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

===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.