Genius The Transgression/Chapter Two: Character Creation

There are two futures, the future of desire and the future of fate, and man's reason has never learnt to separate them. Desire, the strongest thing in the world, is itself all future, and it is not for nothing that in all the religions the motive is always forwards to an endless futurity of bliss or annihilation. Now that religion gives place to science the paradiscial future of the soul fades before the Utopian future of the species, and still the future rules. But always there is, on the other side, destiny, that which inevitably will happen, a future here concerned not as the other was with man and his desires, but blindly and inexorably with the whole universe of space and time. The Buddhist seeks to escape from the Wheel of Life and Death, the Christian passes through them in the faith of another world to come, the modern reformer, as unrealistic but less imaginative, demands his chosen future in this world of men. -J.D. Bernal, The World, the Flesh, and the Devil

Creating a fully-developed genius character requires an understanding both of the genius' Inspired dreams and her mortal origins. Geniuses, for all their extraordinary power, are still mortal men and women, and their human obsessions and beliefs guide their Breakthrough and much of their subsequent life. A genius must be more than a collection of dots optimized to fulfill a strategic niche; the Inspired are creatures of human passion and mundane ambition as well as transcendent understanding. Try to use the interaction between the genius' new and old personas to create a dynamic, interesting character.

Translating a genius into "dots on the paper" can be difficult. First, accept that you may be frustrated by a beginning genius' limited abilities. New geniuses begin play with a few Axioms and a handful of wonders, but they are not super-scientists; not yet. See this as an opportunity to view life through your character's eyes: he might be just as frustrated as you are at his abilities, which are potent but not yet world-breaking. Imagining how your character developed―from the first thoughts of "something is weird here" to the Breakthrough to learning his first few Axioms―can help you understand where your character has come from, allowing you to turn goals already accomplished into Skills and Merits, and goals yet to be achieved into plans for the future.

Your genius will probably belong to a collaborative made up of the other players' characters, so you may want to meet with the other players, not to optimize everyone's genius as part of an elite combat team (seriously, it never works), but to make sure no one is stepping on anyone else's conceptual toes. Some negotiation about who gets to be "the guy with the robots" or "the brooding crime-fighter" may be in order. Other players can also provide new perspectives on your genius that you haven't considered. The Storyteller may also have important input and advice about what sort of game she is planning to run, allowing you to fit your genius into the chronicle.

Step One: Choose Concept

Mad scientists are complex creatures, but many can be described with a few well-chosen words: "Death-obsessed biochemist," "experimental vehicle pilot," "visionary psychic researcher." Using either images of mad science from media or your own unsupported imagination, try to call an image to mind and summarize your character.

Your concept allows you to quickly describe your character to other players, and can give the Storyteller clues about what sorts of stories you want your character to experience.

At the beginning of the chronicle, most geniuses in the collaborative will be new to the whole "mad science" thing, with at most a few months of experience on the job. However, some characters have had previous brushes with Inspiration that they avoided, preventing a full Breakthrough. This is usually linked to a genius' starting Inspiration: a genius with only a single dot in Inspiration has been touched for the first time, while one with more dots has probably fought off the wonders and horrors of becoming a genius before.

At this point, you might want to consider the nature of your genius' Breakthrough, which determines her catalyst. Your genius' personality can also help determine which foundation she joins. You should also consider an aesthetic, what your mad scientist's inventions will look like. Does she slap machinery together from discarded circuitry and engine blocks stolen from junk yards? If so, her inventions will look very different from a genius who builds his wonders out of the finest brass and dark wood, then hand-polishes them until they shine with care and devotion.

Step Two: Select Attributes

Your genius' Attribute dots determine his raw capabilities. Use the genius' life before the Breakthrough as a guide to determining his Attributes. Try to imagine how the genius' Attributes would influence his personality, and vice-versa.

All Attributes begin at one dot. Divide your Attributes into primary (five dots), secondary (four dots), and tertiary (three dots). The fifth dot in any Attribute requires two dots to purchase.

When you add the genius template (step five), you will add an additional dot to Intelligence, Wits, or Resolve. This does not cost two dots to purchase if it raises an Attribute to five dots.

Though the Inspired vary considerably in talents and temperament, many possess a few common traits.

Intelligence is prized above almost all other Attributes in the Inspired community, and understandably so: only the smartest can reliably build wonders. Wits, however, is invaluable when a wonder is needed right now, not just after three days in a laboratory. Geniuses who focus on travel and adventure need high Dexterity to control the strange vehicles they build and Stamina to survive the rigors of hostile and alien environments. And not all of the Inspired are shut-ins: many are naturally charming, almost magnetic, and others hone their Social Attributes so that they might rise to positions of power as laboratory directors or executives in the private sector. Presence gives a genius the raw strength of personality to bend others to his will, to amaze, delight, and terrify, while Manipulation is less glamorous but no less useful.

