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Homebrew Exaltation: Spark W2; She Blinded Me with SCIENCE!
Topic Started: Apr 24 2016, 04:15 PM (1,714 Views)
weredrago2
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The Spark

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At what point does one draw the line between science and magic? Is it right to draw a line at all when one is often interchangeable with the other? If mad wizards traded in their robes for lab coats, would we not call them mad scientists? A crazed mortal can push science to truly insane levels, but only a Spark can perform the kind of mad science that tests the limitations of natural laws against the powers of their own imaginations.

Sparks (named after the 'spark' of Inspiration they bear) blur the line between science and magic, channeling raw Mania into their works to make them more than mundane science can handle alone. Their vaguely scientific gizmos work in ways simple folk can't understand, and only seem to make sense to their creator. Whatever it is that causes Sparks to catalyze is unknown, but they seem to have a knack for communicating with the machine spirits that inhabit all technological devices. The Adeptus Mechanicus is split on whether to revere these technopathic savants or exterminate them.

With great power, though, often comes great madness. Mortals become twisted by their catalyzation into Sparks, some driven absolutely mad by the transformation. Those who keep enough of their sanity to be functional in society are often recluses and pariahs, toying around with their mad gifts in secret until a reason to expose themselves makes itself known. Regardless of what they do with their powers, Sparks are seen with the same suspicion as witches and warlocks due to their unpredictability.

Tell: When a Spark spends Mania, their infernal devices fire up and come to life. Engines hum, motors run, and fans whir, often spouting out smoke and other foul substances as they do so. The Spark will become a fantastic display of light and noise as their Tell rises, the machine spirits that power their bizarre technology dancing along to the mad Spark's tune.


POWERS:

Weird Science: You gain a free rank in any Magic School. You may purchase ranks in this school as if it were on your class track. Sparks cast magic with gizmos, which have a chance of malfunctioning; Instead of rolling for Warp Phenomena when casting, roll a d10. On a 1, the spell fails and you must roll again. On another 1, the gizmo backfires and causes an explosion with the profile of a plasma grenade centered around you. If Pushing, take -1 to your roll for every additional die. Sparks without Tested take -1 per level of the spell and -2 for each Pushing die.

Junkwright: By spending Mania, a Spark can make an Intelligence + Crafts check against an item's Wealth TN to cobble that item out of spare parts. These kit-bashed objects last for a scene before falling apart. You can also dismantle a technological device to harvest Mania from it, gaining 1 Mania per object destroyed.

Mad Technomancer: You gain a free specialty (Mad Science) that applies to all mental skills. As long as you can touch or verbally communicate with the object you are working on, you never require tools (specialized or otherwise) to make Crafts or Tech-Use rolls.

Science-Related Memetic Disorder: They're called mad scientists for a reason, partner! Start the game with 10 Insanity and a minor disorder. Whenever you roll for Insanity, roll twice and take the higher result.

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POWER STAT: INSPIRATION
Inspiration is the raw, creative force that the Spark taps into in order to make their infernal devices work. It is the Spark's inner muse, whispering mad ideas into their head that become progressively zanier as their Inspiration rises. The nature of this force is not completely understood, but the Sparks have theories on it that normal people have trouble wrapping their heads around.

Resource Stat: Mania
You have a pool of Mania equal to four times your Inspiration. You recover 1 Mania for every hour spent performing scientific research, the nature of which varies depending on the Spark. Mania spent on the creation of items is 'bound' to that item, and cannot be recovered unless the item holding it is destroyed.


