Pyramid Pick: Aberrant: Worldwide Phase I

Pyramid Review

Aberrant: Worldwide Phase I

Published by White Wolf Game Studio

by R. Sean Bergstrom, Deird're Brooks, Steve Kenson and John Snead

160 pages, $21.95

Aberrant: Worldwide Phase I is the first collection of scenarios published for White Wolf's superheroic Aberrant game. The book is noteworthy on a number of levels, not least of which being that it's a collection of adventures. Over the past few years, adventure collections have fallen into disfavor for many game lines. While I understand the factors that led to this situation, it's nevertheless frustrating. Many games - Aberrant among them - have idiosyncratic enough settings that adventures serve the useful purpose of providing some idea of how to use them. Even in this day and age, Game Masters appreciate a little guidance on just what to do with their cool new game. Given that the scenarios included in Aberrant: Worldwide are actually quite enjoyable to boot, White Wolf deserves some appreciation.

The first of the four scenarios, "Strange Bedfellows," centers on the US presidential election of 2008. Like the others in the book, this adventure advances the Aberrant timeline, enabling the players to participate in the evolution of the setting. Such metaplots are a staple (some would say bane) of roleplaying games these days. What's remarkable about this scenario (and the others that follow) is that players truly can participate in them. They're not just set pieces in which Great Events happen . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: April 21, 2000

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