Alembic:
>Sometimes called Technomancer, this aesthetic replaces the normal trappings of science and technology with a "magical" look, ranging from traditional alchemical laboratories (hence the term) to glowing "runes of power." The latter was considered half-baked before it premiered by many older geniuses, though the traditional "dirty mortar and pestle" look is popular with some Progenitors and Scholastics. Geniuses with a specific cultural or ethnic identity or a specific interest in ancient cultures focus on specific Alembic styles, such as Egyptian or ancient Chinese. It is also the most common Oracle aesthetic, alongside Crystal Future. Some geniuses who favor this style sincerely believe in the unity of science and "magic" (however they define it); others are playing around with semiotics and what it means to be a wonder-worker.

Black Plastic:
>A modern organic style that came about around the same time as Digital Chrome, Black Plastic encourages an organic look to its technology (even the non-organic stuff), usually casting everything in asymmetric black rubber that is designed to unsettle viewers. Black Plastic is a perennial favorite, with its popularity oscillating but remaining fairly constant in the Peerage. Progenitors are very fond of this aesthetic; they often incorporate insect motifs into their creations. A combination of Black Plastic and Trash Praxis has recently become popular; its most common nickname is Crawling Rusty Meat.

I like things like starships and cyborgs to be shiny and streamlined, but complete messes of wiring, pipes and gears under the skin.
Everything else should be a massive mix of gears, pipes, loose wires and a mess all over.

>>26258290
Brutalist:
>An outgrowth of the Functionalist anti-movement of the 70s, which basically said "Stop dressing up your fucking wonders and just make sure they work," the Brutalist doctrine goes one step further, encouraging a deliberately functional and inelegant look. Wonders in this school are made from pre-fab parts, if possible, because that's cheaper, or unpainted (or camouflage) custom parts if necessary. Components look stripped-down, ugly, and exposed. The Brutalist style is popular with Navigators and some Mechanists, and with many militaristic and survivalist geniuses. Exposed metal and clashing combinations of alloys and polymers are common in this style.

Clockwork:
>One of the oldest aesthetics that is self-consciously an aesthetic, clockwork is exactly like it sounds: geniuses who adhere to this style favor mechanical devices if at all possible, using springs and muscles for power and intricate assemblages of gears for moving parts. For Axioms where this maxim might seem inapplicable, such as Apokalypsi, Inspired employ clever mirrors and prisms. This aesthetic is of course most popular with Mechanists, though it is also popular with many older and more traditional Inspired. An older variant, called Baroque, mixes Clockwork with rococo fashions; it is little-practiced today.

>>26258300
Crystal Future:
>"Crystal Future" refers to the images of the future or of "lost" but advanced civilizations popular from the 19th century well into the mid or late 20th century. In this Utopian vision, the streets are clean, machinery is powered by crystals or other nebulous sources, and everyone wears togas and seems very calm all the time. Its practitioners are an equal mix of sincere devotees and snickering parodists. This aesthetic is still popular in Lemuria, especially among Oracles, as well as certain Etherites and those Mechanists focused on Apokalypsi or Katastrofi. Among the Peerage, this aesthetic has a faintly sinister reputation, despite its squeaky-clean appearance, as many of Lemuria's Secret Masters maintained this style before they were wiped out.

Extropic:
>The current "far future" style, with the hard edge of reality coupled with the optimistic vision of a transhuman future, is termed Extropic. In this aesthetic, the genius focuses on advanced speculative science such as nanotechnology, gene-line body alteration, and digital consciousness. Extropy is as much a philosophy as an aesthetic, and the actual appearance of wonders varies, though effort is put into making technology appear elegant, unobtrusive, and functional. But the core of the Extropic aesthetic is not the appearance, but an approach to technology that focuses on cutting-edge research and the blurring of the concept of "human."

>>26258311
Macedon:
>Another perennial aesthetic, dating back at least to 15th century Italians imagining what Aristotle's wonders might have looked like, Macedon sees surges in popularity every few decades. The current return to the spotlight is probably the fault of "Greek-punk" movies and video games, just as the previous jump began during Hollywood's Golden Age of sword-and-sandal flicks. The Macedon aesthetic uses as its starting-point the steam-powered machines of Hero of Alexandria. Stylistic elements include the use of bronze instead of more advanced metals, Hellenic friezes, and intricate mirrors to engage in long-distance communication and attack. Variant styles, based on the ancient bronze-steam-and-glass wonders of Persia, Egypt, and India have also seen intermittent popularity; these styles are distinguished from their Alembic equivalents by being more explicitly technological, often sporting exposed Antikythera-style clockwork.

Digital Chrome:
>"Cyberpunk" stylings are called Digital Chrome by mad scientists. Typical affectations include heavy chrome or plastic cybernetics, thick plugs bolted into flesh, and chunky, bulky communication devices, coupled with bright colors, neon, and vinyl. Digital Chrome was the look back in the 80s, though it has since declined in popularity. It now sits between modern and properly retro, and has few new adherents, though geniuses who catalyzed in the midst of that era (now in middle age) still sport the look. The colonization of the Grid may see a resurrection of the style.

>>26258320
Oscilloscope:
>A popular style during the "golden age of science fiction" and a little bit beyond ― from the late 40s to the late 70s ― "Oscilloscope" was the first aesthetic that actually received a name, rather than "that style that the geniuses in California are into now" or whatever. Oscilloscope style focuses on plastic, aluminum, chrome, atomic power, jets, and radio technology. Expect big computers, angular machinery in that off-beige "old PC" color, and track suits. It is deeply uncool among modern geniuses, and practically marks one as an Atomist, for whom the Jet Age and Space Age dreams have yet to die. A few young geniuses have begun wearing this style ironically, or mixing it with Extropic, but the Oscilloscope aesthetic is still associated with earlier generations.

Home Grown:
>While this aesthetic got its start among underwater-themed geniuses, it has spread onto land with the rise of modern biotechnology. The Home Grown look features organic components, subtle curves, and bioluminescent illumination, giving it a warmer and more humane appearance than Black Plastic. It is popular among ecologically-minded geniuses in the Peerage as well as some Oracles, and is well-regarded among geniuses for whom the biological sciences are of primary interest. Experiments with overlapping Home Grown and Alembic led to a short-lived fad that is now referred to (contemptuously) as Fairy Princess.

>>26258330
Pod People:
>This term was originally an insult, though many of its practitioners have co-opted the term as their own. Pod People aesthetic includes a sleek, refined look, usually in all-white or some other solid color, with rounded edges, a "finished" appearance (in contrast to the rough appearance of many wonders), and a user-friendly interface with as few buttons, gadgets, and doo-dads as possible. (A one-panel comic in Alloy Blend shows the standard Pod People ray gun: a smooth-cornered hand-held white rectangle with a single black button labeled "Kill.") This aesthetic also favors small, elegant devices, and practitioners often try to make handheld wonders as small and unobtrusive as possible. Pod People aesthetic is sometimes held in low regard, especially by Steampunks and Functionals; its adherents are thought to spend too much time polishing their devices to look pretty, and not enough time working out the bugs. The style is most popular among Directors and some Progenitors; it is extremely rare in Lemuria.

Ray Gun:
>The most common term for the "retro-future" look that dominated mad science (and some sane science) from the 1930s to the 1950s. Common elements of Ray Gun styling include fins and "fiddly bits" on Skafoi devices, Jacob's ladders, big cylindrical robots, and a focus on electricity and chemistry. (Chrome and atomic power are generally considered late Ray Gun or Oscilloscope) Ray gun fashions are, of course, huge among Etherites, though it also has many adherents among Directors, who favor the classic image of power and confidence it provides. Googie is a sort of West Coast "beachfront" ray gun style in pastel colors and eye-assaulting fonts; Raygun Gothic mixes the classic Ray Gun look with baroque spires and exposed metal.

>>26258341
Steampunk:
>If Oscilloscope is not quite retro and Digital Chrome is just past its sell-by date, Steampunk is the current too-cool-for-school "big thing." All the kids are doing it: brass goggles, clanking mechanical servants, radium guns, and rivet-covered work uniforms are currently all the rage among the postgrads. (The Martian Empire is confused, but happy, that they are now "totally hip"). Steampunk is deliberately retro and it reflects a past that never was: even the geniuses who lived in the Victorian era dressed practically or in traditional fashion, rather than the "brass rivet" look, and many wonders from that era actually affected a Baroque look (which was, in its own time, deliberately retro and reflecting a 17th century aesthetic that also never existed). Steampunk aesthetic is popular in the Peerage, particular among Scholastics. In Lemuria, it has begun to eclipse Ray Gun styles for Etherites.

Trash Praxis:
>First appearing in the 80s, Trash Praxis (named after the now-defunct magazine of the same name) is the name for a style based on scavenging whatever one can in order to build one's wonders. Trash Praxis is popular among geniuses in impoverished nations (though they aren't making a damn fashion statement) and with the poor, the disaffected, and the self-styled punks of the modern world. The Dumpster Diver Merit is nearly a prerequisite for this aesthetic. It is rare in Lemuria, but many Artificers and no-nonsense Navigators like the brutal effect of a wonder built out of trash and discarded normal machinery.

>>26258354
Universal:
>Named for the movie studio, not any sense of universal style, this aesthetic dates from an era before geniuses thought much about "aesthetics" and just used what was at hand. In fact, it was nearly the last such style before the 20th century ushered in a new sort of self-awareness among the Inspired. Resembling Frankenstein's laboratory from the movies (hence the name), this bubbling, crackling, cluttered look was common in the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially among remote geniuses who were forced to use and re-use specimens. An elegant aesthetic for a more civilized age, Universal has mostly been usurped by Steampunk, Alembic, and other deliberately "retro" stylings on one side, and more modern functional aesthetics like Oscilloscope or Brutalist on the other. Nonetheless, it was so common in Europe and America for so long that old labs (some labs have been in continuous use for centuries) still feature the stitched homunculi, sizzling Jacob's ladders, and stained beakers that came to symbolize "mad science" in the minds of a century of movie-goers.

And that's the list of the 'default' aesthetics that geniuses can choose. Some of them are more interesting and amusing than others.

>>26258295
There's no practical reason to just leave wires and guts dangling out of everything. At least conceal them with a panel or two.
>>26258330
>that off-beige "old PC" color
oh god

I really love that rare and mysterious big and boxy design that is also sleek.

>>26258290
>Black Plastic encourages an organic look to its technology (even the non-organic stuff), usually casting everything in asymmetric black rubber that is designed to unsettle viewers
>usually casting everything in asymmetric black rubber
>asymmetric black rubber
Where do i sign in?And where are the pics?

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>>26258401
Like this?

>>26258435
Pretty much yeah.

I always enjoy old school retro sci fi shit. And bizarre yet sexy frankenstien girls.

>>26258311
i like the sound of extropic. smooth, elegant, and dangerously advanced suits me fine

>>26258402
Sounds like it's heavily inspired by Giger-like stuff.

>>26258295
That sounds like it would be a mixture of Brutalist with a touch of Pod People mixed in.

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>>26258495
>>26258402
How's this? I can't seem to find any examples of it anywhere.

