMPUTER 3
MEDICINE 4 anatomy
LAW 1
INVESTIGATION 3

SECONDARY SKILL: GAROU LORE 2
SECONDARY SKILL: WYRM LORE: 2
SECONDARY SKILL: DEMOLITIONS 2

NODE 3
EUFIBER 2

QUANTUM 4
QUANTUM POOL 28

WILLPOWER 6
TAINT 0

NOVA POWERS
SHAPESHIFT 1
MEGA STAMINA 1, TAINTED
--- Regeneration, Enhancement
--- Adaptability, Enhancement
1 For 3 Attribute dots
2 For 12 ability dots

MERITS AND FLAWS
Amnesia 2f
Wolf Years 5f (due to the poisons in his body)

Spent on:

Secondary Skills: 3


BACKGROUND

Barry Teller was an Olympic level gymnast who has won three gold medals and a half dozen silver medals for gymnastics. When he retired he was hired by Pentex to be a spokesman for them. Eventually they wiped his memory with drugs and trained him to be an assassin. His death was faked.