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Two versions of geniuses. One which is a quick to use advanced stigmatic, the other is sort of a Mage/stigmatic hybrid inspired by Olivia Hill's changeling/vampire hybrids.
All stigmatics suffer from seeing strange visions and gears that others cannot, but some see more than others. Geniuses are stigmatics who’s eldritch visions inspire them to create horrible machines that work on physics that they were never taught. Despite what some may think, geniuses aren't named after their intelligence, many are actually quite dumb, but instead are named after the roman concept of the genius. In the religion of ancient Rome genius is name for the innate divinity that is within everything, and it is said that the rare stigmata of these God-Machine corrupted people allows them to interact with that innate divinity.
Genius Character Creation
Creating a genius character progresses in much the same way as creating a mortal character (described in the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook), which a few changes. Steps One through Four, Seven, and Eight remain unchanged.
Step Five: Apply Genius Template
Genius characters have access to Supernatural Merits, at the Storyteller’s discretion. In addition, players can spend Merit dots on the following demon-blooded merits as if they were fractals; ambient aether (this does not allow them to charge embeds), aether pool and infrastructure proficiency. Finally, a genius still counts as a stigmatic for the purpose of prerequisites.
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Normally when a mortal comes in contact with infrastructure of the God-Machine; they become corrupted by its occult matrix, infused with glitches, and forever see the divine machinations that lie just behind human perception. But sometimes something greater occurs, if for example a sleeper on the brink of awakening came in contact with infrastructure that constructs an angel. If such a miraculous event arises, the occult information doesn't just leave a stigmata upon the victim, instead because of their soul was so open and vulnerable, the infrastructure floods into their soul showing them the occult designs and systems of the God-Machine. They awakened in this moment, but they were not truly Wise.
The resultant being was able to see both infrastructure and the most base layers of the supernal. They could follow the designs in their minds to construct odd devices that ran off the only fuel that was within their grasp, mana born from within such as experiencing revelations and putting themselves into their work in a way that could be described as an occult combination of sacrifice and dedication to their work. They were still driven by obsession and possessed Wisdom like true Wise, but they never reached a watchtower and thus cannot ever form spells and when one grows Mad aether flows from his soul and cause glitches in the world around him. These glitches attract attention of both angels who desire a functioning world and demons hungry for the power that radiates from them.
Paths
Mages awake to one of five supernal paths, as detailed in Mage: the Awakening. While all geniuses awakened, they awoke to see the occult physics of the God-Machine rather than the gnostic truth of the Supernal. Essentially, Geniuses don’t have a Path. Thus they don’t consider any arcana ruling or inferior. While mages have no true path, they were in the early stages of awakening when their stigmata struck, leaving the genius with their minds more open to possibilities of a supernal realm than the average sleepwalker. The path they would have awakened to if not for the infrastructure defines certain advantages available to them. So when making a Genius character, determine to which Path his soul is open to. Certain Merits require specific Path Attunement to purchase.
Incarnations
Despite not being fallen angels, Geniuses do possess Incarnations as described in Demon: the Descent. The incarnation of a genius is determined by the the angel that was subsumed by the geniuses’ awakening, which sets the geniuses’ favoured embeds.
Genius Rules
The following rules modify the normal rules for Chronicles of Darkness characters.
Merits
Genius characters counts as stigmatics for the purpose of prerequisites, though cannot take supernatural merits. In addition, players can spend Merit dots on the following demon-blooded merits as if they were fractals; ambient aether (this does not allow them to charge embeds), aether pool and infrastructure proficiency. Finally, there are some merits available only to geniuses.
Resistance Attribute
Like one of the wise, awakening leads to the Genius becoming more resilient. The Genius gains an additional dot in a resistance attribute as described in
Mage: the Awakening.