>>26258300
Sounds like dieselpunk to me,I like it.

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Blacklight's for military and Deus Ex: HR for civilian

>>26258536
That's pretty much exactly what I had in mind.

>>26258372
I kind of imagined it like some of the old Soviet tech. Starts out looking good but is kind of jury-rigged every time it breaks, becoming a jumbled but functional mess with time.

>>26258558
>that pic
Fuck you. It still hurts.

>>26258602
I don't get it.

>>26258354
I love the scathing description of steampunk.

I like everything to be made of hard light constructs.

Clockwork or Home Grown

Preferably a combination of the two.

FATHER OF MACHINES, YOUR FILIGREE GAZE CARVES US AND THE SCARS DANCE UPON OUR GRATEFUL FLESH!

>>26258707
And when a regular human gazes at you, your flesh really will feel ungrateful.

Trash Praxis

Cause Junkyard Wars was an awesome show.

Alembic or Crystal Future, preferably somewhere in between. Wonders should be wondrous, not ugly. Awe inspiring, rather than fear inducing.

>>26258354
>The Martian Empire is confused, but happy, that they are now "totally hip"

Got a chuckle out of me

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Um, what does this classify as?

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>>26259243
I also like this one. Especially the oversize springs on his legs and underneath his helmet/head. I like oversize components.

>>26259243
Universal, I suppose.

>>26258267

I always imagined that pic in OP to be a mad genius turning random people (male and female) into the girls pictured. Why? because SCIENCE

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>>26259403
I've seen it a few times, I always thought it was a sci-fi version of something else.

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I'm a fan of Brutalist, Clockwork, and universal, although the other styles can be pretty nice too.

>>26259345
>>26259243
>Exposed metal and clashing combinations of alloys and polymers are common in this style
Yeah i think its Brutalist. But there isnt really a good description for it.

>>26259243

Let's extrapolate this into an aesthetic. Sleek but clunky - shiny, well-fitting, overlapping metal plates. No bolts or circuits showing, but the attractive casings are clearly heavy-duty and a bit clunky for the subtle and ergonomic minded. Like if every device, vehicle, and other piece of equipment was originally designed as a swiss-army-knife and simply expanded on in the design process from there; or what probably happened at least once in history when a Russian army was supplied with a huge amount of AK-47's and no other equipment, and a month later had built barracks, jeeps, radios, and other small arms from them.

>>26259435

Artistically? Yes it's a homage of the birth of Venus painting. I was talking about interpretation.

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>>26258551
Like >>26258495 said, look up H. R. Giger.

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>>26258267

I've always liked the idea of technology being really undependable. I hate when it becomes a crutch for bad writers/gms to just ass pull stuff.

As for ascetics, picture related.

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>>26259579
More in the same style.

>>26258267
How do you like your technology, in whatever setting?
Dead Space style. Looks fairly gritty and realistic, but is actually powerful as fuck. Probably where our own tech is headed. Lots of wires and metal. Can be dressed up with sleek plating as needed (government sector as an example).

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Aesthetic: Multifunctionalism

"I SAID NO FUCKING UNI-TASKERS!!!"

>>26259579
>>26259604
I think that is or is equivalent to the "Baroque" aesthetic mentioned a couple times. I lke it, one way or another. Would make Iron Man clone from.

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>>26258267
>Genius: the Transgression

Ive never seen this game run, or heard what its like. But this thread has got me interested, and some decent response.

So... Whos up for GMing one?

>>26259243
>>26259503

I imagine a spaceship designed in this aesthetic would have that same 1990s+ car look: boxy-with-rounded-edges on the outside. Interior panels came out of a mass production factory mold. It's all mostly plastic, or plastic-covered steel.

Behind all the panels? Like a 1990s desktop PC interior. Commodity black box parts with labels in every language, screwed on to a frame, with a mess of data and power cables. Very few moving parts, and they're all electric; grease and gears and gaskets and hydraulics have been left behind in the dieselpunk gearhead era.

>>26260010
I would love to play Genius if that were a thing that was happening.

http://transgression.wikia.com/wiki/Genius:_The_Transgression_Wiki

>>26260010
It's a homebrew WoD thing. It's pretty good for a homebrew.

Here's the idea. You're a genius. You have figured out a way to build phenomenal devices. You might use plant biology, or nanotechnology, or quantum vibrations, pure mathematics, or plain old steam & gears. It doesn't matter, you can build wonderous things using it. But if you try to explain it to someone else, it won't make sense. If you describe it to a mortal they think you're a blathering madman. If you describe it to a fellow Genius they'll come up with a different way to build the exact same device using different methods.

Furthermore, if a mortal sees your devices, it screws with the devices. They won't work right. And then the mortals won't really believe you built this amazing device. But you did! You really did! It's very similar to mortals viewing Mages doing their thing.

So what's the relationship between Clockwork and Steampunk?
And where did you find these categories to begin with?

>>26260327

It should be mentioned, it's even worse than that if the mortal actually touches the thing. It can go haywire, explode, actively animate and try and kill the mortal, etc. etc.

I played a few Genius games, and while I had some fun, I have a real hard time trying to GM WoD systems. I just can't seem to appropriately figure out expected successes based on dice. Every time I tried to properly set up opposing forces, it either turned into rocket tag, or a complete inability to actually harm the players. I think some of the armor/weapon wonders can easily get out of hand; I don't know if I had my players get to that level without knowing or not.

One of my characters from a campaign that never actually started had Bubble Mac as his aesthetic. Brightly-colored plastic and curves everywhere. If I were a Genius, I would probably make Modempunk-esque stuff - protruding wires, beige boxes, floppy disks and big clunky cellular devices.

The problem is that I refuse to pin myself down to one aesthetic, it just doesnt work for me.
Get me a mix of Brutalist, Digital Chrome, and Ray Gun and then we'll talk

>>26260492
Is there a way to get at least one Mortal to be able to interact with a Geniuses stuff? Cause every Doc Brown needs a Marty to have adventures with.

>>26260858
You can get Beholden, who are your Igors. They're
Sort of psychicly blank due to exposure to mad science- they have personality, but cannot form their own world view and require a Genius to provide drive.

My favorite thing from Genius is the Calculus Vampire ability. If you tell or teach somebody math, you get more of your resource back. (Whatever it was called I don't know, it's your mana or motes or whatever resource you spend as a player character.) It was perfectly set up so as a Genius you can be that cooky professor with tenureship who has been at the university for 30 years.

>>26260937
Mania, you're thinking of, and Calculus Vampire was great. The idea that you could rip mathematical thoughtstuff from other people and use it to fuel bizarre inventions is fun.

I also particularly like Larvae- exceptional material components for your inventions that you have to transgress very badly to acquire- things like human organs from live patients under your scalpel or lines of code compiled from the brainwaves of tortured animals. I really wanted to use a sonic devastator built using somebody's severed fingers as a Larva on a rapidly rotating array that dragged them across a piece of slate and amplified the sound to cause intense pain.

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>>26261044
> I really wanted to use a sonic devastator built using somebody's severed fingers as a Larva on a rapidly rotating array that dragged them across a piece of slate and amplified the sound to cause intense pain.

>>26260327
So how is this system different from playing MAGE as a son of ether?

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>>26261044
>I really wanted to use a sonic devastator built using somebody's severed fingers as a Larva on a rapidly rotating array that dragged them across a piece of slate and amplified the sound to cause intense pain.
I GET IT

>>26261788
I cannot say. I am very inexperienced with Mage.

>>26261912
Here are some excerpts (this is from oWoD mage btw, nWoD does not have these guys)

The Sons of Ether is a tradition of mages, one of two who are former conventions of the technocracy, a position they share with the Virtual Adepts. They are known for their highly personalized inventions, which can vary from the fanciful, to the strange, even to the horrifying (such is the case for many Mad Scientists). Their belief is that the universe is too vast for any one single equation to hold sway, thus no scientific theory is actually wrong. This adventurous spirit, and willingness to leap out into the unknown, is largely responsible for their departure from the Technocracy, not to mention the proclamation that ether was merely fiction.

Key to the Sons' paradigm is Science (the word is always capitalised to distinguish it from the science of sleepers). Exotic theories of orgone fields, hypercombustion chambers and etheric transmission matrices enable the Etherites to create even more weird and wonderful devices. Their Science often has a baroque feel, as if leapt from the pages of pulp fiction or Victorian sci-fi - death rays, robotic servants built of brass and powered by clockwork and fantastic space or aquatic vehicles spring to mind when others discuss the Sons of Ether.

>>26262072
The Iterators are dedicated to the idea of "Stronger, Faster, Better". Specialising mainly in Forces, Iteration X are perhaps best known for their skill in cybernetics, computing and robotics. However, the Convention's overarching goal is the creation of better tools to aid humanity. The Clockwork Convention claims that it strives to emulate the men who first discovered fire and the wheel, elevating man to new heights. The downfall of the Convention is the conflict between their stated goal of making better tools for humanity and their usual method of turning humanity into cogs in a vast, impersonal machine.

>>26262120
The hackers, crackers and universal reprogrammers of reality, most of the Virtual Adepts work their magic through their own brand of Hypertech. Through the Internet, the Virtual Adepts connect to all places; through their super-powerful computers and surveillance devices, they see many things; through bionic implants, they plan on making a better human.

Many seek to create a 'Reality 2.0', altering and improving on this world, and many see the Digital Web - the ultimate Real Virtual Reality - to be this utopian world.

Others simply seek to bring the established order crashing down, using their computing ability to turn the Technocracy's machines on their creators. This chaotic streak, present in most hackers, has lead to many focusing on chaos maths in an attempt to understand the quantum world.

The alliance has, at times, been strained; like the Sons of Ether, the Virtual Adepts are suspected due to their Technocratic background. Unlike the Sons of Ether, who went to occasional extremes to prove their loyalty, the Adepts could care less if a bunch of tree-huggers and Merlins want to shake their canes at them from the shadows of the past.

The Virtual Adepts believe in the future, and that future belongs to the Virtual Adepts.

A combo of Baroque/Clockwork/Steam-punk suits me best, but I also love Neo-WWII or whatever it may be called, I didn't really see a description that fit

This system would really be perfect for a campaign set in the world of Dresden Codac

>>26263443
>Dresden Files
Don't we already have a
>Dresden Codac
Oooh. I haven't checked on that comic in a long time, I should look at it.

>>26263391

Dieselpunk?

>>26263513
>Dieselpunk
ehh, more between Dieselpunk and Atompunk, lots of olive drab and matte black, hard angular lines, rugged military surplus styling. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow meets Venture Bros

>>26263690
>Sky Captain
Dieselpunk.

>Venture Bros
Oscilliscope.

>>26262072
>>26262120
>>26262131
Genius: the Transgression is a response to nMage spitting in the face of the Technocracy and oMage. So yeah, a lot of it is heavily inspired by Technocracy factions.

>>26265033
Oh and if anyone wants the rules, you can find them here:

https://sites.google.com/site/moochava/genius

It's a fairly clunky game but the Wonder creation rules are so vast you can use them to make almost anything.

I am so stealing the aesthetics for some assorted mad scientists in my games.

