The Inspired: A Game of Mad Science! (FATE Core)

[The Dark Wizard]

The Inspired

By: The Dark Wizard




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Disclaimer: My game/setting are no indication of the quality of the system. FATE Core is an amazing system to try to do just about any concept/genre you can think of. Please do not judge FATE Core based on my wacky game.


-The Great Sleep-


Once upon a time, men and women who were inspired, visionaries shaped the course of civilizations and history with the gentle and loving hand of a caring mother or the rough hand of an abusive father. Like this humanity continued to be guided by those who would become inspired for thousands of years to come. Eventually however they something happened known as The Great Sleep and people were no longer becoming inspired, transcending their mortal understanding of the universe and not awakening to their true potential, slowly but surely dying out and leaving humanity to it’s own devices.


-Broken History-


The Year is 1940 and it has been thousands of years since the world has had the (dis)pleasure of gazing upon the wonders of the inspired. The world had advanced without their inspiration and taken it’s own course but that not would last very long because unknown to humanity, it was about to break. On October 1st The Nazi Party of Germany who had been losing World War II had unearthed a frozen being, who whispered promises of victory to them and total world domination. This being was one of the long lost Inspired, and using their mad science they created a portal to another dimension, one where Nazis ruled the entire planet and proceeded to bring in weapons, soldiers, anything they needed and for the next five years until America joined the war, they swept over Europe with the might of the Inspired, conquering everything in the name of perfection and the one true race. The Nazi Party knew of America’s impending intervention and laughed because they had the power of a god on their side, but unfortunately their “God” appeared to have vanished, leaving the Nazi Party to their own devices.


No one knows exactly what happened that day but the portal malfunctioned, and the resulting explosion changed all of history.


-The Awakening-


This game is about playing an Inspired, someone who wields the power of Mad Science to accomplish great feats. After the portal exploded, our history essentially meshed with Steampunk and other weirdness. The year is 2013 and modern things like the internet do exist but no one knows exactly where it came from and no one questions it, things like this are considered EtherTech, things that were supposed to exist uninterrupted had the portal not exploded. While the world is fascinating in this weird mesh of Modern Tech/Steampunk/Things that cannot be explained like The Supernatural side of things(werewolves, and other creatures) and regular mortals do not question it, The Inspired no matter how much they read and research the planet’s history and are led to believe that all is as supposed to be and it has always been this way, they feel in the back of their minds that something just seems “Broken” but cannot please their finger on it.

• Requirements
• Gameplay
• Rules/House Rules
• Extras
• More Info
• Dice

• 
  
  
  This game requires the new edition of FATE called FATE Core, which can be downloaded for free from the official site located here. The material is "Pay What You Want" including free. If you like the book please consider at least sending them a dollar!
  
  
  On that download page you will see that there also is a Fate Accelerated Edition, that is supposed to be a faster version of the book, I'm not sure if that will be enough to play this game as I have not read it, so I recommend you read the regular core book.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  This game will be played as a forum game. The game will be broken into Arcs which will be broken into Seasons, which in return will be broken into scenes. Characters will be allowed to exist in multiple scenes regardless of time continuity, I will be in-charge of keeping track of all of that.
  
  
  We will be discussing characters together once the game is up, to answer some of the character creation questions that require other players and build the setting together.
  
  
  I will also be taking about 10 people due to the nature of the game and people not always having to be together.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  1. Regular Character Creation with some Minor Edits Detailed Below
  
  
  Using FATE Core's awesome rules, I have created a few house rules to attempt to create this concept into an actual game.
  
  
  1. Besides your High Concept and Trouble you get a new slot called "Long Term Project" where you have to put something you are currently working towards that may take an Arc or two to complete.
  
  
  2. Apart from the aspects you start with, you get an extra one for free that must be used towards when you gained Inspiration and began an Inspired.
  
  
  3. Besides the game's regular 18 skills two new custom skill has been created called Inspiration(Your mad science skill) which will be detailed in the Extra's tab and Pilot(like drive but for flying vehicles)
  
  
  4. Inspiration must be taken as your Great skill or one of your two goods at the start.
  
  
  5. All players will receive an extra free stunt ontop of the ones that the book gives you that must be used on Inspiration to specialize it somehow and make it unique to your character, if you need help we will do it together during character creation.
  
  
  6. Inspiration is not allowed to start with any other Stunts besides the free one that it gets from the House Rules. Of course you can add more Stunts to it as milestones are acquired.
  
