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

===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.