Let's Work Together is a weekly Genius: The Transgression game set across the globe (mostly London and Chicago) The world is comprehensive, including elements of several other New World of Darkness settings, including Mage: The Awakening, and Vampire: The Requiem. The story is set a year after the continuing continuity of the morphE game being run by one of the player characters. The plot follows psychologist Dr. Channery Keene, fashionable college student Charlotte Aranda and southern belle vampire Scarlett Upshaw as they are thrust in to the rich history of the Genius community and the mysteries which surround the death of its most prominent figure Maniac Madsen.
The game begun with a test session run during autumn 2011, and proper sessions supposedly began in January 2012, but nothing else was known since then. The GM was also supposedly running an ARG game with images and audio hinting at plot points and the vast history of the setting before the launch, but the only known page is no longer accessible.
This game provides examples of:
- Above Good and Evil: Madsen can be described as this. He was not good or evil. He was brilliant!
- Berserk Button: Obsessive compulsive Beholden, Watt, does not like things out of order. Scarlett enjoys pressing this button.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Scarlett and Charlotte seem to be sizing one another up for who is the bigger Bitch in Sheep's Clothing.
- Big Damn Heroes: Lucas rescues the party from being crushed by a trash compactor in the test session.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Charlotte lives and breathes this trope. Channery has trollish moments too and though Scarlett is diabetes flavored, she enjoys tormenting people in subtle ways. In fact, all the player characters are kind of this way.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: What kind of people populate this world, you ask?
- Bodyguard Crush: If Scarlett had the emotions for it, she would be developing this for Tim.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Tim, though being a complete spaz was able to force Dougall to retreat with very little effort.
- Cursed with Awesome: Genius characters can break the very make-up of reality for their own needs, they just have to sacrifice their sanity and morality for the privilege.
- Expy: Maniac Madsen is directly based on Cave Johnson.
- Fiery Redhead: Amazingly averted so far, despite the GMs history of playing red-heads.
- Good Is Not Nice: Our "heroes" are not above lying, manipulating, stealing and outright psychological torment.
- Gratuitous Japanese: I LOVE YOU Todoite kono omoi
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: Despite being often mentioned and an important figure in the universe, no character design for Maniac Madsen exists.
- Humanity Is Infectious: Lucas is actively testing this trope on Autotea.
- I Call It "Vera": Lucas' watch, SID.
- Idiot Hero: Charlotte. Though she is mostly Book Dumb.
- Image Song: Koi no Yokushiryoku. Selected for its lyrics.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Channery's backstory. All her memories before working at Composure are intact, just... the moment she got that job offer and onwards.
- Living Memory: Madsen's recordings in the starter session. He had been dead for 20 years at this point.
- Lotus-Eater Machine: The Lotus Club. Ben, the creator of the technology, seems to make a tidy profit from it.
- Mysterious Protector: Tim stopped Dougall from killing Scarlett in the nick of time.
- Mysterious Watcher: Tim Gray, over Scarlett.
- Naïve Newcomer: Charlotte. Both Channery and Scarlett were aware of the supernatural elements of the New World of Darkness before the campaign, though Channery has few memories of her experiences with it.
- Oddly Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo: The Let's Work Together title was just a placeholder. The title will change when plot demands it and is equally strange.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Though the GM is trying to avert this trope at every turn, Maniac Madsen is a celebrated one.
- Perpetual Poverty: Many Genius live like this due to their wired in need to create and use Wonders and the inherant expense of doing so.
- Signature Headgear: Artwork of Lucas switches between a green tophat and a green bowler hat. The GM owns both, just in case.
- Title Drop: One of the audio bonus files from the ARG has Madsen say "Let's Work Together!" multiple times as the punctuation of his keynote speech.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Reynold Sinclair is actually quite beloved by the Genius community, though many say he has no people skills, that doesn't make him a bad guy does it?
- Whole-Plot Reference: The test session for the game was entirely ripped ad-lib from Portal. The players and GM enjoyed the concept of Maniac Madsen so much that the plot was expanded to include him.
Characters created for this roleplay:
Channery Keene
Channery Keene was born on the northeast coast, in a hospital just ten minutes from the Atlantic. She grew up as a fairly regular, if bright child, and, taking an interest in other people, got her doctorate in psychiatry. She took great offense at the people who said that the field was useless or nonexistent, and decided rather than to continue to take patients, to use her doctorate to further the field itself. In July 2011 she received a job offer to work with a growing mental care clinic in Chicago. From there things get hazy, as Channery has lost most of her recent memories. What is clear, however, is that she took the time to catalyze as a Genius and used her new abilities to develop a mechanical brain.
