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

===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.''