Despite their tenacity, many Inspired lack Resolve and Composure and are psychologically vulnerable when taken out of their narrow environments. Many are temperamental, unstable, even gullible despite their brilliance. Those that do not suffer from this weakness, however, can be as relentless as they are smooth, able to travel from boardroom to farthest uncharted land while keeping a level head.

Step Three: Select Skills

Divide your Skills into primary (eleven dots), secondary (seven dots), and tertiary (four dots). A fifth dot in any Skill costs two points to purchase.

A genius' Skills often determine what approach he takes to his Inspiration. Mental Skills are often primary, but which Skills receive the most attention can tell a person much about a mad scientist. Experts in Computer research artificial intelligence and networks beyond the dreams of MIT or Tokyo Tech, while Inspired who take up Academics are super-psychologists and philosophers. Students of Medicine are not just doctors, but biologists, surgeons, and biochemical engineers. Geniuses who focus on Crafts can master everything from aerospace engineering to transatomic metallurgy, and experts on the Occult can catch amazing glimpses of worlds far removed from this one. The Science Skill serves as the one field tying these disparate branches of knowledge together, but some geniuses specialize here, too, becoming renowned theorists among the Peerage.

The mortal Skills a genius gained before his Breakthrough can also determine his foundation. Psychologists and people with high Social Skills are likely to become Directors, while experts in Medicine look toward the Progenitors. High-energy physicists and explorers often end up as Navigators, as do scientists with high ranks in Drive and/or Survival, while Academics, Investigation, and Occult are important to Scholastics. Fiddlers, hackers, and craftsmen often join the Artificers and focus on Crafts or Computer. Conversely, a genius may take the opposite approach, getting picked up by a foundation first, and then fleshing out the most useful Skills with the help of a tutor.

Step Four: Select Skill Specialties

Even the Inspired, who often are or strive to become polymaths, find need to focus on specific areas of study. Geniuses often focus on strange and seemingly-useless specializations that are too narrow to be useful anywhere except mad science. Others maintain hobbies or interests from their previous lives, or can call upon the hyper-focused exploration that often precedes a Breakthrough.

Choose three Skill Specialties. You may choose more than one Specialty for the same Skill.

Step Five: Add Genius Template

When a genius experiences her Breakthrough, she is redefined as a creature of Inspiration and Mania. While still human, she is also something more, and gains powers and suffers drawbacks unique to her new condition.

Note that templates cannot overlap. Geniuses will not experience the First Change and become a werewolf, nor Awaken as a Mage. Attempts to Embrace a genius result in a dead genius. If taken to Faerie she will not become a Changeling (if she survives the experience). Her corpse, if turned into a Promethean, is just that: a new Promethean.

Attribute Bonus:

A genius receives an additional dot to one Mental Attribute, representing the increase in mental capacity granted by the Breakthrough. Meticulous, thoughtful, theoretical mad scientists often gain a bonus to Intelligence, while creative, artistic, intuitive ones can gain a bonus to Wits, and determined, practical, and stubborn geniuses usually receive a bonus to Resolve. Select whichever Attribute seems most appropriate.

A genius' Mental Attributes are still limited by her Inspiration.

Foundations:

When a genius first experiences his Breakthrough, he flails about, struggling to find his center while figuring out exactly what has happened to him. Provided he makes the transition smoothly and does not become a Lemurian, echo doctor, or one of the Illuminated, he may gravitate toward one of the five foundations that dictate a genius' approach to his work.

Each foundation offers favored Axioms, natural areas of specialty for all members of that foundation, as well as a grant, a unique talent that all geniuses in that foundation have mastered. But more than that, a foundation offers a shared approach to mad science that breaks across boundaries of culture and mundane philosophy, giving the genius a community within the community of peers, a group that shares a common approach, style, and terminology.

Examine the five foundations and decide which one best fits your character. If none seems to apply, your genius may instead be a rogue: she has either never encountered the foundations until recently, or wants to join none of them. Rogues are welcome to join most Peer collaboratives, but they are often viewed with suspicion and disdain.

Catalysts:

The foundation is a considered choice, based on how the genius approaches mad science. The catalyst is more internal and more visceral, an emotional stamp that remains with the genius forever and echoes the feelings that drove her to catalyze. Sorrow, obsession, jealousy...some strong feeling guides a genius and governs her behavior and Obligation.

All Inspired belong to a catalyst, whether they know it or not and whether or not they can articulate a philosophy behind their Inspiration. Members of the same catalyst do not form "communities" around their shared feeling; these divisions are more personal. Still, they impact the genius deeply, swaying how she learns Axioms and helping to define how she approaches her Obligation to humanity.

A genius' catalyst determines one of her favored Axioms, as well as her first Derangement. Should the genius receive a Derangement as a result of Obligation loss or almost any other reason, the first Derangement received is always based on her catalyst. Subsequent Derangements are determined normally.