>>26258330
>>26258372
>>26260562
I can't fathom how beige computers were ever aesthetically appealing.

>>26260901
>Sort of psychicly blank due to exposure to mad science- they have personality, but cannot form their own world view and require a Genius to provide drive.

DAYYM son, you got this all explained up havent you?

>>26263461
it probably hasn't updated since you last checked

>>26258267
My favourite kind of technology is pretty much OPs pic.

I guess it would be Extopic, heavily transhumanist and all. But I would also like a tint of Black Plastic and Pod People. Sleek white organic exoskeleton, with black cables and "muscle" visible between the joints.

I would also like to add some homegrown, with grass on the roof of houses and trees lining the avenues. Catena Wireless Electronics Cat-sized robotic isopods crawling over smooth, round glass surfaces: cleaning, picking up trash and then delivering to a horse-sized "collector" isopod.

Everything is organized by "District AI-collectives", people live in a combination of hedonistic pleasure and eastern monastic self-perfection. Brought forth by Brave New World-esque cloning.

Then and then you hear public messages from the Meritocratic Directoriate like: "Keep your citizenship code accessible to scanners at all times." or "Vandalism is a action of disrespect to the citizenry. Punishment will range from fine to reduction of citizenship."

>>26265369
>>26265058
>>26261044
I want to play this game so bad. Alas, I'm too busy.

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>>26260010
As a longtime player of the game, I'll say it has its flaws, but it's also very good at making any notion you have for a Wonder work.

Couple of things.

In addition to Beholden, I recommend ST's allow Players to take Retainers with the Beholden template when they want a proper second in command, as the Dirty Work rules are incredibly lethal. Also, in general, an ST should probably be a bit more lenient with giving bonuses to Dirty Work in general, as Moochava seems to have constructed the math with the assumption that all players are dirty power gamers that will use their army of minions to ruin the game. It's also a bit more frustrating to work with as an ST than as a player.

There is no formal system for collecting components to your Wonders, but roleplaying finding the actual rare components to your Giant Death Laser of Puppy Transmogrification is kind of reccomended as that's a big component of most mad science fiction. A lot of groups sadly just roll their Resources instead of breaking into the brain bank. There is technically a time when you would do this already, but only on a dramatic failure in building the Wonder, which doesn't really happen much.

My character (the short guy), though he's probably the worst example, given that his aesthetic is Jame's Bond, and as such involves concealment.

>>26258267
I lime my tech to fit the setting.

Is this WH40K, where the universe has gone to shit? The tech better be pretty grungy, dirty, and unreliable

Is it Foundation, where everything has gone to shit but one group is a shining bastion of civilization? The tech better vary between the shit parts and the not so shit parts.

Is it Dune, where the story demands personal combat and scheming and shit? That technology better have some reason why this isn't just a nuke-fest.

>>26265749
It's worth noting that Genius has a hard time maintaining its status as a horror game in practice. It tends to become a game of superheroes very quickly, which is why the ST should either go with that, or explore the darker implications. A good example would be a villain that has a silly motivation for his actions, but in the blindness produced by his Catalyzation (the defining moment that burns the Geniuses understanding of the world permanently into their brain) commit acts of great evil.

It's hard to pull off, but hey, even if you fail, it's still fun as fuck to fight Nazis riding Dinosaurs in the Hollow Earth.

>>26258290
>>26258300
>>26258311
>>26258320
>>26258330
>>26258341
>>26258354
>>26258361

>And that's the list of the 'default' aesthetics that geniuses can choose. Some of them are more interesting and amusing than others.


Most interesting. Thank you for posting this.

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>>26258320
Macedon sounds like the closest thing to what I'd go for due to its classical influence. But the thing is, I wouldn't sick to low-tech mechanisms, or use steam power, just make things look as Renaissance or Baroque as possible. I mean, the people back then were using as much technology as they had too, the point is the aesthetic it's wrapped up in. Aesthetics like pic related.

Incidentally, since fantasy robots sometimes use similar motifs, that's exactly why I like magic fantasy robots or automatons in general.

>>26260481
>Clockwork
It handles the gears and the glass. Think about clock towers and that sort of thing.
>Steampunk
It handles the steam and the brass. Think about boilers and the sort of thing.

They're two parts of the same thing really except one focuses on one aspect more than the other. Clockwork wonders are full of gears and mechanisms and pulleys and springs while Steampunk wonders are full of pipes and boilers and pistons and pumps. Both probably have the same brass look to them, in the end.

You could even add Macedon to the mix, although that likely adds in a lot of sun-powered stuff. Sun dials, mirrors and other things like that.

>>26265918
>That technology better have some reason why this isn't just a nuke-fest.

True.

>>26266054
So, lots of carefully sculpted marble, golden gilding and beautiful paintings?

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>>26266159
Yeah, similar materials where it doesn't present a major functional gimping. But if you can get a similar look with newer materials, even better. Again, the point is the aesthetic and in cases where there is no direct aesthetic reference, the philosophy behind the aesthetic. (Not like there are Renaissance circuit boards for example.) So if you make a robot, it's as advanced as possible in tech used, but the outer form evokes those Renaissance statues. Which are by no means all marble, incidentally, metal is totally appropriate.

Would it be possible to craft Wonders that look like the items a Victorian street urchin would have, like a ridiculously accurate slingshot, a set of rags that blocks bullets, a pair of gloves that allows impossible thievery, and so on?

More on topic, there's two levels of aesthetic I prefer. For robots and other autonomous devices, I prefer a vaugely animalistic yet obviously mechanical look, combined with classic sci-fi movements and sound effects. For everything else, make it whatever mix of natural and functional is best.

>>26266293
Yes. You just need to take the Looks Normal variable. It's a -1, but mortals don't automatically feel the need to fuck with your shit the moment they see it.

See >>26265749

There are four Wonders in that picture.

Also, some people's aesthetic is more about the presentation than the device itself. Some like to pretend they have psychic powers, for instance, using implanted devices.

Brutalist Dieselpunk

It will function, on crude oil if need be.

>>26266326
Cane, shotgun, ring, glasses?

>>26265369
>>26260901

I'd tried to homebrew up a set of merits that would allow you to play a sort of alpha-minion/beholden. You were still attached to a genius, but you weren't completely wiped out by it. You don't get obligation, inspiration, but can hold your genius' mania for storage/usage for wonders etc. Was going to call it the Von Zinzer line, but I couldn't ever figure out how to make it work properly. The general idea was to make a beholden a playable character, but not be a complete mind-slave to another player in the game.

>>26265033
>Genius: the Transgression is a response to nMage spitting in the face of the Technocracy and oMage

that seems an unfair way of putting it. if nMage had brought back the technocracy (and presumably the consensual reality baggage that comes with it), it wouldn't have been much of a new game.

I like how the technology looked in Jack Kirby's comics.

>>26259243
If you read the Brutalist description, it sounds like there was a predecessor - the Functionalist movement. This is probably what that would be.

Simple, clean, efficient. No stripped off parts, no crazy hanging-off doodads, no unnecessary details and no needless removal of key components. Functional.

>>26258652
CCCP is no more, and seeing it glorius era fillls you with depsair.

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Commencing the dump of blasters and rayguns. A damn love them rayguns.

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>>26269150

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>>26269157

>>26269150
>A
*I

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>>26269169

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>>26269179

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>>26269189

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>>26269206

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>>26269218

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>>26269221

>>26269150
I love this style of raygun. The others have too much gruble for my taste, but this one manages to look *mechanically* complex without overdoing the *visual* complexity.

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>>26269229

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>>26269240

>>26269150
You're good people, Anon, trust that your dump is not going unloved.

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>>26269246
Fin (?)

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>>26269260
...May as well drop some traditional guns.

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>>26269273

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>>26269277
And I'm out of pics. Also, this is now weapon aesthetics thread.

>>26258267
>Each genius has their own aesthetic that they're forced to comply with, a style that is deeply connected to their mindset and their way of looking at technology, along with how they're inspired.
Incorrect. This is only the case for Unmada. Regular Geniuses are aware that their science is bullshit and can slip aesthetics on and off at their whim. Continuing to use an outdated aesthetic is basically a fashion faux-pas among the Peerage, although some Peers will do this deliberately as a statement (such as the Elders of the Third Law, who deliberately shirk any technology post about steam or so, as they're basically the Genius version of Amish in that they won't use new technology until they're absolutely sure it's safe and will better their lives), while others may simply have a preference for a particular aesthetic.

Unmada have started to believe that their "science" is real, and therefore trying to build something that works on principles counter to their aesthetic causes some pretty massive cognitive dissonance for them.

Aesthetics are neat, though, yeah.

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I like my robots to look like robots, man.

By which I mean not *completely* boxy, but at the same time not just being humans with silver skin. They can wear clothes, if they want, but the look just as awesome without. Like, this is probably one of my favorite robot pictures because of how perfectly it balances out inorganic and human-like.

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Some legacy of Brutalists.

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>>26269298
Here's another good one

>>26266293
You can absolutely do this, so long as you're not Unmada (and therefore probably a Peer), and can still consciously pick and choose your aesthetic.

>>26258267
With everything but cyborgs, I like including polished, highly-figured wood: specifically flame maple and various hardwood burls. The mechanical parts I prefer to be streamlined and finished in a way that compliments the wood. So I guess that falls closest to Home Grown?

With robots, I like to keep them distinctly inhuman and "robotic": kind of like Brutalist.

For anything alive, "Home Grown" is best.

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>>26269357
A little neon never hurt anyone, too.

>>26269360
Keep in mind that these are samples and starting points. You're more than encouraged to adapt these and come up with your own.

One of the players in my game has an aesthetic that's more or less "awful B-movie/sci-fi pop culture special effects". His stuff is basically a mixture of Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, and Robot Monster. His first Wonders were a shitty UFO that he crashed into another character's front lawn, and one of those ridiculously shiny skintight B-movie/50's sci-fi spacesuits.

Mostly the sample aesthetics are useful for the ST to slot into NPCs they're writing up, rather than coming up with a unique new aesthetic for like fifty local Geniuses.

>>26265749
Our game focused on resource upkeep rather than component acquisition. Keeping up our resource levels with our chosen careers, gaining additional funds in various creative ways. The assumption was, with our characters, that we would buy difficult materials rather than go out and steal them or be able to loot them from Lemurians or Nazis, requiring extra than normal effort to get a temporary bump in resources.

>>26265924
In our game it was very...Masqueradey. Internal politics, as the Lemurian remnant in Portland (or was it Seattle...) were willing to talk to us and try to recruit us, while also trying to kill us when we got in the way of Manes slave market. Halfway between horror and superheroes is kind of what a subculture of mad scientists would be.

>>26269552
>Halfway between horror and superheroes is kind of what a subculture of mad scientists would be.
Yeah, the juxtaposition between "This is fucking ridiculous" and "Jesus Christ this is actually serious" is what Genius excels at.

Everyone laughs at the supervillain in the tropical bird getup who's decided to exact his vengeance by mind-controlling parrots.

And then those parrots start clawing children's eyes out, and suddenly it's not so funny anymore.

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>>26269298
Same here. Robot's shouldn't look human, but they should look like PEOPLE.

