So our GM has only ever run three gaming sessions so far and his greenhorn status is showing big-time. Even I knew the rules and builds better, and I'm one of the least familiar with Aberrant (the GM has actually played it more).
Note that we were given significantly less build points to even create our characters, so there was no real way for us to truly max out stats like powers/abilities or mega-attributes like Dexterity or Con. (Scores normally run from 1-5 for mega-attributes, which are super-powered versions of the regular attribute.)
During the first session, he was rather put-out that he didn't mentally buff a random guy on the street that my Emotional Manipulator was easily able to jack around because he had few Willpower to resist her ability. It's not a big deal, that guy was just an average street person and shouldn't have had extraordinary willpower, but he seemed bugged.
I guess he was trying to compensate because last night we (a group of supers in our 70-90s) got in a fight with two dudes who showed up in a car to abscond with the kid we were trying to escort to a better, more socially productive life.
These NPCs are literally no-names -- they're not big bads, we don't know who they are, they are like red shirts on Star Trek, basically just XP contributors.
So the chauffer comes around the back of the car and one of our guys (who is a physical fighter with some powers) simply blocks his path, so the driver throws a punch at him. Our player says he'll block the punch, which should have been routine.
The GM doesn't know how to calculate the attack, so the two experienced Aberrant GMs at our table help him. "And how much Mega-Strength does this guy have, if any?"
"Five," says the GM. Everyone's jaw drops. We've had this discussion in the past -- that Mega-STR kills things because you get five automatic successes for each point you have in it, along with whatever you roll. So this is automatically a +25 success attack. Everyone was aghast aside from the GM, who obviously did not understand the mechanics enough to realize what he had just done. This was the equivalent of having 2nd level D&D characters and essentially some non-descript peasant who they hadn't even attacked just ends up being Superman and walks up and punches one of them as hard as he can. Basically it's like the GM just decided to murder one of the new PCs, it's completely unbalanced.
Poor Frank tried to block/take the blow. It passed his block and hit him in the middle of his chest. We could all hear things crunch and Frank drops to the tarmac like a sack of potatoes, blood coming out of his mouth and nose. In terms of mechanics, it filled ALL of his health levels with bashing and then rolled over to all but ONE of those blocks also with lethal damage. Literally one more point of damage would have killed him. The blow would have killed at least two other members of our group outright.
Fortunately, Irene had emotionally pushed the guy's friend to "want to be a better person" and he was trying to get the puncher to chill, so the puncher ends up grabbing him and running as Dick picks up a car and waves it threateningly over his head. (Dick is our old guy in a wheelchair.) Dick throws the car and it lands on these two guys. AS the puncher crawls out from under the car, Abby (who can morph shape somewhat) kicks him into a concrete wall, knocking him out.
The detective who was trying to apprehend both groups is just standing there with his jaw dropped, then turns and runs back into the prison facility to round up some moral support after Dick tells him, "Just walk away -- and get someone to arrest this trash."
We spent the rest of the session taking Frank to the ER for treatment, and without special healing of some kind, he would need a few months to recuperate from that blow.
Our GM is so dangerous, not knowing the rules well. Like, even I knew that just a point or two of Mega-STR is a killer. The player took it pretty well but he was kind of cheesed off. I'm glad we had two other PCs who actually could deal with that guy because I couldn't do anything.
In his favor the GM has increased our XP awards. Along with being very bright, able to emotionally gauge and manipulate others, and also somewhat disperse her physical form (Density Control), Irene can now fly. And she will soon be better at some things and/or learn a few new things.