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| 6 | %% Each trope should get its own first-level bullet |
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| 9 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1635261265086674200 |
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| 12 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/genius2ndedition_3.png]] |
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| 14 | ->''"There must be something. Some purpose. Some meaning. Oh God, there must be some point to all this. I watched my friends die, watched the rockets we made fall from the sky to rot in fields in Ohio or Ukraine. What was this for?"'' |
| 15 | -->-- '''Doctor Jonas Cliver''', Genius |
| 16 | |
| 17 | ''[[https://www.kylemarquis.net/uploads/1/0/8/8/108801255/geniusthetransgressionv1.1.pdf Genius:]] [[https://web.archive.org/web/20221218070445/http://sites.google.com/site/moochava/genius The Transgression]]'' is a fan Gameline for the TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness setting created by the author/artist of webcomic ''Webcomic/TheWaterPhoenixKing'', Kyle Marquis (better known on RPG.Net as Moochava), detailing the adventures of Geniuses, {{Mad Scientist}}s who can build impossible machines (called Wonders) thanks to their connection to the mysterious light of Inspiration. Drawing on every sci-fi and horror cliché out there, Genius [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder justifies the setting]], [[{{Reconstruction}} expands the tropes along their logical progression]] and links its themes to the real world. It will be instantly familiar to any fan of the genre. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | As with any tabletop RPG, ''Genius'' is defined by its characters. Each character is a mad scientist of some stripe, with a [[{{Splat}} Catalyst]], which determines their overall archetype, and a Foundation, which determines their overall approach to mad science. Each of the five Catalysts is defined by certain emotions and mindsets, which in turn cause them to act out various mad scientist stereotypes that can be summed up in one of the stock mad scientist quotes. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | [[folder:The Catalysts]] |
| 22 | * '''Grimm, the Catalyst of Fury''': [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy Defined by anger and a need for vengeance, justice, and/or the need to just plain]] ''[[MaddenIntoMisanthropy vent.]]'' Naturally, they're the best at building [[RayGun weapons]] [[LaserBlade of]] [[WaveMotionGun every]] [[PrecisionGuidedBoomerang kind]]. They're also prone to being irrational and generally flying off the handle. As one might expect, they tend to take a very... [[WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer direct]] [[JustShootHim approach]] to problem-solving. |
| 23 | -->''[[ThisMeansWar "You will pay for what you've done."]]'' |
| 24 | |
| 25 | * '''Hoffnung, the Catalyst of Vision:''' Defined by hope and ambition, Hoffnungs seek to [[WellIntentionedExtremist change the world.]] While this may seem like a good thing on the surface, many of them have a definite [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans consequentialist]] mentality or unusual ideas of what a better world looks like. [[DisguiseTropes Good at]] [[{{Shapeshifting}} change and transformation.]] They also have a marked tendency to be extremely [[{{Pride}} arrogant.]] Since they frequently have more contact with {{Muggles}} than the other Catalysts, [[TaughtByExperience they know better than anyone else what effects mere mortals fiddling with their inventions can have.]] |
| 26 | -->''[[VisionaryVillain "We won't have any of these problems when]] [[EmperorScientist I RULE THE WORLD!"]]'' |
| 27 | |
| 28 | * '''Klagen, the Catalyst of Loss:''' Defined by sorrow, loss and regret at [[MyGreatestFailure some personal tragedy]], Klagens are often called Cassandras for their tendency to see further tragedy in the offing and seek to prevent it. [[CassandraTruth Sadly, having all the credibility of MAD scientists, they often live up to the name.]] They make excellent doctors and repairmen, but perhaps understandably have a tendency towards depression. They also tend to be the [[OnlySaneMan most down to earth and sensible of the Catalysts]] [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder (at least, insofar as the term "sensible" applies to mad scientists)]], and often serve as the voice of reason in the collaboratives they join. This makes it all the more unfortunate that they are the least common Catalyst. |
| 29 | -->''[[IgnoredExpert "No, you fools, you'll doom us all!"]]'' |
| 30 | |
| 31 | * '''Neid, the Catalyst of Banishment:''' Defined by jealousy and bitterness, Neids are driven by the need to "show them all!" When a developing Genius feels [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer rejected by his peers]], when he blames his failures on "the man" keeping him down, that's when a Neid is born. They're good at [[MindManipulation mind control]] and apparently [[WindsOfDestinyChange "psychic"]] [[MindOverMatter powers]]--[[WeatherControlMachine the more "out there" fields of mad science]] in terms of credibility and morality, in other words--and have a frankly unsurprising tendency to be paranoid and untrusting. [[ProperlyParanoid Not without good reason,]] of course; [[ButtMonkey many of them seem like magnets for mockery.]] |
| 32 | -->''"They scoffed at my theories, they laughed at me, {{they called me mad}}... Well, WhosLaughingNow"'' |
| 33 | |
| 34 | * '''Staunen, the Catalyst of Curiosity:''' Defined by curiosity, wonder, and awe, Staunens simply ''love'' learning about the universe. [[CuriosityIsACrapshoot They want to know more, they NEED to know more...]][[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow even about those things that no sane person wants to think about,]] [[GoMadFromTheRevelation much less meet in person.]] As one might expect, they are very good at building scanners and communicators, and prone to fixation and obsession. Of all the Catalysts, they're the most interested in [[OccultDetective occult matters.]] |
| 35 | -->''"ForScience"'' |
| 36 | [[/folder]] |
| 37 | |
| 38 | The five Foundations, the organisations of non-Lemurian Geniuses, represent various branches and kinds of mad science. |
| 39 | |
| 40 | [[folder:The Foundations]] |
| 41 | * '''The International Union of Artifice:''' Known mainly for their Mad Engineering program. The Artificers are the [[PerpetualPoverty poorest]] Foundation, with everyone from crazy old tinkerers to creative punk kids, and malcontents in the middle who've started [[WeirdTradeUnion unionising]] to try and make things easier. |
| 42 | |
| 43 | * '''The Fellowship for Manifest Direction:''' Known mainly for their Mad Psychology program. The Directors are the folks who [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness get together in dark halls]] and plot how they're going to TakeOverTheWorld. They're mostly talk, though they are the most socially capable geniuses, and often assume leadership. |
| 44 | |
| 45 | * '''The Center for Circumferential Navigation:''' Known mainly for their Mad Physics program. The Navigators are fearless daredevils who travel far horizons, fight crime and test the [[SuperPrototype experimental devices]]. The most recent group to join the Peers, originally [[DefectorFromDecadence the underclass of Lemuria]] but they've since earned their respect. |
| 46 | |
| 47 | * '''The Reformed Society of Progenitors:''' Known mainly for their Mad Biology program. The Progenitors, mostly composed of [[EvilutionaryBiologist transhumanists, monster-makers and "creative" surgeons]], are considered a bit crazy even by other Geniuses, and they're recovering from a recent bloody purge when a lot of them turned out to have gone off the deep end. [[TemptingFate But that totally won't happen again.]] |
| 48 | |
| 49 | * '''The College of Scholastic Theory:''' Known mainly for their Mad Philosophy program. The Scholastics are the oldest Foundation and the most introspective; they're more interested in figuring out the nature of Mania and other mysteries of the world. They range from librarians and archivists to {{Adventurer Archaeologist}}s seeking ancient secrets of mad science. |
| 50 | [[/folder]] |
| 51 | |
| 52 | There's also unaffiliated Rogues, Programs that act as minor Foundations (the most prominent being the Asia-based '''Ten Thousand Fans'''), and of course, Lemuria. |
| 53 | |
| 54 | Lemuria's Baramins are, by default, the antagonist faction. They haven't got the memo that yes, they're MAD, and their theories and inventions only work by [[MagicPoweredPseudoscience cheating reality]]. They believe that something went wrong with the human race's scientific and technological development, and they are hellbent on [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong correcting the problem.]] Each Baramin is defined by where they think humanity went wrong and what must be done to correct the issue. [[WellIntentionedExtremist This doesn't always]] [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope work out so well]]. |
| 55 | |
| 56 | [[folder:The Baramins]] |
| 57 | * '''Atomists''' remember old promises of [[IWantMyJetpack futuristic technology that would sweep away all the world's ills]] and they're still pissed they didn't get it. They believe that all problems are inherently solvable with technology alone; [[MoralityChip violence]], [[MasterComputer poor governance]], and [[MatterReplicator poverty]] only need the right invention before they're banished from Earth forever. That some of these applications are vastly unethical or flatly impossible [[TheDeterminator does not seem to deter them,]] and their [[NoSocialSkills utter lack of interest in the human element]] only makes matters worse. |
| 58 | |
| 59 | * '''Etherites''' believe in a grand unified theory of science, one that neatly explains all phenomena and anomalies. Y'know, the sorts of theories scientists had before all that confusing "relativity" and "quantum mechanics." They ignore, explain away, or destroy contradictory evidence, and tend to get [[AxCrazy a bit]] [[VillainousBreakdown twitchy]] if someone argues against their theories. They're also the ones with the {{Ray Gun}}s. |
| 60 | |
| 61 | * '''Mechanists''' believe in a "clockwork universe", one that is ''not'' greater than the sum of its parts and can be reduced to a few simple natural laws. They also take [[YouCantFightFate fatalism]] to its logical conclusion, refusing to take responsibility for their actions; it's the fault of [[FreudianExcuse Their Upbringing]]. Or [[InTheBlood The Genetic Lottery.]] Or [[JustifiedCriminal The Times.]] It's no wonder so many of them end up [[TheSchizophreniaConspiracy schizophrenic.]] |
| 62 | |
| 63 | * '''Phenomenologists''' believe that reality is [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve subjective,]] and constantly "[[IRejectYourReality redefine their reality]]" to suit themselves. At its worst, they could honestly believe that no one ought to mind if they [[MoralEventHorizon rummage around the orphanage]] [[PoweredByAForsakenChild for parts]]. It ''really'' doesn't help matters that their Grant makes it nearly impossible to tell when [[ConsummateLiar they're lying.]] |
| 64 | |
| 65 | * '''Oracles''' believe they know the [[TheFundamentalist moral order of the world,]] and see everything in [[BlackAndWhiteInsanity absolutes,]] with [[KnightTemplar predictable results.]] That their morality is often so outdated as to be [[ValuesDissonance unrecognizable]] ''does not help.'' They are also the nominal leaders of Lemuria, though the Atomists are displacing them. |
| 66 | |
| 67 | * The original human leaders of Lemuria were the '''Dharmists,''' who only answered to their Ophidian overlords. They despised innovation, and had an uncanny talent for manipulating other Inspired. They got wiped out in the Invisible Wars. |
| 68 | |
| 69 | * The newest group of unmada is the '''Numericals''', [[ItsPopularNowItSucks a bunch of disaffected nerds upset]] [[invoked]] [[UsefulNotes/EternalSeptember that the internet became overrun by...]] ''[[{{Muggles}} normal]]'' people. They're not a true Baramin yet, but they regularly form and fade away with the times. |
| 70 | [[/folder]] |
| 71 | |
| 72 | ''Genius'' was made on RPG.net and has slowly grown into a setting as rich and detailed as any White Wolf has created. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20221218070445/http://sites.google.com/site/moochava/genius Accessible through this elegant and finely-crafted link.]]. |
| 73 | |
| 74 | A work-in-progress wiki can be found [[http://transgression.wikia.com/wiki/Genius:_The_Transgression_Wiki here]]. It has [[RecursiveFanfiction fan made content]] [[http://transgression.wikia.com/wiki/AdditonalContent here]] |
| 75 | |
| 76 | A second edition is has been written by a [[https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1324KXmeN8HdOFz4N_zcHeUw_REosiVel?usp=sharing different]] [[https://forum.theonyxpath.com/forum/main-category/main-forum/the-new-world-of-darkness/1429676-genius-the-transgression-2e-sparks-version-1-0 creators]]. It is technically unofficial, but given the game's origins... |
| 77 | ---- |
| 78 | !!This game features the use of: |
| 79 | |
| 80 | * TheAestheticsOfTechnology: A Genius' Aesthetic is a manifestation of how they think super-advanced technology should look. For some Geniuses, their Aesthetic is their idea of RuleOfCool, others use an Aesthetic with a sense of irony, or a [[{{Postmodernism}} postmodernist]] examination of what it means to be mad science, but all are able to switch it out & customise it at will (though they typically stick to only one or two). Unmada can't do this; their belief is that their worldview is The Truth, and so their Aesthetic reflects that, and any attempt at making a Wonder in a different style ranges from somewhat difficult, to outright impossible depending on how different the new aesthetic is from their own. |
| 81 | * AgeOfReptiles: The Lemurians, formally known as the Third Race, were a species of snake people formed from fallacious theories of prehuman precursors and reptilian conspiracies. They ruled the Earth and humanity in days long past, until they accidentally erased themselves from the timeline. |
| 82 | * AlchemyIsMagic: |
| 83 | ** The traditional form of the Alembic aesthetic has Geniuses do Science in what looks like a traditional alchemical laboratory complete with mortar and pestle. Sometimes they add glowy runes and other overtly "magical" elements to this; most Geniuses think that that's kind of silly. |
| 84 | ** The Ten Thousand Fans are a Program (independent Foundation) whose organizing principle is including Chinese alchemy and traditional medicine in their practice, and their Axioms focus on restoration and transformation. They're getting big enough that the Peerage is considering offering them membership and recognizing their alchemy as "mad chemistry." |
| 85 | * AIIsACrapshoot: Inverted. When you die or otherwise abandon your Wonders, [[InstantAIJustAddWater they mutate and turn feral.]] But, if your KarmaMeter was high and the Wonder was intelligent, then there is a significant chance it will develop its own KarmaMeter and become a RobotBuddy. |
| 86 | * AllTheoriesAreTrue: You can use any to build [[AppliedPhlebotinum Wonders]]. [[AncientConspiracy Lemuria]] believes that the trope ''[[WrongGenreSavvy is]]'' [[WrongGenreSavvy actually]] '''[[WrongGenreSavvy true]]''' Meanwhile, many Lemurians and most Peers think this trope is just a trick. |
| 87 | ** The Hermetic Order of the 28 Spheres especially focuses on the fact that All Theories Are False, since Geniuses don't do real science, and all their theories (as long as they're self-consistent) work equally well as frameworks for Maniacal devices. Therefore, it honestly doesn't matter ''what'' theory you base your Wonders on, because everything works. They have a lot of fun with this while simultaneously trolling more serious-minded Geniuses. Most of their raison d'etre focuses around subverting expectations and testing the limits of what Mania considers a "workable theory". |
| 88 | ** [[ScienceMarchesOn Paradigm shifts]] can also lead to the creation of [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Manes]] or even [[AnotherDimension Bardos]], thus making them ''somewhat'' real retroactively. |
| 89 | * AlwaysChaoticEvil: SubvertedTrope. While the snake-men of Lemuria are ([[TimeTravelTenseTrouble currently]]) extinct, and while their evil conspiracy was... well, evil, one possible future the players can travel to sees them more-or-less peacefully integrated among modern humanity. Even in the bad old days, part of their motivation was a simple desire to return to their non-existant home. |
| 90 | * AncientConspiracy: The Lemurians ''used'' to be this, but now, they're more or less a VestigialEmpire. |
