Editing Genius The Transgression/Chapter Two: Character Creation (section)

==Traits:==

===New Advantage: Inspiration===
Ideas crash like thunder through a genius' life every moment of their lives, barely contained, often barely understood. This is Inspiration, the illumination within, the raw stuff of genius. The greater a genius' Inspiration, the more power of creation and destruction she possesses. But there is a cost. As a genius' Inspiration increases, she becomes less able to understand mundane concerns. She struggles to hold onto her Obligation, as people seem more like systems to be explored than individuals with their own lives and concerns. As she becomes almost godlike in her perspective, she must focus to concentrate on the mortal world and its concerns.

All geniuses begin with one dot of Inspiration. More Inspiration can be purchased at character creation or with experience. Purchasing more Inspiration with experience requires a thesis, a difficult and exhausting exploration of science, philosophy, and one's own nature.

====Benefits of Inspiration:====
● Inspiration determines both how much Mania a genius can contain and how much he can spend in one turn. As a genius' Inspiration increases, he is better able to hold and channel the transcendent mathematical potential that is pure Mania.

● A genius' Inspiration determines how many dot ranks he can possess in non-favored Axioms. A genius can purchase favored Axioms at any level, but non-favored Axioms are limited to the genius' Inspiration. If the genius does possess more dots in a non-favored Axiom than his Inspiration (such as if his permanent Inspiration somehow drops), those Axiom dots go "dormant" and unusable until the genius' Inspiration increases again.

● A genius with Inspiration 6 or higher can increase her Attributes and Skills past five dots. By using special techniques unavailable to lesser scientists, the genius transcends the limitations of mind and body and becomes posthuman.

● Inspiration is rolled for many Inspired activities, such as building wonders or identifying the works of another mad scientist.

● A genius' Inspiration helps resist many metanormal effects and the special powers of the other beings in the World of Darkness. Inspiration is added to other resistance attributes (such as Stamina) when resisting many metanormal or super-scientific effects.

● Because of her Inspiration, a genius never suffers penalties for unfamiliar applications of a Skill. For example, a regular person might have trouble applying their Drive score to handling a motorcycle, driving a big rig, flying a helicopter, or landing a space shuttle, but a genius does not. (A genius still suffers a penalty when using another genius' wonders unless certain conditions are met; see Other People Using Wonders, Page 293.)

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

|-
! Inspiration !! Stat Maximum !! Max Mania !! Max Mania/turn !! Jabir Penalty
|-
! ●
| 5 || 10 || 1 || -1
|-
! ●●
| 5 || 12 || 2 || -1
|-
! ●●●
| 5 || 16 || 3 || -1
|-
! ●●●●
| 5 || 20 || 4 || -1
|-
! ●●●●●
| 5 || 25 || 5 || -2
|-
! ●●●●● ●
| 6 || 30 || 6 || -2
|-
! ●●●●● ●●
| 7 || 40 || 7 || -2
|-
! ●●●●● ●●●
| 8 || 60 || 8 || -3
|-
! ●●●●● ●●●●
| 9 || 80 || 10 || -3
|-
! ●●●●● ●●●●●
| 10 || 100 || 15 || -3
|}

''Max Mania per Turn: A self-motivated wonder, such as an automaton, can channel one point of Mania per turn per rank. An unInspired mane or a beholden can channel one point of Mania per turn.

''UnInspired Mania: Beholden and unInspired manes can hold one point of Mania per dot of Intelligence + Resolve.''

===Drawbacks of Inspiration:===

====Jabir:====

As a genius grows more powerful, his Inspiration shines out of him to illuminate the world. This can be a curse for those mad scientists who want to look more "scientist" than "mad." The genius' Mania begins to tamper with perception and procedure, skewing any attempt to engage in normal science or to perform normal experiments. Though the genius himself suffers no penalties―the odd effects from his perception "cancel out" when brought into conjunction with the odd effects from his behavior―he struggles to communicate his ideas to others. Modern geniuses call this "technobabble" in an attempt to soften the horror of the phenomenon, but it's formally known as Jabir, a sudden, paralyzing loss of clarity and coherence when a genius interacts with a regular mortal.