  
  7. These rules are bound to change at any time and as we all learn FATE Core and how to make this game work better, you may be asked to slightly alter your character.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Current Extras in the Game:
  
  
  Extra: The Inspiration of Mad Science!
  
  
  Permissions: Must have an Aspect that states how you got inspired.
  
  
  Costs: Requires points in the Inspiration Skill
  
  
  Overcome: Use the Inspiration skill to create wonders of mad science.
  
  
  Create an Advantage: Use Inspiration to determine how strong some effects from Wonders are in the environment.
  
  
  Attack: There is no current way to attack someone with Inspiration yet.(Figure it out Mad Scientists!)
  
  
  Defend: When a mortal tinkers too long with a wonder created by an Inspired, it has a chance to go wrong in the most horrible way possible. (Read the More Info tab on that) Weaker Inspired have their stuff break all the time, while the stronger ones can even allow mortals to use their wonders(They shaped civilizations in ancient times).
  
  
  As long as the Inspired is awake and a live he may use the Inspiration skill to actively have his wonder resist falling apart even if he is not near it. It will count as aggressive opposition.(Get it high enough and things should not break often).
  
  
  Pilot: Like the driving skill but for flying vehicles, anyone is allowed to take this.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Since this game was partially inspired by Genius: The Transgression a fancreated book for New World of Darkness and people like it, you may use it for inspiration for the different sciences and things you can create but ultimately you are only limited by your creativity/imagination. But if you want to read it, it is located here.
  
  
  One thing I am taking from Genius: The Transgression is however the Laws, I like them very much and help explain things much easier to the player, just never liked some of the mechanics of Genius.
  
  
  I will not be rewriting the terms used, its just so you can get an idea. Obviously certain terms are not applicable to this game.
  
  
  -Laws-
  
  
  
  
  
  -The Law of Broken Theory (aka Popper's Little Secret)-
  
  
  Geniuses are not scientists and once a genius catalyzes he will never again do science as he previously understood the practice. His Mania makes that impossible. Geniuses aren't clear what Mania is, but it's clear that the stuff gets into a genius, changing his perspective and disrupting how he relates to the world. In short, it drives him mad. Not the full-on delusional insanity of an unmada or Lemurian, or the alien psychopathy of the Illuminated, but Mania changes a genius enough that he is no longer in sync with the rest of humanity.
  
  
  This law comes in strong and weak forms, and different peers favor different interpretations. In the strong form, favored by more traditional or mystically inclined peers, what geniuses do is literally impossible by the laws of this universe. They concern themselves with higher―perhaps transcendent―laws, and by the standards of mundane reality, they are wonder-workers in a literal sense, able to do the impossible.
  
  
  Geniuses who favor the weak interpretation, by contrast, say that geniuses' wonders still conform in some sense to the laws of physical reality, but that the corollary conditions of Inspiration still bar a mad scientist from sane research. Science―science as an enterprise, the thing that gave us the atom bomb and penicillin and square watermelons―requires a number of elements for it to function: trust, communication, and skepticism are all vital components. The Inspired struggle with all three, meaning that as a body, geniuses can't engage in "science" as an activity.
  
  
  Regardless, it's not as simple as geniuses being regular scientists with unique perspectives. Geniuses deal with non-repeatable phenomena and with deep weirdness, and reliable research is extremely difficult for the Inspired. When a genius uses a theory about the universe to build a wonder, her hypothesis might remain internally consistent, but it will also face competition from other hypotheses that are apparently equally valid. For example, let's say a Progenitor builds a healing machine based on her ideas of Orgone Energy. The genius tests the machine, and it 1) works and 2) confirms the genius' hypothesis about how the universe works.
  
  
  But then another genius comes along with a device that functions in precisely the same way, but he based it on completely different principles. He's muttering something about "quantized life force." But his principles
  
  
  are also consistent. Neither theory can be falsified with reference to experiments run with the other genius' wonder, yet both theories are, obviously, inadequate to explaining the true nature of the phenomenon, which allows both the Orgone Healer and the Quantized Life Energy Healer to exist. And if the two geniuses reconcile their theories ("seen from a ninth-dimensional perspective, quantized energy looks like Orgone Energy; the transformations become mathematically trivial"), a third genius comes along, and her healing machine uses nanomachines that have no place in either theory...
  