| 91 | * AndIMustScream: Mechanists either deny free will or believe they are being controlled by an outside force. Unfortunately for them they're {{Reality Warper}}s. |
| 92 | %%** Being in the presence of a particularly potent Clockstopper is this for any of the Inspired. |
| 93 | * AnimalMotifs: Lemuria is often described in terms of a serpent or dragon. Given the organization's origins, this shouldn't come as a surprise. |
| 94 | %%* AnotherDimension: A good handful of Bardos work like this. |
| 95 | * AnthropomorphicPersonification: Manes are commonly personifications of ideas that used to be widely believed, most commonly [[ScienceMarchesOn disproved scientific theories]]. Clockstoppers are not actually personifications, but no one would blame you if you thought they were walking avatars of AntiIntellectualism. |
| 96 | * AntiMagic: Anti Super-Science: The underlying principle behind the [[NighInvulnerable Natural Body]] ability of [[WalkingTechbane Clockstoppers.]] It's also effective against regular science. |
| 97 | * AntiVillain: The nicer Lemurians. |
| 98 | * AppliedPhlebotinum: Lots of it, some of which you make. This is a game about ''mad scientists'' after all. |
| 99 | * AppropriatedAppellation: "Pod People" was originally derogatory slang for EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture. Pod People themselves started using it later. |
| 100 | * AristocratsAreEvil: Lemurians like to invoke this trope when dealing with the Peerage, calling it [[TheEmpire The Invisible Empire]] (it's worth noting that the later uses "peerage" in reference to the academic sense[[note]]Which uses the broader definition of the word "someone's equals", as in "peer review", rather than in the sense of "hereditary title".[[/note]]. |
| 101 | * ArtisticLicensePaleontology: |
| 102 | ** In the [[HollowWorld Hollow Earth,]] you can find every single mistake of zoology ever made, [[AnachronismStew all living side by side.]] |
| 103 | ** [[AndZoidberg And]] [[StupidJetpackHitler Nazis]]. Though they may count too, what with their [[ArtisticLicenseBiology race theories]]. |
| 104 | ** And if you're really unlucky, [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Nazi Dinosaurs]]. |
| 105 | * AwesomeMcCoolname: Some Geniuses take on new names. After all, if you can build a weather-control machine out of an air conditioner and an iPod, don't you have the right to call yourself Professor Atmospherium? |
| 106 | * BadAssSanta: Well, "badass" in the sense that he's the most powerful Mane that ever lived. |
| 107 | * BatDeduction: In the second edition this is one of the benefits of Mania, a genius can deduce information from something completely unrelated. |
| 108 | * TheBeautifulElite: The Nazis are all very attractive. [[OffingTheOffspring At least, those that reach adulthood.]] To quote the character description for the sample Ubermenschen Genius: |
| 109 | -->''Like all Ubermenschen who are not exterminated before adulthood, [[TheBaroness Ilsa Hauser]] is an excellent physical specimen in the narrow mold of the Nazi ideal: tall, blond, athletic, and pale.'' |
| 110 | * BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Used, but downplayed. |
| 111 | ** The game identifies UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla, Robert Hooke and Creator/LeonardoDaVinci as famous Geniuses from history. It is also possible that that there were other lonesomes who managed to work in mundane science. |
| 112 | ** Not every famous scientist, scholar, or inventor was a genius, the game emphasises. A good trait of a scientist is being able to convey complicated ideas simply and clearly. Geniuses are literally incapable of this thanks to [[TechnoBabble Jabir.]] |
| 113 | ** A very specific {{Aversion}} outlined in the first edition book was everyone involved in the Manhattan Project, {{UsefulNotes/Robert Oppenheimer}} most of all. Both the Peerage and the Lemurians kept strict tabs on the group, not wanting to risk the Havoc that might be wrought by a Genius's take on the world's first prototype nuclear weapon. |
| 114 | * BeingEvilSucks: As is standard for the World of Darkness, falling down the KarmaMeter screws with a Genius. The less Obligation they have, the less of what's in there is really ''them'', as they're taken over by their own brilliance. Their social skills are stunted, which means difficulty keeping the resources necessary for that MadScience flowing, and if it goes down too far, they become Illuminated, incapable of interacting with others or making moral decisions. At that point, most other geniuses will hunt them down before they can become a real threat to everyone else. |
| 115 | * BioPunk: There's actually a couple different Aesthetics that do this. Black Plastic is the kind evolved from {{Cyberpunk}}, using an organic black rubber look even on non-organic stuff; it's designed to be creepy and Gigeresque, and some Geniuses meld it with Trash Praxis to make something that looks like anime-style BodyHorror. Home Grown is a more ecological Aesthetic, originally for underwater-focused Geniuses, with warm bioluminescence and plants everywhere. It has elements of {{Solarpunk}}, and combining it with Alembic was a brief fad that's now considered extremely dorky. |
| 116 | * BizarreAlienBiology: One of many [[EpilepticTrees possible]] [[TechnoBabble explanations]] for Havoc; things associated with mad science typically work in ways that [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow make very little sense]] to anyone who isn't [[strike: insane]] [[PowerBornOfMadness a Genius.]] |
| 117 | * BlackAndGrayMorality: The struggle between Lemuria and the Peerage, with both sides arguably becoming [[GrayAndGreyMorality grayer]] over the years from [[BlackAndWhiteMorality opposite directions]]. Old Lemuria was an evil organization ruled by xenophobic snake-people dedicated to enslaving the human race, and the Peerage was a RagtagBunchOfMisfits sworn to oppose them. However, even the Peerage was not all sweetness and light; plenty of Peers fell (and still fall) into the worst stereotype of the callous, arrogant MadScientist primarily concerned with self-glorification and breaking the rules [[ForScience just because they can]]. New Lemuria has somewhat more noble ideals, and a genuine desire to see humanity "set on the right track". The problem with that is that all Lemurians are totally crazy. The modern Peerage has a much more humanistic approach to mad science, but some Peers still show a worrying lack of concern for mere mortals. Interestingly, Grey morality was a deliberate choice for the Peerage, partly to avoid the risk of going [[KnightTemplar too far]] and partly to keep membership open to everyone. As far as the Peerage is concerned, it's better that the morally grey end up Peers where everyone's watching out for everyone's mental health than to end up in Lemuria or isolated and begin descending into madness. |
| 118 | * BlackAndWhiteInsanity: The Oracles' [[GangOfHats hat]]. |
| 119 | * BlackBox: Wonders to anyone not a Genius, and Inspiration itself. Centuries of research, and Geniuses still don't know much at all about what makes them the way they are. |
| 120 | * BlessedWithSuck: Not as overt as the rest of the ''[[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness nWoD]]'', but still prevalent. Yes, Geniuses can create miraculous gadgets, but they are mad, and nothing they make is completely real. Inspiration is arguably the worst thing that could happen to a dedicated scientist. |
| 121 | ** That, and there's the possibility of being eaten by monsters born of insanity, being back-stabbed by psychotic rivals, being driven from civilization by quasi-Luddite fanatics, ''[[AndThenJohnWasAZombie becoming]]'' [[TheUnfettered monsters]] [[IRejectYourReality born of insanity]]... |
| 122 | * BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Illuminated are hopelessly insane, and their motives are incomprehensible. Many of them don't even remember how morality ''works.'' |
| 123 | * BoringButPractical: Prostasia, Axiom of Protection. Sounds simplistic and uninteresting? When the horrible tentacle monsters try to bite your face off, you will be glad you spent the dots here. When your malevolent rivals try to MindRape you, you will be glad you spent the dots here. When the feds try to hack into your KillSat, you will be glad you spent the dots here. |
| 124 | ** And if you want to build a submarine that can survive deep ocean pressure or a spaceship that's protected from vacuum and cosmic radiation, or anything at all that's invisible to radar, even ''one dot'' of Prostasia will be enough. It's not the sexiest axiom, but you'll miss it when it's gone. |
| 125 | ** Can be subverted with a little creativity on the player's part. Nothing prevents you from saying your Prostasia body armor uses ancient Egyptian laser beams to shoot down incoming bullets. |
| 126 | * BrownNote: Witnessing mad science can turn a normal person into [[TheIgor a Beholden]] or a full-fledged Genius. One of the reasons for TheMasquerade is because, well, [[PerpetualPoverty otherwise that's just more labs to feed]]. |
| 127 | ** Worth mention is that being Beholden is a lot like being a [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem Ghoul,]] complete with attendant psychological problems -- you literally [[YesMan no longer have a worldview of your own.]] Failing to find a master means a Beholden could go catatonic and die within ''weeks.'' |
| 128 | * BumblingSidekick: A sad fact of life for some Beholden. |
| 129 | * CameBackWrong: Unless you are very, very lucky, any attempt raising the dead brings them back evil and insane. If you ''really'' screw up you might get a batch of [[TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated Pandorans]]. On the other hand, you can deliberately attempt to bring a corpse back as a Promethean or a [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem vampire]]. |
| 130 | ** 'Course, you still run the risk of really pissing off whoever you brought back. Fun Fact: They might not be HAPPY that they [[TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated are a walking wasteland]], and depending on how you did it, it may be impossible for them to interact with normal humans due to the possibility of Havoc (if they are being kept alive by Wonders, at least) |
| 131 | * CanisLatinicus: Even [[strike:Genii]] Geniuses don't always get their Latin right. |
| 132 | * CantHaveSexEver: Manes and biological Wonders can't be [[UnusualEuphemism fiddled with]] by [[{{Muggles}} mortals]] without risking Havoc. [[ParanoiaFuel And some of those Manes look and act just like normal people...]] |
| 133 | * CardCarryingVillain: |
| 134 | ** Some Illuminated tend to be a bit ''fanciful'' in their self-concepts -- you get a fair number of them thinking they're [[{{Satan}} the Devil.]] That is, if they haven't gone to the ''[[AGodAmI other]]'' [[GodIsEvil extreme.]] |
| 135 | ** The [[StupidJetpackHitler Thule Society]] are one-dimensional caricatures of evil, and they build Atrocity Halls for the sake of torturing prisoners for Mania. |
| 136 | * CentralTheme: The nature of futility (especially the inability for anyone to control or direct culture/humanity). Despite a Genius' potentially world changing technology and intellect, at the end of the day they really can't do anything to majorly affect the world at large. |
| 137 | * CharacterDevelopment: Integrated into the game in a very interesting way. In order to increase their Inspiration, a Genius must undertake a Thesis, a deeply personal analysis of their thoughts, their actions, and their character in general, combined with a personal mission that defines their goals and personality. In this way, the personality of a PC Genius develops (or is at least defined) as they increase in power. |
| 138 | ** Also subverted, in that "more defined" often means "more streamlined" for a Genius. A high-Inspiration Genius becomes enormously powerful, but plenty fall into [[{{Flanderization}} archetypes and rote behaviour]]. |
| 139 | * CityOfAdventure: UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}}, probably because it's got [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle#Post-war_years:_aircraft_and_software a crapload of technological companies.]][[labelnote:*]][[BoringButPractical And all the other big cities were claimed by the real WoD]]. As of 2014, Seattle has also become the setting of official [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness nWoD]] gameline [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/TabletopGame/DemonTheDescent Demon: The Descent]].[[/labelnote]] Despite being a pretty nice place for mortals, the Inspired population of the city is rather dangerous and there're the remnants of a dangerous Bardo just beneath the surface, with Lemurians hopelessly trying to revive it. |
| 140 | * CityOfSpies: The 2nd edition has the Bardo of Cantafa, which is built around the theme. |
| 141 | * ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Inverted. A [[ScienceMarchesOn sudden paradigm shift in the Consensus]] causes a Maniac Storm, usually enough to spawn a [[AnotherDimension Bardo]] or at least a new type of [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Mane]] or three, but straightforward belief doesn't do anything in and of itself. Sometimes the Geniuses can see them coming; the Martian Empire, for example, despite causing massive Inspired casualties in their initial invasion, was something many Geniuses had been preparing for for years, which is why we're not all speaking... whatever language it is Martians speak. This same bizarre existence-due-to-not-being-able-to-exist also means that Manes are subject to [[GoneHorriblyWrong Havoc]] just like Wonders, and are affected in [[CriticalExistenceFailure very]] [[AxCrazy similar]] ways. Also averted with how wonders work. Ultimately it doesn't matter at all if a Genius believes his own theories or not. |
| 142 | * ClarkesThirdLaw: [[DefiedTrope Defied]] by the Science is Science law; Wonders function according to some kind of laws of physics, and can't be just magicked into being. That said, the Hermetic Order of the 28 Spheres goes out of its way to abuse this rule in its own {{postmodern}} way, by creating theories based on the principles of hermetic magic as a method of [[PlayingWithATrope playing with the entire idea of mad science]]. |
| 143 | * ClockPunk: |
| 144 | ** The Elders of the Third Law, a fellowship tracing its roots to Leonardo Da Vinci, prefer to use clockwork wonders. They tend to be [[NewTechnologyIsEvil pessimistic about more newfangled contraptions]], e.g. cybernetics, nanotechnology, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking steam.]] |
| 145 | ** The Baroque Aesthetic combines this with 17th-18th century rococo fashions. An InUniverse ForgottenTrope that was most common among Victorian Geniuses, for whom it had much of the same retro appeal that SteamPunk has today. |
| 146 | * ClockRoaches: "Time-wasps" are mentioned in passing. |
| 147 | * CloudCuckoolander: Staunens can be like this. As the Neids put it, "The cosmos has its boot on your throat, and you're admiring the shoelaces." |
| 148 | %%* LesCollaborateurs: The human Geniuses who swore fealty to the Ophidian masters of Lemuria. |
| 149 | %%* ComesGreatInsanity: [[MadScientist Comes with the territory.]] |
| 150 | * ComesGreatResponsibility: Your [[KarmaMeter Morality stat]] is called [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Obligation.]] |
| 151 | * ConspiracyKitchenSink: Genius adds Lemuria and the peerage to the [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness nWoD's]] already overcrowded shadows. |
| 152 | * ConspiracyTheorist: The Inspired are very good at seeing connections. This is equally true for connections that [[LogicalFallacies do not exist.]] Granted there are [[ConspiracyKitchenSink dozens of conspiracies in the World of Darkness.]] |
| 153 | * ConsummateLiar: Phenomenologists. Of the "Just Too Alien" sort. No matter how obviously false, a Phenomenologist genuinely believes whatever he's saying. Until he decides that's boring and decides to rewrite his entire philosophy. |
| 154 | %%* CorruptCop: A growing problem in the TimePolice. |
| 155 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: Villanous Directors can fall into this. |
| 156 | %%* CrazyPrepared: A merit in second edition. |
| 157 | * CreatingLifeIsAwesome: Creating life is considered perfectly acceptable. Creating intelligent life is considered a modest Transgression more because it's socially frowned upon than because it's automatically unethical. Mad Scientists tend to do both anyway. |
| 158 | * CreatingLifeIsBad: Very easy to do. And very easy to get a Transgression with. |