Inspiration:

The Inspiration Trait measures how brightly the genius' inner light glows. As a genius' understanding increases, so does Inspiration, which is a prospect as terrifying as it is magnificent. On the one hand, greater Inspiration means more wonders and more powerful wonders, as well as a greater understanding of exactly what a genius is and what she is doing. On the other hand, the blinding light of Inspiration can devour a weak-willed genius, hollowing her out and taking up residence in her brain.

A new genius possess one dot of Inspiration for free. Geniuses who have flirted previously with mad science may begin the chronicle with two or three dots of Inspiration. Additional Inspiration dots cost three Merit points per dot, so your genius may spend three Merit dots to begin with Inspiration 2 or six Merit dots to begin begin with Inspiration 3.

Axioms:

A genius builds wonders based on Axioms, which are the branches of mad science. Each Axiom covers a general effect or approach―Katastrofi covers all instruments of destruction, for example―and each is ranked from one to five dots, with higher ranks granting more and greater effects. Geniuses must purchase dots from an Axiom in order, from the first dot to the fifth. However, a genius can often build many different types of wonders with each dot in an Axiom. Just one dot in Prostasia, the Axiom of Protection, for example, allows a genius to build an armored suit, a deflector screen, a protective ward against robots, or a forcefield cage to hold enemies.

A genius' catalyst gives her one favored Axiom. Her foundation offers two possibilities, of which she may choose one as another favored Axiom. The final favored Axiom can be anything; it is up to the genius to decide, but once chosen, it cannot be changed.

A rogue receives one favored Axiom from her catalyst and two other favored Axioms of her choice. These also cannot be changed.

A favored Axiom costs fewer experience points to increase. Further, a genius receives a +1 bonus to all attempts to build a wonder from one of her favored Axioms. Finally, a genius can buy her favored Axiom up to any level. Non-favored Axioms can be no higher than the genius' Inspiration.

A beginning genius has three dots worth of Axioms. All dots must be from one of her three favored Axioms.

Axiom Ranks:

Within the Peerage, the "dot" ranks in Axioms are sometimes given names:

●: Student

●●: Scholar

●●●: Doctor

●●●●: Implementor

●●●●●: Master

These terms vary by region, foundation, and sometimes even by Axiom (Implementors of Apokalypsi are usually referred to as "Professors of Apokalypsi," for example), but the five divisions of talent are generally recognized across the Peerage.

Geniuses refer to wonders made with different ranks of Axioms as a wonder's class, mark, or grade: a class-4 matter relocator, a mark-III death ray, a grade-2 scanner. Different collaboratives use different terms.

Step Six: Select Merits

A newly-catalyzed genius has seven dots worth of Merits that can be spent on general Merits or genius-only Merits in any combination you desire. Merits should reflect the genius' nature and personality: recluses are unlikely to stock up on Social Merits, while a rough-and-ready fighting-genius will probably have a good selection of Merits useful in a brawl.

The Storyteller may disallow certain Merits, require certain Merits, or even pass out certain Merit dots for free (such as requiring or giving out one dot in Laboratory if he expects the player characters to share a Lab), in order to shape his chronicle.

Step Seven: Determine Advantages

Genius are more than human, and some mortal Advantages change when applied to a genius. The Inspired also get their own unique Advantages.

Willpower:

Spending a Willpower point adds three dice to a roll, which can often make the difference between life and death when a genius is caught without her wonders or the protection of beholden or other allies. Geniuses often eagerly burn Willpower during the creation and use of new wonders.

A genius can spend Mania in the same turn in which she spends Willpower.

Obligation:

A genius' flesh is mortal, but her mind is something greater, and the Inspiration enhances more than just her intellect. It somehow redefines her moral system, elevating her to a position of guardianship or stewardship over humanity. Though a genius might loathe the common man, she is charged with protecting and guiding her fellow human beings.

Many of the Inspired have an ideal in their minds: the cool watcher of humanity, aloof from its everyday affairs but concerned with its development as a whole, not passionate but acting out of compassion for those teeming masses that deserve the benefits of the genius' work. During the Breakthrough, the genius' mortal Morality is superseded by this new, stronger sense of Obligation.

Ridiculed by peers and despised by common people, many geniuses nonetheless realize that to abandon their Obligation to humanity entirely reduces them to cruel and inhuman manipulators, utterly alone and willing to interact with others only as victims, lackeys, and test subjects.

Optionally, a Storyteller may allow players to trade dots of Obligation for experience points during character creation. This may reflect some sin committed before the Breakthrough, but more likely represents a grave transgression that the genius committed in her first days as a mad scientist. This transgression taught her something important (hence the extra experience points), but may have already begun her downward slide toward brutality and callous indifference. A dot of Obligation can be cashed in for five experience points. The genius' Obligation can drop to five this way, earning ten experience points. This does result in the genius gaining his catalyst's Derangement. The Derangement appears if the genius reduces his Obligation to 6; reducing his Obligation to 5 does not risk further Derangements.

Dropping one's Obligation before play does not yield Larvae.