  
  -The Science Is Science Law (aka the Anticlark Corollary)-
  
  
  Geniuses can no longer engage in traditional scientific research. Nonetheless, they are not "wizards." They do not do "magic." That is, what they do conforms at least in part to what sane scientists would recognize as the laws of physics, and is not entirely a product of the genius' peculiar internal state. Even geniuses who have a strong interpretation of the Law of Broken Theory recognize that wonders can't just pop into existence, fueled by will and desire. No genius can just wave a magic wand and make wonders happen. Even very old wonders―ones built centuries or millennia ago―function in ways that seem recognizable as technology.
  
  
  A flying machine built by a Song Dynasty Taoist who believes in the five Taoist elements will still fly, and it will fly based on modern principles of aerodynamics, even if it also conforms to other, weirder laws. Even if a wonder circumvents or ignores physical laws, such as using some kind of anti-gravity technology to fly, a wonder never flatly ignores the laws of physics. A genius can't just build a wooden bird, dump Mania into it, and expect it to fly because it's "enchanted." The Inspired are miracle-workers, yes, but they're also technologists. There are principles at work behind what a genius does, even if they apparently lack consistency and repeatability, and even if a genius can't figure them out.
  
  
  -The Black Box Law (aka Goldblum's Diatribe)-
  
  
  Due to the nature of Inspiration, a genius can never know exactly how even her own wonders work. Her theories might have remained consistent so far, but that doesn't mean that the next experiment or test-flight won't reveal a new glitch that could not possibly have been predicted. When she builds a wonder, a genius deals with principles well beyond anyone's current understanding―possibly beyond anyone's possible comprehension―and this leaves her open to all sorts of baffling and dangerous phenomena.
  
  
  This means that geniuses can never be certain of exactly what they are doing. Their ideas might be nonsense that are coincidentally correct this time, under a narrow set of circumstances that the genius has witnessed. Just because a coin comes up heads five times doesn't mean both sides are heads, and with Mania, the same rule applies if the coin comes up heads a million million times. Some geniuses postulate that Mania provides a path-of-least-resistance from the genius to a wonder, allowing the genius to formulate a hypothesis that will get him just far enough to create a functioning wonder, though the hypothesis breaks down immediately upon applying it to other situations.
  
  
  -The Mere Mortal Law (aka Gilligan's Rule)-
  
  
  Regular people screw up wonders. No one's sure why this is so, but mere mortals have a near-miraculous ability to damage mad science, destroying it or causing it to run amok. If they get their grubby little hands on a wonder, they'll break it and it will explode or eat them. Geniuses don't know exactly why this happens, but every genius knows that letting a regular person near a wonder is like giving revolvers to monkeys: only hilarious from a safe distance. Scientists (sane ones) are included here as mere mortals, and they can be even worse: a group of trained scientists know just how to fiddle with a wonder in a way that will cause it to break down. This further alienates a genius from regular humanity: she cannot communicate her ideas to her peers, or even show off her creations, without risking disaster.
  
  
  Gilligan's Law, coupled with the Black Box Law, explains why a genius can't just build a teleporter and market
  
  
  it for three easy installments of $19.99 on her Website: a mortal who gets his hands on a wonder will break it,
  
  
  and due to the nature of Mania, every mortal who messes around with it will break it in a unique and uniquely horrific way. Attempts to predict what will go wrong are impossible, and will probably just make things worse.
  
  
  -The Obvious Truth Law (aka Mulder's Lament)-
  
  
  While mere mortals will screw up a wonder something fierce, there is no cosmic principle or conspiracy at work that relates to wonders or Inspiration. A mere mortal can see a wonder and she will not forget the experience. There is nothing in a wonder that "clouds men's minds" or that will cause them to grow confused. Wonders show up fine on cameras and videos. There are no vast conspiracies to hide the truth from regular mortals. In fact, the vastest conspiracy out there, Lemuria, wants to make regular mortals aware of their brilliance.
  
  
  The nature of Inspiration, instead, remains hidden because wonders are not repeatable and testable. A regular scientist who handles a wonder will break it, and if she doesn't break it, she's already well on her way to becoming a genius herself (or at least a beholden). The only results, then, are that a mortal will mess up the wonder (possibly killing herself in the process) or will tur into a beholden or genius and join the ranks of the
  
  
  Inspired, which in turn insulates her from regular people.
  
