Magneto vs Divis Mal

[Pendaran]

Y'know, I love Vampire: The Masquerade, but sometimes I get the feeling that that gameline is kind of like Batman in the DCCU. In both cases it is their most successful property, so they try to make every...single...product they make according to that mold. When I'm playing a superhero I don't want to sit in the gloom angsting about my gradual and inevitable deterioration into a monster.

That said, I do like the basic idea of taint and aberrations. In first edition, it is good at duplicating the operatic character flaws of your Tony Starks and Hank Pyms, the curiously unfixable hidiousness of Doctor Doom and Red Skull, the mad science mutations of your Beast types, and the cosmic threat of your Phoenix types. Also Deadpool. But the key to that working, though, is not making the mechanic so punishing that the player isn't having fun. Indeed, it is best to keep it mostly in the players control. Myself, I already have a map in my head for what Aberrations I'll get when I've got some expensive powers to buy. Really, the whole half-price thing is a wonderful mechanic, since it allows you to take the iconic flaws various superheroes have without feeling like you are gimping yourself.

1st ed handled the whole idea of that just fine, sure. It's why like I said, it tended to be an exception to the sort of stuff you're talking about vis a vis VtM.

I mean, 1st edition Aberrant has its problems, don't get me wrong (the rules aren't really balanced well, that kind of thing, there are some questionable setting choices), but it doesn't really take a lot to make it work. And most importantly, you never really feel like as a game it hates you and wants to actively hinder you for playing it.

I'd have loved to have seen that feel brought into a modernized, mechanically more stable, adapted to since then shifts in culture and etc etc 2.0 take on the game.

Alas, no.