Opened Eyes
Geniuses have gazed upon the gears of the God-Machine while their minds were beginning to upon to the supernal. As a result they can see the gears of the God-Machine as well as a Demon could and gain the benefits of Peripheral Mage Sight as described in Mage: the Awakening. In addition the Genius gains visions that are a mixture between God-Machine’s eldritch code, impossible designs and invisible machinations, and the Supernal’s absolute truth, raw intensity, and intangible knowledge. These visions function identically to the Omen Sensitivity merit except that the Storyteller has control over when such a vision occurs rather than the player.
Gnosis
The souls of Geniuses have been awakened to the truth of the world (even if that truth is different to that of the Wise). Geniuses possess Gnosis in a manner similar to that of Mages, except it is limited by the fact the genius never reached a supernal realm. The gnosis of a Genius only determines the maximum attributes of the Genius, the number of obsessions the Genius possesses, acts as a supernatural tolerance, and determines how much mana a Genius can store within themselves and how much mana they can process within a single turn. Finally, individuals attempting to investigate or track down a genius takes a penalty to such rolls equal to half the Geniuses’ gnosis.
Mana
Geniuses never reached the supernal but their minds are open enough to be able to grasp mana that rises from themselves to fuel their occult matrixes. This functions identically to mana from Mage: the Awakening except that for the following:
Geniuses can only mana through a limited number of methods:
Geniuses are often driven to extreme acts because of the knowledge trapped within their souls. This functions identically to the obsessions of Mage: the Awakening.
Arcane Experience
Geniuses can gain arcane beats as if they were mages except they cannot gain arcane beats from legacies as they cannot be part of a legacy. Arcane Experience can only be spent towards purchasing Embeds, Exploits, Gnosis, and Wisdom.
Wisdom
Much like one of the Wise, geniuses must be careful in how they use their gifts and devices as lack of control and hubris can lead to their stigmata bleeding out from their souls into the world. Because of this, geniuses use Wisdom from Mage: the Awakening instead of integrity. The wisdom of a genius is slightly different to that of the wise though;
The soul of a genius is corrupted, causing them to gain a single minor glitch and gain a number of additional glitches as if they were a demon with a primium score equal to their gnosis. What form these glitches take depends on their current wisdom, with higher wisdom allowing the genius to better contain the eldritch energies. Enlightened geniuses have their glitches manifest as tells, understanding geniuses have half their glitches appear as brands (rounded up) with the rest as tells, falling geniuses have half of their glitches manifest as emanations (rounded up) with the rest as brands, and mad geniuses have all their glitches appear as emanations.
Embeds
The soul of a genius is filled with esoteric designs, formulae, and rites which describe the backdoors that are seeded throughout reality. Geniuses start with four embed “designs”, two of which must be associated with the geniuses’ incarnation. Geniuses can purchase embeds of associated with their incarnation with experience as if they were a demon, but the genius requires a demon or genius who knows the desired embed to teach them in it’s use if they want to purchase embeds their incarnation isn't associated with. Geniuses cannot use embeds in the way demons can, instead they are limited to being able to install embeds into gadgets. The only exception are a geniuses’ discoveries, specific embeds that the genius has full comprehension of as part of their magnum opus.
Exploits
Geniuses cannot start with exploits, but can purchase them with experience as if they were demons. Like embeds, a genius cannot use them outside of gadget installation unless the exploit is part of that geniuses’ magnum opus in the form of a breakthrough.
Gadgets
Geniuses can create gadgets through installation of embeds and exploits in a manner that is identical to that of demons except for the following:
Geniuses can enter their dreams through meditation in the same manner as a mage can. A genius cannot access the astral through a demesne or hallow, but if their Oneiros is entered the visitor will note that it’s goetia have angelic and mechanical aspects to their appearances.
Compromise
Despite lacking cover geniuses can still risk compromise, attracting the attention of the god-machine with their gadgets, breakthroughs and discoveries (but you cannot risk compromise as a result of acting out of character or being investigated as you have no cover to pick apart). Geniuses act is if they had 10 cover for the purpose of determining the modifier to the dicepool. A geniuses’ comprise rolls do not cause Cover loss, glitches, beats, or the blown condition.