InspirationPower Gained
*Mad Artificer: You can spend Mania equal to an Artifact's dot rating to create it using the Crafts skill. The Crafts TN is equal to 10 + (dot rating * 5). These Wonders last until you discard them.
**Eureka!: A Spark can spend Mania to add a +1k0 bonus to any test that uses a mental characteristic, as if they were boosting a skill test.
***Crazy Enough to Work: You gain a static bonus to all Crafts and Tech-Use tests equal to a tenth of your Insanity (rounded down). You are no longer removed from the game at 100 Insanity, though you still get new disorders as usual.
****Visionary: When spending Mania to boost a mental test, you gain a static bonus equal to the number of Mania spent and an additional +1k0 for every two Mania spent.
*****Magnum Opus: You can spend 100 XP multiplied by the dot rating of an Artifact you created to make it permanent. Permanent Artifacts do not require Mania to maintain them.


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Axiom Assets

Epikrato
The Axiom of Control. You can spend Mania to suppress any derangements you have until the end of the scene. Your Eureka and Visionary power applies to social tests as well as mental ones.

Exelixi
The Axiom of Restoration. Instead of healing yourself, you can use a Healing Surge to heal an ally within 5 meters of you. You also gain a +1k1 bonus when casting Healing spells.

Katastrofi
The Axiom of Destruction. You can spend Mania to add Weapon Mods to your weapons. These Weapon Mods cost Mania equal to the Mods' total cost modifier, and last until the end of the scene. Weapon Mod limits and restrictions apply as normal.

Metapropi
The Axiom of Transformation. As a Half Action, you can spend Mania to modify yourself, allowing you to add traits and alter physical characteristics along the lines of the Wild Shape and Improved Wild Shape feats. You can spend two Mania to alter a willing ally this way. These changes last until the end of the scene.

Prostasia
The Axiom of Protection. When rolling to check for gizmo failure/explosion, roll twice and take the higher result. When creating armor, shields, or any other sort of protecting item, increase the final craftsmanship by one step.

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Edited by weredrago2, Mar 24 2018, 03:51 PM.
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weredrago2
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This is my rendition of Doc's Spark Exalt, going in a bit of a different direction with the idea. It's inspired by both Geniuses from Genius: The Transgression and the Weird Science Arcane Background from Savage Worlds and Deadlands.
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I notice right off that you have two downside abilities rather than most Exaltations typical one: Malfunction and Science-Related Memetic Disorder. Perhaps roll the Malfunction into the Weird Science itself, and replace it with something similar to the Dragon-blooded's blood quickening, but related to the different Humors available in Genius: The Transgression?
It doesn't go into much detail on the Gizmos either. My interpretation is that for each spell you have an appropriate Gizmo, which are all tracked separately for malfunctions, is that correct? Those Malfunction odds seem pretty high too, since it is a rolled 1 rather than a kept 1.

Rapid Repurposing is much more powerful in this one I note, since no matter what you make it only takes a single point of Mania. No comment there either way.

Wiz Kid says you get +2k1 on Mental Skill points instead of +1k1, but normally you only get +1k0 from each resource spent.

Mad Artificer is unclear due to the phrasing of Magnum Opus. Is the Wonder you create an artifact that lasts forever but only you can use, or does it mean the normal stuff you make with Rapid Repurposing can now be artifacts but they still only last the scene?

Eureka! is just an inferior Transhuman potential. I prefer the original Spark's ability to go to 6 in mental stats and get a bonus to tech use based on crazy. Eureka also competes with Wiz Kid, since they do something very similar. Because of this, you'd only use Eureka when doing magic or fear saves, as Wiz Kid is better for everything else.

Crazy enough to work seems a bit dangerous, since it permanently drives you insane. Perhaps give them the ability to not be removed from play at 100 insanity too?

I do prefer Magnum Opus's reduction in cost.
Edited by Username, Apr 24 2016, 06:01 PM.
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weredrago2
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In order:

I'm going to merge Weird Science and Malfunction together, since they cover the same topic, and pulling Wiz Kid (which could use a better name) down to a basic power. I'm also decapitalizing Gizmo so it sounds less important.

You have a gizmo counterpart for every spell you have. Think of Malfunctions as a replacement for Warp Phenomena. I'm changing it to only happening when you keep explosions, to better highlight the replacement.