| 159 | * CreativeSterility: A Clockstopper is a mortal with no ''[[EmptyShell spark.]]'' They're often aggressive and their mere presence can destroy the products of creativity and intelligence. Some of them can actually render it near impossible to ''think.'' [[LogicalFallacies Do not expect a rational argument from them.]] |
| 160 | * CriticalPsychoanalysisFailure: What can happen if a mortal tries to analyze a Genius. In the opening fiction, [[spoiler: a psychoanalyst working with a Genius actually ''becomes'' a Genius from contact with him. She later becomes an Illuminated and ends up starving to death as she tries to unravel the secret to immortality. It should be mentioned that said psychoanalyst apparently received Inspired-like thoughts before [[RefusalOfTheCall pushing them away]], so she arguably had [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive one foot in the door already]].]] |
| 161 | * CrypticBackgroundReference: Tons of them. |
| 162 | * CrystalSpiresAndTogas: One of the common Aesthetics Geniuses use. Plenty of them use it ironically; using it sincerely is associated with Lemuria and looks a bit skeevy among the Peerage. It's also popular in the Perfected Vision Institute, where it's linked with PsychicPowers. |
| 163 | * CrystalDragonJesus: Professor Partridge Crown believes he's the Self-Eating Fire and that his only real enemy is the Metal Peacock God. |
| 164 | * TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Geniuses are insane, but they also tend to be genuinely more intelligent than mere mortals; mechanically, this translates into an extra dot in a mental attribute. Simply put, their reasoning might be [[InsaneTrollLogic incomprehensible]], [[BatDeduction but they can still come up with the right answers]]. |
| 165 | * CutLexLuthorACheck: Pretty hard, partly due to the inherently magical nature of Inspired technology, which results in massive and horrible failure whenever {{Muggles}} so much as handle them. Mostly because a lot of geniuses are too insane to have a rational business plan. |
| 166 | ** The easiest way to do it would be launching satellites into orbit. And that's not even counting the kind of shenanigans someone with rank-5 Apokalypsi can do. |
| 167 | ** Zigzagged in the second edition with the Wollen catalyst. Mides are motivated by a desire for something like, say, money and value playing by the rules, but how that manifests depends on the Mides in question, one could be a HonestCorporateExecutive, another could be a GentlemanThief FairPlayVillain. |
| 168 | * CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Nothing about the technology itself, but permanently altering your physical form is a Transgression that can ding your [[KarmaMeter Obligation]] quite severely if the changes are significant enough; nothing distances you from humanity quite like [[ScaledUp turning yourself into a giant mechanical dragon.]] |
| 169 | %%* CyberPunk: An old-fashioned Aesthetic. |
| 170 | %%* {{Cyberspace}}: The Grid exists ''[[YourMindMakesItReal because of this trope]]''. |
| 171 | * DaChief: Mister Shark ''is'' this trope, despite being a Maori navigator from the 17th century. He runs the TimePolice responsible for the 16th through 21st centuries mostly on force of personality and is an extremely powerful Genius in his own right. And he has a time-travelling ''[[ShoePhone canoe]]''. |
| 172 | %%* DarkMessiah: Villainous Hoffnungs can be this. |
| 173 | * DangerousForbiddenTechnique: |
| 174 | ** Deep Inspiration allows you to use Mania that you don't have. [[PowerAtAPrice Unfortunately,]] this means your Inspiration is writing checks your mind can't cash; the more Mania you spend, the greater the penalty to the resulting [[HeroicRROD Unmada check.]] Worse still, Unmada who use Deep Inspiration risk becoming [[TheUnfettered Illuminated]]. |
| 175 | ** To a lesser extent diatribes (expounding on your worldview to a prisoner, which can lead to you forgetting that it's untrue and insane) and "editing" (destroying evidence that contradicts your untrue and insane worldview). |
| 176 | * DeliberateValuesDissonance: Crops up now and then. |
| 177 | * DespairEventHorizon: A possible form of Breakthrough. It won't necessarily create a Klagen, though. |
| 178 | * DiscreditedTrope: InUniverse, even most ''Lemurians'' think that phrenology[[note]]the idea that you can determine someone's psychological traits by examining their skull structure[[/note]] is racist tripe. |
| 179 | * DoctorsDisgracefulDemotion: Some [[MadScientist Genius]] have this trope in their background. Indeed, some were so angry at losing their license or their patients that it was their Catalyst. |
| 180 | * TheDragon: Name-checked in the storytelling section, which uses the term to describe the villain's "large, dangerous, entirely physical adversary that may or may not be a giant fire-breathing lizard". |
| 181 | * {{Dystopia}}: |
| 182 | ** Tsoska, every socialist and Communist dystopian idea rolled into one grey [[strike: uninspiring]] [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour doubleplusungood]] empire. Ironically, it's one of the safer Bardos to visit; if one's papers are in order and they act right, the government treats a visiting Genius like a foreign dignitary. Its capitalist counterpart, Voltt City, is mentioned in passing. |
| 183 | ** The Seattle Of Tomorrow was a fascist police state governed by all seeing technology. The Atomists loved it. |
| 184 | * EldritchAbomination: |
| 185 | ** The Cold Ones that exist after the heat death of the universe, who would ''really'' like to get back into time to experience things like "energy" and "movement". |
| 186 | ** Also an [[EpilepticTrees in-universe theory]] about the nature of Inspiration. Especially since some of the [[TheUnfettered Illuminated]] see [[AGodAmI themselves]] as {{Eldritch Abomination}}s in [[HumanoidAbomination human form]]. Then again, Illuminated are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil all insane]]. |
| 187 | ** While you are out time-traveling, watch how far into the future you go or you might bump into a trans-human Genius, whose [[PhysicalGod abilities,]] [[BlueAndOrangeMorality behavior,]] and [[FisherKing power within their realm]] seem [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost disturbingly familiar]]. |
| 188 | * EldritchLocation: Bardos, places that it has been shown don't/can't exist. You can visit them. |
| 189 | * EmptyShell: Clockstoppers, empty beings that run on spite and lash out at anything born of intelligence or creativity. |
| 190 | * EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture: The "Pod People" aesthetic, which is currently the "in" thing with Directors and gets crapped on by Steampunkers. According to an editorial cartoon drawn by a critic of the style, a "Standard Pod People Death Ray" is an [=iPod=] with its controls replaced by a single large button marked "KILL." |
| 191 | * EvilLuddite: The Clockstoppers, some of them can also brainwash normal humans into acting this way. |
| 192 | * EvilutionaryBiologist: The reason the rest of the Peerage is leery of the Progenitors. A valid concern, [[MaddenIntoMisanthropy considering]] [[IRejectYourReality what became]] of the preceding Foundation. |
| 193 | * ExtraStrengthMasquerade: This trope isn't here because mortals can't see mad science; they can. It's here because seeing mad science [[BrownNote often turns mortals into]] more {{Mad Scientist}}s or [[TheIgor assistants thereof]], who have a vested interest in not going public and creating more rivals. [[PerpetualPoverty funding is hard to come by, after all]]. |
| 194 | ** Furthermore, if a mortal isn't turned to a rival or thrall, they cannot help but cause wonders to break down or run amok merely by touching them. Especially if a real scientist gets ahold of them; nothing destroys Wonders like having someone that can understand precisely why it can't possibly work witness it. |
| 195 | ** Most important of all: A typical Genius theory will sound, to any non-Genius, like the ravings of a delusional madman. You end up looking like the guy behind Time Cube or magnetic Immortality Rings, so you can't just show your stuff on Youtube where nobody will dick with it. You'll still look like a lunatic. |
| 196 | *** Time Cube is In-Universe a Genius-written Thesis on how to exploit time zones for use of Time Travel, the Navigator's 'organon' (i.e. manual) ''Introduction to Skafoi''. Problem is that to us it's the ravings of a mad man. |
| 197 | * ExplosiveInstrumentation: A very likely possibility if you let a [[{{Muggles}} mere mortal]] start fiddling with your control panels. |
| 198 | * ExplosiveOverclocking: A Genius can supercharge any piece of technology, Wonder or not, but doing so can result in heavy damage or even destroy it. |
| 199 | ** Worth noting is that the game's definition of "technology" means you can do this with ''[[WithAHerring a stick;]]'' everything altered by a human to serve a purpose counts as "technology". |
| 200 | * FasterThanLightTravel: Implementors of Skafoi can build FTL starships. |
| 201 | * TheFatalist: Mechanists, who accept their triumphs, defeats and atrocities as predestined. |
| 202 | * TheFettered: Paragons, Geniuses with [[KarmaMeter Obligation 7+]]. The 1.1 ScienceHero merit only improves the benefits. |
| 203 | * FictionalDocument: The Organons of the Foundations, the magazines (''Alloy Blend, Inspiration''), and [[AllPsychologyIsFreudian FREUDIAC's]] ''A Guide to the Psychology of the Exceptionally Gifted'', to name a few. |
| 204 | * FightingFromTheInside: Victims of Epikrato mind control can spend [[HeroicWillpower Willpower]] to do this. |
| 205 | * FlameWar: Popular Genius websites have a tendency to sink to this level -- just the way they like it. |
| 206 | * FlatEarthAtheist: This is actually a potential theory to use for a Genius' mad science or a Bardo, since the World of Darkness is a world of spirits and vampires (not to mention Geniuses), so a purely material universe makes as little sense as the Luminiferous Ether. Thus, paradoxically, rejection of supernaturalism is itself supernaturalism. |
| 207 | * ForScience: Much of the time, it's more like some sort of anti-science, largely the point of these "Geniuses". |
| 208 | * FromBadToWorse: Geniuses are mad. They can [[IRejectYourReality go madder]]. |
| 209 | * TheFundamentalist: Oracles and Etherites, with morality and their pet mad-scientific theories, respectively. |
| 210 | %%** And occasionaly Clockstoppers. |
| 211 | %%* GadgeteerGenius: The whole point, really. |
| 212 | * GenreBlindness: Part of the problem with Unmada in general is that they refuse to believe they're mad, or that their Wonders aren't proper technology. |
| 213 | * GentlemanAndAScholar: Jabir makes playing this kind of character slightly difficult, but some social skills (particularly expression) are extremely useful for a Genius to have. |
| 214 | * GirlfriendInCanada: A type of Mane in second edition. |
| 215 | * AGodAmI: Some Illuminated think of themselves this way. Given [[TheUnfettered what they]] [[RealityWarper are]], that may not be entirely inaccurate. |
| 216 | * GoodPowersBadPeople: [[StupidJetpackHitler Thulian Revanchists]] [[MadDoctor favor Exelixi]]. So did the [[MadDoctor Demiurges]]. |
| 217 | * GoMadFromTheRevelation: A commonplace form of Breakthrough. |
| 218 | * GoneHorriblyWrong: All over the place. Things can (and have) GoneHorriblyWrong in more ways than can be listed. |
| 219 | ** A number of things have also GoneHorriblyRight. Geniuses can have rather skewed values. |
| 220 | * GratuitousForeignLanguage: Several, there's even a section explaining the history of Inspired terminology. For instance, the Inspired have been calling themselves Geniuses since [[GeniusBonus Ancient Rome]]. |
| 221 | ** GratuitousGerman: The German terminology is largely correct, with only 3-4 minor mistakes and typos. ("Klage''n''" and "''Arch''weltanscha''a''ung" are supposed to be "Klage", "lament" and "'''Erz'''weltanscha'''u'''ung", "arch-world-view"; also, "Grimm" sounds somewhat archaic and [[LargeHam hammy]] to modern German speakers, unlike "Zorn". |
| 222 | ** "Katastrofi" and "Apokalypsi" are originally loan words, but the game uses Finnish variations. |
| 223 | * GratuitousLatin: If a Lemurian actually uses proper Latin, ''run''. They're either very old or very obsessive; either way, that spells trouble. |
| 224 | * HeroicBSOD: Channeling too much Mania at one time or withdrawing into yourself can overload your Inspiration, transforming you into a particularly dangerous RealityWarper called an Unmada. You're still playable (if not entirely sane), but [[PowerIncontinence your Inspiration warps reality around you]] [[InsufferableGenius to prove your worldview correct.]] These are ''mad'' scientists. Unmada reality warping doesn't shield them from moral arguments, but they still show a strong tendency towards "dangerous and unstable". And if they fail another check while Unmada, they completely snap and become [[TheUnfettered Illuminated]]. |
| 225 | * HeroicRROD: Channeling too much Mania at one time or withdrawing into yourself can overload your Inspiration, transforming you into a particularly dangerous RealityWarper called an Unmada. You're still playable (if not entirely sane), but [[PowerIncontinence your Inspiration warps reality around you]] [[InsufferableGenius to prove your worldview correct.]] These are ''mad'' scientists. Unmada reality warping doesn't shield them from moral arguments, but they still show a strong tendency towards "dangerous and unstable". And if they fail another check while Unmada, they completely snap and become [[TheUnfettered Illuminated]]. |
| 226 | * HeroWithBadPublicity: Subverted. Paragons (Geniuses with the KarmaMeter at 7 or above) naturally project an aura of friendliness and hospitality, leading to an unconscious CharmPerson effect. |
| 227 | * HistoricalHeroUpgrade: Creator/LeonardoDaVinci defeated his EvilTwin, and an organization was founded in his honor. |
| 228 | * HistoricalVillainUpgrade: UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla was a member of the EvilCounterpart organization. |
| 229 | * HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct: Played With. You can kill Hitler, but it won't do anything (except get the TimePolice mad at you.) Hitler has been killed six times over, so the setting's TimePolice started [[YouClonedHitler cloning him]]. Not that they like it, mind you. There's an office pool if the next guy to clone Hitler [[DrivenToSuicide kills himself out of guilt]]. Heck, if you head back to 1921 Hamburg, you can get a tour of the cloning facility. |
| 230 | ** [[InSpiteOfANail And Hitler wasn't the original German dictator behind WWII, the time police just decided cloning was going be easier than finding replacements.]] |
| 231 | * HollowWorld: The Hollow Earth pocket reality. |
| 232 | * HollywoodScience: Giving Mania to a wonder requires "Doing Science To It," characterized by knob flipping, switch turning, bolt tightening, and other methods of "Science." Transferring Mania from a wonder to a character requires "Doing Analysis," which involves staring at readouts from a machine whilst muttering to yourself, measuring with slide rules or calipers whilst muttering to yourself, or writing down data you've apparently gathered whilst [[RunningGag muttering to yourself.]] |
| 233 | * HomemadeInventions: The Dumpster Diver Merit makes this very easy. |
| 234 | * HumanitysWake: In the Solar Wastelands time period, 100 million years after the modern era, humanity is long-dead but the Children of Mankind live on in a PlanetaryRomance setting, secretly watched over by [[MadGod insane]] [[DeusEstMachina machine intellects]] left over from the Metahuman Empire. In later periods, these races and some newborn ones make it off Earth again and form another interstellar civilization. |
| 235 | * HumanPopsicle: Orphan Wonders can go into stasis, which ''dramatically'' reduces their Mania requirements; normally they require one point per day to sustain themselves. In stasis, this stretches to one point per ''year.'' |
| 236 | * HumanResources: [[CreatingLife Making living things]] generally needs ''material''; the sourcebook states that [[KickTheDog grinding up stray cats]] is one way to do it. |
| 237 | * HumanoidAbomination: |
| 238 | ** How Mages see Geniuses, how Geniuses see powerful Clockstoppers, and how everyone sees the Illuminated (which usually includes themselves). |
| 239 | ** The residents of the Metahuman Empire, one million years into the future. They look like humans, but are Geniuses of (by modern standards) limitless power with no connection to human morality. |
| 240 | * HyperspaceArsenal: Masters of Metaptropi can make Wonders that are BiggerOnTheInside. |
| 241 | * IDidWhatIHadToDo: It's implicit that great atrocities were committed by both sides during the Invisible Wars. Nevertheless, most Peers believe they acted out of necessity. |