Magnum Opus
Where the unchained have a cipher, geniuses have their magnum opus. Magum Opus is identical to Cipher from Demon: the Descent except that keys are called discoveries, interlocks are called breakthroughs, and that it serves as the only way for geniuses to use embeds and exploits.
Aethereal Sight (**)
Prerequisites: Genius, open to the Obrimos path
Effect: Select either Forces or Prime. You gain the ability to use the active mage sight of the selected arcana for a scene, by spending a single point of mana.
Arcadian Sight (**)
Prerequisites: Genius, open to the Acanthus path
Effect: Select either Fate or Time. You gain the ability to use the active mage sight of the selected arcana for a scene, by spending a single point of mana.
Internal Mechanisms (***)
Prerequisites: Genius
Effect: You can take components out from your soul and use it to create powerful gadgets. This allows you to create form gadgets as if you were a demon with three Modifications, two Technologies, one Propulsion, and one Process that are selected when you take this merit. Form gadgets created by a genius cannot be grafted onto demons.
Pandemonium Sight (**)
Prerequisites: Genius, open to the Mastigos path
Effect: Select either Mind or Space. You gain the ability to use the active mage sight of the selected arcana for a scene, by spending a single point of mana.
Stygian Sight (**)
Prerequisites: Genius, open to the Moros path
Effect: Select either Death or Matter. You gain the ability to use the active mage sight of the selected arcana for a scene, by spending a single point of mana.
Wild Sight (**)
Prerequisites: Genius, open to the Thyrsus path
Effect: Select either Life or Spirit. You gain the ability to use the active mage sight of the selected arcana for a scene, by spending a single point of mana.
Genius (Quick Version)
All stigmatics suffer from seeing strange visions and gears that others cannot, but some see more than others. Geniuses are stigmatics who’s eldritch visions inspire them to create horrible machines that work on physics that they were never taught. Despite what some may think, geniuses aren't named after their intelligence, many are actually quite dumb, but instead are named after the roman concept of the genius. In the religion of ancient Rome genius is name for the innate divinity that is within everything, and it is said that the rare stigmata of these God-Machine corrupted people allows them to interact with that innate divinity.
Genius Character Creation
Creating a genius character progresses in much the same way as creating a mortal character (described in the Chronicles of Darkness Rulebook), which a few changes. Steps One through Four, Seven, and Eight remain unchanged.
Step Five: Apply Genius Template
- Genius characters begin play with the Unseen Sense (God-Machine) Merit for free. Characters who become geniuses during play gain the Merit at no cost. Additionally, like demons, geniuses can see the gears and structures of the God-Machine unveiled.
- Every stigmatic character suffers visions, much like those from the Omen Sensitivity merit, and while these are completely beyond the genius’s control, they do inspire him rather than terrify. Once per chapter, the Storyteller may spontaneously subject a genius character to one such vision, in which case the character gains the Stunned tilt for a single turn and the Inspired Condition in regards to the vision.
- Genius characters gain a single glitch (a major brand or tell) that cannot be cured, removed, or changed by any means, although it may be suppressed for a scene with a Willpower point. This trait is called stigmata.
- Genius characters begin play with two Embeds of their choice, and may also spend 1 Experience during play to purchase new Embeds or an Exploits (to gain an Exploit they must have a storyteller approved embed as prerequisite). The genius cannot use these Embeds and Exploits in anyway, except that the genius can install them into objects to create Gadgets as if they were a Demon. Most geniuses require a demon ally or direct access to infrastructure to provide the necessary aether, which can lead many geniuses to never actually create the wonders that dance in their mind.
- Genius characters count as if they possessed Primium 1 for the purpose of creating gadgets and determining the effects of their embeds and exploits.