Wiz Kid had a typo. It should be +1k1 instead of +1k0.

Items you make out of Mania drain into your resource pool, meaning that you can't recover it until the item holding your Mania is destroyed. In other words, it lasts as long as you want to spend Mania on it. If you're strapped for Mania, you can use Rapid Repurposing to break the Wonder down to both regain 1 Mania and restore your maximum Mania pool.

Made Eureka more simplified and put the old Crazy Enough to Work on Inspiration *** with an added bonus.

Added the WIP tag. Going to need a new **** power to replace the old one.
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You know, looking at the Assets, they are at a much more reasonable power level this time.

It occurs to me that the assets could replace the current Power Stat abilities if you drop the raises part and only keep the core ability the asset gets. The order for this would go something like Destruction, Restoration, Transformation, Control and Protection and I imagine it would work with just a little tweaking.
This would be more in line with the way the Vampire exaltation gets their abilities of Auspex, Dread, Celerity, Potence and Domination as their Power Stat abilities.
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weredrago2
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I don't understand what you mean. Could you elaborate?
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Sorry. Right now for instance, the Power Stat progression goes Mad Artificer, Eureka!, Crazy enough to work, Blank, Magnum Opus.

Instead, what if it went something more like the Vampire's:

InspirationPower Gained
*Katastrofi
The Axiom of Destruction. You can spend Mania to add temporary Weapon Mods to your weapons. These Weapon Mods cost Mania equal to the Weapon Mod's regular cost, and last for a scene.
**Exelixi
The Axiom of Restoration. When performing a Healing Surge, you may spend Mania to grant Hit Points to an ally within 5 meters of you (instead of yourself) at a rate of 2 Hit Points for every Mania.
***Metapropi
The Axiom of Transformation. As a Half Action, you can spend Mania to gain the Amphibious, Auto-Stabilized, Crawler, Dark Sight, Fear (2), Flyer (1), or Quadruped traits for the length of a scene.
****Epikrato
The Axiom of Control. You can spend a Mania to suppress your social penalty and any derangements you have for a scene.
*****Prostasia
The Axiom of Protection. When rolling to check for a gizmo's Malfunction, roll twice and take the preferred result. Wonders made with Rapid Repurposing do not cause Warp Phenomena or self-destruct when handled by people other than yourself unless you wish for that to happen


For this to work, you'd add the actual Wonder Creation rules from Mad Artificer to Rapid Repurposing. Since these are limited by the amount of Mania you can spend at once, and decrease your maximum Mania too I don't see too big an issue with doing this, especially since with this set up all your power stat abilities run on that Mania.

And to replace the Assets, you could have the different Foundations, Mirroring the Clans as Assets for the Vampires and Werewolves, or perhaps the Catalysts.
Edited by Username, Apr 24 2016, 11:45 PM.
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weredrago2
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Er, the Vampire doesn't actually work like that. Don't worry, I thought up something as a replacement for ****.
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weredrago2
Apr 24 2016, 11:44 PM
Er, the Vampire doesn't actually work like that. Don't worry, I thought up something as a replacement for ****.
Doesn't it though? In Vampire I think the powers of Auspex, Presence (Dread), Celerity, Potence and Domination are all Disciplines, and I think the Axioms are the Genius's version of that.

Mind you, I never played in either as tabletop so perhaps I'm horribly mistaken based on what I've read from the rule books for both.
Edited by Username, Apr 24 2016, 11:52 PM.
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weredrago2
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Had to look it up. While you're technically correct, the Disciplines as they are represented here scale differently than the Disciplines as they were in VTM. They also follow the traditional scale of 'vampire powers' better than Axioms as Power Stat powers would follow the traditional scale of 'mad scientist powers'. I designed the Axioms here as assets, so they wouldn't scale up very well without some tweaking.
Edited by weredrago2, Apr 24 2016, 11:55 PM.
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