Virtues and Vices:

A genius possesses the normal mortal Virtues and Vices. Some Virtues, such as Fortitude and Hope, and some Vices, such as Pride and Envy, are particularly well-represented among the Inspired. These Virtues and Vices are not always perfectly reflected in a genius' catalyst: not all Neids focus on the Vice of Envy and not all Hoffnungs define themselves by their sense of Hope.

Arch-Madness:

Storytellers may choose to let players play more advanced geniuses. To do so, allocate additional experience points that are spent before play begins. Due to the complexity of creating and managing wonders, this option is only recommended for a group of experienced players.

Just Catalyzed: 0 experience points

Known Scholar: 35 experience points

Senior Researcher: 75 experience points

Legend of Mad Science: 120+ experience points

Step Eight: The First Wonders

A new genius is allowed five rolls in order to his first wonders. These wonders are constructed normally. There are a few conditions that apply to these wonders:

• They cannot be kitbashed, nor can they benefit from extra time spent on their creation.

• The genius cannot spend Willpower or Mania.

• The genius can internalize or graft these wonders to himself automatically with no additional rolls.

• If a "failure" result is obtained at any point, the genius loses the roll but can immediately try again to create the same type of wonder.

• The genius can benefit from Beholden Ability, but cannot receive aid from anyone else or anyone else's beholden.

• The Assembly Line Merit does not apply to these wonders.

• The genius gains the full benefits of her Laboratory Equipment or the collaborative's shared Equipment.

• The genius must finish construction of at least one wonder. If he has failed to construct a wonder after five rolls, he gains additional rolls until he finishes at least one wonder.

• The genius can scrap wonders with which he is not satisfied at any time during this initial creation process, though making the wonder still costs at least one roll.

• The genius can stop making wonders at any time once she has at least one.

Remember that a genius receives +1 to each roll because each of these wonders comes from a favored Axiom.

These first few wonders do not necessarily represent the results of however-many back-to-back days of work immediately preceding the start of the chronicle, but the results show how much success the genius has had with her first forays into mad science.

Step Nine: A New Genius Is Born

Once the numbers are on the page and the right dots are filled in, it's time to define some details about the character. Does he have any unusual or telling mannerisms, ticks, or turns of phrase? What is her nationality and native language? (Geniuses travel more than many of the other strange beings in the World of Darkness.) What is his appearance? How does she dress? (Not everyone fancies lab coats and brass goggles.) Does he favor a different look for inside the laboratory and out?

Every genius possesses an aesthetic, a style for the genius' wonders. This is an inevitable outgrowth of Inspiration, not just a fashion statement: what a genius' wonders look like and with what components they are constructed is both a personal and metaphysical statement. Aesthetics vary enormously among geniuses. Some favor the rough look of exposed machinery and unpainted metal, while others aim for a sleek, user-friendly appearance, all rounded plastic and simple lines. Others try to imitate the styles of inventions past, or at least an imagined version of them, focusing on the swept-silver elegance of 1930s rocketships, the clanking brass solidity of 19th century engineering, or the baroque magnificence of Renaissance clockwork. Go ahead and finalize your choice for your mad scientist's aesthetic.

Also consider how the genius relates to the Community, the non-mad scientists. Many low-Inspiration mad scientists are still capable enough of communicating their ideas to hold down jobs at universities or in the private sector. Others have some useful mundane skill, technical or otherwise, that they can turn to their advantage. How does the genius survive, and how does she find enough money to support her research?

The genius' Traits can help define the character here. A genius with higher Wits than Intelligence might lack formal education and produce unstable wonders, but he has the insight to spot problems fast and use his Inspiration for immediate workarounds. A genius with high Manipulation might be as charming as your crazy uncle or as polished as a used car salesmen, while a low-Composure genius is easily mocked, drawn into arguments, and brought to hysterics.

Mania:

Mania is the distilled energy of Inspiration that motivates the genius and allows her to create, modify, and use wonders.

All geniuses begin with a full Mania pool, as determined by their Inspiration, minus the Mania bound to their starting wonders.

Mania is rated only as a pool of points that can be spent. It has no dot rating.

The Prelude:

The prelude is an alternate way to experience parts of your character's development that can give a more visceral feel for what your genius can do and what she is like. Once you have finished building your character, you and the Storyteller sit down for a one-on-one session to learn what turned your character from a normal mortal into a genius.

The prelude is not a full "game" like the rest of the chronicle: the Storyteller should be free to make ad hoc rulings rather than rolling the dice, and should show a greater willingness to engage in director-like behavior, starting scenes in media res or ending them abruptly. Rather than seeing the session as a chapter in the unfolding story, it's better to view the prelude as a series of vignettes. The Storyteller's job is to provide your character with interesting situations that are relevant to his life as a genius. Your job is to figure out how you want to play your character and what elements of his personality you want to emphasize. Both player and Storyteller should feel free to make requests or engage in author-level commentary on the situation in which your genius finds himself.

Most preludes should be run individually, since much of the prelude will take place before the characters involved are full geniuses, and possibly before they have met. However, a talented Storyteller can weave together several simultaneous storylines taking place at different times and with different characters, using the events in one character's prelude to shine light on events in another. If the Storyteller wants to run a group prelude, he can draw the different storylines together, allowing the prelude to culminate in a meeting of the new geniuses, allowing the players to explore how they will relate to one-another in the coming chronicle. In a group prelude, players whose characters are not "on-stage" can take over other characters at the Storyteller's request, or offer recommendations for scenes or imagery―an option not normally open to players in the main game.

Storytelling the Prelude:

A burning lab smells worse than you'd expect. Scorched rubber, melting chemicals, and the sickening aroma of burning flesh. Now you're sure that not everyone got out. The flames―orange and red and chemical green―leap into the night sky, the hellish glow reflecting off the low clouds and illuminating the pine trees that lead away from Applied Cryonics to the main street. Looking that way, you can just see regular red-and-blue geometries cutting into the surrounding forest, the approach of police cars as they drag themselves up the steep hill.

One cruiser stops and a young man with 70s aviator shades and a mustache that only cops wear gets out. He puts his hand on his gun when he sees the sharp thing you're holding, but doesn't draw it. From a safe distance, over the roar of the flames, he shouts, "What happened here?"

What happened here?

Try to view your prelude as a shakedown cruise: it's a rough cut, and rules and causality are not as important as making sure you and the Storyteller are on the same page about your character. During or after the prelude, you may need to make adjustments to your character: you might realize that her underlying anger is based on a deep resentment of her friends' success, and switch catalysts from Grimm to Neid. Don't see this as a chance to fine-tune your character's effectiveness, but as an opportunity to shake out the conceptual kinks. The Storyteller might justify these changes, or justify his own narrative tricks and scene manipulation, because the prelude takes place around the time of your character's Breakthrough, where he's probably half-crazed anyway and unlikely to remember the details of events, but mostly the prelude is there so everyone at the table can fine-tune their characters in order to optimize their experience in play.

In general, try to do as much as possible during the prelude. That will help you figure out how your character interacts with the world, how he behaves, what he likes, and how his madness manifests. Get into the head of your character, and don't get upset if the Storyteller glides over events like combat, reducing them to a single throw of the dice or ignoring the rules entirely in favor of description. Oh, and don't try to avoid becoming a genius. Doing that wastes everyone's time.

The Before-Time

"What the hell are you doing in here?"

It's not one of the security guards. Worse, it's Jim...excuse me, Dr. James Elliot Neill, Director of Preservative Research. You wanted to get a closer look at what they were doing. Those big regulatory computers seem to call to you over the long nights here. You've felt your thoughts getting crisper, cleaner, and recently the curiosity has been eating you alive. But Dr. Neill is always watching the computers, and now he's pissed off that a janitor has wandered into a restricted zone.

You need this job. What are you going to tell him?

Storytellers can begin a prelude by focusing on what life was like for a genius before the Breakthrough. In this first stage of the prelude, you'll need to figure out what sort of person you were before you became a mad scientist. Keep in the back of your mind whether you will remain this way once you are Inspired, or whether the Breakthrough changed some or all of your personality. Were you already a respected scientist? A failure as a grad student? A gifted technician without the money to afford college? Were you brave or cowardly, acquiescent or combative, charming or a huge nerd?

Some of these everyday scenes may focus on events leading up to your Breakthrough. Others might be entirely mundane: watching a co-worker beat the high score on the Galaga game in the canteen, or chatting with an old friend about what it was like in Afghanistan after five years without contact.

If dice rolls are needed, remember that at this point you are a regular mortal, lacking Inspiration, Mania, or wonders.

The Eureka Moment

They're using you like some sort of drug-sniffing dog, it seems. Half of the researchers are in awe; half think you're just crazy and lucky. But you know when one of the machines needs replacing. You know what they need, how to keep them running, and so you spend your days in the freezing-cold room, monitoring them. You have to hold a mop, though. Damn regulations.

What's this? Someone has left an open company laptop on one of the work tables. On the ground near it they spilled a can of Dr. Pepper, as if they had to get out in a hurry. And they think they've locked the laptop, but you know all the company codes now, and even if you didn't...

"The Resurrection Consortium." That's what it says behind the login screen. What's that? It would be so easy to...no, but you couldn't...

What do you do?

Though there is rarely a single moment when a regular person transforms into a mad scientist, the Storyteller may wish to offer one or a few vignettes about your genius' transformation.

The actual Breakthrough is often a traumatic, frightening experience, made all the more terrible by the fact that a new genius almost certainly knows that she can walk away from it all, can shut it all down...but that she wants to go forward anyway. Hallucinations, visions, and deranged thinking afflict a genius in the midst of her Breakthrough, bits of animated Mania or simple insanity caused by the pressure of the experience warping her perceptions and reasoning.

The Breakthrough is an opportunity to define what matters to your character: what motivates him, what he loves and fears, and what will continue to matter to him once he is a genius. What your genius does in the midst of his Breakthrough can establish plot hooks for future chronicles, giving the Storyteller dangling story-threads that can be resolved at some future time. Since most Storytellers like it when their players do the work for them, try to lay the seeds for future excitement during this part of the prelude; it might yield more focus on your character's story-arc in the future.

As the Breakthrough progresses, your genius will get access to Inspiration and Mania, though he may not gain Axioms and a foundation until much later.

The Wider World

"I'm impressed that you found me so easily," Dr. Layota says. She sits down and steeples her fingers to prevent them from shaking. "At this point you could probably turn me over to the police. Fraud, criminal conspiracy, and of course, that unfortunate incident with the piranhas...

"But where would that get you?" The doctor stands up and opens her briefcase. You can't see what she's pulling out, which sets you on edge. "A head full of crazy and no way to get it out. You're going to burst like a grape if you keep that up. Let's instead cut a deal. A year ago you would've wanted money. Now I know what you want."

She holds up a three-ring binder labeled The Axiom of Exelixi.

"All this can be yours," she says, "for the low, low price of not picking up that telephone."

What do you do?

By the end of the vignettes surrounding the Breakthrough, you should have a firm understanding of how your genius catalyzed and how that has changed her life. The rest of the prelude is picking up the pieces and putting things back together. The Storyteller here can include details about how your character learned about the Axioms, about the foundations, the Peerage, and Lemuria. Toward the end of the prelude, you will also need to address how your genius continues to interface with the rest of the world, if at all. Vignettes covering whether or not your character continues to hold down a job, how her family, friends, and loved ones react to the change in her personality, and how a new mad scientist interacts with regular people are as important as mini-stories about learning how to build robots.

At this point in the prelude, the Storyteller will likely introduce the other player characters, if it has been a cooperative prelude. If that's the case, a bit of role-playing should allow your characters to form a collaborative, if that is your goal. Otherwise the Storyteller can introduce other major characters, such as antagonists, potential mentors, or fellow geniuses. How your character interacts with these figures during the prelude can color relations during the chronicle.

A Few Questions:

If your character is finished but you still want to add more meat to the bones, you can try answering some of the following questions. Feel free to answer some or all of them.

What Do You Look Like?

What is your ethnicity? What fashions do you favor? Do you have a separate "mad scientist" wardrobe, or do you wear regular clothes in the lab? Or do you walk around "in character" when interacting with normal society? Do you look like a scientist, mad or otherwise, or would be people be surprised if they found out you have a death ray in your briefcase?

How Hard Was Your Breakthrough?=

Was it a process of gradual revelation, or a sudden thunderbolt from the Heavens that burned out most of your normal-person circuitry? Did you lose your job, your friends, or your mind, or did you manage to hide the madness? Are you trying to rebuild, trying to hide what has happened, or happy to let your old self disappear?

How Much of "You" Is Left?

Do you view yourself as basically the same person as you were before your Breakthrough, or do you see yourself as an inhuman mentality inhabiting a mortal body? How certain are you of that assessment―do you feel comfortable relating the disparate parts of your higher and lower thoughts, or are you tormented by your new, warped identity?

Who Matters To You?

Are any other geniuses your friends, or just co-workers? Are you married? In love―perhaps unrequited? Do you have a beautiful daughter? (If so, be careful―if you turn evil she'll probably betray you to the hero and let the monster eat you.) Do you have an extended family, or a network of friends that care about you, or are you alone in the world except for your fellow geniuses? Do you have a home, or just a workplace where you spend the night?

What Are You Working On?

What are your long-term mad science plans? Do you have a half-built time machine that you lack the expertise to finish lying around the lab? What sorts of wonders do you want to build, once you master the necessary Axioms? Do you have ambitions in the mortal world―in politics, in finance―or in the weird halls of power created by the Inspired?

Names and Titles:

Geniuses are physically human and most stick with their regular name. If "Jane Conant" is fine for a regular scientist, it's probably fine for a mad one. Others alter their names to reflect their fields of study, often using puns and wordplay. "Jane Chronos" has a nice ring to it, after all. Plenty of geniuses like having "Doctor" or "Professor" in front of their name, and those that don't have a degree figure that being a genius entitles them to one. (Few among the Inspired dispute this point.) Some geniuses prefer entirely fanciful names, with or without a title, like Doctor Tempest, Mr. Syntax, or The Calculatrix. These nicknames are becoming more common with the rise of Internet use among the Inspired. Asking if a mad scientist really has a degree is considered as polite in the Peerage as asking if a mad scientist has a problem with drug addiction.

Example of Character Creation:

Kirsten creates a character for Andrea's upcoming Genius game. The game will revolve around the collaborative inhabiting an old mansion that was used, centuries ago, by a legendary genius, and that is full of orphan wonders and strange creatures. Andrea's requirements are that all characters belong to a foundation and that they must spend at least one point on the Orphan Merit, to represent orphans that they have already befriended or bound to service.

Kirsten wants to play a kind of too-clever-by-half figure, a trickster, someone really good at getting into trouble―a figure that the other characters may hate, though the other players will enjoy because she serves as a springboard for stories. She kicks a few ideas around with the Storyteller and the rest of the troupe, finding someone who will fit in with the rest of the collaborative―the cave spider-obsessed Progenitor who inherited the castle, a nerdy Artificer who wants to catalog the castle's orphans, and an honorable Navigator, last of an ancient line of mechanical knights-errant.

Step One: Concept

The collaborative already has a good spread of abilities, so Kirsten focuses on giving her character an interesting thematic edge. She has always been interested in "weird" mathematics like non-Euclidean geometry, and decides to make that the focus for her character. She asks the Storyteller if there are weird non-Euclidean spaces in the ancient mad scientist's mansion, and the Storyteller says yes, of course there are weird non-Euclidean spaces, what sort of game do you think I'm running here? So she has her concept.

To give her some focus, Kirsten comes up with a name: Sanjula Goud. She pictures a young Indian woman, in the States on a scholarship, enjoying the freedom that can only come from being several continents away from one's family. In her genius persona, she's a dimensional hacker, her wonders wreathed in flowing "Tron-like" streams of alphanumeric data.

Kirsten also takes this time to think ahead, planning the wonders she wants. Sanjula, she decides, should start the chronicle with a holograph generator and an Epikrato device-controller. Kirsten keeps those plans in the back of her mind during future steps, when she selects Axioms and Skills.

Build your Genius Based on What You Want your Genius to Build:

Geniuses are limited both by what Axioms they have selected and what they've actually constructed. This can be a double-whammy for players who don't think ahead. Playing an effective genius requires forethought, lest you litter your character sheet with disused Axioms while lamenting your mad scientist's lack of potency. To avoid this fate, focus first on what you want your character to build right now (not once you have fifty experience points), then select the Axioms that will let you build those wonders, then choose Skills that will help you in construction. Once you have a rough sketch of what you need, you can go through the regular character creation process and select what you want.

And if that fails, kitbash like crazy. Kitbashing is almost always a good idea.

Step Two: Attributes

Keeping with the trickster theme, Kirsten wants Sanjula to be smart. She also wants the young genius to be irascible, difficult, annoying, and vain. To that end, she categorizes Mental Attributes as Primary, Physical Attributes as Secondary, and Social Attributes as Tertiary.

Kirsten wants Sanjula to be both well-educated and deadly-clever―a real thunderbolt of intellect. Her Primary category receives five dots. She assigns two to Wits, two to Intelligence, and one to Resolve. Sanjula is a bit lazy (Resolve 2) and relies mostly on insight and lucky guesses (Wits 3), but she can also brute-force her way through a problem despite not yet having her degree (Intelligence 3).

For her Secondary category, Sanjula has four dots to spread around her Physical attributes. Kirsten imagines Sanjula as small and fast, so she puts three dots into Dexterity (Dexterity 4), and she's pretty tough, so there's one dot to Strength (Strength 2). Kirsten decides that Sanjula has chronic health problems that she tries not to share with anyone else (Stamina 1).

Sanjula suffers in her Tertiary category, Social attributes, where she only has three dots to spread around. Kirsten decides to drop two dots into Manipulation (Manipulation 3): Sanjula is a scheming, treacherous little creature when the mood strikes her. Presence gets one dot (Presence 2): Sanjula is most noticeable when she's getting into trouble. Her Composure remains low (Composure 1): our young dimensional scientist has a gift for flying off the handle and going into hysterics.

Step Three: Skills

Next Kirsten needs to prioritize Skills, much as she prioritized Sanjula's Attributes. Kirsten is getting a better feel for her character: she's imagining a mix of computer science and dimensional study, with a bit of good-old fashioned exploration and investigation thrown in so her character is useful outside the lab.

Getting a bit experimental, Kirsten decides that Sanjula will focus on Physical Skills, giving her eleven dots to spread around there. (The other characters, Kirsten decides, are a bit wimpy, even the knight―he has four dots in Academics and a Heraldry specialization, for Riemann's sake!) Sanjula will need a lot of Mental Skills for building wonders, so that gets secondary priority (seven dots), and Social Skills bring up the rear―four dots there.

Kirsten reasons as follows: Athletics is good for spelunking and getting away from monsters (two dots) and Sanjula has spent her time in her new home fiddling with locked doors: hence Larceny (three dots). She imagines Sanjula as a bit of a fighter with just enough actual training to back it up (two dots in Brawl), and Sanjula has been practicing with the bows and crossbows located at the old archery range inside the hedge maze (two dots in Firearms). One dot each in Drive and Stealth imply that Sanjula is a "natural" for most Physical Skills: were she not so devoted to mad science, she could become a gifted athlete, dancer, or martial artist, but her frail health keeps her from excelling in any one field.

Next, Mental Skills. Kirsten flips ahead and considers what Axioms Sanjula would want. She takes one dot in Academics, one in Computer, one in Crafts, one in Occult, and two in Science, implying a general and unfocused technical education―Sanjula is smart, but she's a dreadfully lazy student. A dot in Investigation explains the young genius' natural curiosity.

Finally, Sanjula gets four dots in Social Skills. Kirsten drops two of them into Subterfuge: Sanjula lies like a rug. The other two go into Expression: Sanjula has an artistic streak.

Step Four: Skill Specialties

Kirsten then picks three Specialties to further define Sanjula's skill set. Looking forward to the Axiom of Metaptropi, she picks Digital Art under Expression, to help her create holographic images. She also takes a Specialization in Small Spaces under Stealth: Sanjula can stuff herself into unlikely places and go unnoticed. Athletics receives the Specialization Clinging: after one too many near-drops, our genius has mastered the art of desperately holding on until help can arrive.

Step Five: The Genius Template

Now Kirsten needs to decide on Sanjula's Inspired abilities: her foundation, her catalyst, and her Axioms.

Despite her impish disposition and love of exploration, Sanjula catalyzed in despair and regret: her mother had always had a history of heart complications, and in Sanjula's freshman year, just as Sanjula was exalting in her newfound freedom, her mother died suddenly. The tragedy hit her like a hammer-blow, but she did not give in to despair; instead, a newfound feeling of mortality afflicted Sanjula, coupled with bitter regret at her harsh parting with her mother and a fear of her own vulnerability: Sanjula, due to her own health problems, does not expect to live long, and that has made her bitter. She hides it, but Sanjula is a Neid. Every day she feels more isolated from the mere mortals whom she used to consider her peers, and every day they hate and fear her more.

Kirsten wants something a bit brighter for a foundation, and selects the Scholastics: Sanjula resents normal people, but she also exalts in her newfound knowledge. She enjoys playing up her role as a living cipher, and delights in mysteries and puzzles of all kinds. She also has a gift for computing and mathematics.

Kirsten can choose any Mental Attribute to increase. She decides to increase Wits by one dot: deviousness and cunning defines Sanjula, more than raw intellect.

Sanjula receives Epikrato as a favored Axiom for being a Neid and may choose between Apokalypsi and Metaptropi; Kirsten chooses the latter because she wants a holo-machine. For Sanjula's third favored Axiom, Kirsten chooses Apokalypsi, because she eventually plans to build dimensional scanning devices.

Sanjula has three dots that she can place in her favored Axioms. She puts one dot in Epikrato and two in Metaptropi.

Sanjula's Inspiration begins at one dot. This gives her a maximum Mania pool of ten points, some of which will be bound into her first wonders.

Step Six: Merits

Kirsten has seven dots in Merits to give to Sanjula―actually six, since one is taken automatically with the one required dot in the Orphan Merit. Kirsten considers that Merit, and actually decides to place two dots in Orphan. For her troubles she gets a sophisticated mechanical hand crossbow that she found in the hedge maze: Katastrofi 2, Size 3, Damage 5, Costs 2 Mania to activate, Dexterity + Firearms + 4 (10 dice), Range 100/200/400 (two hands), with the fault that it is afraid of water and will whine and squeal abominably if near a body of it.

To reflect her restless and exploratory nature, Kirsten gives Sanjula the Direction Sense Merit (one dot). Kirsten considers grabbing an extra dot of Inspiration, but Sanjula is young, so instead she gets two dots in Resources: she works tutoring the children of the idiot-rich a few mansions over. That should give her enough money not to suffer too much when building wonders. Kirsten considers picking up a utility belt for Sanjula, but is instead cajoled into chipping in for part of the combined laboratory. (She places both dots in Security, representing that together the collaborative has re-activated parts of the mansion's security system.) She plans to pick up better kitbashing talents in the future.

Step Seven: Advantages

With all of Sanjula's Traits recorded, it's time for some quick calculation to determine her Advantages. Sanjula has a Resolve of two dots and one dot in Composure, giving her three pitiful Willpower dots. Her Obligation begins at 7, and Kirsten elects not to lower it: Sanjula has a bit of a temper, but she's still a good person at heart―so far. Her Virtue is Charity: Sanjula is generous and open-minded, especially with anyone who solves one of her riddles or impresses her with their cleverness. Sanjula's Vice is Pride: she's smart, but not as smart as she thinks she is.

Sanjula's Size is 5 and her Stamina is 1, giving her six dots of Health. Her Initiative, equal to the total of her Dexterity and Composure, is 5 (she's fast, but without much of a head on her shoulders). Her Defense, equal to the lower of Dexterity or Wits, is 4―a combination of quickness and fast thinking will keep Sanjula from getting smeared in a fight as long as she's careful. Sanjula's Strength + Dexterity + 5 (the species factor for humans) gives her a Speed of 11.

Step Eight: The First Wonders

Sanjula can build wonders from Metaptropi (two dots) or Epikrato (one dot), and she can make up to five attempts.