Any attempt to explain research or to communicate ideas with mere mortals suffers a -1 penalty as the genius' own Mania scrambles the presentation of his ideas. At Inspiration 5, this penalty grows to -2, and then to -3 at Inspiration 8. This penalty covers a number of scenarios. It arises if the genius: "talks shop" with a group of mortal researchers (Presence + Socialize), attempts to cooperate with a group of technicians in fixing a computer (Intelligence + Computer), defends a new scientific theory (even a mundane one) before a group
of scholars (Wits + Expression), and so on. In general, it is an indicator of how badly a genius can alienate a crowd once he starts talking about his ideas.

====Unmada, Brilliant Madness:====

Mania sometimes manifests as a sort of crackling energy, but that's not really what it is. Mania is raw creativity, and geniuses have a bottomless well of it. They just need to open up their minds. Of course, opening up their minds can drive them insane. Channeling too much Mania risks turning a genius into an unmada, unable to distinguish between the real world and the hallucinations and promises created by her own Mania.

Certain actions, like engaging in Deep Inspiration or transferring excessive Mania to oneself, trigger an unmada check. To make an unmada check, the genius rolls Obligation.

Dramatic Failure: The genius becomes an unmada.

Failure: The genius becomes an unmada. She can spend a point of Willpower to resist the effect. If she spends Willpower, the genius instead gains a mild Derangement, or an existing mild Derangement becomes severe, for the duration of the scene. This Derangement is usually the sort that reinforces the genius' own belief in the correctness of his worldview: Suspicion, Narcissism, and Avoidance are common.

Success or Exceptional Success: The genius feels a brief surge of madness but suffers no ill effects.

Suggested Modifiers: Every additional unmada check in one day (-1), using Deep Inspiration to gain additional Mania (penalty equals Mania gained), unmada check related to genius' catalyst (+1), unmada check related to genius' Obligation (+2)

Unmada who trigger an unmada check risk becoming Illuminated. Roll Obligation.

Dramatic Failure: The genius becomes Illuminated.

Failure: The genius becomes Illuminated. She can spend a point of Willpower to resist the effect. If she spends Willpower, the genius instead automatically loses a dot of Obligation.
Success or Exceptional Success: The genius feels something alien slithering behind her eyes but suffers no ill effects.

Once a genius is Illuminated, she can continue to perform actions that grant unmada checks, though she need not roll. The only exception is Deep Inspiration: an Illuminated cannot attempt Deep Inspiration.

Only Inspired beings can become unmada or Illuminated. Beholden and unInspired manes cannot suffer these fates.

====Metanormal Advantage:====

''Like geniuses and Inspiration, other powerful beings in the world of darkness possess Advantages that define them. Vampires have Blood Potency, Werewolves have Primal Urge, and other beings have other "key" metanormal Advantages. When a genius confronts such a being, its metanormal Advantage is added to its die roll when resisting any Inspired affect that's resisted by only a single Attribute. For example, if a genius attacked a vampire with a fear ray (which attacks Composure), the vampire would roll Composure + Blood Potency, whereas a regular person would roll Composure alone. Metanormal beings only add their metanormal Advantage to resistance rolls that use a single Attribute, not to ones that use two Attributes (Wits + Composure, Stamina + Resolve, etc.). Likewise, a genius adds his Inspiration to any attempt to resist another being's metanormal effect only when that effect is resisted by a single Attribute.''

===New Advantage: Mania===
The things a genius see come directly from the realm of pure idea, and those things want to be born into this world. But they can no more survive this flawed universe than a man could survive at the bottom of the sea. They appear, only to perish. They can live only within the aegis of an Inspired mind. That aegis is called Mania.