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>>26269717
Or have them look advanced and alien and ALIVE. Depends on what their narrative function is.

A moderate brutalist, I guess.

A functional wonder is a gorgeous wonder. Efficiency over aesthetics, function over form, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0qz0LUvDf4

>>26269767
That's called Functionalist, man.

Brutalist is Functionalist + deliberately ugly or otherwise offensive to the senses or aesthetic sensibilities.

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>>26269717

>>26269844
Well, that's it then. I don't care what it looks like as long as it serves its purpose. Making it intentionally ugly to prove a point is as pointless as dolling it up for no reason.

>>26258311
>extropic
mmmmmmmm
delicious

>>26269229
i love this so much
its got the... i don't know what to it

>>26269767
>>26269844
>>26269876
As an example of the difference, two NPCs from my current game:

One has a Functionalist aesthetic. His primary Wonders consist of a Skafoi motorcycle, Prostasia tough leather clothing (in case he falls off going 150 MPH), and a Katastrofic tire iron. His favored pastimes include street-racing, tooling with his bike, and otherwise fixing/tweaking drive-able machinery.

Another Genius has a Brutalist aesthetic. His primary Wonder is a big bulky suit of powered armor made of a bunch of jagged, rusty metal plates welded or riveted together with very little care. He has a tendency to scrape up and otherwise damage sidewalks and roads just by moving around, and his favored pastimes include hospitalizing muggers via armored metal fists covered in jagged edges. Preferably while also giving them tetanus.

Both of these characters are Grimm Navigators.

>>26270009
Also two different examples of how Grimms deal with their aggression issues. One does it by risking high-speed death, the other one does it by pretending he's Batman and/or Wolverine.

>>26269873
Someone's been building Robot Masters...

>>26266758
Close. Cane, Glasses, Suit. Cigar.

I have so far not really needed to give Henrietta a Wonderous shotgun to keep her effective as she's basically the Terminator.

Mind, Prostasia is so potent that such thinking is very ill-advised. Need to get on that.

>>26260327
>quantum vibrations
oh god, now I want to make a char that runs everything on the POWER OF SOUND

>>26266798
I like this idea, and hope you continue to develope it

>>26266798
Beholden are still people. They still have opinions on things, and they still have a personality.

Their philosophical worldview is replaced with the Genius's, though, which can cause issus if it runs counter to the Beholden's original worldview and inherent personality.

Or at least, that's how I've run things.

does anyone have a share of the rulebook? I checked google and /rs/ but there isn't much.

>>26275645
It's been posted in the thread.

I played a game of this once.

My guy was an Asura, started out unaffiliated.

Some Gangbangers nextdoor shot his cat for kicks and he A: devised a nutriet solution that would put his cat's body in stasis and B: created a drug that granted him regenerative capabilities for an hour ala HourMan.

He basically went on a bloody rampage, was scouted by outer players and went on to perform increasingly horrific experiments until he figured out limited ressurection.

Then he brought his cat back to life. Bigger, Better, Smarter.

Yes, he experimented on humans so that his process would be perfect when it was used on his cat.

Was a fun game.

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>>26276272
Fuck it.

I'm bored.

Who wants a genius story time?

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>>26276467
Tell us your secrets. We all know being a gang banger in the World of Darkness is the worst thing.

>>26276580
I wonder why people ever join gangs in the WoD, considering the main reason people do so IRL is for safety/protection.

>>26276580
I posted that image but geez fuck it's crepy.

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Once Upon A Time there was a young man named Clove Black. He Had managed to get a Scholarship for his local university (Black Hill University) and was paying his way with a bunch of crappy side jobs. His Major was Archeology and his Minor was Cellular Biology because why the fuck not?

He lived in a crappy run down apartment complex and one day a group of Bangers who called themselves The Royals scored some shitty pistols, they shot everything that moved, even Sir Pouncealot, Clove's beloved orange tabby.

Clove saw this happened, the Bangers laughed as he scooped up his beloved tabby's body and raced away to his apartment. Little did they know that they had orchestrated their doom.

For in his apartment, Clove Black was overcome with rage at the world. His girlfriend had cheated on him, his parents had died, his bosses did not appreciate him and his friends had abandoned him but Sir Pouncealot had been his one true companion in this World of Darkness and Clove Black would not let him die.

On that day Dr. Felidae was born. No more would the evil of small minded men be tolerated. Dr. Felidae constructed a rudimentary life support system and then brewed up a life sustaining gel using organic compounds and a basic chemistry set. Sir Pouncealot was suspended in this gel and his inevitable death was put on hold.

This left Dr. Felidae with a single mission.

Vengence.

To that end he waited until the depths of night, broke into the university's laboratories and began work on a compound that would allow him to regenerate from any wound.

This of course is not something that would work on the first try, night after night he tried, and night after night he managed to overcome the security systems that guarded the labs. Little did Dr. Felidae know he was being watched, and frankly he wouldn't have cared.

The only thing that mattered was his success in making his regenerative compound. And succeed he did.

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>>26276612
They want Safety and protection, and in their defence it works in the WoD.

Right up until they piss off their resident supernatural.

>>26276759
Don't worry, I have lots of catgirls to take the sting off.

>>26276789
So Dr. Felidae completed his first version of the healing compound. Like any sensible man he decided to test it. So he paid a visit to the local costume shop and bought a white labcoat, then he went to the hospital, screwed around in the buildings and eventually found someone who'd dropped their I.D.

From there he was able to manufacture his own counterfiet ID. Part of his time was spent stealing supplies to keep Sir Pouncealot's stasis gel fresh, the other half was spent making more counterfiet IDs, specifically ones that would get him places he needed to go.

Now, Dr. Felidae had tested his Regenerative Compound on rats and mice, but never on a human test subject so he waited until a hopeless case was brought in and then injected them with Regen Compound Beta.

The first person didn't make it, but Dr. Felidae was able to steal their autopsy data and learned that they HAD healed. so he tried something less ambitious, specifically someone recovering from an operation, a tonselectomy. (woman was around 25ish...) her hair turned bone white but otherwise she was unharmed.

Test results were the same with similar humans. People who were near death would die anyway, but people with moderate injuries would heal, its just that their hair would turn permanently white. The Doctors began to call it the "Snow White Miracle" since they couldn't figure out just what was making their patients better.

Dr. Felidae knew, and he also knew that the time of his vengence was at hand. He used resources stolen from the lab and hospital to make pills and Disposable syringes. He filled them with Snow-White and then he got his costume together.

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>>26277050
A Rubber Orange Tabby Mask.

Silver Aviator's Glasses.

A Baclava.

A Black T-Shirt.

Black Jeans.

Army Surplus Boots.

A Belt with dozens of slip on pouches.

A Machete with a belt friendly sheath.

These are the things that Dr. Felidae clad himself in before he began to Hunt the Royal-Ts.

It wasn't that hard to find them really, they assumed their crappy revolvers and poorly made shotguns would protect them. And while their gunfire did hurt Dr. Felidae the Snow-White Serum made certain that the damage wasn't permanent, and with every Gangbanger he killed he picked up a new gun.

He'd killed a couple of them before a pair of men stepped out.

One wore an impeccable pewter grey suit, in the vitorian style. he had a Cane and wore a pair of pince nez glasses.

The other was asian, he wore a leather vest, canvas pants, a white shirt, canvas boots, and had big brassy goggles.

They both represented a group of interested parties who wished to serve as patrons to Dr. Felidae should he be willing to follow some basic rules.

First, don't piss off the police, and don't go on unwarranted rampages.

Dr. Felidae pointed out that his current Rampage was warranted. They did not contest this.

Second, he was to aid The Gentleman's Club in manners both civil in military, in return he'd get use of the Club's facilities and recieve protection.

Dr. Felidae wanted to know if they'd help him with The Royals. They affirmed that they would help him indulge his thirst for vengence.

Thirdly, he was to submit to monthly investigations to make sure he hadn't gone totally bugshit. Basic Psych Evaluation and a walkthrough of his lab and living spaces.

As long as they promised not to wreck his living space or work Dr. Felidae agreed that this wasn't too much of a hassle.

But Dr. Felidae would only agree to these terms if they helped him take vengence.

The Gentlemen's Club of Scientific Inquisition affirmed that they "had his back."

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>>26277345
The Gentleman's Club of Scientific Inquisition was an old Insitution, one that perhaps dated back to the days before the Foundations and Baramins were even a thing.

Frankly, the name is kind of a lie. Its more of an Adventurers club for old farts who like to prod angry young Geniuses and see what kind of fires they start.

Regardless Professor Julius Parnassus (the victorian guy) was old enough to remember when being in The Royal Academy was a thing and young people at least pretended to respect their elders. His inventions tended to be Clockwork, with the occasional glowing gem here or there for pizazz's sake. He was a Klagen and apparently made use of a "Rejuvination Chamber" to stay "young" (he looked like he was in his 60s but was physically more or less in his 40s)

Tinker Wu was kind of an up and coming Navigator. He liked cars and he liked planes. He also liked steampunk and loved to discover things. Obviously he was a Staunen.

And as you've figured out Dr. Felidae was a Grimm Progenitor.

At any rate the pair agreed to help Dr. Felidae have his vengence.

Right.

This.

Second.

So they paired up with him. They helped him find some Royals who weren't suffering from a nasty case of death and a few machete strikes later they fessed up to Royal-T's HQ location, general layout, guarding method... that sort of thing.

Dr. Felidae would've killed them but Prof. Parnassus stayed his hand.

Why waste good test subjects?

They tied them up and the Professor called up some of his minions to pick up the Gnagbanger corpses and the few who'd been left alive.

Waste not, want not.

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>>26277756
Royal T was hiding out in a Condo RIGHT on the edge of the good part of town. It was where the slums met the Enclave that the rich hard carved for themselves out of Black Hill City.

Royal T had bribed the police not to interfere in his dealings, you see he'd begun making dealings with some Columbian Mobsters and had managed to get enough Drugs and Firepower to push out a lot of his competition.

At some point Parnassus had made a device that let him tap into Cellphone Transmissions and he listened in on Royal Ts increasingly desperate pleas to both Polic and Mobsters.

You see Wu had a fondess for old Cars, he'd taken A Model T and plated it in some sort of chemically modified steel and, while he did not let Dr. Felidae drive it, he took to the enraged Biochemist's direction quite well and thus they stormed the enemy's base in a heavily modified hotrod.

Gangbangers were tread under vintage steel and rubber and gunned down with soviet era weaponry. At some point the well dressed minions of Prof. Parnassus showed up and picked up guns, there were only a half dozen of them but they provided enough extra fire power to get through the halls without getting the group overwhelmed.

The Group, now about 9 men strong (3 PCs 6 lackies, roughly half of Parnassus's minions) stormed the buildings with salvaged weapons and began pushing deep into the combo. Floor by floor they strode forward and laid all who resisted to waste.

You see, Dr. Felidae's Snow White Serum was more than enough to take care of bullet wounds that weren't instantly lethal, and these gangbangers couldn't shoot for shit.

Eventually Prof Parnassus gets enough of this approach and announces that they are here for Royal T and any original members of his gang...

and unsurprisingly Royal T's men turn on him.