- Brain Uploading: She replaced her mushy organic brain with an efficient mechanical one.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Even though fragments of her memories are being filtered through, most mentions of her mentor are still too broken to decypher.
Charlotte Aranda
Charlotte Aranda was born and raised in Wheaton, IL and until recently studied at Pleiades University with an undeclared major. Her Genius parents wanted her to go in to computer science, but her passion lies on the stage, singing and dancing and performing for audiences all around the world. Against her wishes and wills she was forcibly catalyzed in Maniac Madsen's Prestine Testing Facility and now has to face up to the Genius world which she was being groomed to accept.
- Alpha Bitch: What she was in high school and college. She no longer holds this power so compensates in other ways.
- Book Dumb: She may not be the brightest bulb, but she can make wonders just as well as any other Genius.
- Girl Posse: Marilyn and Ashley. Allison was in there too, once upon a time.
- In with the In Crowd: She 'is' this the in crowd.
- Manipulative Bitch: Uses sympathy and sex appeal to get what she wants.
- Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Charlotte's parents secretly harbored this regarding Charlotte her entire childhood. They were overjoyed when she catalyzed.
Scarlett Upshaw
Scarlett Upshaw is a vampire, embraced during the civil war era in Georgia. She considers herself to be a proper Southern lady and prides herself on her family name and her refined manners. She plays dumb and weak nearly all the time, sometimes even without wanting to. She'd prefer to be scoffed at for being an empty-headed little girl than to be called a fearsome abomination. Most of the time it's to her advantage to be under-estimated. Never the less, she has a lot of power hiding in her small frame, and isn't too phased by the thought of killing or enslaving someone.
Scarlett spends her time running errands for her family to check on their investments. Any time not spent on that she enjoys seeing horror films and acting out phenomena from them in the homes of unsuspecting victims. She has a bad habit of stealing little things from the houses she “haunts” and from really any place she spends a significant amount of time in. After a long series of lucid nightmares involving werewolves in torpor, Scarlett is very wary of any wolf types. At the moment she's been assigned by her family to check up on the Genius, Mr. Lucas Lane.
- Chaste Hero: Though it's joked about that she has a crush on Tim, she lacks the emotions to act upon it.
- Dark and Troubled Past: She may spice it up and shrug it off, but the Upshaw family history is very grim.
- Immortality Begins at Twenty: Averted, she is eternally 13 in both build and mentality.
- Really 700 Years Old: Actually 162.
- Undead Child: She was turned at the age of 13.
Lucas Lane
Lucas Lane. Genius Extraordinaire. One of the founding members of The Madsen Foundation and owner of a lovely mansion out in the tropics which is powered by a volcano.
Enigmatic, eccentric and not very forthcoming with answers, he is the benefactor of the pair of freshly awakened Geniuses discovered in the testing facility and the commissioned designer of vampire technology for the esteemed Upshaw estate. He is crass, rude and has a reputation that spreads across the globe. Don't be intimidated, though. He's as pleasant as can be.
- I Call It "Vera": He has a pocket watch which contains all of his wonders. He calls it SID.
- Island Base: He has one. Its geographical location has not been called in to question yet.
- Mad Scientist Laboratory: His manor has not just one, but one for each Axiom.
- Volcano Lair: Said Island Base is powered by a volcano, because one man (with questionable obligation) can not generate the Mania to run the place alone.
Autotea
A robotic maid and the only artificial intellegence on the planet capable of creating wonders for themselves. Tea is naive to all things in the world as she has never left the island before the party arrived and thusly has only ever met Lucas and Watt.
- Meido: Certainly the more moe type.
- Misapplied Phlebotinum: Played with. Autotea is clearly a unique and remarkable wonder capable of much greater things than house chores, but apparently not good enough in the eyes of her creator who is using this trope to save face on the wasted investment.
- Ridiculously Human Robots: She passed for human during her first outing, no one even questioned her interesting way of talking.
- Robot Maid: She is actually a "failed" attempt at a working artificial Genius, Lucas has her work as a maid to make use of the loss.
- Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids: Justified in that her surprisingly useful applications outside of cleaning the manor were her original design, the cleaning is her punishment for not living up to expectation.