Not even geniuses know what Mania is. Mad scientists have likened it to the breath of the universe, to divine fire, to some kind of charged fluid, to electricity, to radiation, to information...it is all these things and none. No genius knows exactly what Mania is, but they know that it swirls in their minds like a firestorm, pushing against their skulls as if desperate to escape. Mania can manifest physically, as arcs of lightning, an unnatural glow in a test tube, or a kind of high-pitched mechanical whine when transmitted through computers, but it is mostly a mental construct, a knot of bent mathematics and scattershot logic that the genius translates into the working of wonders.

====Spending Mania:====
A genius can spend Mania to produce any of the following effects:

● Enhance Mental Attributes. Mania is, among other things, pure intellectual and creative energy. Every point of Mania grants a +1 bonus to any one Mental Attribute (Intelligence, Wits, Resolve) for one turn. This can be any Mental Attribute or combination of Mental Attributes. Geniuses who are also Directors can use Mania to enhance their Social Attributes in exactly the same way. Navigators can similarly enhance their Physical Attributes with Mania. Only members of these foundations can enhance non-Mental Attributes with Mania.

● Power mundane technology. By manipulating a machine in ways no sane person could, a genius can keep a machine running even when it has no ordinary power source. How much one point of Mania buys depends on the device.

{| class="wikitable"
|Lights in a room
|1 day
|-
|Flashlight, cell phone
|1 hour
|-
|Portable camera
|10 minutes
|-
|Computer
|10 minutes
|-
|Automobile
|1 hour
|-
|Big Truck
|30 minutes
|-
|Prop Plane
|10 minutes
|-
|Construction Equipment
|10 minutes
|-
|Jet
|1 minute
|}

Every time a genius feeds a point of Mania into a machine, roll one ten-sided die. If the result is a 10, the object immediately loses one-quarter of its Structure as the genius rips the guts out of the machine and pushes it beyond the limits of its functionality. A genius can only power mundane technology this way; wonders have their own ways of using Mania.

● Enhance technology. Every point of Mania grants a +1 bonus to any piece of technology in the genius' possession for one turn. (A "piece of technology" is any object that an intelligent creature has worked or modified to use; once someone pulls the leaves off a stick to make a club, it's "technology" and can be affected by Mania.) Roll the bonus dice for enhanced technology separately. Every 10 that is rolled in this pool causes the tool to lose one-quarter its maximum Structure. (So, four 10s will destroy a tool.) The tool takes damage after it is used, not before. Mania can be spent to grant additional dice to wonders as well as conventional technology.

● Understand technology. Geniuses have an intuitive understanding of technological items. Spending a single point of Mania allows a genius to understand the function and nature of any mundane or wondrous piece of technology, as well as how to turn it on and operate it (to the limit of the genius' Skills). This requires one turn of exploration and physical contact with the device. It will not reveal hidden functions or who made it, nor will it allow a genius to do anything she lacks the Skills to do, but this ability can answer important questions about what an item is and how it is meant to be used.

● Dismantle technology. A genius can make a Dexterity + Crafts check as an attack roll against any wonder, mane, mundane technological artifact, or miscellaneous super-science artifact. (Entirely organic devices use Medicine instead of Crafts.) The genius must spend at least one point of Mania to perform this attack, which represents quickly analyzing and then ripping apart the target. The number of Mania points spent are added to the attack roll. The attack causes Lethal or Bashing damage and ignores Durability. The Energy Channeler Merit can turn this into a ranged attack. A target's Defense subtracts from any attack of this sort. Geniuses often use this technique when faced with high-Durability wonders that are functionally invulnerably to small-arms fire.

● Using and activating wonders. Many wonders of mad science require Mania points before they can be used. The expenditure usually activates the wonder for a whole scene, though some wonders require Mania for every use. See the "Mania" entries under each Axiom. A genius can pay the cost to activate a wonder over the course of several (consecutive or nonconsecutive) turns within a single scene; once enough Mania is in the wonder, it activates.

