Aberrant

Aberrant is the middle child of a series of three superhero-themed games made by White Wolf; Adventure!, a pulp-hero themed game, was the first, and Trinity, aimed more at science-fiction superheroics in the future, is the third. Aberrant is the more typical, as supers games go; it is based in what is more or less the present. In Aberrant, super-powered beings, or novas, began to appear in 1998 after a special satellite blew up in orbit and somehow distributed a certain type of radiation into the jetstream as it crashed. The world reacted, in many ways; religions sprung up around the novas, there were new TV shows and blockbuster movies about and starring them, and they became key players in the world; a major UN-associated entity, Project Utopia, recruited novas in order to help do many things around the world, while a group of nova quasi-terrorists called the Teragen declare that they are above humanity and thus not subject to the laws of man. Now, ten years later, one of the world's most popular novas has been killed, and a number of novas formerly associated with Project Utopia (and their official superteam, Team Tomorrow) have left, citing beliefs that a cabal inside Project Utopia, called Project Proteus, has sinister plans and may have killed their friend; these breakaways call themselves the Aberrants. This is the world that Aberrant assumes; let's make a character for it.

I'm a big comic reader, and so I can think of a lot of character's I'd love to imitate or copy here. But since this is an example character, I'll go with a pretty standard idea. As a White Wolf game, this game uses the Storyteller system, so Attributes and Abilities are used here, obviously. For Phase One of character creation, I build my character pre-nova; I'll choose a concept of Thrillseeker, and since I'll be going for a physical-based character, I'll make Physical my primary attributes; this give me 7 points. I'll put 2 each in Stamina and Dexterity, and 3 in Strength. Next I'll go with Social; this gives me 5 points, so I'll put 1 in Manipulation, and 2 each in Charisma and Appearance. Finally, I come to Mental; I have 3 points, so I'll put one each in Perception, Intelligence, and Wits.

After that, I move on to Abilities; I have 23 points to spend here. I'll put three in Brawl, because I anticipate using my hand s a lot, and 3 more in Might; I'll put 3 in Athletics, and 3 each in Endurance and Resistance. For my last 8 points, I'll put 3 in Awareness, 3 in Intimidation, and 2 in Rapport. Then I get 7 points to spend in Backgrounds; I'll put 2 in Influence (so people know who I am), 2 in Cipher (so it's hard to find out who I REALLY am), 2 in Node (which lets me recover and use my nova powers more efficiently), and 1 in Eufiber (to give me a super-suit that's hard to destroy). Then I rcord my initial Willpower, which is 3, my initial Quantum (measurement of how powerful a nova I am), which is 1, and my Initiative, equal to Dex +Wits, which is 5. I then have 15 bonus points to spend; I'll spend 7 to give myself another point of Quantum, 5 for another point in Dexterity, 2 for another point in Willpower and 1 to raise my Initiative to 6. That's it for my pre-nova stuff.

Phase Tow is the Nova phase; it's how I change my character from a normal human to a superhuman. First, I have to decide on how I became a nova; since my character is a Thrillseeker, I'll say it happened when he got too close to a fight between novas that got a little explosive, and he survived - and became a nova in the process. Then I get 30 nova points to spend to give myself powers. I'll spend two nova points to add 6 Attribute dots; one each in everything Physical and Mental. Then I'll spend 5 more to raise my Quantum to 3. Actually; wait; I want some stuff that would otherwise cost more than I have, so I will take a hit of one permanent point of Taint (which slowly could drive me crazy, as I use forces the human body was not meant to handle) to cut the cost of the point of Quantum in half; rounded up, that is 3. Then, I will spend a whopping 18 points to get Mega-Attribute ratings of 2 in each of Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina. Each rank of Mega-Attribute gives me an attribute-specific enhancement, so for Strength I will choose Shockwave (I can stomp and cause a small earthquake) and Thunderclap (what it sounds like); for Dexterity I will choose Fast Tasks (I can do normal tasks is vastly reduced time, like pain a house in a second or two) and Rapid Strike (again, obvious); for Stamina I will choose Resiliency (I'm resistant to damage) and Regeneration (what damage I take, I heal fast). This leaves me with 7 points; I will use 6 of those to purchase one rank each of Flight and Invulnerability, and my final point to purchase a rank in the minor power Luck. So, in the end, my character looks like this:

Adrenaline (really John Freeman)
Concept: Thrillseeker
Attributes
Physical: Strength 5, Dexterity 5, Stamina 4
Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 3
Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 3

Abilities
Brawl 3, Might 3, Athletics 3, Endurance 3, Resistance 3, Awareness 3, Intimidation 3, Rapport 2

Nova Abilities
Mega-Strength 2 (Shockwave, Thunderclap)
Mega-Dexterity 2 (Fast Tasks, Rapid Blows)
Mega-Stamina 2 (Resiliency, Regeneration)
Flight 1
Invulnerability 1 (Fire attacks)
Luck 1

Quantum 3 (Quantum Pool: 26)
Willpower 4
Initiative 9