Anthony "Watt" Watson
Watt is a beholden who has worked for Lucas for nearly 30 years. He was teleported to the testing facility while it was operational and witnessed his best friend destroyed by the havoc of an incomplete wonder. With his imagination broken he has been a loyal servant to Lucas for decades. He is obsessive compulsive, stuffy and lacks a sense of humor.
- The Igor: The entire race of beholdens are nicknamed Igors. Watt happens to live so true to this role that without anyone to order him around Lucas' kidnapping made him useless for the rescue attempt.
- Neat Freak: He freaked out entirely when Scarlett rearranged his carefully labelled kitchen wares.
Reynold Sinclair
Reynold Sinclair is the current CEO of the Madsen Foundation, a charity created to maintain the legacy of Maniac Madsen. Besides his appearances at GenCon he does not really have too much of a public face. He shares a long history with Lucas and a strange recording at the freshly re-activated testing facility suggests that he may be personally responsible for the death of Madsen.
At this time the party only have hearsay and reputation to base their opinions on him and the one doing most of the talking last saw him while engaged in a fist-fight with the man, 10 years ago.
- Backstory: Obviously there is a lot more to his relationship to Madsen and Lane than the PCs are aware of.
- Noodle Incident: The GenCon page mentions a fist fight between Lane and Sinclair, though no one knows the details and neither one of them is willing to talk about it.
- Number Two: Was this to Madsen while he was alive.
- Villain with Good Publicity: Good or evil, he does run a charity and a convention and seems to have some respect from the community that Madsen created.
Maniac Madsen
The man, the myth, the legend. Madsen is the creator of the Genius community of America and by far the most recognizable face in it. During his life he created a vast number of Wonders and did everything he could, ethical or otherwise, to catalyze the world and open their eyes to the potential of GeniusTech. Died in 1991.
Morris Reese
Madsen and Reynold's personal beholden. He catalyzed as a Genius upon Madsen's death. Currently runs the Beholden Liberation Project to try and free all of the beholden in the world and fix their broken imaginations.
Ashley Platt
Warden of New Bedlam and the head of research there. She specializes in matters of the mind and has spent her career trying to isolate the parts of the brain responsible for all different aspects of Genius.
Charlotte's mother, a Genius who plays the engineer in the marriage. Acts unfazed by any events that are brought to her. She values her role as a Genius and is overjoyed that her daughter has catalyzed.
Emilio Aranda
Charlotte's father, a Genius who plays the programmer role in the marriage. He worries far more than his wife, but is happy to see Charlotte catalyzed and has been waiting patiently her whole life for it to happen.
Allison MacKenzie
Charlotte Aranda's childhood best-friend.
Bryant Upshaw
Scarlett's father. A fierce man who commands respect and admiration from all others. He puts the family name above all other things and works tirelessly to maintain it.
Sallie Upshaw
Scarlett's younger sister. Permanently frozen in the body and emotional state of an 8 year old. She is widely considered to be the scariest and strongest member of the family and is often used by Bryant as the strong arm. Has a rebellious streak and is kept aside during important business functions and social gatherings.
- The Unfavorite: Bryant actively encourages sibling rivalry and makes sure Sallie knows she is second in all things to Scarlett.
Ada Upshaw
Scarlett's mother. A proud woman who is in love with the luxury of high life as much as her family. Despite being a vampire, she still holds true to the southern Christian values of the civil war era and makes sure the rest of the family mind their manners, too.
Dr. Kato
Channery's mysterious mentor.
Dougall McDuff
A Genius Hunter hybrid who has taken a personal interest in tracking down Scarlett and her bloodline.
Tim Gray
A guard who has shown up at convinient moments to interact with the party. He is easy to intimidate and seems very meek and feeble, despite his proffession.
Clover
A Mekhet vampire in London who was tasked with escorting the group around during their stay.
Jennifer Brisby
A Genius investigator in London who believes herself to be the Sherlock Holmes lineage child. She is not.
Randall Norton
A Genius who specializes in hard light. He has the capacity to create physical holograms and structures which are practically impossible to detect as fake. Revealed to be on his dying legs, his holographic projections run off of his brain map and are keen to continue their research beyond their creator's death. Currently hooked up to the New Bedlam asylum as a source of mania and serving as a guard there.
- Unknown Rival: He is this to Hikari Odoriko. He has dedicated his life to besting her and she is not aware that he exists.
Grishaw
The vampire who embraced the Upshaw family. Old, powerful and worthy of respect.
Hikari Odoriko
A popstar sensation from Japan who has become unbelievably popular in the UK. Performs as a [[Vocaloid hard light hologram]].