>>26277980
>these gangbangers couldn't shoot for shit.
Good thing you weren't using the latest in nWoD gangbanger shooting technology.

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>>26277980
Royal T finds himself and his most loyal leiutenants, as well as his favorite bitches tied, gagged, and delivered to Dr. Felidae and his collegues under the conditions that they leave and never come back.

Dr. Felidae agrees. but in private points out that he has no problem breaking his word and capturing more Royals for use in his experiments. These men and women are human refuse after all.

Regardless the group loads up the Gangbangers into the back of a shitty pick up truck (after thoroughly searching them) and then covers them with a filthy, moldy tarp. Dr. Felidae takes the wheel and Parnassus sits next to him.

Wu takes the wheel of his SteamMobile and they all rocket off into the night.

The news reports it as part of an escalating drug war...and in a part they're right. Dr. Felidae is hooked up with a leaky abandoned warehouse and he quickly takes to raiding the local junkyard for old TVs and wrecked computers, along with busted dish/clotheswashers, microwaves, refridgerators and ovens. He builds his own apparatus to help him test and predict the results of his concotions along with his own lab equipment and more importanly he builds a bio reactor from the remains of Royal T and his favorite bitch, this is used to power the entire laboratory along with Sir Pouncealot's life support system. Royal T and his favorite bitch live on in agony, aware of what was done to them but incapable of doing anything about it.

As for the rest of the gang... they are decapitate and their brains are bonded with circuit boards to make a living computer. Their body parts are kept alive in an expanded version of the Pouncealot Life Support system and Dr. Felidae uses them to test out increasingly complex chemical formulae and eventually moves onto constructing mutagenic formulae that will actually make permanent changes to a physical object.

He tests it out first on the headless bangers and manages to prove that he's made a substance that can mutate human biology.

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>>26278217
Dr. Felidae of course, does not live in a vacuum. The Gentleman's club kept a close eye on him and just about every other day was spent nursing a scotch on rocks around a fireplace in a Black Hill brownstone with one group of Geniuses or another.

You see, one would assume that Dr. Felidae had completly given up on his fellow man, but it turns out that he'd enacted a little side project. He'd take the Larvae granted to him by his colleagues and use them to develop powerful healing chemicals and methods.

And what better place to test them then the local hospital. It turns out that one of the Club Members was in fact on the Board of Directors for the hospital, so as long as Dr. Felidae could yield positive results and refrained from using patients as Larvae he could try and cure them of their ills using his less than Hypocratic methods.

Now sure, he could make use of stuff like his Snow White Serum and use the patients to make stronger and stronger doses and he did in fact do that but it was FAR more interesting to test out his mutagenic compounds on the patients there.

Chiefly, his main use of it was to make sick people normal.

He'd wind up interviewing patients, find out what was wrong with them, and then treat them with his mutagenic compounds.

He'd answer to no one except The Club and sometimes his patients would perish, but just as often they'd survive and turn into perfectly normal human beings... but with odd new features.

Freckles, different eye colors, new skin tones, different hair color or hair texture, moles, warts. One person even got their wished for gender change without the messy surgery.

Dr. Felidae never explained himself and never elaborated on his procedures. He never dealt with the dead patients or the living patients. He merely collected dated on the results and modified his procedures accordingly.

Black Hill Hospital already had a reputation for strange events and it was now pretty obvious where that came from.

>>26278425
One may wonder what Wu and Parnassus were doing during all this. Well our PCs were sort of like colleagues, they knew each other from work and hung out at Gentlemen's Club.

A REAL Gentlemen's Club, not a strip joint.

By Day (or night) they'd participate in their mad activities. By Night (or day) they'd hang out at the club, talk a little bit, socialize with their own kind and geneally prove that they hadn't gone Unmada.

Prof. Parnassus was a busy man, he used Addictive Essays to turn people into his minions. Mostly studies on Ethics or politics and had been obsessed with using science to drive EVIL ITSELF out of the Human psyche, as such he was intent on keeping a close eye on Dr. Felidae and making certain that his hatred for GangBangers didn't become a Vendetta against all of humanity.

Also his work was predominatly in behaviour modification. He'd go from place to place and leave essays lying around. The first few pages were literally addictive. Words, paragrpghs and sentences that you couldn't stop reading and then he'd mix in data that would modify the subject's behaviour. He'd leave these things lying around like some sort of predator and pick up a new minion and use their life experience to inform and modify his understanding of the Zietgiest which was something he needed to understand if he wanted to eliminate evil from the world.

Tinker Wu on the other hand just wanted to explore. Land, Sky, Sea, Bardos. It didn't matter, and he wanted to build. He helps Dr. Felidae and plenty of other scientists hunt for useful material and build things in their labs. Together they actually built a car that was powered by rats that had been turned into a Bioreactor. Wu wanted to see the world and all its glory and horror for himself.

For whatever reason, these three hung out a lot, and they were all drinking when The Unmada attacked.

>>26276789
>>26277050
>>26277345
>>26277756
>>26277980
>>26278217
>>26278425
>>26278619

Please do continue. I'm enthralled.

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>>26278619
Wilson Burroughs had been a boring man once. He was one of Prof. Parnassus's experiments. He took a rich man, made him suggestable, tried to set hip up as a resource to tap into.

But he'd been made TOO suggestable and another Genius had tapped him.The Prof. and is Rival battled over the man until his psyche became too damaged and he ran off into the night.

Tired of being a pawn he built himself a sleek suit of armor and set out to torment his tormenters.

Using an Atomic Sword he sliced and diced Parnassus's rival and he made it clear that the Proffessor was next. Parnassus responded by turning to the club for help and was ignored by all but Wu and Felidae.

Wu went out with Felidae and together they stole an armored car from a bank. They mounted bioreactor in the corner of the armored compartment and used it to power a lightning gun.

Felidae meanwhile had perfected his mutation formula and used it to grant himself superior speed, strength, and nightvision, now he lived up to his name.

Parnassus meanwhile worked on making an addictive song that could be used to overcome the mind of anyone who heard it. He managed to come up with an addictive tune that could lead to a couple of susceptable people doing his bidding and used it to turn several old veterans from the veteran's outreach center into his pawns.

Felidae healed them of their war injuried but Parnassus wanted them to be normal humans. Which wasn't a bad idea since most of them owned at least a pistol or an old Surplus rifle and they could be trained to use things.

Like the new Wu Battlewagon.

Which was good because The Crusader was coming to make Parnassus answer for his transgressions.

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>>26278761
I'll keep at it, thanks for the encouragement.

>>26278799
The Crusader, as Burroughs had taken to calling himself was crazy on multiple levels. He was a beligerant Athiest and a Devout Catholic at the same time.

Its the sort of thing that happens when you radically modify someone's worldview one too many times.

So even when The Crusader WASN'T hunting the Geniuses that had made him he was causing damage. He'd go into a place of worship, any place of worship, Synagogue, Mosque, Church, Comic Shop, Game Store, whatever, pray to god, then remember that he didn't believe in god and niether should anyone else and then use his shoddily constructed atomic power armor to kill or destroy everything in sight.

His suit was powered by uranium he'd bought off the internet. Uranium that should NOT have been fissile yet nevertheless worked in his home made nuclear reactor. His armor could generate "atomic shields" and "atomic blades" which were blades and shields made from atoms.

No there's no more explanation to it than that. Because fuck you, that's why.

His armor wasn't so much armor as it was an unshielded nuclear reactor with legs and arms that should not have worked, yet did. He lumbered through Black Hill City like some out of control B-Movie monster and the police were helpless to stop his rampage.

Thankfully The Club orchestrated a power outage to fuck with news coverage and a hoax about a thunderstorm was used to keep helcopters and stuff from coming in.

We meanwhile were dispatched to deal with The Crusader. First we sent the Veterans in the battle wagon. They managed to short out most of his armor's systems but Burroughs still managed to kill two of them, wreck the wagon, and tear the raygun from its mounting.

You see, even if his armor had been destroyed he'd been granted superhuman strength and endurance by the Atomic Radiation.

Because fuck you, Radiation makes people strong.

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>>26278988
We pointed out to Burroughs that "Atomic Energy Does Not Work Like That" in varying levels of politeness and comprehensiveness. His inevitable rejoinder always amounted to "Fuck You, everyone knows how atoms do." and it became pretty clear from the outset that we were gonna have to kill this guy before we could begin damage control.

So as you can tell first we wrecked his armor with our battle wagon and brainwashed war veterans.

Then of course we were left with a hulking cancerous mass of an Unmada who, thankfully, didn't have much strategy beyond "smash it."

Parnassus sent some of his guys to Felidae's Lab and Felidae used a headset to instruct them on creating a mutagen to take away The Crusader's Atomic Powers.

Meanwhile Felidae used a smaller version of the Battlewagon's Raygun (it was basically a bit ceramic bowl with a Mouse Bioreactor and some wires and an antenna in some rubber and ceramic bits shaped like a pistol) to fire lightning bolts at The Crusader. His main job was to piss him off and stay outside of his reach.

Wu did much the same thing, though he had a steam powered one man Ornithopter and a Rivetgun with which to piss off The Crusader.

Dr. Parnassus meanwhile sipped hot apple cider in The Club and let his more physically oriented Colleagues exert themselves. Though he did see fit to use transmissions manipulations to confuse and otherwise occupy first responders while The Club tried to clean up its mess.

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>>26279185
Now it was one thing to claim that "Atoms Make You Strong" and use that as an Excuse to make your wonder work.

But that could just as easily be turned right back on Burroughs. When Felidae and Wu engaged the Unmada they had the gunner, the only surviving veteran in the battlewagon sieze Burroughs power core and toss it into a nearby car, after mugging its owner of course.

He raced it down to the lab and Dr. Felidae loudly, and clearly walked Parnassus's people through analyzing the exotic uranium so they could come up with a way to counteract its strange effects on the Unmada's biology.

Half the point was making a thing to take down the Unamda, the other half was making him realize it was being done so that doubts about his powers would form.

If Atoms could give him his powers Atoms could take them away right?

So the Crusader redoubled his efforts to Kill Dr. Felidae and eventually the good Dr. was left screaming his instructions into a helmet mike while clinging to the bottom of Wu's ornithopter.

But eventually "The Atom Cure" was manufactured and loaded into syringes, which were themselves loaded into tranq rifles.

Parnassus's people arrived and the cure was delivered, before Burroughs was promptly executed with a pistol round to the back of his head.

They transported his carcuss to Dr. Felidae's Lab and the remnants of his armor and his Special Uranium were both studied by Wu and Felidae (they got first dibs since they killed them) and they finally split the uranium sample in half and used it for their experiments.

Wu duplicated it and turned it into a potent power source. His armor also served to be the basis for what would later become Wu's own battle armor and slowly changed his aesthetic

Dr. Felidae on the otherhand used it to create beneficial mutations and created several mutagenic serums with it. Sadly all of the C-Uranium mutagens tended to cause freakish side effects but if you don't mind making a monster they were quite beneficial.

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>>26279380
This of course had all been leading up to one thing for Dr. Felidae, the ressurection of his beloved Sir Pouncealot.

