As a nova grows to more powerful in his ability to manipulate quantum they begin to experience the side effects of channelling larger and larger amounts, namely Taint. Taint is the 'non-humanness' side of quantum manipulation and at higher levels novas begin to show either physical or mental defects. These defects range as widely as a tentacle growing from one's stomach, sociopathic disorders, hair made of flames, odd skin composition (skin made of rubber for instance), a power you can't turn off, megalomania, or giving off radiation all the time.
Unlike other games by White Wolf there are no splats that limit one's abilities in Aberrant, though there are four major factions. This game definitely is NOT a four color supers game, each faction has areas of grey that challenge the morals of the characters.
Aberrant is also the prequal to Trinity[?] and the successor to Adventure , thus by reading Trinity you find out what happens to novas over the course of the next 60 years.
The first major difference with Aberrant is that in adition to normal attributes, novas have what are called Mega attributes that are the same as mundane attributes (dex, manipulation, wits, etc...). These dice are added every time a character makes a roll using the linked mundane attribute, but Mega-Attributes are much more powerful. Every success rolled using mega attribute dice count as 2 normal successes, and rolling a 10 counts as 3 successes.
Powers are treated almost exactly like skills except that they come in different levels of power. Level 1 powers are low level powers, while level 6 powers can do nearly anything (a famous level 6 power is 'Universe Creation'). Lower level powers are cheaper to purchase with experience, while higher level powers cost more. There are a wide range of powers from controlling any single element (fire, gravity, entropy, quantum, magnetism, etc...), to flying, to mental domination, to imperviousness, to time travel and teleportation.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump