Editing Genius: The Transgression (section)

==Being a Genius==
Creating a Genius is very much like creating a regular nWoD character: you come up with your stats, note them down and apply the Genius Template. Aside from adding a point to one of your mental stats (can't go above 5), there are of course the game-specific advantages:

===Inspiration===
Genius' power stat. It is your Blood Potency, your Primal Urge: it determines how powerful your Wonders can be and how powerful you personally can be. As usual it runs on a 1-10 scale and determines the power resource ''du jour'', Mania, how much of it you can spend per turn and how inhuman you become the higher your stat is.

Your inhumanity this time around is represented by Jabir: the inability to communicate with mortals about your ideas without sounding batshit insane, or indeed the ability to do non-mad science. This is represented by a -1 at 1+, -2 at 5+ and -3 at 8+ Inspiration.

On top of that there is the state of Unmada. If a Genius overreaches themselves with scientific effort they run the risk of entering the state of Unmada if they fail an Unmada check. During this a Genius loses their free one point of Mania upon waking up. They also extrude a field much like [[Promethean: The Created|the Disquiet of a Promethean]], except it's SCIENCE! In this field things that clash with the Unmada' worldview start to change or vanish while Manes (things created by Mania which may be sentient themselves) that fit within the Unmada's worldview flock to the Genius to serve and fawn over them. It is possible to escape the state through the use of Willpower-powered rolls, but Manes don't like this and will try to stop the Unmada from becoming a regular Genius again.

If an Unmada triggers an Unmada check they are at risk of becoming Illuminated. Illuminated are essentially the classic amoral enemies that the regular characters of a World of Darkness game try to avoid becoming, as the Inspiration has effectively rendered them incapable of seeing other humans as anything but test subjects. Failing this roll allows the Genius to avoid becoming an Illuminated by spending a Willpower point and reducing their Obligation by one: if they hit 0 they automatically become Illuminated. A Dramatic Failure will turn them Illuminated immediately. Success will hold off the change.

===Mania===
The core resource of the game. Mania is that which grants the Genius their ideas and powers their madness. Nobody knows exactly what Mania is, only what it does. Mania can manifest physically in ways of SCIENCE: arcs of lightning between devices, a glow in a test tube, the whine that is paired with the physical strain upon a machine and more. Aside from powering one's Wonders by spending Mania for every use or per day active Mania can be used for the following:

*Enhance Mental Attributes for a +1 bonus per turn. Directors and Navigators can also enhance their Social and Physical Attributes this way, respectively.
*Power mundane technology. Even for all their super-science Geniuses will still need lights, computers, vehicles and so on. By channeling Mania into mundane technology it can function without fuel or power for some amount of time, going from one day (lights in a single room) to 10 minutes (computers, heavy machinery).
*Get a +1 bonus to using mundane technology for one turn. All 10s rolled damage the object for one-quarter of its Structure points, meaning that four 10s will destroy the object in question.
*Understand a piece of technology, both mundane and wondrous items. This allows a Genius to learn what a particular object is for and what it does, but not any hidden functions or who made it. This does not allow the Genius to operate the object if it would require a skill that they do not have, though.
*Dismantle a technological object. By spending a point of Mania and rolling Dexterity + Crafts (Medicine in case of an organic device) a Genius can deal that much Bashing or Lethal damage that ignores durability but not Defense. With a Merit this can turn into a ranged attack.

Mania can be regained in one of six ways:

*Every morning a Genius wakes up with fresh new ideas. This is represented by the regaining of one point of Mania. Unmada however do not gain this point, for this point is spent on their Unmada Field.
*A Genius can engage in research for up to six hours per day. In these six hours they can either think really hard to regain one point of Mania per two hours, or engage with people or objects. They can talk to fellow researchers, read science magazines, tinker a bit or just scribble down notes to regain one point of Mania per hour. A Genius can opt to research for more than six hours per day, but per hour over six studied per day the Genius will have to take an Unmada check with a cumulative -1 penalty past the first.
*Ranting to a prisoner. The movie trope of telling a captured person one's evil plans before trying to kill them is immensely cathartic. This ranting can be done only once a day, takes at least 30 seconds and requires an unwilling prisoner (so no engaging in kinky foreplay for you!). This regenerates a powerful Inspiration + Presence, but comes at the cost of triggering an Unmada check and the requirement of having to kidnap someone, both of which are Obligation transgressions.
*Destroying a valuable object that disagrees with a Genius' particular worldview, which the Lemurians call "editing". Only Unmada can do this, once a day, to regain Inspiration + Resolve in Mania. This is also an Obligation transgression.
*Storing and draining. This can be a Manes, Beholden or a Capacitor (a device that any Genius can build for the specific purpose of holding Mania) that had the Mania transferred into them at an earlier date. This allows the Genius to store away Mania, rebuild their reserves over the course of days to gather a vast pool of Mania.
*Using the Calculus Vampire Merit to draw Genius from other people. If done to someone with Mania of their own this is done on a 1:1 scale based on the number of successes, while those who have not have their Mental skills targeted and drained instead, again on a 1:1 basis. This requires both physical contact and something science-y happening: hypnosis, draining fluids, mind-reading or something similar all qualify. The Technomancer Merit allows the exchange between Mania and the types of energy used by other splats like Vitae, Mana, Glamour and others, as well as converting them to and from the other type of energy. When combining the two it becomes possible to violently drain metanormal entities.  For obvious reasons, most of the above are, except in fairly specific circumstances, Obligation transgressions on some level.

===Obligation===
With great Wonders comes great responsibility. Most Geniuses are aware of their strained link to society, so they focus on that which ties them: their Obligation. Whether this is to improve, protect, heal or punish them is irrelevant: the Obligation is there. Obligation does not allow for rationalization along the lines of "the [[greater good]]": if you violate the standards of normal humanity then you violate your Obligation. Geniuses start at Obligation 7 (as is the rough standard), but it can be bought down to 5 in exchange for 5[[XP]] per decreased point.

With Obligation 8 or higher the Genius is seen as a Paragon. This means that they are seen as a trustworthy authority by mortals and gains +1 on all Social checks when acting from this authority, and efforts to tarnish the Paragon's reputation is met with a -3 penalty. Meanwhile, the less Obligation a Genius has the more stunted their social skills are. At 3 or 4 Obligation they get a -1 penalty to all Social checks and -2 at 1 or 2 Obligation. If a Genius' Obligation hits 0 they become Illuminated and as per WoD tradition are no longer playable. Illuminated do not get the decreased rolls on Social checks, but they are next to incapable of meaningful communication anyway.

Notably, this system has ''some'' congruity to normal human morality, but it is not a perfect 1:1 reflection.  Instead, it is a measure of how the Genius interacts with the world, and how they have held onto themselves vs. letting their Inspiration change them.  For instance, transhumanism or attempts to "improve" oneself, like transforming oneself into a robot dragon or hooking up one's brain to a computer, are fairly serious Obligation transgressions, even if done in a way that doesn't cause others harm, simply because it means deliberately doing something to remove oneself from normal humanity or a human perspective.

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