====Regaining Mania:====

A genius can regain Mania in one of four ways: contemplation, research, diatribes, and editing. A Genius can also be the subject of a Mania transfer, at some risk to her sanity.

=====Contemplation:=====
Geniuses are constantly thinking and scheming. Every morning, when she wakes up, a genius regains one point of Mania. The exception is an unmada, who instead loses a point of Mania every day to sustain her unmada field. (See Madness, Page 289.) Very rarely, during a Maniac Storm, geniuses may recover additional Mania per day due to the transformative insanity swirling around an area, but Maniac Storms are rare, unpredictable, and impermanent.

=====Research:=====

A genius can also perform research to generate Mania. "Research" can take several forms: building interesting but useless gadgets, reading the latest literature, talking with other scientists or researchers, performing experiments and test-runs, even just standing in front of a blackboard and thinking very hard. A genius with some kind of "prop" upon which to work (some tools and cogs, a Scientific American she hasn't read before, another scientist to talk to, or even a note pad and paper) regains one point of Mania per hour of research. A genius who is simply thinking recovers one point of Mania per two hours. Research dominates a genius' full attention: she cannot perform research while building wonders, making repairs, conducting investigations, or even participating usefully in a stake-out or negotiation.

A genius can normally spend up to six hours per day in this kind of research. Every additional hour in one day requires an unmada check, with a cumulative -1 penalty per additional hour.

=====Before I Kill You I Will Tell You My Plan:=====

If the genius has an unwilling person captured and restrained, he can regain a number of Mania equal to his Inspiration + Presence. This requires at least thirty seconds of ranting and can only be done once per day. This triggers an unmada check. The act itself is not a transgression, but getting there often is (kidnapping is an Obligation-6 transgression), and triggering an unmada check is an Obligation-8 transgression.

=====I Hope This Wasn't Important To You: =====

The unmada (and only they) have one additional avenue of Mania recovery. Destroying an object of particular value that the genius disagree with, such as burning an ancient scroll containing "unlawful" secret techniques or smashing a laptop that was set to broadcast the indiscretions of the unmada's group, nets a number of Mania equal to the genius' Inspiration + Resolve. This can only be done once per day. Lemurians call this technique "editing" and use it to dispose of unwelcome ideas and artifacts that contradict their pet theories. Editing, whatever a genius calls it, is an Obligation-6 transgression.

=====Manes and Beholden:=====
Only geniuses can recover Mania in these ways. Manes that are not Inspired are limited to calculus vampirism or voluntary transfers. Beholden are usually limited to voluntary transfers.

====Transferring Mania:====
Mania manifests as two forms: as energy and as idea. Intelligent creatures (geniuses, beholden, and intelligent manes) transfer Mania by communicating with one-another. This requires a common language and the ability to communicate, either verbally or through the written word. Two beings can transfer a number of points of Mania per turn this way equal to their combined Inspiration scores as a regular action. Range is however far clear communication can be maintained, even over a phone line. Mania cannot be pre-recorded, however, or placed in notes, without using a capacitor. (See Capacitors, Page 295.)

Artificial things (mundane technology and manes) manifest Mania as a sort of motive force. (Modern geniuses view this "forceful" Mania as much like electricity, though it emphatically is not.) They can transfer Mania through physical contact. If both subjects lack Inspiration scores, they transfer one point of Mania per turn in this way if both take an action to do so.

A genius can only gain a number of points of Mania per scene from external sources (including capacitors, beholden, and other geniuses, as well as Deep Inspiration, but not when using the Calculus Vampire Merit) equal to her maximum Mania per turn (based on Inspiration). Any more requires an unmada check with a penalty equal to the number of times previously the genius has rolled an unmada check that day.

====Binding Mania:====
Geniuses bind points of Mania to the wonders they create. Certain permanent transformations and 
enhancements caused by wonders also require bound Mania. A genius cannot possess more Mania than his maximum Mania (determined by Inspiration) minus the number of points of Mania she has bound.

