Unlike the "Elites" book which relies on bang 'em up, shoot 'em up high-powered combat (not that there's anything wrong with that), this book takes a low-powered thoughtful approach to the campaign. Most of the organization is made from normal humans who are forced to match wits with Nova's who can tear cities apart with their bare hands.

If you thought the Directive was another "Big Brother" organization, like I did, you are partially right, but compared to Project Utopia and many of the high powered psychotics running around, they are the lesser of many evil's. The Directive is not above invasion of privacy or even torture, but when you are facing down bad guys who could kill you with a glance, it is supposed you will do what you have to do.

This is definitely the book for a thinking man's party. The players must rely on subterfuge and strategy, and there are a few new rules, skills and backgrounds to complement this game-play along with a slew of new weapons. Low powered Nova's suddenly become far more interesting in this type of scenario.

If you like James Bond, Ronin (the Robert DeNiro movie) or X-Files, chances are you'll like this book. These guys are more than just spy's though. They are humanities first line of defence against the gods who live among us.


Who watches the Novas?   October 18, 2000
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

An interesting addition to the world Aberrant, this sourcebook gives further detail to The Directive . An international inteligency agency made by some of the worlds most powerful nations to counter and analise the growing powers of Novas(superhumans) and the changes and treaths they represent. It gives a good perspective of how the world's superpowers feel about the sudden rise of Project Utopia and the novas in general . They recognize their need for more information and new ways to deal with te Nova world.The Directive is their answer. This organization has the staded purpose of protecting the baseline(normal) majority of the world and their countries interests in face of Nova threats. They do their mostly normal human best to come up to deal with their superpowered opponents. It maybe not be always enough, but they do have a lot of aces and tecnology up their sleeves, and they will surprise more than one narrator and player. And if you want to run a campaign where normals face off against Novas this is the bedt book to go to. I heartily recommend this book for Aberrant fans since it gives good material to make the Directive either your protagnists or the antagonists in your Chronicles.And even if you plan to run other superhero Rpg, it may prove very useful in fleshing out an inteligency agency( like SHIELD marvel fans)in a world of superhumans.