Genius: The Transgression (and NWoD in general)

[ninja_penguin]

So, one of the members of our gaming group has a few of the new WoD books, but has yet to run anything with it. I recently stumbled upon the fan-line of Genius: The Transgression, and was unable to shake the idea of running at least a one-shot based in the Girl Genius universe on it.

The major problem is that I have absolutely no experience with the world of darkness system whatsoever. I know that I can fill in 90% of my questions by borrowing the book and giving it a read through, so I'll be limiting questions specifically to the Genius: TG questions.

And given that when I did some searching online for this stuff I ended up back in the Giantitp forums within about 4 links, so I'm wondering if the Genius stuff is just that obscure.

So, has anybody ever played Genius? I've got a few questions regarding wonders, character creation, and Obligation and morality in general, but I guess I'd like to know if anybody out there might know the question before I just go ahead and text dump.

[erikun]

I have played World of Darkness a (very) little bit, so I can answer your questions about that one.

I haven't played Genius. I just discovered it recently, through a thread in the Recruitment forum.

[ninja_penguin]

Some of the biggest questions that are general system based to me:

1. Experience and improvement. Now, I can see that experience is much more powerful per unit of exp then, say, D&D. I'm a bit curious as to how much you're supposed to give out and how often. I'm also debating what is acceptable boosted levels to start characters out with. If I stick with a one-shot, I'm most certainly going to boost them a little bit as they'll all have been Sparks (geniuses) for at least a little while before this.

2. The Morality/Obligation scale. Now, looking at the things that count as transgressions, I'm a little curious as to how it works. I get the social penalty, derangements, etc. I'm curious as to when people are supposed to roll for transgressions as they start to lose Obligation. Like say, some transgressions at Obligation 6: Creating an intelligent machine. I get how they attempt to avoid losing obligation. But let's say they botch the roll or somesuch, and end up at obligation 5. Can they now just ignore everything above them on the Chart of Unacceptable Things?

3. Setting up the rogues gallery. I'll admit I'm a bit spoiled, having started my major DM tenure with 4th edition, where they have the experience budget. The Genius: The Transgression pdf file has a bunch of various villains in the back of the book, but I'm unable to really comprehend what should be thrown at the players. And I know that recurring characters or NPCs will need to be fully statted, but how much can you get away with if the mook is expected to show up, growl threateningly, and get hosed with a death ray. And what are acceptable average stats to be created on the fly when they gun-crazy death ray builder spontaneously decides that he wants to talk first?

[Ravens_cry]

Genius the transgression looked interesting. A bit grim for my tastes, but that's just the usual 'we are sooo dark' fluff. The idea though of playing an actual factual 'mad scientist'?
***
Hehe.
Ha ha.
Ha, ha ha!
MU,WAH,HA AHA HAAAAAA! ! ! !
Eh, he.
Eh hem.
*erm*
Yea, sounds OK. *cough*
*whistles off to secret laboratory*

[erikun]

1.) Wow, that is a funny place to hide it. Guidelines for handing out experience is in the back of the book, pages 216-217.

Experience is handled more along the lines of story awards than overcoming individual challanges. That is, it doesn't matter if you beat the gang by beating them all up or locking them in a warehouse and calling the police - you get the same experience.

Experience is generally handed out at the end of a session. You get a few points for just showing up and participating, along with larger bonuses after completing a storyline or wrapping up a campaign. I would personally prefer handing out a consistent amount each session (say, 2-3 points) with a slightly larger amount after completing a storyline, but that's just me.

Spending experience is found on page 35. Like I said, it's rather wierd that the two are so spaced out. For a one-shot, starting out as Seasoned (35 pts) or Expert (75 pts) will give them lots of toys to play with. If Genius has higher experience totals and/or "Genius experience" at those levels, use the ones that Genius gives you. The extra experience is for learning the special Genius powers, along with the mundane skills.

2.) Assuming it's like other systems, Obligations are like Morality, and replaces it. That is, the Genius Spark has fundamentally changed the person, and they need to follow the Obligations in order to retain their sanity (or however it is described). They are free to break Moral codes without rolls, as long as it doesn't break their Obligations.

Of course, running around murdering people will still get you into legal trouble...

The only time you need to roll for breaking an Obligation is if the trangression is on the character's current Obligation level or lower. To use your example, if someone with Obligation 8 were to creating an intelligent machine, they would need to roll to see if they lost Obligation. Failing the roll would drop them to Obligation 7. (You only lose one point per roll, regardless of how low the trangression is.)

On the other hand, the dice rolled depend on the trangression. Obligation 6: Creating an intelligent machine likely says (Roll three dice), so the character would only roll 3 dice, not the 4 dice from an Obligation 8 trangression.

Somebody with a lower Obligation than the trangression don't need to roll - the trangression doesn't bother them at such a low Obligation. A character with Obligation 5 would not need to make a roll when they create an intelligent machine. Note that low-obligation characters will probably have a number of derangements, though, so "dumping" your Obligations isn't always a good idea.

3.) There isn't an EXP table, so this can be rather difficult. It is made more so because most encounters aren't fights, or at least aren't complete fights. After all, a mad genius with a deathray-walker-robot presents more problems than just his melee combat skills.

In general, take a look at your player's stats and build the NPC from there. I haven't GMed a game myself, so my advice may not be the best. However, I would think that making the Big Bad within 1-2 points of the character's stats would keep him a challange. That is, if one character has 4 Strength and 3 Weaponry, while the best dodger has 4 Defense, you probably want the Big Bad to have at least a 3-4 attack roll and 6-7 Defense. Enough to be difficult to fight, but capable for the group to take down.