This of course was not an endeavour to be taken lightly. He cloned samples of Pouncealot's tissue qand tested out various drugs and mutagens on the feline's flesh.

Eventually he realized that he could do more than resurect his cat, he could make him stronger, faster, smarter.

And thus be began work on perfecting clones.

As ever he turned to Black Hill Hospital and worked on making human clones, there was of course the issue with cell degeneration, This was easy enough to solve with some special application of Snow White Serum, and from there it was fairly simple to figure out how to improve on children while they were still in the artificial womb.

The Black Hill orphanage was left with many exceptional children. Some grew up to be loving children, other grew up to be unrepentant monsters. All of them had white hair.

This accomplished Dr. Felidae worked on cloning and modifying the clones of his beloved Pouncealot, eventually he wound up with talking cats who had human life spans and intelegence.

This accomplished he built an operations chamber and carefully modified more clones of Sir Pouncealot, soon he had human intelligent housecats who had human lifespans.

Also they were as big and strong as Jaguars.

Not only did Pouncealot wind up as big and as strong as a Jaguar he could generate electricty using Bioreactor technology and use it as a weapon. He was the greatest of Dr. Felidae's creations and loved nothing more than to hunt with his children.

Dr. Felidae had created a new race of intelligent felines. He also went so far as to perform subtle genetic modifications so they could breed. (yes half of them were female, funnily enough an embryo is female before it develops into a male so it dodn't take that much tweaking to make a femal clone of someone.)

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>>26279585
Of course Parnassus and Wu hadn't exactly been resting on their laurels either. Parnassus had taken the Veteran Gunner and made him his right hand, called him Smitty, and Smitty had gone on to train and recruit more people for Parnassus's little network of operatives.

And Smitty didn't just benefit from the US Army's training, he benefited from Dr. Felidae's controlled mutation therapies, along with his most promising troops.

While Parnassus worked on gathering an Army Wu shifted over from being a Steampunk Genius to being an Atompunk genius.

Less steam, brass, and gears, more glowing tubes, lead plates, and "DANGER: RADIOACTIVE" signs.

And he built himself a space ship. He started with a beat up old fishing boat, gathered up some scrapmetal and made a sealed hull. Then he made a copy of the C-Uranium Sample and used it to power his Nuclear Reactor. From there he built Atomic Thrusters and an Antigravity Drive.

With Dr. Felidae's help he made an organic life support system and even got a few of Brain-Computers in exchange for helping Dr. Felidae build cloning vats.

So we had an gang of veteran soldiers who had a series of mutations of one sort or another.

A gang of super intelligent modified cats who were basically snowy white jaguars led by a Loyal, Intelligent cat that could generate electricity.

And an Atomic Space Ship made from a fishing boat. Wu didn't quite trust us with his spaceship so he built some failsafes, took us and some of our minions and we went off to visit space station goliath.

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>>26278988
>His suit was powered by uranium he'd bought off the internet. Uranium that should NOT have been fissile yet nevertheless worked in his home made nuclear reactor.
Which is awesome, because you can totally do that.
The "buy low-yield uranium online" bit, not the "nuclear reactor" bit, mind.

>"atomic shields" and "atomic blades" which were blades and shields made from atoms.
That's hilarious.

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>>26279758
Now for those not in the know Space Station Goliath Represents the failed dreams of the Space Age that never was. It's a Bardo, a pocket dimension that exists by feeding off the belief of those who yearn for a tommorow that never will be.

It's a couple miles of cargo containers attached to a central access that rotates to create tidal force, or gravity, and is home to all manner of washouts, losers, and freaks. It serves as a good recruitment point for a Genius who wants easily influenced lackeys.

Wu was looking for a crew, spacemen, spacewomen, and the occasional freaky alien wanted 3 hots and a cot. Wu offered at least 1 hot and a bare patch of floor and they took it anyway.

Like Dr. Felidae, Wu operated out of a not so abandoned warehouse. Most of it had been 9overtaken by steampunk junk, not it was overtaken by AtomicPunk junk and after we departed from space station goliath it became cluttered with rooms created by cubicles and sleeping bags since his minions had to sleep somewhere.

Dr. Felidae's space was made up of vats and chemical mixing devices made from junk as well as medical equipment made from junk and one part of his warehouse had been truned into a nest ground for the Felis Superior he had created. (which mostly consisted of TVs, a few water toughs, large bowls full of Tiger Chow, and Bigcat friend Remot Controls as well as the occasional computer or audio book.)

Parnassus lived in a Posh Apartment building, that he owned, mostly by brainwashing the former owners, and kept his minions in apartments there.

Occasionally Wu and Felidae would steal furniture or supplies from his apartments and Parnassus would sigh and let it pass without comment.

Regardless we all had minions and living conditions now, which made the arrival of the Clock Stopper particularly unpleasant.

>>26280014
The fuck's a "hot"?

>>26280094
A hot meal, presumably.

>>26280194
Thank you for the clarification.

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>>26279806
Oh yeah, Geniuses don't do Science they do SCIENCE! Unmada are particularly nasty since they not only break the laws of physics, they BELIEVE that reality works the way they think it does,

An Unmada who believes in hollywood physics can be particularly unpleasant to deal with, though a great source of amusement.

>>26280014
What's a clock stopper?

Pretty much the polar oppisite of a Genius.

A genius makes tech do whatever the fuck they want it to do.

A Clock Stopper makes technology stop working.

What counts as technology? Up to and including a stick, picked up off the ground and stripped of its leaves.

Remember occupy wallstreet? Well our Clockstopper was a product of that movement, at some point he got traumatized and forgot the whole "lets teach those rish bastards not to mess with us" part and picked up a "lets destroy the civilized world and start anew" message.

His name was Bryan Walker and he was a smooth talking easy going guy who could somehow get away with smoking an enormous bong in public.

He arrived in Black Hill, set up a campground in the public park and defused all attempts to dislodge him by radiating an aura of chillness.

We ignored him at first.

Then he got a mob together, stormed the local power plant and wrecked it. His mob somehow gained his anti technology aura and we were literally left with our hands and our feet when it came to dealing with him.

You see, we could deal with the mob however we wanted and we came up with stun rods and tranq darts and even sleeping gas, which we used on his mob, and it worked on most everyone there.

see we got together our own mob of veterans, space folk, and giant goddamn cats and met them in the streets. The tranq gas worked on most followers, though we had to tase, tranq, or just flat out kill his elite group.

But no manner of tech would work on Bryan Walker, and he was built like a Linebacker so taking him down was going to be a pain in the ass.

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>>26280094

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>>26280094
like >>26280194 said, a hot meal.
"The hots and a cot" refers to "Three hot meals and a place to sleep." Very old slang, not unusual that you haven't heard of it.

>>26280261
Ole Bryan Walker could shutdown our CRINCE! Buffs and reduce us to mere mortals and he had a crowd of frothing mad people around him. We tried to be gentle but some of those poor, stupid college students wound up having to die.

And so did some of the police men.

And Firemen.

and EMTs....

This fucker just kept pulling anyone who tried to oppose him into his mob, if we didn't stop him he was going to burn the city to the ground.

So we tranqed and tased as many people as we could and then killed anyone we couldn't.

When Bryan was all alone he pulled a pistol on us, thankfully it was a shitty saturday night special and he was dumb enough to expend his ammo at a range that let Dr. Felidae's Snow White Serum work its wonders so we bumrushed him.

His Aura confused our minions and negated our powers but 3 men bore him down to the ground and we strangled him to death with our bare hands because, frankly, nothing else worked.

Even a rock used to smash his head in counted as tech and was negated by his clock stopping powers.

He didn't go down easy, but he went down.

Aside from some minor respect by our fellows we didn't get much out of this. We kept the city functioning, killed a frghtening entity of the WoD and generally protected our turf from outside parties.

Some innocent people died, some of our minions died, we picked up, moved on....

and every single one of us came up with our own clockstopper detection methods.

Next time that fucker wouldn't get a mob.

Just cold strangulation in the dark of the night.

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>>26280503
We had a couple weeks to work on our clock stopper detection methods.

Pretty much all of it revolved around detecting their anti-tech field. Parnassus had chimes that circulated addictive tunes. These tunes were picked up by microphones, any interuption in their distribution would indicate some interruption in his chime network.

Wu had modifications to street lights, traffic signals, and well any part of the city infrastructure that were installed by his minions, and the city itself after parnassus had some words with the city council. These would detect any inexplicable failure in the city infrastructure and report it.

Felidae had custom made lichen that he spread around the city. They'd inevitably grow on the sides of buildings and would die in the presence of an antitech field. Then they'd crumble to dust remarkable fast due to their chemical make up and stain anyone nearby a rusty color.

We'd gotten these little projects finished when Vampires in our part of the world started freaking out. Apparently they though Kane(Kain?) was going to wake up so they started preparing for the end times.

Which meant royally fucking up the city via rampages, kidnapping, blood bank looting and all manner of crap like that.

So of course we had to get our ray guns, power armor, and freakish mutated cats and go kick some pale, gothic ass.

It wasn't just us either. The rest of The Gentlemen's club and The Order (our local mage group) took to the streets too.

We didn't really bother to differentaite from the vampire groups. Our only real rule was human does not fight human during this event, everyone makes the vampires stop freaking the fuck out by hook or by crook.

And so our trio went out into the streets.

>>26258460

Yeah, I'm firmly stuck between Ray Gun and Oscilloscope, myself.

I need a Gorilla with a TV head flying a stainless steel rocket with big ass Lincoln Continental fins, dammit.
And he better be holding a ray gun with concentric circles near the barrel.

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>>26280706
Wu took to the streets in nuclear powered armor. Apparently he'd taken to mounting lasers and chainsaws on the thing.

Parnassus had salvaged that armored car, painted it black, made it nice and snazzy, and mounted another raygun on top of it as well as give the things firing slits that his minions could shoot out of.

Dr. Felidae decided that the night was chaotic enough without giant cats so he made certain that they held down the fort with a couple of Parnassus's flunkies in case they needed a human face to reassure the Hooples.

Regardless Dr. Felidae got a lightning pistol and a stun rod and took to the streets with Wu and Parnassus and together they started purging beastial vampires.

Apparently this group had been slaughtering people and creating more vampires like themselves (who would go on to slaughter more people and so on...) and thus the less combat minded Geniuses shied away from this duty.

In between the rayguns, armored car, power armor, and minions toting the aforementioned rayguns it didn't take long to clear the streets of the more savage vampires. The survivng sensible vampires agreed to stick to their usual behaviour.

I.E. Sticking to the fucking shadows where the belong.

This left us with the source of our current problem though. We had to find where the rampaging vampires in our area were and deal with them.

Like us they used an abandoned warehouse.

Unlike us they weren't concerned with being found (at the moment anyway) so it was pretty easy to backtrack the blood shed.

Which left us with hoards of crazy, blood thirsty vampires and honest to god zombies to deail with.

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>>26280801
I like Trash Praxis meets Universal. Half the stuff is just salvaged junk, the other half is typical mad science shit like tesla coils and whatever. Instead of a computer though he has like 5 salvaged XBoxes taped together and wired into a repaired plasma screen television that runs on some sort of kitbashed OS.