Only the Inspired can bind Mania. Beholden and unInspired manes can spend Mania, but cannot bind it.

====Deep Inspiration:====
A genius can spend Mania she doesn't have by reaching deep into her psyche. This is a reflexive action. She can channel the normal amount of Mania per turn based on her Inspiration. Upon doing so, she makes an unmada check with a penalty equal to the number of points of Mania channeled.

These additional Mania points do not add to the genius' total Mania score; they must be spent immediately.

Illuminated cannot perform Deep Inspiration.

===="Doing Science To It":====
Transferring Mania from a "thinking" source to a "motive" one (such as a genius "feeding" Mania to a wonder) requires that the genius "Do Science To It." This requires physical contact and involved flipping knobs, removing superficial damage, tightening bolts, and other technological activities that are outside the scope of mundane technological activity. Going the other way―a wonder "feeding" stored Mania to a genius―requires "Doing Analysis": analyzing readouts that come out of the machine, measuring it with calipers, and other behavior that makes no sense from the perspective of normal science but that nonetheless gives the genius vital insight, which translates as Mania.

===Modified Advantage: Obligation (Morality)===
The Inspired are extreme creatures, capable of great and terrible transgressions. To fight the corrosive influence of those crimes against the natural order, most geniuses focus on the one thing that still ties them to mundane humanity: their Obligation to it. Their Obligation may be to improve, to protect, or even to punish, but it ultimately ties them to their unInspired brethren.

Obligation monitors how close a genius is to losing all ties with humanity and becoming a true mad scientist, one of the Illuminated who has lost all concern for the well-being and dignity of others, and who sees humans as we might see laboratory mice. As Obligation falls, the genius becomes less and less able to interact with normal humans, and less and less interested in doing so for any decent reason.

Geniuses quickly learn that Obligation is more than Morality: it is tied to the standards of sane and normal behavior that humans apply to their fellows. Many acts that a genius can rationalize as for the greater good―or even demonstrate to be beneficial and useful―are transgressions, since they violate the standards of regular human behavior and distance a genius from the mortals in his charge.

====Transgression:====
When a genius acts in a way that violates his Obligation to humanity, he commits a transgression. The genius must make a degeneration roll to see if he loses a dot of Obligation. If an act can be described by two different levels of transgression, use the lower one on the chart.

Starting geniuses begin with an Obligation of 7. They can buy it down to 5 at character creation, gaining five experience points per lost dot, though a genius buying her Obligation down this way always receives the Derangement keyed to her catalyst.

A failed degeneration roll means that the genius must make an Obligation roll to avoid acquiring a Derangement, if the genius' (new) Obligation is lower than 7. The new Derangement is linked to the lost dot of Obligation: if the genius' Obligation rises back to its original level, the Derangement is banished.

Each catalyst has a primary Derangement. Should a genius receive a Derangement due to degeneration, she receives that Derangement automatically, first. Subsequent Derangements are determined like normal.

Transgressions include, from least to most heinous:

• Actions that imply a lack of respect for the dangerous power of Inspiration, 

• Actions that regular humans find gross, unethical, or "cold" (whether or not they're actually 
immoral), 

• Actions that physically or psychologically distance the genius from humanity,

• Actions that display a cold or reckless disregard for civilization and/or the rule of law, and 

• Actions that stem from a genius' willingness to see humans as disposable, replaceable, or beneath consideration. 