Genius characters have access to Supernatural Merits, at the Storyteller’s discretion. In addition, players can spend Merit dots on the following demon-blooded merits as if they were fractals; ambient aether (this does not allow them to charge embeds), aether pool and infrastructure proficiency. Finally, a genius still counts as a stigmatic for the purpose of prerequisites.
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Genius (Mage/Stigmatic)
Normally when a mortal comes in contact with infrastructure of the God-Machine; they become corrupted by its occult matrix, infused with glitches, and forever see the divine machinations that lie just behind human perception. But sometimes something greater occurs, if for example a sleeper on the brink of awakening came in contact with infrastructure that constructs an angel. If such a miraculous event arises, the occult information doesn't just leave a stigmata upon the victim, instead because of their soul was so open and vulnerable, the infrastructure floods into their soul showing them the occult designs and systems of the God-Machine. They awakened in this moment, but they were not truly Wise.
The resultant being was able to see both infrastructure and the most base layers of the supernal. They could follow the designs in their minds to construct odd devices that ran off the only fuel that was within their grasp, mana born from within such as experiencing revelations and putting themselves into their work in a way that could be described as an occult combination of sacrifice and dedication to their work. They were still driven by obsession and possessed Wisdom like true Wise, but they never reached a watchtower and thus cannot ever form spells and when one grows Mad aether flows from his soul and cause glitches in the world around him. These glitches attract attention of both angels who desire a functioning world and demons hungry for the power that radiates from them.
Paths
Mages awake to one of five supernal paths, as detailed in Mage: the Awakening. While all geniuses awakened, they awoke to see the occult physics of the God-Machine rather than the gnostic truth of the Supernal. Essentially, Geniuses don’t have a Path. Thus they don’t consider any arcana ruling or inferior. While mages have no true path, they were in the early stages of awakening when their stigmata struck, leaving the genius with their minds more open to possibilities of a supernal realm than the average sleepwalker. The path they would have awakened to if not for the infrastructure defines certain advantages available to them. So when making a Genius character, determine to which Path his soul is open to. Certain Merits require specific Path Attunement to purchase.
Incarnations
Despite not being fallen angels, Geniuses do possess Incarnations as described in Demon: the Descent. The incarnation of a genius is determined by the the angel that was subsumed by the geniuses’ awakening, which sets the geniuses’ favoured embeds.
Genius Rules
The following rules modify the normal rules for Chronicles of Darkness characters.
Merits
Genius characters counts as stigmatics for the purpose of prerequisites, though cannot take supernatural merits. In addition, players can spend Merit dots on the following demon-blooded merits as if they were fractals; ambient aether (this does not allow them to charge embeds), aether pool and infrastructure proficiency. Finally, there are some merits available only to geniuses.
Resistance Attribute
Like one of the wise, awakening leads to the Genius becoming more resilient. The Genius gains an additional dot in a resistance attribute as described in
Mage: the Awakening.
Opened Eyes
Geniuses have gazed upon the gears of the God-Machine while their minds were beginning to upon to the supernal. As a result they can see the gears of the God-Machine as well as a Demon could and gain the benefits of Peripheral Mage Sight as described in Mage: the Awakening. In addition the Genius gains visions that are a mixture between God-Machine’s eldritch code, impossible designs and invisible machinations, and the Supernal’s absolute truth, raw intensity, and intangible knowledge. These visions function identically to the Omen Sensitivity merit except that the Storyteller has control over when such a vision occurs rather than the player.
Gnosis
The souls of Geniuses have been awakened to the truth of the world (even if that truth is different to that of the Wise). Geniuses possess Gnosis in a manner similar to that of Mages, except it is limited by the fact the genius never reached a supernal realm. The gnosis of a Genius only determines the maximum attributes of the Genius, the number of obsessions the Genius possesses, acts as a supernatural tolerance, and determines how much mana a Genius can store within themselves and how much mana they can process within a single turn. Finally, individuals attempting to investigate or track down a genius takes a penalty to such rolls equal to half the Geniuses’ gnosis.