>>26280880
The place was a freakin' nightmare. The vampires had been there for decades so it was a warren of living flesh. Walls made from the flesh of humans, eyes that stared at us, carpets of fingers that grasped at us.

After the third or fourth wave of zombies and vampires we just left, welded the entrances shut and posted guards and then set the building on fire.

We killed anyone who tried to escape and then pushed our way into the basement using access tunnels from the next building over.

They were literally hot as a furnace and we needed rebreathers to breath in there.

The place was some sort of laboratory for an ancient fleshcrafter and he was less than pleased that we had cut off his escape route.

But Vampires don't do so well against Fire or Sunlight so we had modified our lasers before coming here.

Some dealt fire damage by dealing heat damage.

Others had been granted to the ability to infuse a person with Life energy, much like the sun.

Even though this flesh crafter claimed to be centuries old he didn't do so well against artificial sunlight and fire lasers.

we didn't trust anything in that basement so we just made sure to weaken the support structure and get the fuck out so it would burn.

Turns out the Kane thing had to do with some shenanigans in the spirit world. Apparently a Mage managed to clear it up with our City's Prince and he sent down to order to chill the fuck out the next night.

The Vampires were a bit pissed at us for purging that one warehouse but our street cred meant that they wouldn't dare take us. Especially in our own fortresses so we were more or less safe from their agression.

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>>26281092
And that's about all I got worth mentioning storywise.

Hope you enjoyed the misadventures of Dr. Felidae and his colleagues.

Have a nice night everybody.

>>26281147
5 stars bro
archive coming shortly (provided it hasn't already)

I'd like to play a Genius who can only create sexy machines, but I could never take that to an actual group.

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/26258267

We are archived.

>>26281350
If by sexy machines you mean sex toys then I'd agree.

If by sexy machines you mean sexy accessories then I'd allow that sort of thing.

>tainted which
Captcha seems to be onto you

>>26281564
But keep in mind that creating sentient beings of any type as sex slaves causes a significant drop in your Obligation. If that drops to zero, you'll go Illuminated. And that's not as good as it sounds. (I can't remember the specifics, so I'll let someone else describe what Obligation is and why becoming Illuminated is bad.)

>>26265280
I love them. My PC has a nicotine-beige case that I found at the dump and gives the overall impression of a soviet bowling alley console that was host to one too many state-sponsored orphanage birthday parties.

>>26281633
Obligation basically represents to what degree you understand and adhere to basic human morality.

Becomong Illuminated means you surrender the last of your humanity to the Inspiration burning in your skull and no longer think like a normal human being.

The more you Transgress against the norms of society the less human you become.

>>26281968
And when you become Illuminated, you become permanently cut off from society because you aren't able to view other humans as anything other than potential test subjects. In effect, an Illuminated is incredibly intelligent but has surrendered his humanity in order to gain that intelligence.

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>>26280706
>Magic and Science teaming up to fight Vampires

This kind of shit is why I love WoD.

>>26281092
>Others had been granted to the ability to infuse a person with Life energy, much like the sun.
>A bunch of geniuses actually figured out how to use the ripple

Just when I thought this couldn't get any better

>>26281147
Best storytime I've seen in a while. Great job, OP.

>>26281564
Not the guy whose idea that is, but I picture it as a sort of Chrome Babe aesthetic. Like, you have robots- and they're not sexbots or anything, just your basic mechanical assistants- but they all look like sexy chrome plated women. You have a death-ray, and it's this indisputably phallic, gleaming object of desire. Your rocketship has curves that would be more appropriate on a supermodel, and your island volcano-lair looks from the air like a reclining seductress, with suggestively dome roofs and organic curves. Your two-way comms device is a sensuous silicon mouth that whispers in your ear. Everything is functional and in no way intended to be *used* for sex, but it has that unmistakeable look.

>>26281520
Oh, geez, I didn't see that. Just tried to archive it myself.

Vote it up.

>>26258372
>>26265280
my gaming PC is in an old beige case I've had forever. It's nostalgia goggles I guess

>>26258267
Dat Venus

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>>26283417
Kind of a James Bond Villain meets Hajime Sorayama thing? I can dig it.

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>>26283352
Thanks, it was a fun game.

As for the Life-Laser thing, we figured that the sun destroys vampires because its this enormous, pulsating orb of life. A UV Bulb is just gonna give a vampire a tan.

Make a device that pumps out Life Energy, Vita-Rays or whatever you want to call it and you can trigger a chain reaction in vampire physiology.

The body realizes that its sick, tries to heal itself, and destroys itself as the super natural biology battles the briefly resurrected biology.

That was our theory anyway.

In practice vampires burst into flame when we shot them with Life-Lasers.

Making up SCIENCE weapons to fight supernatural beings is fun. My only regret is that we didn't geta ghost outbreak.

>>26287256
>WoD Ghostbusters
fund it

>>26287306
dunno about WoD, but there is a Ghostbusters RPG out there.

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I liked the MST3K name-dropping for reference material.

"Because not every genius dreams big or clearly. some just want to torture a guy with bad movies, and maybe that'll somehow lead to world domination."
>This is how I Artificer

>>26280261
>Unmada are particularly nasty since they not only break the laws of physics, they BELIEVE that reality works the way they think it does,
Part of the reason they believe this is that they project a low-level reality-warping field that realigns everything to conform to their beliefs.

It's very hard to convince someone they're wrong when everywhere they look there's evidence supporting their beliefs, and anything contradicting it just happens to disappear before they can notice it.

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What Aesthetic do the Swat Kats fall under?

>>26280503
>Even a rock used to smash his head in counted as tech and was negated by his clock stopping powers.
No it isn't. Not unless you sharpened it to make it better at killing, or broke it apart to get a more jagged edge, or something. "Bash his head in with a rock" is pretty much the best you can get against a clockstopper, since anything better would be considered to have been modified to better serve human uses (like sharpening and stripping of leaves of the aforementioned stick).

>>26281968
Obligation is less about actual human morality and more about PERCEIVED human morality and your connection to societal mores.

Surgery is an obligation sin despite it being pretty unequivocably moral, because people think cutting a dude open (even to save his life) is "gross" and requires a certain amount of cold detachment. Basically it's the perception that surgeons can stop looking at their patients as people in order to get the job done that does it.

Obligation makes very little sense when you actually look at it. I assume this is by design.

>>26287306
There's already a "Ghostbusters with the name filed off" felowship in Genius.

They're fun.

>>26266818
>>26265033
I think it's basically more splitting off the Technocracy/Sons of Ether features of oMage into its own thing, and incorporated a little better into a wider setting.

I'm planning on running a Genius/nChangeling game when I can get enough players together.

>>26269710
>>26265924
It's kind of a similar problem to pretty much all World of Darkness games really, it can turn into superheroes quick if you lose track of the intended feel, and not even suffer that much for it.

I do like how Geniuses are both absurd and terrifying, even if you're familiar with them. I figure even the other supernaturals think that Geniuses are ridiculous and dangerous. Mages are canonically pretty creeped out by them,

>>26288494
considering they get their gear from scavenging military surplus, they could arguably be a variant of Trash Praxis...

>>26269710
Genius is heavily inspired by Venture Bros, and it really, really shows. Hell, you basically just described The Monarch.

>>26266818
Well, no, Moochava really does hate nMage for not being oMage.

He's wrong and nMage is good, but he still wrote a decent game as a result of being a petulant grognard who hates change and has absolutely no confidence in White Wolf's ability to make decent games.

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Just reached the Mere Mortal Law/Gilligan Rule of mad science. Haven't followed WoD stuff in a while, but this is looking pretty awesome.

>Don't mind me! Just Clockstopping the Minnow and every single thing the Professor invents with my hijinks!

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>>26288622
Hrmm, maybe a mixture of brutalism and trash praxis? The Enforcers clearly have a military vibe going on but the swat kats have a salvaged military look.

>>26288499
Yeah, you're right I guess. Still Clock Stoppers come in varying degrees of strength so some of them would be immune to ray guns and others wouldn't.

>>26288546
Mmm, point. Its about fitting into societal norms. Plent of people hate looking at blood.

I shave my head with razors pretty regularly and occasionally I cut myself. Head wounds bleed a lot so it looks ugly.

My room mates are used to it but occasionally they'll bring a friend over and I'll shuffle off to my room with all this blood pouring down the side of my head. (not a regular occurrence but it does happen every now and again.) and then I'll get these LOOKS...

So yeah, what some people think as normal will freak out. That's what obligation is about I guess.

>>26288752
Brutalism/TP hybrid... yeah, that works. Like you said, their stuff's all basically repurposed/rebuilt army-surplus hardware.

Needs a catchy name though...

>>26281147
Damn, that's a helluva storytime. Hope I can run a campaign that ends up half as interesting.

It's still in the extended planning stage, but so far I've got the stage set in a crumbling Russian city that used to be a major scientific centre under the Soviets but is mostly abandoned now, and the prospective characters include a Grimm Progenitor who is out for revenge for his wife who was taken by the Gentry and died in Arcadia, and plans to do so through use of mathematical mushrooms, and an androgynous Fairest Shadowsoul who looks like a black-and-white film actress, has a fittingly black-and-white worldview to match and is more or less a closet Loyalist. And my potental DMPC (becaue I like to have my cake and eat it too) is a plush dinosaur who was a kid's imaginary friend but abandoned and disbelieved so suddenly he came into being as an Inspired Mane, a Klagen naturally.

>>26288752
Of course, Obligation's got some other problems, most of which stem from modelling about four different types of morality on the same sliding scale.

For example, one of my players is playing a Klagen whose entire motivation is that he accidentally turned his whole daughter Beholden and is completely horrified by this. He's decided he needs to restrict the influence the Inspired have over the mortal world (and eventually hopefully figure out a way to reverse the Beholdening process and maybe even Catalyzation itself - as a note, we've pretty much completely rewritten the way Epikrato works and have removed its ability to add and remove the Beholden template, Metanormal advantage, and suchlike, as for one thing that would make fulfilling his life's goal as simple as mastering one Axiom). He went pretty crazy and no longer has access to his old job and cashflow, or any of his old connections. He's tired of putting up with the bullshit that comes with the business world anyway, and he's decided it would be more practiccal to accomplish his goals via less legal means. In short, he's decided to become a mob boss.

Naturally, this means he's stopped giving a shit about things like petty theft or burglary or extortion, and his Obligation has dropped to reflect that. Only problem is, with the way obligation works, not giving a shit about petty theft (i.e. being Obligation 6 or lower) means you automatically don't give a shit about every other Obligation 7 sin.

So according to his morality stat, he officially has absolutely no issue with human experimentation, mind control, and (more importantly), turning people into Beholden. Despite the fact that the entire basis of his character as a Genius is the fact that he finds creating Beholden horrifying and wrong.

>>26288922


I've got another character whose primary ambition as a Genius is the creation of intelligent life, and is not happy with the fact that being okay with doing that means he's necessarily also okay with burglary, kidnapping, and destroying evidence that conflicts with his worldview.

Obligation models way too many things to use one track for all of it.