The list below is not complete or all-inclusive; the Storyteller is expected to examine questionable actions from a genius to see if they fit with the general pattern of transgressions listed below, and to warn the genius' player of a transgression that the mad scientist is poised to commit.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|Obligation||Transgression||
|-
|10||Allowing one's wonder to risk Havoc. <br/>Using wonders to accomplish a task when it could have been accomplished just as well with mundane science or skill. <br/>Experimenting on animals.||Roll five dice
|-
|9||Allowing one's wonder to turn temporarily orphan. <br/>Altering oneself or another person with mad science, even temporarily (not including healing). <br/>Going a day without human contact. <br/>Minor selfish acts. <br/>Performing surgery.||Roll five dice
|-
|8||Injury to another (accidental or otherwise). <br/>Failing to help a victimized innocent in need. <br/>Triggering an unmada check in oneself. <br/>Emotional manipulation. <br/>Grave-robbing, dissection, or making zombies. <br/>Allowing one's wonder to turn permanently orphan.||Roll four dice
|-
|7||Petty theft (shoplifting). <br/>Allowing an innocent to die or be seriously injured without making effort to save the person. <br/>Making a person beholden. <br/>Mind control. <br/>Experimenting on willing human subjects (including oneself) where there is some possibility of harm. <br/>Unintentional mass property damage brought about by Inspiration.
|Roll four dice
|-
|6||Grand theft (burglary). <br/>Kidnapping. <br/>"Editing" to gather Mania. <br/>Going a week without human contact. <br/>Creating an intelligent machine (Automata 4+). <br/>Body swapping.||Roll three dice
|-
|5||Killing an intelligent being. <br/>Intentional, mass property damage (arson, most doom cannons). <br/>Experimenting on willing human subjects (including oneself) where there is a serious possibility of death or harm. <br/>Programming permanent psychological limitations into an intelligent being.||Roll three dice
|-
|4||Impassioned serious crime (manslaughter). <br/>Sadistic mind control (of the "forcing two friends to fight for your amusement" variety or similar acts of cruelty.) <br/>Permanently and significantly altering your physical form (adding two more arms, etc.)||Roll two dice
|-
|3||Going a month without human contact. <br/>Planned serious crime (murder). <br/>Slavery. <br/>Experimenting on unwilling human subjects where there is a serious possibility of death or harm. <br/>Permanently and entirely altering your physical form (uploading yourself into a computer or becoming a giant caterpillar).||Roll two dice
|-
|2||Bringing the dead back to life. <br/>Rape or sexual mind control. <br/>Serial murder. <br/>Spreading massive plague and devastation.||Roll one die
|-
|1||Mass murder. <br/>Hideous experiments on unwilling human subjects. <br/>Scientific torture. Genocide.
|Roll one die.
|}

''"The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it."'' 

-Dr. Joseph Mengele

====Obligation and Morality:====
Beholden and unInspired manes possess Morality. Geniuses, Inspired manes, and intelligent automata possess Obligation.

===Benefits of Obligation:===
====Paragon Status:====
A genius with an Obligation of 7 or higher qualifies as a Paragon. People have difficulty imagining that the genius is up to no good. Even the most maladjusted genius, if he possesses high Obligation, is automatically seen as a trustworthy authority figure by regular mortals, someone to be admired for his intelligence and contributions to humanity. The genius gains a +1 bonus to all Social checks when acting from a position of knowledge or authority. Further, anyone trying to tar the genius' reputation suffers a -3 penalty to the attempt.

===Drawbacks of Obligation:===
====Stunted Social Skills:====
The Inspired are often awkward and isolated people, and as Obligation falls, this problem grows worse. A genius with Obligation 5 or higher suffers no penalty. A genius with Obligation 3 or 4 suffers a -1 penalty to all Social checks, while a genius with Obligation 1 or 2 suffers a -2 penalty.

One of the Illuminated, who has no Obligation, is as charming as any other psychopath and suffers no such caps, though many are so insane they cannot communicate meaningfully. Directors are also immune to this disadvantage when they spend Mania to boost their Social Attributes, which only encourages some to neglect their Obligation further.

====The Broken Chains:====
Should a genius reach zero Obligation, she becomes one of the Illuminated. Freed from all ethical constraints, she becomes an abomination of science and forbidden secrets, able to see humans only as victims and objects.