Mana
Geniuses never reached the supernal but their minds are open enough to be able to grasp mana that rises from themselves to fuel their occult matrixes. This functions identically to mana from Mage: the Awakening except that for the following:
Geniuses can only mana through a limited number of methods:
- Scouring: Geniuses primarily gain mana through Scouring their pattern unconsciously as they work, each hour that they perform work on their occult designs, study, meditate, or pray they can scour their pattern for mana as if they were one of the Wise. Note that while the player has control over whether the scouring occurs, the genius themselves do not possess control over it, only even know it’s happening in that they can feel themselves become immensely worn out.
- Revelation: Geniuses can gain mana through Revelation, when a genius acts in accordance with their obsession their minds can release mana (see Obsessions in Mage: the Awakening).
- Sacrifice: Geniuses can gain mana through Blood Sacrifice, except for this to function the killing must be incorporated into the installation of a gadget and it’s mana must be used immediately or it is wasted. This otherwise functions as a Mage obtaining mana through blood sacrifice.
- Tass: Geniuses can gain mana through Tass, except they do not access it’s mana through spells or consuming the tass, instead they must incorporate the tass into the installation of a gadget and the nature of the tass must make sense for the nature of installation you are using. Mana gained through this way must be spent immediately or it is wasted.
- Breakthroughs & Discoveries: Attempting to use a breakthrough or discovery requires expenditure of mana. Discoveries only use up a single point of mana, while Breakthroughs require the genius to spend three points of mana.
- Gadgets: When installing gadgets or maintaining a gadget such a form gadget, the genius must expend mana. How much mana is required depends on the type of gadget and what is being installed.
- Merits: Some merits associated with geniuses require expenditure of mana to gain their benefits.
- Pattern Restoration: This is identical to the Pattern Restoration action of a Mage.
Geniuses are often driven to extreme acts because of the knowledge trapped within their souls. This functions identically to the obsessions of Mage: the Awakening.
Arcane Experience
Geniuses can gain arcane beats as if they were mages except they cannot gain arcane beats from legacies as they cannot be part of a legacy. Arcane Experience can only be spent towards purchasing Embeds, Exploits, Gnosis, and Wisdom.
Wisdom
Much like one of the Wise, geniuses must be careful in how they use their gifts and devices as lack of control and hubris can lead to their stigmata bleeding out from their souls into the world. Because of this, geniuses use Wisdom from Mage: the Awakening instead of integrity. The wisdom of a genius is slightly different to that of the wise though;
- Instead of the Rampant condition, failure and dramatic failure can lead to the Surveilled condition.
- Instead of spells being part of acts of hubris, hubris takes account of using breakthroughs, discoveries, or gadgets in hubristic ways.
- Geniuses cannot cause paradox, but compromise can be an act of hubris if it results in affecting the lives of others.
- Cannot inure spells as the genius lacks.
- When geniuses spend one or more points of mana, they release angelic drass as if they were an angel with a rank equal to 5 - half wisdom score (rounded down).
The soul of a genius is corrupted, causing them to gain a single minor glitch and gain a number of additional glitches as if they were a demon with a primium score equal to their gnosis. What form these glitches take depends on their current wisdom, with higher wisdom allowing the genius to better contain the eldritch energies. Enlightened geniuses have their glitches manifest as tells, understanding geniuses have half their glitches appear as brands (rounded up) with the rest as tells, falling geniuses have half of their glitches manifest as emanations (rounded up) with the rest as brands, and mad geniuses have all their glitches appear as emanations.
Embeds
The soul of a genius is filled with esoteric designs, formulae, and rites which describe the backdoors that are seeded throughout reality. Geniuses start with four embed “designs”, two of which must be associated with the geniuses’ incarnation. Geniuses can purchase embeds of associated with their incarnation with experience as if they were a demon, but the genius requires a demon or genius who knows the desired embed to teach them in it’s use if they want to purchase embeds their incarnation isn't associated with. Geniuses cannot use embeds in the way demons can, instead they are limited to being able to install embeds into gadgets. The only exception are a geniuses’ discoveries, specific embeds that the genius has full comprehension of as part of their magnum opus.