This only matters in whatever field the party will be "fighting" the Big Bad in. If the Big Bad is a politician, then he'll have high skill ranks in Politics, Computer, Streetwise, and Persuasion... but probably not much in the way of combat. Remember that experience is awarded based on the story (and the difficulty of the story), not necessarily how difficult it is to punch out the Big Bad in a fistfight.

[Beelzebub1111]

Genius is so much fun! I made Doc Savage, while my friend played The Spoony One's Dr. Insano. We fought an army of Clone Hitlers that escaped the time police's cloning facility. They used alien tech developed by Space Nazis to rain havoc on the western world, while it was up to the two of us to stop them by taking out the Alien Proto-Hitler that was pulling the strings.

[Belobog]

Some of the biggest questions that are general system based to me:

1. Experience and improvement. Now, I can see that experience is much more powerful per unit of exp then, say, D&D. I'm a bit curious as to how much you're supposed to give out and how often. I'm also debating what is acceptable boosted levels to start characters out with. If I stick with a one-shot, I'm most certainly going to boost them a little bit as they'll all have been Sparks (geniuses) for at least a little while before this.

Generally, playing through a session should award 4 XP to all present. There should also be experience given for each plot, character, or event milestone reached, generally 1 per event, 2 or higher if it's the result of multiple sessions of work. Even with that, rate of advancement should be quite high.


2. The Morality/Obligation scale. Now, looking at the things that count as transgressions, I'm a little curious as to how it works. I get the social penalty, derangements, etc. I'm curious as to when people are supposed to roll for transgressions as they start to lose Obligation. Like say, some transgressions at Obligation 6: Creating an intelligent machine. I get how they attempt to avoid losing obligation. But let's say they botch the roll or somesuch, and end up at obligation 5. Can they now just ignore everything above them on the Chart of Unacceptable Things?

This is the way the general Humanity system works: if you take an action that would incur a penalty, you can either roll to prevent it, risking failure and the acquisition of a derangement if you fail, or you can simply accept the loss and move on. Note that certain levels give you derangements anyway, but at that point, you're approaching the low end of the graph (Humanity 2).

Essentially, what's happening is that that person has had a conflict of character; they tried to hold themselves to a specific standard, and found themselves lacking. As they go down, they become more and more debased; as they go up, they hold themselves to a higher and higher standard, because they know they're better than that. As such, what counts as a violation changes based on how the character perceives themselves.


3. Setting up the rogues gallery. I'll admit I'm a bit spoiled, having started my major DM tenure with 4th edition, where they have the experience budget. The Genius: The Transgression pdf file has a bunch of various villains in the back of the book, but I'm unable to really comprehend what should be thrown at the players. And I know that recurring characters or NPCs will need to be fully statted, but how much can you get away with if the mook is expected to show up, growl threateningly, and get hosed with a death ray. And what are acceptable average stats to be created on the fly when they gun-crazy death ray builder spontaneously decides that he wants to talk first?

You'll have to figure that out yourself; you could get away with cutting some stuff, depending on your expectations (these gang bangers should just have combat skills and base stats, the proprietor of the club should only have social skills), but don't be afraid to go back and add things/change things if they become recurring or take on a role you didn't expect (the gang becomes a major adversary for the characters/the club proprietor becomes a valuable contact). Major NPCs should be fully stated out, perhaps spending a certain amount of experience to bump them up to what you need. It's more of an art, but you'll get the hang of it.

Edit: Ninja'd, and with better information. Disregard.

[Kantolin]

#3 is just kind of a problem with white wolf style games in general.

A very helpful major rule of thumb is, when someone's rolling Xd10, they will make about 0.5*X successes. So if they're rolling 6d10, they'll probably make ~3 successes.

That can help in planning a lot, as that helps you guesstimate 'Ah, okay, this person has 10 dice, so he'll probably get ~5ish successes, so...'

[ninja_penguin]

Thanks for the input. That should help me set up some of the things, and I think I'll probably start them off at the 35 experience level, given that I assume that they're not going to be playing for a long period of time.

Now I just need to stat Jagers and the like, should be interesting.

I'm thinking I'm going to loosen a little bit of the transgressions, or at least add a 'The Baron made me do it', to fit with the theme of the setting, and add in 'get sent to Castle heterodyne' as a possible punishment for dropping too low in Obligation.

[ninja_penguin]

Oh, one other quick question: Our group isn't super-optimization minded, and is more likely to stumble onto any particular overpowered combination than actively create a cheesed or munchkin character. Is there any particular combo or setup that should raise alarm bells in the GM's head? (aside from, say, somebody statting themselves out in the wrong direction for the theme)

[erikun]

I've heard that Mage: The Awakening has some potentially quite powerful spells, but not anything from the core World of Darkness rulebook.

Beyond that, a large difference in combat skills (say, one character with 3 Strength + 4 Weaponry and another with 2 Strength and no combat skills) will mean either the weak character just runs and hides, or the stronger one can kill everything within reach. For the first time, you'll probably want to make sure everyone has around the same Brawl/Firearms/Weaponry dice pools, or that they know their character can't do anything in a fight.

[charl]

Genius the transgression looked interesting. A bit grim for my tastes, but that's just the usual 'we are sooo dark' fluff. The idea though of playing an actual factual 'mad scientist'?
***
Hehe.
Ha ha.
Ha, ha ha!
MU,WAH,HA AHA HAAAAAA! ! ! !
Eh, he.
Eh hem.
*erm*
Yea, sounds OK. *cough*
*whistles off to secret laboratory*

And yet Genius is significantly less GRIMDARK! than the rest of the World of Darkness.