Editing Genius The Transgression/Chapter Four:Special Rules and Systems (section)

=== Organizing a Thesis: ===

The first step toward completing a thesis is submitting it. This is not a formal process and requires no roll. Instead, the player and Storyteller must come to an agreement about what sort of activity or experience will qualify as a thesis, and what the "win" conditions are. This may be represented in-game as the genius asking his peers for advice, contacting his foundation and looking for projects in need of completion, or just kicking back and thinking about what he has learned since the last thesis.

Once a thesis goal is decided on, the genius must achieve that goal. Direct and concrete goals ("Stop Prestor John's army from devastating the bardo of True Argentine," "Use my beholden to take over Malthusian Cybernetics from the inside-out and turn it into a puppet for my ideology") are often easy to adjudicate, but more personal or abstract goals may require more consideration on the part of the Storyteller. 

The genius then sets to work. A thesis should normally take no more than a single session. It can be run alone, but that is not necessary; the Peerage encourages collaboratives to cooperate on completing a member's thesis, and geniuses can gain prestige by helping in a particularly well-crafted endeavor.

Once the genius feels satisfied with her work, she rolls Intelligence + Wits.

How thoroughly the genius achieves his goal should modify this roll. A totally botched job means that the genius cannot even roll: she will have to start again with a new thesis. An incomplete or failed job bumps the level of success down by one step. (Success becomes Failure, Failure becomes Dramatic Failure, etc.). A truly spectacular job increases the level of success by one step.

''Dramatic Failure:'' The genius botches the thesis and must start again from the beginning, or with an entirely new goal. The genius does not gain a dot of Inspiration.

''Failure:'' The genius completes the thesis, but her Inspiration is haphazard and confusing. The genius gains a dot of Inspiration. However, all the persistent faults in all of her wonders change.

''Success:'' The genius completes the thesis and does a competent job. The genius gains a dot of Inspiration upon spending experience points.

''Exceptional Success:'' The genius does an extraordinary job on her thesis, producing a work that is clever, sublime, and deeply personal. The genius gains a dot of Inspiration and refreshes her Mania to the maximum. Her wonders remain the same.

''Suggested Modifiers:'' Long and complicated thesis (+1), simple and easy-to-complete thesis (-1), results of experiments confirmed genius' expectations (+1), transformative emotional experience (+2) 

Upon gaining a new dot of Inspiration, many of the genius' wonders improve automatically once he has a few minutes with them. For example, wonders of Skafoi will typically experience an increase in Speed and Handling. No rolls are required for this improvement.