  
  
• 
  
  
  Since we cannot currently afford to provide official FATE Dice support, what we will be doing is as follows. (If you are interested in donating towards official FATE Dice support, do let me know!)
  
  
  We will be rolling 4d6
  
  
  1 = +
  
  
  2 = +
  
  
  3 = blank
  
  
  4 = blank
  
  
  5 = -
  
  
  6 = -
  
  
  

Please post below if you are interested !

 

[Captain Hesperus]

Okay, I'm interested.


Captain Hesperus

 

[VonRidel]

The Weird Science video convinced me. I'll put my name down for this.

 

[Millershipper]

I'm in. Inspired soldier-of-fortune weapons' tech genius coming up.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

I think I shall be going with the trans-etheric transport vehicles route.


Captain Hesperus

 

[SephirothSage]

Interest, I have. *Sagenod* In this game, I plan to be.

 

[Kasheal]

FATE FATE FATE FATE FATE! Count me in!


It is a shame they are yet to release the Automic Robo FATE as I imagine that would be very useful for this.


I am tempted with devices and golems at this early stage, of course likely to change.

 

[Kasheal]

SephirothSage's avatar is also great inspiration for any budding mad scientist.

 

[SephirothSage]

D'aww. Thanks.


And.. yes, I have.. Plans oh the plans.

 

[DreamingofRoses]

Interested, going to join, but I might be a bit slow.

 

[Millershipper]

@ The Dark Wizard when should we start char gen, given the FATE system's mechanics? I've got some good ideas for the high aspect, trouble and skills for my char already.

 

[SephirothSage]

Ammmen.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

@ The Dark Wizard when should we start char gen, given the FATE system's mechanics? I've got some good ideas for the high aspect, trouble and skills for my char already.

When the forums are up we will have threads for all of that !.


Did you do the Long Term Project as well? House rules gives extra things, like that and an extra Aspect that has to be used for something.

 

[KG-Motte]

I definitely want to try this now, Dibs on "Spacial Compression Technology"! So many things to do with that! Well unless there are any objections to that? BUHAHAHAHA! I shall make my own Miniature UTOPIA! BUHAHAHA!... nan... the mortals in it would just break it and explode...ah well I'll find something else to do with it hehe... (Was that TOO Evil Mad Scientisty? (yes evil, because as we all know and Cordelia Chase From Angel once said: "What is it about Evil that Racks up the IQ points?!"))

 

[Millershipper]

I've got a couple of ideas for the Long Term Project as well as the Aspect for becoming Inspired. I'm thinking something along the lines of exposure to Inspiradiation while fighting somewhere and become a genius weapons designer who uses his inventions to their utmost. Long Term project something along the line of the first man-portable anti-vehicle railgun. Or man-portable hypervelocity missile launcher. A steel dart moving at a significant portion of C would be fun too.

 

[magnificentmomo]

1 Iove Oingo Boingo.


2 The Professor from Futurama uses the Law of Broken Theory.


3 My interest is piqued, but I wanna do a bit more reading before I officially sign up.


Edit to avoid double posting: Space Orks are Unspired (that was originally a typo, but I'm keeping it because I like it.)


Serious Edit: I may make a character inspired by one of my favorite anime characters (a phrase I am loathed to type) Miss Washu!

 

[KG-Motte]

.... You're not gonna try and recreate the Washu Crater are you?.... Oh Gods, Oh Gods we're all gonna die!... She Has MULTIPLE Doomsday devices, ranging from city destroying to multi-solar system swallowing, passing by Bio-weapons that make the Galactic military as a whole sweat like they're standing next to a Volcano (And by this I mean Ryo-ohki and Ryoko), all of which she can store in an alternate dimensional lab that seems to go on forever (or at least as far as she needs it to)... the Chibitizing Function of her Holo-keyboard is pretty funny though, and yet still just as terrifying... Great now i feel like watching that show!... Thanks!


Sidenote: about that crater... how in blazes did she even make it INSIDE a space station without blowing up the station itself?

 

[RpNation]

This game is now live and located here: http://www.rpdom.com/forums/the-inspired-a-game-of-mad-science.6554/


The storyteller should now edit the first post of this thread to indicate it's status once it is moved to Our Roleplayers.


Enjoy all!

 

[The Dark Wizard]

Hey guys, lets start discussing stuff in the forum.


I've also set the game to recruiting.


See you all there!