| 242 | --> Those peers old enough to remember those days... whose memories still echo with the phantasms of a forgotten timeline... often have not forgiven themselves for what they did in those bloody weeks that marked the end of Lemuria. But few have apologized. |
| 243 | * TheIgor: Beholden, otherwise ordinary people who see they world exactly as the Genius sees it and thus can handle Wonders without wrecking them, fill this role. In fact, "Igor" is a slang term for a Beholden. |
| 244 | * IHateYouVampireDad: Not unheard of. The Peerage (and Lemuria, for that matter) encourages Geniuses to take responsibility for the education of anyone who became Inspired as a result of seeing their Wonders. But not everyone wants to be a Genius, particularly if they had aspirations to an actual career in science. [[JerkassWoobie Argentine St. Croix]], for example, killed the man responsible for her Breakthrough almost immediately after going mad. |
| 245 | ** Zig-zagged with [[spoiler: Doctor Ibanez.]] At first she's excited by the new ideas, and then she's afraid of letting some alien intelligence implant insane thoughts in her head. But when the time comes she says "I want this." Later her mentor reveals he [[spoiler:provoked her Breakthrough solely to betray her and use her inventions to become immortal.]] She doesn't seem that angry about this, and they have a pleasant conversation until he starves to death and [[spoiler: she cuts open his head to put his brain in a machine.]] Eventually, she [[spoiler: becomes an Illuminated and starves to death]] so arguably becoming a mad scientist was bad for her. |
| 246 | * InsufferableGenius: Probably a solid majority of Inspired. A large part of Genius culture is a way for insufferable geniuses to fulfill their human need for socialization. |
| 247 | * IntrinsicVow: Beholden get a chance to break free of their state if they're ordered to perform an action way lower on the KarmaMeter than they usually are. Morality is also the only views Beholden can hold on their own, even if they aren't able to explain why they feel that way. |
| 248 | * IWantMyJetpack: |
| 249 | ** We were promised a future of wonderful technology that would end all suffering. The Atomists are pissed off about not getting it. |
| 250 | ** Then there's the sample city of Seattle, where the Lemurians tried to bring a Bardo based on ''The World of Tomorrow!'' into reality. It ended in rust, explosions, and tears, while the {{Muggles}} didn't notice- having too much fun at the World's Fair. |
| 251 | * InstantAIJustAddWater: Non-thinking Wonders abandoned by their Genius will quickly develop a rudimentary animal intelligence. [[StuffBlowingUp Or explode.]] |
| 252 | * ImmortalitySeeker: Dr. Jonas Cliver, the Genius from the story in the book's prologue. Also, his intellectual heirs; they're looking for true immortality, not a Mania-fueled longevity, nor a Wondrous immortal body. [[spoiler: Their quest ends horribly for all of them.]] |
| 253 | * ImplacableMan: [[WalkingTechbane Clockstoppers]] can pull a limited version of this trick with their "Natural Body" [[FunctionalMagic Void.]] Wonders and conventional technology like [[ImmuneToBullets firearms]] and [[OutOfTheInferno explosives]] don't do a blasted thing at higher levels, and at its strongest, ''any'' technology attempting to influence the Clockstopper fails. This includes [[BlessedWithSuck medical technology,]] [[AchillesHeel which is a blasted shame,]] because even at that rank, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu a right hook works just fine.]] Alternatively, there's the more uncommon method of [[DeathFromAbove dropping large animals on them]] such as rhinoceros and ''blue whales''. [[TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost And then]] [[TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem there's]] [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken the matter]] [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening of]] [[TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated magic]][[TabletopGame/GeistTheSinEaters ...]] |
| 254 | * ImportedAlienPhlebotinum: You can visit places that were once widely believed to exist, [[ScienceMarchesOn then proved not to,]] and bring some of their technology home, including the [[Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds Martian Empire.]] Imported super-science is explicitly equivalent to that built by a Genius. |
| 255 | * ImprobableWeaponUser: You can make some ''weird'' stuff with Katastrofi. |
| 256 | * IncendiaryExponent: Invoked in the section on Storytelling, along with HighAltitudeBattle. |
| 257 | --> For a location, the simplest thing to do is to imagine a fun place to have a fight[...] If there's not enough excitement inherent in the location, light the whole thing on fire. Or drop it from a great height. Something that is on fire and falling is more or less ideal. |
| 258 | * InsaneTrollLogic: The Phenomenologist ''modus operandi.'' The nicer ones tend to be [[ForHappiness Ethical Hedonists]], but even they could [[TheUnfettered take a turn for the deep end]] at any given moment. |
| 259 | * InvisibleToNormals: Averted. Ordinary people can see a Wonder just fine. This is a law of mad science commonly referred to as "[[Series/TheXFiles Mulder's Lament.]]" On the other hand, everything goes to hell when they start ''touching'' it. |
| 260 | * IRejectYourReality: The definition of Unmada. Phenomenologists reject their ''own'' reality whenever they think they'd be better off in a different one. |
| 261 | * ItCanThink: God help you if an Orphan [[AIIsACrapshoot mutates]] into something smarter. |
| 262 | * JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: |
| 263 | ** All Geniuses are on the slope down to [[MadScientist madness]], and becoming [[InsufferableGenius Unmada]] takes away a significant barrier to jumping to the bottom. The five baramins of Lemuria are ''all'' made up of Unmada. |
| 264 | ** A subtler aspect of this requires comparison between the KarmaMeter for ''Genius'' and any other line: normally, once you hit [[MoralEventHorizon Morality 3,]] the dice pool to avoid [[FreakOut degeneration]] can't get any smaller. For Geniuses, meanwhile, it most certainly ''can.'' |
| 265 | * JustBetweenYouAndMe: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] -- that process is called a "diatribe" and it gives you Mania. |
| 266 | * KarmaMeter: Obligation, representing the Genius's personal connection to "normal" humanity. [[HumanResources Treating humans as disposable or replaceable]] ([[GodwinsLaw Mengele]] [[JustifiedTrope gets quoted]]) damages it, but so does [[LonersAreFreaks anything that goes against social norms.]] Hit zero and you can kiss any restraints you had goodbye -- a Genius who runs out of Obligation becomes the classic "Humans are test subjects" [[TheUnfettered Unfettered]] MadScientist, known as an Illuminated (as in "[[LightIsNotGood burning from the inside with the spark of genius]]"). They're one of the most prevalent antagonist blocs in the setting. To add to the horror, "bottoming out" on Obligation is the ''least'' common way of becoming Illuminated -- by the time a Genius is [[MoralEventHorizon committing Obligation-2 or -3 Transgressions,]] someone is usually there to [[ShootTheDog take him down.]] |
| 267 | * KilledToUpholdTheMasquerade: For really serious breaches it can happen, but it's rare. Geniuses don't really care that much. |
| 268 | * KryptoniteFactor: A common flaw of Wonders, sometimes reaching [[WeaksauceWeakness truly ridiculous levels.]] |
| 269 | * LanguageEqualsThought: Linguistic determinism (the strong Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) is an alternate science that can be the basis of Wonders. It's particularly popular among Nazis, Phenomenologists...and Directors. |
| 270 | * LemonyNarrator: The source book occasionally snarks about what the Inspired do and makes references to [[NoodleIncident impressively bizarre]] [[CrypticBackgroundReference historical events]]. For example: |
| 271 | --> "Of course, you could always just ''build giant robots'' and then ''rob banks with them.'' [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore It's not like]] ''[[NeverHeardThatOneBefore that's]]'' [[NeverHeardThatOneBefore never occurred to mad scientists in the past.]]" |
| 272 | * LifeDrinker: All "manes" (creatures created in realities produced by the excess mental energy of dis proven theories), orphans (Mad Scientist inventions that have broken loose and gone mad) and any Genius who takes it have the "Calculus Vampire" merit which allows them to drain Mania (essentially mad science/brainpower as a sort of energy), which the first two groups must feed on. |
| 273 | * LifeEnergy: Some kind of "vital force" does exist in the World of Darkness. However, it's not really scientifically testable, and Geniuses who try just create another theory to use with Inspiration and Mania. |
| 274 | * LightIsNotGood: |
| 275 | ** It's mentioned several times that the [[TheUnfettered Illuminated]] have embraced the light of Inspiration. |
| 276 | ** The Oracles tend to use a quasi-religious, New Age-y aesthetic that makes them look like benevolent philosophers and holy men. While they certainly ''believe'' they're personifying [[LightIsGood a different trope]], the truth is [[KnightTemplar rather more sinister]]. |
| 277 | * LoadBearingBoss: God help you if you kill a Genius [[TooDumbToLive in his Laboratory full of Wonders.]] Chances are good that you'll start a chain reaction of [[StuffBlowingUp explosions]] and [[AIIsACrapshoot feral Orphans.]] |
| 278 | * LonersAreFreaks: |
| 279 | ** "Actions that physically or psychologically distance the Genius from humanity" are about mid-level Transgressions; at higher Obligation, going without human contact for a ''day'' is a Transgression. It's no accident that staying at the top of the Obligation meter requires ''more'' than normal sociability. When you're on solid ground, you can relax; when you're on the [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope Slippery Slope]], you need to keep trudging upward. |
| 280 | ** Also leads to CyberneticsWillEatYourSoul and therefore (indirectly) to ImmortalityImmorality. |
| 281 | * MacGyvering: A Genius can "kitbash" a Wonder together in hours, minutes, or even ''seconds'' if they're powerful or have bought the right merit. |
| 282 | * MadArtist: The Domitions mentioned in [[WordOfGod Moochava's emails]] are a Mediterranean group of Inspired artists, architects, and sculptors who specialize in the as-yet unrevealed Pseudo-Axioms. |
| 283 | * MadDoctor: Quite a few Geniuses ([[ItNeverGetsAnyEasier particularly those who Catalyzed in sorrow]]) were or are medical doctors. |
| 284 | %%* MadScientist: You play as one. |
| 285 | * MadScientistLaboratory: |
| 286 | ** Every Genius or Collaborative worth their salt has one, and they come in every style you can imagine. |
| 287 | ** The traditional movie version is an Aesthetic of its own, called Universal (named after Franchise/UniversalHorror) and built around Jacob's ladders and 19th-century glassware. Almost nobody actually makes labs like this anymore, but many labs over a century old still look like this. |
| 288 | * MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter: {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in the sourcebook. "Do you have a beautiful daughter? If so, be careful ― if you [[FaceHeelTurn turn evil]] [[HighHeelFaceTurn she'll probably betray you to the hero]] and [[TheDogBitesBack let the monster eat you]]." |
| 289 | * TheMadHatter: |
| 290 | ** The Peerage takes pains to remind its members that all Geniuses are mad; it helps keep them from going too far. Lemurians think they're sane. They also have an insane worldview that's notably non human-centric. This is ''not'' a good combination. |
| 291 | ** A delightfully recursive example shows up: Dr. Vienna's madness means he's an unconscious reality warper whose powers constantly prove him right. He knows this and takes steps to counter it with logic, which his reality warping prevents from succeeding. |
| 292 | * MagicAIsMagicA: More like "Science A is Science A", but this is how Wonders operate. You can't just dump Mania into something and expect it to go "because it's enchanted". You must ''build'' the Wonder, following a specific theory or idea - even if that theory or idea is utter gibberish to anyone but you, as long as ''you'' think it works, it ''will'' work. Once the Wonder is built, it will continue to work ''exactly as you said it would work'', without deviation or alteration. Two Geniuses can build two separate Wonders to do the same thing, using completely different ideas and viewpoints, and they'll both work exactly as their builders designed them to, even if the theories are utterly incompatible - but there ''has'' to be a theory. |
| 293 | * MagicIsAMonsterMagnet: Maniavores called Pretas are always on the lookout for their next meal, and while they can consume mundane intelligence to an extent, the best sources of energy are [[SupernaturallyDeliciousandNutritious the Inspired and their Wonders]]. |
| 294 | * MagicPoweredPseudoscience: What a Genius and their inventions run on. |
| 295 | * MagicVersusScience: Geniuses and [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Mages]] just naturally don't get along most of the time, though the [[PostModernMagik Free Council]] and the Scholastics have reached an understanding. This comes in very handy when they have to perform hasty swaps whenever a particular unusual Mage turns out to be a new catalysed Genius or vice versa. On the other hand, their respective {{Ancient Conspirac|y}}ies seem to be ''incapable of noticing each other'', and no-one knows why. |
| 296 | * {{Mana}}: Mania, the pure creative energy that powers a Genius's Wonders. |
| 297 | %%* ManaBurn: The Clockstopper Void "Hungry Emptiness." |
| 298 | %%* ManaDrain: The Calculus Vampire Merit. |
| 299 | * {{Masquerade}}: As standard in the World of Darkness, but much lower-heat than usual. [[AncientConspiracy The Lemurians]] kept it up [[TheWorldIsNotReady to better stick to their plans for humanity,]] while Rogues kept it up to hide from Lemuria. Currently the Peerage enforces it (if barely) because public use of Wonders [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters frequently]] [[BrownNote leads to]] [[StuffBlowingUp disaster]]. It's been slipping more and more since Lemuria fell, and the "Future Timelines" suggest in a few hundred years [[TheUnmasquedWorld it'll have completely broken.]] It's also self-reinforcing: As [[WordOfGod Moochava himself]] illustrates: "People ask me why geniuses in Genius: The Transgression don't just go public. Because [[http://tinyurl.com/yhp9crt this]] is how dumb you look." If you haven't [[InsufferableGenius completely]] [[TheUnfettered lost it,]] you'll probably have tried once or twice at most and given up to focus on more important things. |
| 300 | * MeasuringTheMarigolds: Mostly averted. Geniuses call their creations "Wonders" for a reason; your average Genius, assuming life hasn't completely beaten them down, is still at least a ''little'' in awe of how the world works and what they can do while still playing by its rules. Played frighteningly straight with the Illuminated, who often want to break the universe down into numbers and are willing to do ''hideous'' things to satisfy that curiosity. |
| 301 | * TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody: Averted. Transforming a living thing has no effect on its mind; trying to turn a bloodthirsty dinosaur into a docile rabbit results in a [[KillerRabbit bloodthirsty rabbit.]] The exception is transformation of living things to non-living things, that results in unconsciousness on the part of the victim until they're reverted. |
| 302 | * MoralityPet: In second edition Geniuses can have Touchstones, people who keep them relatively sane, this could be anyone from the nice delivery girl who delivers food to your lair and worries about your health to the vigilante who sends you to a BedlamHouse over and over instead of killing you hoping you get better (you won't). |
| 303 | * MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate: A third of Geniuses have a legitimate degree, another third just say they do or just stick Doctor or Professor in their name. |
| 304 | %%* {{Muggles}}: Termed "mere mortals" by the sourcebook. |
| 305 | * MugglesDoItBetter: Subverted: Geniuses do it better, {{muggle}}s do it ''reliably''. On the whole, the Inspired are pragmatic about when they want power or reliability. |
| 306 | * MultipleReferencePun: The player faction calls itself "The Peerage", which brings to mind; |
| 307 | ** A hereditary title. This fits the way young geniuses are recruited and trained as well as their position 'above' humanity in some sense (with a lot of geniuses [[IJustWantToBeNormal wanting to be the same]] as normal humans it could also reflect their desire to be normal humans' peers in the non-heraldic sense). |
| 308 | ** The idea of academic concept of a "peer review" (which is what they provide not by reviewing each other's work, but by reminding one another that they're insane and shouldn't go too far). |
| 309 | ** Both at once, in the way that geniuses tend to award themselves academic titles they haven't earned (the fluff text stats that asking a "Doctor" if they actually have a doctorate is as polite as asking if they have a drug addiction). |
| 310 | * MundaneUtility: A creative Genius has an unbelievable potential for MundaneUtility. However, using wonders in this way is a (very, very minor) ding on the KarmaMeter, like in Mage. |
| 311 | * NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: In approximately ten thousand years, the most brutal dictator ever known to mankind will seize control of civilization. What does this despotic mastermind call himself? [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yao_Ming Yao Ming]]. |
| 312 | * NaturalEndOfTime: |
| 313 | ** In the original timeline that Lemuria came from, the end of history was home to godlike intelligences called the Terminals that kept a tight control on time travel to ensure their own eventual existence. They vanished when the Third Race's reckless rewriting of history destabilized the timeline and consigned their future to oblivion. |
| 314 | ** In the new timeline, travel to periods after a few billions years brings Geniuses to increasingly tired and sterile futures: |
| 315 | *** Five billion years hence, the world is a wasteland of carbon, rust, and occasional ruined machines dotted with pools home to the crablike Methc, the last intelligent life that will ever live on Earth. The Sun is tired, dim and darkened; beyond, the galaxy formed from the merger of the Milky Way and Andromeda lies exhuasted from eons of war and exploitation. |
| 316 | *** Ten billion years hence, the dying, boiling Sun is surrounded by a complex dyson sphere housing the last, ancient computers made by humanity's descendants, from which spring empires of horrors birthed by the recorded fears and nightmares of human and alien history. |
| 317 | *** One trillion years hence, the last stars are cooling cinders orbited by frozen worlds; light comes only from ancient, fossilized dregs emitted in ages past by now long-extinct suns. Only a few, inhuman races remain, preoccupied with frantic, futile attempts to prolong their own existences. |
| 318 | *** At the very end of all things, the last black holes have evaporated and the last protons decayed. Nothing is left except for endless darkness and for the Cold Ones, strange, vast intelligences birthed by fluctuations in the quantum foam. They endure, and think about nothingess in toughts that span over eons, and seek to entrap foolish time travelers and use them to return to past ages of light and energy. The Terminals lived here, in the original timeline, but now only the Cold Ones exist in this dead future. |
| 319 | * NecessaryFail: The timeline that led to the existence of the Terminals is generally accepted to have been good for the universe as a whole, but it wasn't without its own horrors. Of note was the genocidal dictator Helmut Schenk, whom the Guardians of Forever were obliged to replace with Adolf Hitler. |
| 320 | * NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: It's almost universally a bad idea to interact with your past self while on a time travel jaunt. ''With that in mind...'' |
| 321 | --> "Messing about with yourself ''from a previous time travel jaunt'' is about the stupidest thing you can do without [[NoodleImplements a death ray and]] [[WhatDidIDoLastNight a bottle of tequila]]." |
| 322 | * NewTechIsNotCheap: This recommends that Geniuses are able to account for how, exactly, they pay for those wonderful toys. It stops short of having the Storyteller request an itemized budget from the players. |
| 323 | * NewTechnologyIsEvil: |
| 324 | ** Lemuria often thinks so, with each Baramin defined by when they believe humanity's technological and cultural development took a turn in the wrong direction. Sometimes their views aren't that bizarre, the Atomists are still upset about [[IWantMyJetpack the death of the space age dreams]]. However you have Oracles who are still complaining about new Aristotle's organon and want to bring back the good old ways espoused by Plato. |
| 325 | ** {{Downplayed|Trope}} by the Elders of the Third Law, one of the few Fellowships that accepts both Lemurians and Peers. The Elders don't consider new tech inherently evil, but they do believe all technology should be fully savored and explored before moving on to the next discovery. [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass That's why they all use Renaissance level gear while hunting down Illuminated who use science for nefarious purposes.]] |
| 326 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: The Peerage's defeat of Lemuria and total removal of the Nine Unknown Men means that no one is in control, no one is responsible, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking no,]] [[IWantMyJetpack you are not getting that rocket car with the robot chauffeur]] without some ''serious'' [[InfiniteSupplies coin.]] (Note: it's the robot chauffeur that is ''really'' expensive.) |
| 327 | * NightmareFetishist: A distinct worry shared by some of the more introspective [[CloudCuckoolander Staunens.]] As the game manual puts it, some take delight in the modulation of screams of pain, or are fascinated by the effects of sickness and poison on the human body. |
| 328 | * NinjaPirateZombieRobot: In a game about Mad Science, this isn't just expected but frequent. |
| 329 | * NoodleIncident: At some point in the 17th century Pythagoras was resurrected. Accidentally. The only details we get is for this is why the Peerage uses a Greek standard for the Axioms. |
| 330 | * NoOSHACompliance: To put it ''very'' mildly. More than a few Geniuses have been killed in the midst of their work, because they were more concerned about finishing their Wonders than making sure they weren't exposed to horrific toxins, deadly radiation or other such hazards. This gets particularly bad if a mortal gets into a Genius' workshop and starts causing Havoc. |
| 331 | * NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: [[PoweredByAForsakenChild Larval Wonders.]] Every single one is one-of-a-kind. |
| 332 | * NotUsingTheZWord: The Peerage averts this trope; all Peers are well aware that they're {{Mad Scientist}}s, and refer to themselves as such. Conversely, Lemuria and other Unmada will be happy to tell you that they are ''legitimate'' scientists, and [[BlatantLies quite sane]]. Completely sane. Utterly sane. [[MadnessMantra Sane. Sane. Sane.]] [-[[BerserkButton SANE, DAMN YOU!]]-] |
| 333 | * NoTransHumanismAllowed: Averted! High-Inspiration Geniuses can become transhuman in terms of physical and mental ability even without the use of Wonders. That said, transhuman Geniuses face definite challenges when interacting with mere mortals, and their Obligation usually takes a hit as they struggle to connect to the mundane world. [[ComesGreatResponsibility A certain phrase comes to mind]]. |
| 334 | * NotWearingTights: Averted, the Iridium Sentinels are unashamedly superheroes, if more Iron Man than spandex. An entire section in the part for storytellers lists superheroes as a possible campaign, by name. |
| 335 | * ObstructiveBureaucrat: Lemuria's full of 'em. |
| 336 | * OlderThanTheyThink: |
| 337 | ** [[InvokedTrope The sourcebook reminds us that mad science is older than]] [[DeathRay rayguns]], [[RobotRollCall robots]] and Literature/{{Frankenstein}}, [[InvokedTrope with mention of mad alchemists, philosophers and inventors stretching back through history.]] |
| 338 | ** On a related note, "Genius" as used here has a suspiciously apropos double meaning -- a distinctly [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genius_(mythology) otherworldly]] one, at that. Given that the term dates back to ancient Rome, this should come as no surprise. |
| 339 | * OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Occurs in two separate ways: |
| 340 | ** The game mechanics encourage players to gain expertise in multiple fields. |
| 341 | ** A Genius never suffers from using an old skill in a new context; [[UniversalDriversLicense if they know how to drive a car, they can drive anything else, whether they're rolling down the highway in a Mack truck or piloting a spaceship]]. |
| 342 | * OneStatToRuleThemAll: Not coming far without Intelligence. Also, don't treat mental skills as a DumpStat unless you are TooDumbToLive. [[JustifiedTrope It is about]] [[MadScientist Mad]] ''[[MadScientist Scientists]]'', [[JustifiedTrope after all]]. |
| 343 | ** You can use Wits instead when kitbashing, which can sort of allow you to get by on that instead, but even if you can reduce, eliminate, or afford to ignore the inherent penalties suffered for doing so, kitbashed wonders are always temporary. |
| 344 | * OnlyMostlyDead: The "basic" form of resurrection essentially works this way. As far as mad science is concerned, anyone who's less than an hour dead, hasn't died of age or suffered [[YourHeadASplode massive brain trauma]] hasn't ''really'' had their ticket punched, and can be resurrected without risking the KarmaMeter or [[CameBackWrong dangerous failures]]. |
| 345 | * OpenHeartDentistry: Occurs in two separate ways: |
| 346 | ** The game mechanics encourage players to gain expertise in multiple fields. |
| 347 | ** A Genius never suffers from using an old skill in a new context; [[UniversalDriversLicense if they know how to drive a car, they can drive anything else, whether they're rolling down the highway in a Mack truck or piloting a spaceship]]. |
| 348 | * OriginalFlavor: Even though it's a fanmade line, it's formatted like an official ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' product. |
| 349 | * OurElvesAreDifferent: Our Elves Are Mathematical Anomalies: Fractal Elves are diminutive Manes born from failed equations, and are often found in laboratories and other research facilities. They're not too bright, but most aren't truly malicious. |
| 350 | * OurGoblinsAreDifferent: Paper Goblins are Manes created by the desire for a truly [[NoPaperFuture paperless society]]. There are several different sub-species formed from various printed media, such as newspaper goblins, handwritten goblins, and fiction goblins. They're quite intelligent, and are willing to work with Geniuses for the right price. And for some reason, they're mostly culturally Hispanic. |
| 351 | * OurMonstersAreWeird: Yes, yes they are. From mutant Orphans, to avatars of broken faith, to evil disembodied infectious Yetis born from the mind of a crazy [[MadArtist Polish sculptor]], the Inspired world has no shortage of bizarre monsters lurking in the shadows. And if you have the right Axioms, you can make new ones yourself. |
| 352 | * PerpetualPoverty: Geniuses need resources to create Wonders; mad science can make money, but only with upfront investment and business acumen, and insanity is a real disadvantage in a normal job. It's reached the point where the Artificers have literally started [[WeirdTradeUnion unionizing]] to provide themselves with communal workspace and accommodation. |
| 353 | * PersonalityPowers: Sorta. Geniuses get a favored "Axiom" (branch of Mad Science) based on their Catalyst, which is the thing that stained their Breakthrough: Destruction for Grimms (Rage), Transformation for Hoffnungs (Vision), Improvement for Klagens (Loss), Control for Neids (Banishment) and Discovery for Staunens (Curiosity). However, Geniuses also get two other favored Axioms, so their Catalyst doesn't totally dictate their abilities. |
| 354 | * PhlebotinumBreakdown: This is the ''definition'' of Havoc. Most of the time things can be solved by [[TimTaylorTechnology putting Mania into the malfunctioning Wonder until it shuts down,]] but if you're [[InstantAIJustAddWater really]] [[AIIsACrapshoot unlucky...]] |
| 355 | * PhlebotinumDuJour: Every Genius has a different idea of what this is or should be, and any item on the list can be the source of a Genius' power. {{Flame War}}s inevitably ensue. |
| 356 | * PhonyDegree: In Genius society, around half of the "Doctors" you'll meet just claimed the title without actually earning the degree. Among Geniuses, it's highly impolite to question this. |
| 357 | * PlacebotinumEffect: A possible explaination for a Genius' Wonders. |
| 358 | * PlanetaryRomance: |
| 359 | ** The Martian Empire is a bardo created from the dream of life on Mars; an ancient and decadent civilization, technologically-impoverished but with libraries full of ancient wonder, built around canals that don't exist. They tried to invade Earth once, but now they're content with being a tourist trap for Geniuses and trying to trade for their knowledge. |
| 360 | ** In the future timeline, Year +100 Million is described as the Solar Wastelands. [[HumanitysWake Humanity is extinct]], but the various posthuman races exist in a Solar System of "barbarism, sorcery and super-science," from the jungles of Venus to the alien moons of Jupiter, all watched over and manipulated by [[AIIsACrapshoot ancient, mad AIs]]. +500M is the age of the Solar Transformations, which also take inspiration from this genre; it's a reborn Earth full of strange and wondrous new species like arboreal octopodes, mostly primitive but with some enclaves of super-science. |
| 361 | * PoliticallyIncorrectHero: The Peerage and the Directors in particular used to be just as racist as Lemuria, but they cleaned up their act around the same time as mundane society did. |
| 362 | * PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Lemuria's quaint little racial hierarchies do not endear that organization to the rest of the Inspired world. A number of other sample antagonists are also insanely bigoted, and, of course, we have [[StupidJetpackHitler the Nazis]]. |
| 363 | * {{Postmodernism}}: The Hermetic Order of the 28 Spheres take a distinctly postmodern approach to mad science, styling their Wonders as magic artifacts to play with concepts like MagicPoweredPseudoscience and ClarkesThirdLaw. |
| 364 | * PowerBornOfMadness: All over the place. Geniuses are so crazy they can [[strike:break]] bend the laws of physics. |
| 365 | * PoweredByAForsakenChild: Larvae are components for Wonders that require moral sacrifice, such as... well, the heart of a little orphan boy. The TropeNamer is directly quoted in the section describing Larvae. |
| 366 | ** With the Technomancer Merit, a genius can convert any sort of metanormal energy (Glamour, Mana, Vitae) into Mania. Yes, it is possible to ''turn blood into Science.'' |
| 367 | ** You can [[TabletopGame/WerewolfTheForsaken Cram a fairly potent spirit into a tube and suck essence out of the thing]] -- of course, doing so has a nasty tendency to piss off the other spirits in the area who'll then make trouble for you. And lord help you if the local Werewolves find out. Nothing quite says "Bad Day" like a pack of pissed off werewolves ripping your laboratory apart, destroying months of research, wonders, and possibly yourself if you don't either get out of there or pull out the death ray and start going to town. |
| 368 | ** If you are also using another popular fan game ''TabletopGame/PrincessTheHopeful'', you can literally create a wonder that runs on ThePowerOfLove, ThePowerOfTrust, and ThePowerOfFriendship, i.e. Wisps. |
| 369 | ** ThoseWackyNazis can get extra Mania by using their [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Atrocity Halls.]] |
| 370 | * PowerfulAndHelpless: The curse of the Genius; they have really cool gadgets and gizmos that could work to make the world a different place. ''However'', these gadgets come with faults, they break apart if a {{Muggle}} so much as brushes against it, the Genius can't tell how they made it without sounding like a madman (which they ''are''), and they have to keep telling themselves they're insane lest they become ''even more'' mad. |
| 371 | * PowerNullifier: At its highest level the Clockstopper Void Purify the Wounded Earth automatically disables all nearby wonders. |
| 372 | * ThePowerOfFriendship: Well, the power of communalism, anyway. The Foundations' Grants (special abilities) are fueled by Mania contributed by their members. It takes about one-thousand Geniuses working together to maintain a Foundation, Baramin, or independent Program. |
| 373 | * PowerPerversionPotential: Extremely high-- this is a game where [[PygmalionPlot customized individuals,]] MindControl devices and {{Transformation Ray}}s are common stock inventions. A lot of these applications, though, are Transgressions of some kind. Many are relatively minor-- indulging certain odd tastes will [[{{Squick}} weird out]] much of society, while using Wonders for fun shows a lack of respect for the dangerous power of mad science. Going too far ''will'' result in your [[KarmaMeter Obligation]] [[WhatTheHellHero going down,]] and ''hard''. "{{Love potion}}s" and other forms of sexual mind control are 100% analogous to ''{{rape|IsASpecialKindOfEvil}}'' and only a step above mass murder. |
| 374 | * PrestigeClass: Fellowships, research groups dedicated to studying narrow fields and that grant bonuses to wonders within that field. |
| 375 | * ProfessorGuineaPig: Plenty of Geniuses experiment on themselves, and the Progenitors have a whole transhumanist philosophy that ''expects'' this. While self-modification is a Transgression, dangerous experiments on ''other'' humans is a worse Transgression (depending on how dangerous the experiment and how severe the modification), which leads to this trope. |
| 376 | * ProperlyParanoid: Particularly lucid Neids. While Neids are suspicious by nature, it's mentioned that their paranoia gets directed more often at real than imagined threats. Given the ubiquitousness of shadowy monstrosities in the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'', this makes sense. |
| 377 | * PsychicAssistedSuicide: The human survival instinct is too strong to force someone to commit suicide unless you're ''really'' good. Incredibly ''[[SuicidalOverconfidence stupid]]'' behavior, oddly enough, is a perfectly reasonable suggestion. |
| 378 | * PunkPunk: The only aesthetics that ''don't'' correspond to a punk genre on this wiki are Fairy Princess (a mix of [[DungeonPunk Alembic]] and [[SolarPunk Home Grown]], though a case could be made that it fits the obscure solarpunk subgenre of "Lunarpunk"), Extropic (more of [[{{Transhuman}} a philosophy than an aesthetic]]), and Crawling Rusty Meat (a mix of [[ScavengedPunk Trash Praxis]] and [[BioPunk Black Plastic]]) |
| 379 | * RaygunGothic: Named as a possible aesthetic for mad scientists. The Etherites in particular like this, but even some peers just want a raygun and a fishbowl helmet. The Atom Punk variation is almost mandatory for Atomists and pretty much verboten elsewhere. |
| 380 | * RealityWarper: [[InsufferableGenius Unmada]] possess an uncontrolled version of this power that causes the world to [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve fit their version of reality]] better. That wouldn't be so bad, except it also summons Manes. They ''can'' be helpful, generally only to the Unmada in question, and even that's a bit chancy. |
| 381 | ** One theory of Inspiration posits that all mad science is like this. The non-unmada just have a controlled version. |
| 382 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The primary benefit of high [[KarmaMeter Obligation]] is the trust of others when acting from a position of [[TheSmartGuy knowledge]] and [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking authority.]] |
| 383 | * RecycledINSPACE: Sometimes, Genius can look a lot like ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' WITH (PSEUDO)SCIENCE! There is at least one small difference which completely inverts the settings from each other: Mages know the hidden truths of reality, Geniuses are madmen who usually know less than a good scientist. Those Geniuses who ''were'' competent scientists are painfully aware that what they do isn't, in strictest terms, "real." So while Mages get to pat themselves on the back for being oh so enlightened, the Inspired have to live with the knowledge that their perceptions are hopelessly skewed forever. Makes Illumination all the more tempting... |
| 384 | ** It is more like ''Technocracy Guide'' [[AC:with better Science!!!]]. To elaborate all the parallels: |
| 385 | *** Lemuria is run by a "Third Race" of [[LizardFolk Snake People]]. The Order of Hermes, the classic wizards, almost-leaders of the Traditions and the {{sorcerous overlord}}s the Order of Reason ''[[TheExtremistWasRight had]]'' to overthrow, spotted three snakes on their Sigil during the Dark Ages. (They only have one in the modern setting.) |
| 386 | *** Etherites and Progenitors [[{{Expy}} are clear]]. |
| 387 | *** Navigators and Artificers bear old names of [[SpaceMarine Void Engineers]] and Iteration X respectively. |
| 388 | *** The Numericals' concept is basically Virtual Adepts [[AC:[[InSpace in Lemuria!!]]]] |
| 389 | *** Scholastics and Directors seem to correspond to the NWO and the Syndicate. |
| 390 | *** Phenomenologists look like a TakeThat to the Cult of Ecstasy, Post-modernism in general or a ShoutOut to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_wars Science Wars]] |
| 391 | *** Ironically while the above puts the Technocracy Conventions as Peers and the Traditions as Lemuria, Moochava says that the Atomists were explicitly based on the Technocracy as a whole plus Rand, Heinlein & Niven enthusiasts found on web forums. |
| 392 | * ReedRichardsIsUseless: Averted in a few ways: |
| 393 | ** While a cure for cancer or what-have-you is within the bounds of Mania, it wouldn't be applicable on a large scale; that kind of thing draws attention, and unless you'd care to try explaining to the FDA that no-one else can administer or create the cure because of Havoc, you probably want to keep things quiet. Other revolutionary inventions, like a universal translator or advanced cybernetics, would be completely unusable by the general public, again because of Havoc. And don't forget, all this tinkering is ''expensive.'' |
| 394 | ** Finally, the future timeline indicates that eventually Geniuses ''will'' find a way to make Wonders available to everyone. |
| 395 | * LaResistance: The Peerage started out as a haven for geniuses who didn't like Lemuria, and eventually became the reason Lemuria is now a VestigialEmpire. |
| 396 | * RetGone: The Terminals ({{Sufficiently Advanced Alien}}s or [[PhysicalGod Gods]], it's never made clear exactly which) were annihilated from the timeline. This can also happen to [[TooDumbToLive stupid PCs]]. |
| 397 | * RevengeBeforeReason: Both Grimms and Neids tend toward this, with Grimms content to [[DisproportionateRetribution utterly destroy]] their perceived enemies, and Neids demanding recognition for their [[PowerBornOfMadness "brilliance"]]. |
| 398 | * RightForTheWrongReasons: About half the answers a Genius comes up with, the other half being impossible intuition. How else could a Genius start with a disproved theory, perform calculations that are wrong, and still get a working spaceship? The Scholastics do put a lot of effort into being right for the right reasons, it's why their Wonders tend to have much more manageable flaws. It's not stated explicitly but Atomists probably do something similar, at least for their Wonders. |
| 399 | * RippleEffectProofMemory: Time-travelers have it for their own jaunts, and by necessity the [[TimePolice Guardians of Forever]] have it no matter what. |
| 400 | * RubeGoldbergDevice: An entirely feasible aesthetic choice. |
| 401 | * RulesLawyer: InUniverse, the Hermetic Order of the 28 Spheres are a Fellowship based around rules-lawyering the idea that Science is Science. A Wonder works according to some theory's laws of physics, and the Hermetics are the kind of people who want to stretch what "some theory" means well beyond the breaking point. |
| 402 | * SandalPunk: The Macedon aesthetic is based around Hero of Alexandria, steam and bronze. The conscious use of this as an Aesthetic dates back to the Renaissance, and it tends to come into fashion every few decades. |
| 403 | * ScaleOfScientificSins: All except number 2 are Transgressions-- normal people find them unsettling. |
| 404 | * ScavengedPunk: Called "Trash Praxis" by Geniuses, this aesthetic consists of taking whatever you can out of a dumpster and making it into Wonders. It's used as a fashion statement by a lot of disaffected punks in the West, but it's more common in impoverished nations, where it's a practical matter instead of a fashion statement. |
| 405 | * ScienceHero: Always popular with the players. It's even a ''merit'' now, which lets you reduce penalties from [[{{Technobabble}} Jabir]] and increase the character's social bonus from high Obligation (if any), as long as you stay above Obligation 6. |
| 406 | * ScienceIsBad: Clockstoppers certainly think so. The extremes some of them take this to can be [[CulturePolice downright]] [[DarkMessiah horrifying.]] |
| 407 | * ScienceIsWrong: Averted, and much of the conflict between Geniuses stems from a refusal to admit the aversion. [[TheMadHatter The Peerage]] recognizes that Geniuses are insane. [[IRejectYourReality Lemuria]], on the other hand, claims that sane science is somehow flawed, and that only ''their'' theories have any validity. |
| 408 | * ScienceMarchesOn: |
| 409 | ** InUniverse, when popular theories are disproved, they tend to spawn [[AnthropomorphicPersonification Manes]] and even [[EldritchLocation Bardos]] in their image. Nobody has figured out what happens when people decide that a true thing is true, ''then'' decide that the true thing is false. Probably something very bad. |
| 410 | ** A non in-universe example; the book says that among the archaeological errors can be found in the Hollow Earth is the ''Brontosaurus''. However, since the book was written, real-world scientists have determined that ''Brontosaurus'' is in fact a valid genus distinct from ''Apatosaurus''. |
| 411 | * ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder: Geniuses are literally ''no longer exactly human.'' Their minds and personalities have been transformed by their connection to Inspiration. |
| 412 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Screw the laws of physics, you have Resources! Which leads to ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers. |
| 413 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveSupernaturalPowers: Which has a nasty tendency to lead to irredeemable madness. Starting to see a pattern? |
| 414 | * ShoutOut: |
| 415 | ** Several of the terms (Void Engineers, Etherites, Hollow Ones, Progenitors, and so on) used are repurposed [[TabletopGame/MageTheAscension oMage]] terminology. |
| 416 | ** The Phantom Foundation's members are commonly referred to as [[Literature/CarnackiTheGhostFinder Karnackis.]] Their field teams are Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} with the SerialNumbersFiledOff. |
| 417 | ** There is a little known program in the Muslim world that according to reports either focuses on pyrotechnics or summoning [[Creator/HPLovecraft aliens from distant stars]]. |
| 418 | ** "[[WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain Pinky]]: Slang term for a useless Beholden." |
| 419 | ** There is an Aesthetic for Wonders called "[[Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers Pod People]]" whose design principles seem [[EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture very familiar.]] |
| 420 | ** "[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Wesley]]: An underage Genius." |
| 421 | ** The Navigator's introduction to Skafoi is nicknamed the "[=TimeCube=] Volume". |
| 422 | ** In the section giving examples of Wonder design aesthetics, the combination of H.R.Geiger -esque OrganicTechnology and ramshackle HomemadeInventions is nicknamed "[[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Crawling Rusty Meat]]". |
| 423 | ** The first evidence of the Numericals was in [[UsefulNotes/EternalSeptember September 1993]]: in fact, that's [[ItsPopularNowItSucks how they]] ''[[StopHavingFunGuys started]]''. |
| 424 | ** One of the Sample Wonders in the appendix is the [[WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers Walking Eye]]. |
| 425 | ** Mars is a mixture of ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' and ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars''. With [[TheGreys Greys]]. |
| 426 | ** [[InsideAComputerSystem The Grid]] looks like ''Film/{{Tron}}''. |
| 427 | ** Hilariously, the first '[[TimeTravel future timeline]]' is basically ''Literature/LeftBehind''. |
| 428 | *** ... if God was a supercomputer who uploaded all the really moral people and then decided to kick off a ZombieApocalypse. Because this is still Genius. |
| 429 | *** Others have resemblance to ''Franchise/StarWars'', ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' and ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon''. |
| 430 | ** The origin of the term "Beholden" comes from a Genius known for shouting "[[WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce Gentlemen... BEHOLD!]]" |
| 431 | ** Then there's the "Multi -- Tool" wonder: a mechanical manipulation and repair device, [[Series/DoctorWho "... resembling a large screwdriver"]] |
| 432 | ** A well liked robot called [[http://stitchnbitch.org/ Stitchin' Bitch]] was listed among the deceased from a recent attack on the Orphanatorium. May he rest in peace. |
| 433 | ** Yao Ming's plan to take over the solar system looks a lot like [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Sauron's]]. |
| 434 | ** The inability of Geniuses to communicate their ideas is called Jabir, in reference to the Sufi mystic and polymath Jābir ibn Hayyān, for whom the word "gibberish" might be named. |
| 435 | ** The laws of mad science each have a formal name and a nickname. The Nicknames are all shoutouts. |
| 436 | *** The Law of Broken Theory -- Geniuses are not real scientists -- is called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper Popper's Little Secret]]. |
| 437 | *** The Science is Science rule -- Mania is a very badly understood science, not magic -- is called the [[ClarkesThirdLaw Anticlark Corollary]]. |
| 438 | *** The Black Box Law -- you can never ''really'' understand how a Wonder works -- is called [[Creator/JeffGoldblum Goldblum's Diatribe]]. |
| 439 | *** The Mere Mortal Law -- Mortals cause havoc -- is called [[Series/GilligansIsland Gilligan's Rule]]. |
| 440 | *** The Obvious Truth Law -- Mortals can see Wonders just fine -- is called [[Series/TheXFiles Mulder's Lament]]. |
| 441 | ** The 2nd edition has a Fellowship for kid geniuses called the Kidz Klub they believe [[WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor adults are part of a big conspiracy to opress children and use an aesthetic called "Treehouse Technology"]] |
| 442 | * SmugSuper: If the Peerage's stereotypes sections are anything to go by, the default attitude of Geniuses toward mere mortals is mild contempt. The Peerage does try to combat this way of thinking, though, which is more than can be said of Lemuria. |
| 443 | * SnakePeople: The Lemurians ([[TheManBehindTheMan the real ones]]) are snake people from the [[ScienceMarchesOn now disproved]] continent of Lemuria, as well as the obligatory conspiracy theories about secret reptile overlords. Some Ophidians look like that, limbless, but most of the current ones are humanoid, as the sourcebook's Description of Third Race Infiltrators says: |
| 444 | -->Ophidians are naturally tall, standing about seven feet in height, though they are very thin. They possess smooth, scaly, dry skin over their entire bodies, [[BlackEyesOfEvil inhuman black eyes]], and sharp teeth (bites cause 1 Lethal). Though some old Ophidians possessed serpentine bodies without legs (or sometimes arms), those members of the Third Race still alive are generally humanoid, with arms ending in clawed hands and thick legs supporting a long tail. Most Ophidians also possess some ability to shapeshift, though this must be purchased as a wonder; it is not a natural ability. |
| 445 | * TheSoulless: One of the more popular interpretations of the Illuminated. |
| 446 | * SpaceOpera: One billion years into the future is the Age of the New Concordat. The Solar System resembles the ''Film/StarWarsANewHope'' cantina scene; there's more aliens and posthumans around than you can shake a mug of space beer at, living in a society that's largely the twentieth century RecycledInSpace. |
| 447 | %%* TheSparkOfGenius: Inspiration. |
| 448 | * SpiritCultivationGenre: The Celestial Dynasty (year +50,000 in the future timeline) is this RecycledInSpace. A billion worlds exist within the River of Heaven, and people channel [[ClarkesThirdLaw sufficiently-advanced technology]] that appears to be KiManipulation, becoming immortal and splitting moons in half with their bare hands. |
| 449 | * SquishyWizard: Squishy Mad Scientist: In many ways Geniuses play a lot like Mages, formidable with prep time, just another {{Puny Human|s}} without it. Even more so. |
| 450 | * StatusQuoIsGod: The Terminals tried to enforce this trope, and [[RetGone failed to do so about as badly as it's possible to fail at anything]]. Their servants have lightened up, but still try to keep the big things stable. |
| 451 | * SteamPunk: |
| 452 | ** The latest fad among mad scientists; brass goggles, radium guns, rivets everywhere. |
| 453 | -->The Martian Empire is confused, yet pleased that they are "totally hip". |
| 454 | ** Actual Victorian Geniuses generally looked nothing like this. Those who didn't adopt a [[ClockPunk Baroque]] Aesthetic most commonly didn't use a conscious Aesthetic at all, and their laboratories looked like something out of a Franchise/UniversalHorror set. Nowadays, that's called the Universal Aesthetic; it's not used much anymore, but there's still many old laboratories in that style. |
| 455 | * StupidJetpackHitler: The Nazis ([[RecycledINSPACE from the Hollow Earth!]]) have their own Geniuses. They are not nice. |
| 456 | * SufficientlyAnalyzedMagic: Sufficiently Analyzed Super-Science: Played straight and averted. Being scientists, the Geniuses have attempted to study the nature of Inspiration, Mania and Wonders to see how they all work. Being [[MadScientist mad,]] they haven't managed to figure out much more than a few common themes and guidelines. |
| 457 | * {{Superhero}}: The Iridium Sentinels -- masters of PoweredArmor and defenders of the street. They range from paragons of justice to unhinged inventors who create [[DisproportionateRetribution military-grade hardware to use against street-level crime.]] |
| 458 | * SuperheroSpeciation: Averted. If you have another Genius' notes, you get a bonus to duplicate their Wonders. Or you can just [[MundaneSolution borrow them.]] You still need the right Axioms to build the Wonder, and you take penalties for using one without the right Axioms. |
| 459 | * SurroundedByIdiots: Too much reliance on Beholden and not enough exposure to the idea that [[ArtisticLicense you might be wrong about the way the world works]] can quickly make a Genius [[InsufferableGenius Unmada,]] which leads to [[RealityWarper suspicious alterations of fact]], which leads to... [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope uh...]] |
| 460 | * TheSyndicate: The Pacific Gauntlet is a particularly nasty one. Originally an offshoot of Lemuria, the Gauntlet was formed after the Boxer Rebellion, to protect China from the depredations of the colonial powers (or at least secure Lemuria’s ideological hegemony in Asia). However, once the fighting was over, the Gauntlet discovered several powerful Bardos created by the despair and disillusionment of the Chinese people. The Gauntlet proceeded to plunder and enslave ''China’s broken dreams,'' establishing an international Maniacal crime ring. |
| 461 | * TakeOverTheWorld: Successfully done by Lemuria (or so they claim), and a common goal of Overlords and Hoffnungs. |
| 462 | * TechnoBabble: Jabir. It's involuntary, and makes talking shop with the mundanes a real chore. |
| 463 | * TeenGenius: Uncommon, but the casual term for them is [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Wesleys.]] [[CreatorsPet Try not to hold it against them.]] |
| 464 | * TemporalParadox: You can [[GrandfatherParadox kill your own grandfather]] and you'll [[RetGone pop out of existence,]] but your grandfather will still be dead. No, this doesn't implode reality due to the paradox. The universe can get along just fine without you. You aren't that important. |
| 465 | * ThereAreNoTherapists: DoubleSubverted; there are plenty of psychologists and therapists. [[TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes They're as mad as everyone else]], or [[BrownNote they will be after talking to you]]. They tend to [[ManipulativeBastard specialise in]] [[MindControlDevice manipulation]]. Amusingly enough, the sourcebook ''opens with'' a therapist talking with one of the Inspired. [[spoiler:It does not end well.]] |
| 466 | * TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow: Possible cause for a Breakthrough, especially in Staunens. |
| 467 | * TheyCalledMeMad: You ''are'' mad. But generally associated with the Neids: it's how they Catalyze in the first place. |
| 468 | * ThoseWackyNazis: When the true horrors of Nazi Germany were exposed to the world and nearly all remaining faith in their ideology crumbled, Ubermensch Nazi Manes came into existence and took over the Hollow Earth. |
| 469 | * ThreeLawsCompliant: Subverted. "Programming permanent psychological limitations into an intelligent being" is an Obligation-5 sin (the same level as arson, to name one). If your creation can think and choose for itself, it must be allowed to think and choose for itself; forcing it down specific moral roads is a form of slavery. (Note that the definition means doing something similar to a ''human'' also counts.) |
| 470 | * TimePolice: The Guardians of Forever. The Terminals recruited them before they were [[RetGone removed from the timeline]]. |
| 471 | * TimeTravel: "... is almost always a bad idea." After that statement, there's [[HypocriticalHumor an entire section dedicated]] to dealing with time travel and all the messes that come with it. |
| 472 | * TimeTravelForFunAndProfit: Obviously. The Guardians tolerate a little messing around, and many Geniuses use that to their advantage. |
| 473 | * TimeyWimeyBall: A deliberate example. Where to begin? |
| 474 | ** The setting gleefully makes temporal paradoxes possible, if [[TooDumbToLive very unwise]]. |
| 475 | ** The TimePolice are slowly losing their grip on history and their [[CorruptCop own members]] despite existing at all points in time. |
| 476 | ** {{Temporal paradox}}es don't affect Manes. |
| 477 | * TorchesAndPitchforks: The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin appropriately-named]] [[WalkingTechbane Clockstopper]] Void "Brotherhood of Righteousness." |
| 478 | * ToTheFutureAndBeyond: Time travel is a dodgy proposition, since trips to the same era doesn't reliably bring you to the same events, but a general progression of epochs is established as the most common destinations that time-travellers find themselves in: |
| 479 | ** The near future, up to about fifty years hence, is mostly home to the immediate descendants of modern cultures, and to people using slightly more advanced versions of modern technology; this is usually similar enough to current tech that it if is brought back it doesn't count as Wonders. Travelers heading ten years in the future usually find themselves amidst TheRapture; travel to fifty years hence instead brings you to an ice age where robots are warring against humanity. |
| 480 | ** A few hundred years on, technology becomes more complex -- internal AI is often seen among scientists, police officers, and spies -- and the line between regular people and Geniuses starts to blur. A hundred years in the future, the serpent masters of Lemuria use its control of the Internet to take over humanity's computerized brains and rule the world, but their rule eventually slips and they're assimilated into human civilization. Two hundred years later, the Martian Empire manages to make itself real and takes over the Solar System, beginning a golden age of interstellar culture. |
| 481 | ** Travel thousands of years ahead, and humanity begins to be more and more altered; life extension and the digital preservation of deceased minds are common. A thousand years in the future, the Solar System is a patchwork of human and posthuman nations. Ten thousand years hence, its worlds are ruled by a cruel despot. |
| 482 | ** Tens of thousands of years hence, humans possess immense personal power thanks to ages of genetic and technological augmentation. 50,000 years in the future, a civilization of godlike, immortal people rules the stars; 100,000 years hence, the world is a sterile waste, sometimes replaced by complex megastructures, while humanity's minds live as gods in digital worlds. |
| 483 | ** Millions of years from the present, metahumanity resembles modern folk about as much as we do apes. Powerful, undying and fey, they live in Dyson spheres, digital simulations and stranger things, and their morality rarely resembles that of modern men. |
| 484 | ** Hundreds of millions of years from now, humanity and metahumanity are gone, but new life inhabits Earth. In 100 million years, androids, beast-men and stranded aliens live in barbaric societies amidst the ruins of ancient technology and ancient, mad machines on a new supercontinent and on the terraformed Solar worlds. 500 million years hence, new intelligences evolve from far-future animals in a primitive Earth under a tired Sun. A billion years from now, the Solar System is an interstellar hub for travelers, criminals and scoundrels from countless alien races. |
| 485 | ** Past that point, time travelers find a slowly dying cosmos as history approaches the NaturalEndOfTime. Five billion years hence, the last intelligent life on Earth lives in a blasted waste; ten billion years hence, the Sun is surrounded by a Dyson sphere home to nightmare beings birthed from ancient computers; one trillion years hence, a darkened universe twitches through its last motions; and past that, there is only eternal darkness and strange minds birthed from quantum foam. |
| 486 | %%* TortureCellar: The [[ThoseWackyNazis Thulian]] Grant makes ample use of these. |
| 487 | * TorturedMonster: The Cold Ones, the last surviving beings after the heat death of the universe, existing as fluctuations in the cosmic emptiness. All they can do is lie there and think, and whenever they can, they try to trap and feed on time travelers for their delicious heat and matter -- and maybe travel into a world where things exist. |
| 488 | * TotallyNotAWerewolf: It's mentioned that [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening Mages]] often mistake a newly Catalyzed Genius for a new Mage (and vice-versa). After this happened a few times, the Peerage and the Free Council set up protocols for swapping members back to their correct bodies. |
| 489 | * ToxicFriendInfluence: Unmada Manes (the Manes spawned or attracted by the fields [[RealityWarper Unmada]] produce) can guard areas, offer advice, or act as an information network for the Unmada in question. They also have [[DreamApocalypse vested interest]] in making sure the Genius [[PowerBornOfMadness stays crazy.]] |
| 490 | * TragicDream: In keeping with the central theme of futility a lot of Mad Scientist have this. Some Geniuses have a tragic dream because they're mad and lack the social skills and organisational skills needed to accomplish a task, or because attempts to do regular science end up turning into mad science. Just as often it's because their dream itself is fundamentally nonsense. For example Seattle's Atomists are trying to create a utopia. They genuinely believe a "fascist police state governed by all-seeing technology" would be utopia, which makes achieving their dream impossible. |
| 491 | * TranshumanAliens: Humanity as a whole transcends the human state for the first time around 100,000 years in the future, though some Illuminated manage it before then. By year +1 million, the people of the Metahuman Empire are [[HumanoidAbomination impossibly powerful and completely alien gods]]. |
| 492 | * TranshumanTreachery: Transhuman modifications ding your KarmaMeter. |
| 493 | * TrickedOutTime: The Guardians of Forever ''modus operandi.'' |
| 494 | * {{Troperiffic}}: This game pretty much consists entirely of MadScientist tropes, and treats the AppliedPhlebotinum tropes as blueprints. |
| 495 | ** Look at how many tropes are on the page and then realize ''we still have more to go.'' That about sums it up. |
| 496 | ** This probably explains why it's so popular on [=TVTropes=]. |
| 497 | ** The Future Timeline contains just about every genre of science fiction known to mankind, with the core tropes of each setting distilled and on display. |
| 498 | * TwoFistedTales: The corebook encourages Storytellers to construct adventures patterned on these, if not outright lifted from them. |
| 499 | * {{Ubermensch}}: Nazis notwithstanding, the idea of the actual Ubermensch is a strong undercurrent of the game. The Inspired don't think like normal people, break rules and in doing so create wonders, and the Foundations' stereotypical conceptions of mere mortals sound much like the description of Nietzsche's "Last Man". The only way to keep your character playable is to ''avoid'' thinking like an Ubermensch. |
| 500 | * UltimateJobSecurity: The Tenure merit gives you essentially complete security for your Resources, because despite being completely crazy, you're pretty much immune to being fired. |
| 501 | * {{Understatement}}: The sourcebook is full of very well-done examples. |
| 502 | * UnequalRites: There's a lot of snark wars fought over Aesthetics, since the style a Genius uses to create is often an expression of their philosophy of mad science. {{Steampunk}}ers and [[EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture Pod People]] are chronically at odds over both "which is cooler" and over whether the Pod People are obsessed with form over function. And the Aesthetics most associated with the Lemurians ([[CrystalSpiresAndTogas Crystal Future]], [[AtomPunk Oscilloscope]], and to a lesser extent [[RaygunGothic Ray Gun]]) will draw side-eye from Peers, who are probably wondering if [[IWantMyJetpack you want your jetpack]] just a little too much. |
| 503 | * UnfazedEveryman: Fortunate Beholden can turn out like this. For example, Erwin Tycho's Beholden are two guys from Central District who think exploring underground ruins with a crazy [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot mad scientist cowboy]] is way cooler than fixing cars and playing X-Box. |
| 504 | * TheUnfettered: The Illuminated, who have lost all human morality. They often fail to understand such distinctions as [[TheUndead living and dead,]] [[{{Cyborg}} organic and inorganic,]] [[SharingABody or one person and another,]] and they eagerly weld such disparate elements together in their creations. |
| 505 | * UniversalDriversLicense: An explicit ability of Geniuses. |
| 506 | * TheUnmasquedWorld: Around 300 years in the future, humans stop causing PhlebotinumBreakdown in Wonders, and the line between science and mad science disappears because everyone has access to Wonders. |
| 507 | * TheUnsolvedMystery: Lots. The nature of Inspiration itself, the reason [[TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening the Seers of the Throne]] and Lemuria don't notice each other. |
| 508 | * UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Half the problem with Hoffnungs and Lemuria; the other half is that Utopia is a subjective term. |
| 509 | * VastBureaucracy: This is pretty much all that's left of Lemuria. It's disorganized and staffed by madmen, but it's better than nothing. |
| 510 | * VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Aside from the obvious applications of MindControl, a TransformationRay or a DoomsdayDevice, there are Illuminated who apply this trope to ''real life.'' In all cases except the Illuminated, though, this results in a KarmaMeter hit. The Illuminated only don't take hits because they ''no longer have'' a KarmaMeter. |
| 511 | * VillainWithGoodPublicity: Both played straight and Inverted. When you hit [[TheUnfettered Obligation-0]], you stop taking the Social penalties associate with low Obligation. However, Paragons (Geniuses who keep their Obligation high) are naturally seen as trustworthy authority figures, and any attempts to tar their reputation take a fairly hefty penalty. |
| 512 | * VisionQuest: One of the many forms a Genius's Thesis can take. |
| 513 | * WalkingTechbane: |
| 514 | ** The Clockstoppers. "Purify the Wounded Earth" lets them pull this trick ''[[OhCrap at range.]]'' [[ExplosiveInstrumentation And then they can make your computer explode.]] |
| 515 | ** [[{{Muggles}} Mere mortals]] are a lesser version due to their ability to cause havoc just by ''touching'' a wonder. |
| 516 | * WarIsHell: The Invisible Wars were ''not'' fun. |
| 517 | * WeaksauceWeakness: |
| 518 | ** Some Wonders have Faults that can fall into this trope. Vehicles that behave like [[ObstructiveBureaucrat tediously legal bureaucrats]] (flight plans must be filed, lane changes must be signaled, and the proper traffic lanes must be adhered to or the vehicle stalls) steal the limelight, but [[EmpathicWeapon weapons that you literally have to convince to work for you]] and [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder robots that will switch sides at the first opportunity]] are also pretty up there. |
| 519 | ** Geniuses themselves have one very obvious limitation: a powerful Genius can build doomsday devices, resurrection machines, or a suit of PoweredArmour that reaches [[PhysicalGod godlike]] levels of power out of components whose total cost is ''very high'' in the long run. |
| 520 | ** Havoc can fall into this. {{Muggle}}s touching Wonders can make them go crazy. |
| 521 | ** A potential fault is 'must be plugged into electrical outlet'. Okay for a computer. Less so for a ''submarine''. |
| 522 | * WeAreStrugglingTogether: A villainous example would be Lemuria itself; all Lemurians agree that human development needs careful guidance, and that Geniuses are the ones who must act as guides. That's ''all'' they agree on. The Baramins are prone to infighting, as is to be expected when a bunch of {{Insufferable Genius}}es try to cooperate. |