Exploits
Geniuses cannot start with exploits, but can purchase them with experience as if they were demons. Like embeds, a genius cannot use them outside of gadget installation unless the exploit is part of that geniuses’ magnum opus in the form of a breakthrough.
Gadgets
Geniuses can create gadgets through installation of embeds and exploits in a manner that is identical to that of demons except for the following:
- Whenever primum would be required, the geniuses’ gnosis is used instead.
- Mana is spent instead of aether (though aether still flows from the gadget as it’s being installed as a byproduct of having the mana infused into the object and then processed by the occult matrix).
- The attribute used in the installation’s dicepool has to be associated with the embed(s)/exploit(s), unless it’s from the genius’s incarnation or is a form gadget in which case it can use any attribute that the genius feels is appropriately thematic.
- The skill used in the installation’s dicepool is dependant on how the gadget is being created. Gadgets being crafted use either Craft or Science (whichever the genius prefers). Gadgets being created through ritual use Occult. Gadgets created as artworks use Expression. Software gadgets use Computer. Gadgets that interact with individuals biology or are a drug use Medicine or Occult.
- Cannot create gadgets from pact documents.
- You can maintain a number of Gadgets equal to your Gnosis, and any Gadgets made under this limit only require a Willpower point to create rather than a Willpower dot. One-Shots do not count towards this limit and are always made with Willpower points rather than dots.
Geniuses can enter their dreams through meditation in the same manner as a mage can. A genius cannot access the astral through a demesne or hallow, but if their Oneiros is entered the visitor will note that it’s goetia have angelic and mechanical aspects to their appearances.
Compromise
Despite lacking cover geniuses can still risk compromise, attracting the attention of the god-machine with their gadgets, breakthroughs and discoveries (but you cannot risk compromise as a result of acting out of character or being investigated as you have no cover to pick apart). Geniuses act is if they had 10 cover for the purpose of determining the modifier to the dicepool. A geniuses’ comprise rolls do not cause Cover loss, glitches, beats, or the blown condition.
Magnum Opus
Where the unchained have a cipher, geniuses have their magnum opus. Magum Opus is identical to Cipher from Demon: the Descent except that keys are called discoveries, interlocks are called breakthroughs, and that it serves as the only way for geniuses to use embeds and exploits.
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Genius Merits
Aethereal Sight (**)
Prerequisites: Genius, open to the Obrimos path
Effect: Select either Forces or Prime. You gain the ability to use the active mage sight of the selected arcana for a scene, by spending a single point of mana.
Arcadian Sight (**)
Prerequisites: Genius, open to the Acanthus path
Effect: Select either Fate or Time. You gain the ability to use the active mage sight of the selected arcana for a scene, by spending a single point of mana.
Internal Mechanisms (***)
Prerequisites: Genius
Effect: You can take components out from your soul and use it to create powerful gadgets. This allows you to create form gadgets as if you were a demon with three Modifications, two Technologies, one Propulsion, and one Process that are selected when you take this merit. Form gadgets created by a genius cannot be grafted onto demons.
Pandemonium Sight (**)
Prerequisites: Genius, open to the Mastigos path
Effect: Select either Mind or Space. You gain the ability to use the active mage sight of the selected arcana for a scene, by spending a single point of mana.
Stygian Sight (**)
Prerequisites: Genius, open to the Moros path
Effect: Select either Death or Matter. You gain the ability to use the active mage sight of the selected arcana for a scene, by spending a single point of mana.
Wild Sight (**)
Prerequisites: Genius, open to the Thyrsus path
Effect: Select either Life or Spirit. You gain the ability to use the active mage sight of the selected arcana for a scene, by spending a single point of mana.
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