>>26288796
Paramilitary Utilitarianism?

>>26259403
>Why?
Because you're a genderbender fetish faggot who needs to go back to /d/. He is obviously growing his own waifus from scratch.

>>26289008

this

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>>26288796
Fabrique Generale? General Fabrications? Mildly fancy sounding name for just saying "Normal Items?"

Focus being on using junk, preferably military oriented junk to make something. Very functional, not much in the way of bells and whistles. Anything in the way of ornamentation will be a switch, button, or light that serves an obvious purpose. There may be exposed wires or open panels but that's less an aesthetic choice and more running out of material to keep all the bits and bobs inside the machine.

>>26288946
Maybe they should take a cue from Unknown Armies and have separate tracks for separate types of transgressions.

>>26289001
accurate, but not too catchy. Need something descriptive but that also rolls off the tongue well, like the other Aesthetics.

Maybe some sort of vivid-mental-image nickname, like how the hybrid Aesthetic of Black Plastic and Trash Praxis is called "Crawling Rusty Meat".

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>>26289008

Being a Science Pimp is not easy in many situations, but sometimes the results are most rewarding.

>>26289090
That's perfect.
"Fabrique Generale". I love it.

>>26287306
geist

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>>26289147
The entire picture was better science pimp than your crop.

>>26289104
Can I get a link to how that works? I'm trying to rework obligation to be less dumb for my game, at least.

>>26289181
I now find it impossible to see that robot without thinking of that one youtube vid featuring it strutting set to "Stayin' Alive". Awesome.

>>26288868
My Advice as a Player is to use some of the stuff my GM used.

For starters the Lemurians usually hold the pursestrings so you have to go to them to get funding.

We sort of sidestepped this in my campaign since Black Hill City is a notorius hotspot for WoD shenanigans and as such werewolf, Vampire, and Spirit rampages have become so common that all the (mostly) sane mages and geniuses in the city organized into single groups, studiously ignored their past, and focused on upholding the masquerade and keeping the city functioning.

Now what this meant is that there's a club for Geniuses. You're in, and you can shmooz up to any number of guys who can put you into a position that gets you stuff you need.

Want some test subjects for you medicine, talk to the guy on the Hospital's board of directors.

Need some junk, talk to the guy who is black mailing the city council and owns the deeds to all the junkyards, trash dumps, and recycling centers.

We solved our resource issues via socializing in a club setting.

YOU need to figure out who holds the purse strings, who has the junk, who has the test subjects, and figure out how the PCs are going to get ahold of those items in a bunch of diferent scenarios.

Once you have the MEANS to do science you need to figure out the primary means of conflict.

Black Hill City was a hot zone, supernatural shit of all kinds popped up and either The Order or The Club dealt with it and kept the Hooples safe.

Where does conflict pop up in your game? How will the players be involved? Do they have an obligation to protect nornals? Or are they the ones menacing normals?

This is important stuff.

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>>26289149
Cool, feel free to do whatever with it, I stole it from a quest I used to run.

>>26289228
At least I'm not the only one.

>>26289090
wait, how would that be much different from Brutalism? Because it sounds a lot like it.

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>>26289455
>stripped-down, ugly, and exposed.
Brutalism calls for stripped down parts and exposed parts implying that the Genius took away parts to expose the inner workings.

Fabrique Generale would focus on making military style items, ones that are self contained and complete from bits and bobs that they find, parts are only exposed when they absolutely need to be and the finished product is usually coated in drab paint.

Cherno Alpha would probably be a good example of a Brutalist mech.

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>>26289552
Where as Isaac Clarke's Rig would be a good Example of Fabrique Generale Construction. Nothing that NEEDS to be exposed is exposed, its simple, functional, and gets the job done.

Later versions of his suit add on more armor, and the health bar thingy on the back is meant to indicate his location and status to anyone who can see him which makes sense for construction equipment like a Rig.

>>26289552
>>26289589
Hmm... so, like, if you start with a stock-built vehicle with the goal of making a low-grade armored car (equivalent to a bank truck for example)...

Brutalism would add a bunch of intimidating-looking but kinda-pointless extra gubbins on it like huge bolted-on stuff or plates with bold yellow-n-black danger-stripes.

Fabrique Generale would take functional pieces - maybe even scrap from an actual armored car itself if possible - to armor the vehicle, without being overdramatic.

Am I pretty close to the gist of your meaning here?

Digital Chrome.

I'm mad that Black Plastic has such a great name.

>>26289455
Brutalism is ugly, menacing, and hostile.

Military-style can mean clean and respectable.

>>26289552
>>26289589
>>26289692
So it's just Military-themed Functionalism then.

>>26289912
sort of, except that it tends toward using recycled/repurposed/rebuilt items rather than newer stuff. Sort of like taking a subtle stance against the "disposable technology" mindset existant nowadays".

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>>26289912
Kind of, if we assume that Trash Praxis represents "waste Not, Want Not" then Fabrique General is "Waste Nothing and Look Good Doing So."

On top of recycling items wherever possible the genius would endevour to make sure his creation looks aesthetically pleasing, much the way a refurbished car or computer looks pleasing.

Outside it has a new coat of paint, probably taub. Inside its old bits and bobs, cleaned up bits and bobs, but old stuff nonetheless.

Brutalism as an Aesthetic says "Fuck beauty, I'm going to be intimidating and ugly."

Functionalism says "make it work, worry about looks after functionality." it focuses on functionality but still worries about aesthetics.

Fabriqsays "take old items, combine them, make them work, and make it look presentable." Its about using what's at hand and look professional at the same time.

>>26290261
I'd say that's the perfect description.

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Quick Theory on why the various ancient conspiracies never noticed one another.

If we look at each of the WoD game books we can see serpate universes, Story Tellers can make those universe interact but the books assume that those worlds are mostly stand alone.

If we assume that each book represents a dominant timeline wherein one type of supernatural dominated Earth's history (with possible overlap as long as those supernaturals don't conflict with one another) then we can assume that the Genius Time Police guys kept the timeline interaction minimal.

But we now know that the Bosses at the End of Time are GONE and that the Time Police have become increasingly lazy and corrupt so what if timelines are converging?

What if the conpsiracies that plague mages and geniuses never noticed one another because up until now they each had their own seperate earth and now The Awakened and The Inspired are forced to share a single Earth until someone corrects the timeline?

>>26260021
This is the best aesthetic

>>26260053
Same here!

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>>26260021
>>26291774

Pic related.

>>26291792
oh god the beige

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What Aesthetic does Doomguy's armor represent?

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This is somewhere inebetween Oscilloscope and Raygun.

Eitherway makes for a good Genius Character.

God damn, this thread reminded me that I really need to play Genius sometime. Can anyone point me to a GMT timezone-friendly game?

>>26288499
to be fair, there's a clock-stopper in official fluff called Walking-Man who rendered an entire town unable to talk
at high levels tech seems to be any product of creativity or intelligence

Forgive the faggotry, but I actually like the 40K aesthetic- not so much skulls everywhere, but more like the fusion of stuff like gothic churches and tech. What aesthetic would that fall under?

>>26292393
Combination of Space Sci-Fi and B Movie Gore.

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I'm not sure what this would be, but I like it.

This thread is still alive? Holy crap

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>>26293057
I'd call "Gothica" if you're going to focus on the cathedrals and the technology. I take it your labe would have a computer that looks like an enormous organ?

Maybe its less "40K" you want and more "Big O" with a heavier dose of religious imagery.

>>26293139
A combination of Raygun and Universal with a dash of Art Deco. Gipsy is based on World War 2 fighters and evokes a vintage feel. Hell if you look at her from behind and her shoulder pads are in the upright position it looks like she has an eagle perched on her shoulders.

>>26293344
>I take it your lab would have a computer that looks like an enormous organ?

Pretty much, yeah, with pipes coming out and everything. My Igors(?) would look like monks with technological bits; when I'm out on business I'll put on some powered armour that's inlaid with all kinds of religious-themed designs; purity seals, purity seals everywhere, that style of thing.

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>>26293422
Call it Gothica then.

The "Igors" are called Beholden in game, you basically make them yours via some sort of device or indoctrination method and they now believe your philosophy as opposed to whatever they beleieved before. (Note: This does not make them immune to conflicts of interest if their new world view is radically opposed to their old one.)

As for the rest, I'd advise you to go with a scroll of sorts kept aloft in some manner of field that makes it billow in the wind. One scroll for each limb or a big ostentatious one around the chest.

Much snazzier than a purity seal.

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>>26258267
So since I love all the different flavors of science so much, I compiled this for future screencap threads.

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Trash Praxis Mech.

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What would you guys fits me?
G36, black/camo vests, modern style gear, maybe full motorbike shaped protective helmets, High level of German stylings, Hugo boss style uniforms, black and green as the primary colors?

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>>26294197
Pic also related.

>>26289228
there is a vid for that http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P0g9rIC-lc

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>>26294197
Sounds like you want functionalism with a Paramilitary bend.

>>26294298
>>26294212
>>26294197
It's been discussed further up the thread. The idea for this sort of aesthetically pleasing functionalism was dubbed "Fabrique Generale."

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>>26291774
>>26260021
>>26259503

I decided to expand on my aesthetic by adding things which i thought were related.

>>26294517
functionalist meets cyberpunk

>>26294457
But for vehicles I was thinking stuff like.. the BMW 7 series?

>>26294517

So, an aesthetic as such that the world view of the unmada who believes the universe operates on the scientific principles said aesthetic implies (in the way unmada with rayguns and flying saucers believe the world went wrong when they went away from the idea of atomic cars and such) would be that of Tom Clancy?

So in the 90's did a smattering of geniuses go unmada over the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Japanese Lost Decade (consider Clancy novels which kept on depicting Russia and Japan as world-dominating powers well into the 90's)? If so did their maniac storm of disbelief/alternative reality substitution create a technothriller Bardo?

>>26294882
>Tom Clancy?

If that by which you mean a world like Op-Center where cyber warfare is the biggest threat.
I like to think he lives in a world which has just come out of that. Well, atleast for him.

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>>26294882
Technothriller Bardo huh?

Make it a distopian copy of the united states that also has a japanese and russian super state.

The America Proxy is in economic ruin. Its basically one enormous decaying city, vacant sky scrapers patrolled by homicidal security drones, streets full of the destitute and homeless.

Russia and Japan fight a proxy war in the US, roughly 1 half of the Mega City that encompasses the US is Russian, the Other Half is Japanese. The russian side is state controlled ala the CCCP the Japanese side is one enormous corporation full of Salarymen and Oprressed American workers.

We can call it... Red Ascendence.

>>26295220
Russiaboo detected.

>>26295220
You could include Europe/Brazil/China as wildcards too.

>>26295220
Think I'm going to steal that and replace the two sides as EUR(European Union+Russia) with China+Iran

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>>26295406
Why the fuck not? I'm more guy though so you're going to have to flesh those out for yourself my comrade.

>>26295400
I just miss the days when America had clear cut enemies. And Bardos are all about broken dreams and nightmares anyway. This one represents the cyber wars and corporate take over that never occured and the warriors who were trained to fight on battlefields that may never exist.