| 523 | * WeatherDissonance: Spotting [[WeatherControlMachine unnatural weather conditions]] is something every Genius can do. |
| 524 | * WeDidntStartTheFuhrer: Well, not ''this'' Fuhrer. Helmut Schenck was the original genocidal mastermind of the Twentieth Century. When a time-traveller knocked him off, the [[TimePolice Guardians of Forever]] took a Viennese art student and turned ''him'' into the new dictator of Germany, and have been cloning him whenever some time traveler decides to violate HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct. |
| 525 | * WeirdScience: This is a game about WeirdScience, and as such it's everywhere. |
| 526 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: The nastier Hoffnungs. |
| 527 | ** Not just Hoffnungs either; even Klagens who just want to fix things can fall into this very easily... |
| 528 | ** And all of the Lemurians, Geniuses who haven't gotten the memo that they literally cheat reality and think that something [[GoneHorriblyWrong Went Horribly Wrong]] in the past, and they have to fix it in the present. They range the gamut from {{Knight Templar}}s to [[VillainProtagonist playable]] {{Anti Villain}}s. |
| 529 | * WeWantOurJerkBack: We Want Our Nefarious Madmen Back: After the last Invisible War, the Peerage actually allowed [[InsufferableGenius Lemuria]] to put itself back together. Needless to say, this wasn't done out of affection so much as the fact that the Lemurians had a better handle on managing the Inspired world. Furthermore, [[LaResistance the Peerage]] defined itself almost exclusively by ''not'' being [[TheEmpire Lemuria]], and the risk of instability in the absence of a common enemy frightened the Peerage bigwigs. |
| 530 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: [[AvertedTrope If it’s intelligent it's exactly the same as a human.]] |
| 531 | * WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys: Your character ''must'' answer this immediately upon creation. Wonders don't come out of thin air, and Mania can only take you so far. |
| 532 | * WillNotTellALie: Traditional Peers refuse to lie, including lies of omission and misdirection. This dates back to the Scholastics' origins as a Zoroastrian philosophy cult. |
| 533 | * WorldHalfEmpty: As this is set in the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'', this trope is present in spades. One bit that stands out is that a massive ''20%'' of all Geniuses will eventually become Illuminated. Half of these Illuminated succumb more or less immediately after their Breakthrough. |
| 534 | ** The [[TimePolice Guardians of Forever]] are in charge of making sure that our timeline isn't screwed with any more than it already has. They're also a demoralized, frequently corrupt force who are fighting a losing battle. Imagine what that means for ''us''. |
| 535 | * WorthlessYellowRocks: Sapphires-- [[AllThatGlitters imaginary sapphires]] made of Mania, that is-- aren’t that expensive on Mars. Then again, the Martians think we fit this trope by undervaluing water. Naturally much trading ensued. |
| 536 | * YouHaveFailedMe: [[JustifiedTrope Actually an effective tactic;]] killing a few of your Beholden after a failed Dirty Work check effectively removes and prevents all penalties for the rest of the chapter and lets you intimidate the survivors to ensure more dice. A Transgression, naturally. |
| 537 | * {{Zeerust}}: Most of Lemuria is guilty of this, but the worst offenders are the Atomists, with the Etherites at a close second. |
| 538 | |
| 539 | !!This game lets you build: |
| 540 | * TheAgeless: As of version 1.1, mastery of Exelixi and the proper Syllabus allow you to live for almost 2000 years. Get extremely lucky and you can live forever. And there's always the robotic god-body plan which has no time limit. |
| 541 | %%* AgonyBeam |
| 542 | %%* AmplifierArtifact |
| 543 | %%* ArmCannon |
| 544 | %%* AttackOfThe50FootWhatever |
| 545 | * AttackOfTheKillerWhatever: With the right Axioms, you can make anything from plant women to [[Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz flying monkeys]] to [[Literature/FourteenOhEight an evil room]]. |
| 546 | * AutomatedAutomobiles: Self-driving cars aren't to hard to build, although they won't necessarily be very good drivers. Building sapient cars is tougher though. |
| 547 | * AwesomeButImpractical: What happens when you something or have bad luck with your flaw. For instance, you could make a DoomsdayDevice that could blow up a city... but it would have to be the size of the chrystler building, take a century to build, has the internal concistancy of tissue paper, takes a month to charge, only works once, and sprouts legs and starts trying to eat you when a Mere Mortal so much as touches it (though, truth be told, they ''all'' have that last one). |
| 548 | ** Unless you give it some Prostasia. |
| 549 | * BackFromTheDead: Doing so is difficult and dings your KarmaMeter, with a high chance of CameBackWrong, but it ''can'' be done. |
| 550 | %%* BagOfHolding |
| 551 | %%* {{BFG}} |
| 552 | * BifurcatedWeapon: Yes, Integrated Wonders let you attach a sword to your sword. |
| 553 | ** MorphWeapon: Metaptropi 4 lets your sword turn ''into'' a sword. |
| 554 | *** SwissArmyWeapon: Or you could attach a smartphone, a force field generator, a cure for leukemia and a corkscrew to your sword. |
| 555 | * BigCreepyCrawlies: The Malcolm T. Washington Fellowship, a Fellowship that accepts only Geniuses of African-American or African-Canadian heritage, are specialists in this field. This might seem like a rather narrow charge, but it turns out that there are a lot of very smart, slightly crazy black people who really ''really'' want to work with giant bugs, especially when there's grant money involved. |
| 556 | * BioAugmentation: The Progenitors are big on this. |
| 557 | %%* BladeBelowTheShoulder |
| 558 | * BrownNote: You can make just about any variation you want, from music that causes love to a vat grown EldritchAbomination that [[TabletopGame/CallOfCthulhu causes madness on sight.]] |
| 559 | * CallingYourAttacks: You can build voice-activated weapons and bio-augmentations, but that's rather impractical. |
| 560 | ** WordsCanBreakMyBones: Have to leave your raygun at the door? No problem. When negotiations break down, you'll be [[IncrediblyLamePun armed with your tongue]]! |
| 561 | ** [[Film/Dune1984 "My name is a killing word."]] |
| 562 | %%* ClockworkCreature |
| 563 | %%* ClownCarBase |
| 564 | * CombatClairvoyance: Using a high rank Apokalypsi wonder in combat grants this. |
| 565 | %%* CommLinks |
| 566 | %%* CoolCar |
| 567 | %%** CoolGate |
| 568 | * CoolShades: A stylish way of designing Apokalypsi wonders. |
| 569 | %%* CoolShip |
| 570 | %%** CoolAirship |
| 571 | %%** CoolBoat |
| 572 | * CoolStarship: Needs at least one dot each in two unrelated Axioms [[RequiredSecondaryPowers for the purposes of life support and radiation shielding]]. |
| 573 | %%* CoolSword |
| 574 | %%** {{BFS}} |
| 575 | * CoolTrain ([[{{Zeerust}} Rather rare]]) |
| 576 | %%* CyberCyclops |
| 577 | %%* DeflectorShields |
| 578 | * DoAnythingRobot: You can build Size 0 Wonders, or [[TelescopingRobot Collapsible]] Wonders that shrink to Size 0. You can build Integral Wonders inside a robot. With infinite resources you could [[HammerSpace cram an infinite amount of junk]] into your robot. |
| 579 | * DoomsdayDevice: You can build low-level doomsday devices at Katastrofi 5. You can't destroy Earth, but you can devastate a city. |
| 580 | * EldritchAbomination: It won't be able to [[CosmicHorrorStory devour the Earth,]] but any Automaton can look the part, and with Epikrato and Katastrofi you can make it cause widespread madness and destruction. |
| 581 | %%* EmotionBomb |
| 582 | %%** HatePlague |
| 583 | %%* EmpathicWeapon |
| 584 | * {{EMP}}: Just in case you need to shut down a dangerous or inconvenient Wonder. |
| 585 | * TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: It's actually a little tricky to cause this. You'd need [[MoreDakka an awful lot of doomcannons]], to start with, and some way to get past the TimePolice. So, if you're feeling ambitious enough to tackle a project like this, it's probably best to gather [[NebulousEvilOrganization a cabal of like-minded individuals]] and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy brainwash]] the [[GoshDarnItToHeck heck]] out of 'em; can't have any [[HeelFaceTurn second thoughts]] now, can we? The odds are against you here, [[HypocriticalHumor but never say die, eh?]] |
| 586 | * EverythingSensor: Much harder to build than dedicated sensors. |
| 587 | * {{Expy}}: Clones, robot duplicates; you know you want to. |
| 588 | * GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: A handy hands-free alternative to regular scanners. |
| 589 | %%* GrapplingHookPistol |
| 590 | %%* HealingPotion |
| 591 | * HealingShiv: Exelixi Rays, which require a rank of Katastrofi to build. |
| 592 | %%* HumongousMecha |
| 593 | * HybridMonster: There's a process called "Grafting" that explicitly allows you to do this. |
| 594 | * IfMyCalculationsAreCorrect: And they probably are. At least until a mere mortal [[GlamourFailure sees them]], anyway. |
| 595 | * ImpossiblyCoolClothes: Imagine Prostasia armor with the concealed variable. |
| 596 | * InvisibilityCloak: Either actual invisibility or a BystanderSyndrome-invoking mind trick. |
| 597 | * JetPack: Or jet boots. Or Icarus wings. Or you could just turn yourself into something that flies. |
| 598 | * KillSat: There's a modification called "Orbital" made ''specifically'' for kill sats or any other extremely long range artillery. |
| 599 | ** Though there's nothing but Size restrictions stopping you from attaching it to a [[{{BFS}} melee weapon]] |
| 600 | ** Nothing but utterly JustForFun/{{egregious}} Mania cost stops you putting a wide area ''[[InvertedTrope healing ray]]'' in orbit, either. |
| 601 | %%* LaserBlade |
| 602 | %%* {{Lilliputians}} |
| 603 | %%** LilliputianWarriors |
| 604 | %%* LittlePeople |
| 605 | * LoveIsInTheAir / LovePotion: Messing with someone's emotions is a minor Transgression. Taking sexual advantage of them afterwards is a ''huge'' one, on par with [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil mundane rape]]. |
| 606 | * MasterComputer: You can build one very good AI and let it remote-control your other robots so they all benefit from its superior mental and social skills. At least one Bardo was run by a computer. |
| 607 | ** And at least one Bardo ''is'' a computer network. |
| 608 | %%* MindManipulation Device |
| 609 | %%** CharmPerson |
| 610 | %%** CompellingVoice |
| 611 | %%** FakeMemories |
| 612 | %%** HypnoRay |
| 613 | %%** [[JediMindTrick Obfuscator]] |
| 614 | %%** MentalPictureProjector |
| 615 | %%** MindControlDevice |
| 616 | %%** [[TongueTied Tongue-Tier]] |
| 617 | %%* OppositeSexClone |
| 618 | %%* OrganicTechnology |
| 619 | %%* PeopleJars |
| 620 | * PhlebotinumBomb: Weapons can be built to only affect specific targets. You could make a rust ray, a [[Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} ghost gun,]] [[PowerPerversionPotential anti]]-[[TheNudifier clothing]] [[Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi lasers...]] |
| 621 | * PoweredArmor: Mania-intensive; a full-featured basic suit requires: |
| 622 | ** Apokalypsi for [[EverythingSensor scanners]] and [[CommLinks communication.]] |
| 623 | ** Exelixi for strength boosters, and quite possibly [[RequiredSecondaryPowers so you're strong enough to move it.]] |
| 624 | ** Katastrofi for weapon systems |
| 625 | ** Prostasia for the armor |
| 626 | ** Skafoi for any kind of movement more complicated than just walking/[[RollerbladeGood rolling]] around. |
| 627 | *** There is a large, loosely-connected organization of Geniuses who specialise in PoweredArmour. [[{{Superhero}} They use it to fight crime.]] |
| 628 | *** The above RequiredSecondaryPowers are also a good guide as to how much time and effort has to go into your average CoolStarship, HumongousMecha, DoAnythingRobot, and other sci-fi standards. Generally worth it. |
| 629 | * ThePowerOfLove: Seriously, there's nothing stopping enterprising Inspired from tapping into this. How exactly one goes about harvesting and refining raw love is all up to the Genius in question. |
| 630 | * PsychicPowers: Wonders of Apokalypsi and Epikrato often replicate these. You can also modify yourself until you ''are'' psychic. |
| 631 | * RayGun: Via Katastrofi. Variants include: |
| 632 | %%** DeathRay |
| 633 | %%** DisintegratorRay |
| 634 | %%** [[AnIceGun Freeze Ray]] |
| 635 | ** [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever Growth Ray]] (needs Metaptropi) |
| 636 | ** [[IncredibleShrinkingMan Shrink Ray]] (also needs Metaptropi) |
| 637 | * ReplacementGoldfish: A Genius could easily view their creations as "children," or could go the TrulySingleParent route and use themselves as the basis for a biological Wonder. |
| 638 | * RobotMaid |
| 639 | ** BattleButler: Or upgrading/creating a normal butler with Wonders. |
| 640 | ** SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids: Nothing stops you from giving your robot butler a plasma cannon. |
| 641 | * RobotMe: With enough Axioms and integral Wonders, you could make a reasonable facsimile of many of the other inhabitants of the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness''. This can be a very useful reskin option for lazy Storytellers. |
| 642 | * RobotBuddy: This can actually happen ''accidentally'' -- complex Orphan Wonders of Geniuses with higher Obligation can develop their own, and with it, a connection to humanity. |
| 643 | * ScaramangaSpecial: The "Concealed" Variable can be used in this capacity. |
| 644 | * ScrewYourself: Although most ways of doing it are either [[MoralEventHorizon major Transgressions]] or just [[TooDumbToLive really, really stupid]]. |
| 645 | * {{Sexbot}}: The epitome of [[{{Squick}} disturbing.]] Also a major Transgression if it's sentient. |
| 646 | * SpySatellites: Unless you're scanning outer space, there's no real advantage to placing scanners in orbit. |
| 647 | ** Presumably a spysat with Skafoi 3 would actually be useful. |
| 648 | %%* SuperPoweredEvilSide |
| 649 | %%* SuperSerum: Only temporary. |
| 650 | %%** PsychoSerum |
| 651 | %%* SwissArmyAppendage |
| 652 | * ThatsNoMoon: one of the available sizes. It'll take you years even with an army of Beholden, but you ''can'' build something of this scale. |
| 653 | %%* [[TimeTravel Time Machines]] |
| 654 | %%* TransformingMecha |
| 655 | * TransformationRay: Anything into anything else. |
| 656 | %%* TransformationTrinket |
| 657 | %%** HenshinHero |
| 658 | * TranslatorMicrobes: Universal Translators can be made with Apokalypsi. |
| 659 | * UpgradeArtifact |
| 660 | ** InstantExpert: It may not be immediately evident, but the benefits an Exelixi 3 Wonder can provide include ''fighting styles.'' |
| 661 | %%* WeatherControlMachine |
| 662 | * WindsOfDestinyChange: Implementors of Epikrato can make Wonders capable of ''altering probability.'' |
| 663 | * ZergRush: With rank 4 Automata, your factories can create human beings. While these clones are no more powerful than a normal human, the mania you spend to make them isn't bound, allowing you to have an effectively unlimited number as long as you can pay the initial mania cost. Combine this with 5 ranks in Assembly Line (allowing you to have 32 identical cloning vats for only 4 bound mania), another rank 1 factory that builds weapons, and a few weeks to build up your army, and you can [[WeHaveReserves clog your enemies' barrels with dead clones.]] |
| 664 | ** A burgeoning mad scientist intent on creating a clone army needs to be aware that all his clones are considered manes, and thus need to spend a point of mania per day to avoid havoc. Manes have the Calculus Vampire merit by default, so they can suck mania or skill dots out of victims or donors to maintain themselves. The most effective alternatives to this strategy is to be unmada (thus generating a field which powers ideologically compatible manes), or make your clones geniuses, which is just asking for trouble. |
| 665 | ** Unlike normal Automata, Manes created via Automata factories are in no way loyal to the Genius who created them. And [[HoistByHisOwnPetard God help the Genius once these new humans find out that merely interacting with regular people puts them at risk of insanity or death]]. Calculus Vampirism is also considered a pretty hefty Transgression, which is likely to make these clones murderously insane given repeated use (not to mention that Calculus Vampirism is effectively torture, and they have no choice but to repeatedly do this to people if they merely want to survive). |
| 666 | * ZombieApocalypse: Mentioned in the Klagen quote: |
| 667 | --> "Do you really want to spend the rest of the week fending off a zombie apocalypse as the Earth vomits up her dead? AGAIN?" |
| 668 |
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