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 Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:42 pm
Science. A pursuit of the brave, and the clever, to explore the mysteries of the universe. However, the science we know is only the surface of what is there. The death of science as a bringer of wonders and the light illuminating the darkness, uncovering things that man was not meant to know came with the turn of the century. Thus, humanity was pushed on to a different path. A colder, clinical one. And though it makes the world a better place, there are those who seek to return to what they see as a better world. A world of miracles and horrors, of gods and monsters. The Mad scientists, bringing their warped take on their many disciplines to life, however brief and twisted it may be. Some out of a misguided and extreme sense of altruism, others for conquest and domination. Some for knowledge and discovery. Then there are those who have one rationale alone. For Science.
Whether in gleaming lab or dank abandoned factory, the mad scientists, these misguided genii work ceaselessly towards their goals, as long as their inspiration guides them and they do not draw the attention of other forces. For as they bring the wonder back into the world, so they bring the attendant horrors. Firstly, the conspiracy to silence them, with threats coming from shadowy government agencies, ruthless corporations and religious fanatics, dangerous latter day luddites. Secondly there are forces attracted back into our world from outside, ancient alien beings from the depths of space, attracted to the light of inspiration. And finally, they themselves are their greatest threat, as their science was not meant to be and will inevitably fail if operated by anyone not touched by the spark.
It is up to you what path you will choose, and how your gifts will be used.
Rules
1:Follow all guild rules etc
2. Keep within the universes limitations. No vampires, werewolves, elves...but maybe some frankenstein's monsters and homonculi.
3. send all profiles to me with the heading "What has science done?"
4.Remember, If you cant justify it, you can have it.
5.If any of your tech were to fall into the hands of a mere mortal, it will go wrong.
6. Please, try not to play a total stereotype
7.At some point, some of your equipment WILL fail. It may or may not be at a dangerous moment.
8. We cant all be heroes.and even the heroes aren't squeaky clean.
9.If you have any ideas, please PM me them.
10. Try and keep out of character talk to a minimum, and functional.
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Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:43 pm
A Tinkerer's Primer: Guide to basics of Mad Science, places to seek inspiration and Character Creation
The pursuit of science, for its own sake is what seems to unite many of the flawed dreamers who make up this world. At the two extremes are the science heroes and villains, though the reality of this life is rarely so black and white. Indeed, if is not uncommon for those working for good to see themselves as monsters, not to mention those who are at best, amoral if not downright unhinged and evil who regard themselves to be ubermensch and saviours.
From here, it is a matter of what discipline an individual mad scientist follows. Devotees of discredited psychology, engineers of the impossible, biologists of the unnameable, to give just a few examples. However, they are not simply inspired for their whole live. There is always some catalyst, some ignition that causes them to be mad, ranging from a loss of a loved one or former glory, to revenge, to need for discovery. This may come from within , or from exposure to another, or a visitation from one of the beings from outside our reality.
It is also important for a scientist to have a steady source of equipment. Some choose to band together, unionizing to pool funds, equipment and materials. There are those who are able to find funds through legitimate means, hiding their madness from their coworkers. Others still scrounge what they can, diving in dumpsters, breaking into labs and hospitals. Of course, not all are quite so ethical. Some turn to criminal operations, selling alien drugs or worse, crimes against nature and rationality itself.
It is also important to notice that a mad scientist, once he or she has their gimmick or area tend to be particularly protective of it. In rather forceful ways no less.
Limitations and Realistics
Everything takes time to build. Whilst smaller wonders of technology may be built in a matter of minutes under duress, projects will usually take at least a day to build for handheld or inbuilt equipment, a week for modifications to a car, a month for a fully built car or small vehicle, 3 months for a more dependable small vehicle or large vehicle, to a year for a full blown lair, robot, weapons factory or doomsday device capable of levelling more than a city block. The mysterious nature of inspiration and knowledge seems to restrict scientists to a certain number and power level of equipment in relation to the knowledge, work and resources of a scientists. A new scientist is limited to one fantastic medium weapon (ie plasma gun, freeze ray) and one bizarre hand to hand weapon or one strange pistol analogue, one enhanced close combat weapon and one unpredictability large weapon (plague cannon, teslazooka). More experienced geniuses can have more in reserve, or more power, more dependability. Most also choose some form of experimental armour, to cope with the bizarre nature of the world they live in. Finally there is the nature of doomsday devices and super-weapons.. These are always bulky or dangerous to transport directly, no matter their form. They may consist of any workable, if insane concept the scientist sets their mind to, though needing to start small, at the level of being able to wipe an area roughly equivalent city block, or in the case of say, a suit of armour, or a gigantic robot, vat grown monster etc, they are only about to be about 15 feet tall. Of course, a clever scientist COULD work around this, by making a communicator to control the gigantic monsters or alien civilisations that are out there, but this would need a lot of work
Dependability: The sciences used by the super-genius have one shared flaw, for all their perks. Quite simply, it isn't real. The nature of their madness makes it real, and the scientists, as well as their assistants are more than capable of handling them. However, normal people are doomed to always destroy superscience that they touch. Another problem is that quite often, the scientists are forced to compromise in their manufacture. leading to bizarre quirks. From something as mundane as always needing to be plugged in, to having a possibility of exploding if not talked out of it once every day or two. It does not affect everything, but around 20 percent of what they produce.
Character Creation
Real Name: (The birth name of the character, often, but not always replaced with a more dramatic new one)
Chosen Name: (See above)
Age:
Appearance:
Personality
Discipline: ( A mad variant of a real scientific discipline.)
Catalyst: (The origin of the scientist. IE Revenge on rival, loss of loved ones. keep it short here)
Alignment(Remember at best this is black and grey morality, at worst orange and blue morality, if any)
Gimmick: (Your specific schtick, give examples of weapons used, biological or mechanical augments, insane vehicles, defense methods, minions etc. )
Resources: (Remember, trust funds and inheritances can only last so long)
Nature Of Madness (bipolar, paranoid schizophrenia, be inventive. These are MAD scientists after all)
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Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 5:44 pm
Cast of Characters
Played By Skreemer
Real Name:Jan Keller
Chosen Name: Doc Sturm, Man of Lightning
Age:35
Appearence: Standing around six foot and five inches tall, with neatly trimmed brown hair and twinkling blue eyes, Sturm is of a medium build, preferring to dress in a tunic fronted white lab coat, military shirts, black military officers trousers, tall black jackboots, long black rubberised leather gloves that cover his palm ports and a discrete pair of goggles with various loupes attached to them. In his more rough and civilian guise he tends to dress in a pair of steel grey overalls, heavy black antistatic boots, work gloves, with a worn wife beater underneath
Personality: Affable, gruff, if serious minded most of the time.
Discipline: Mad Engineering
Catalyst: Visionary who truly thinks he can save the world
Alignment:Twisted science hero
Gimmick:Lightning, electricity and occasional alien tech. His preferred weaponry includes his Drangrevolver, a heavy revolver firing electrically charged bullets, his electrorapier, a longsword known for delivering dramatic shocks, though it tends to be unpredictable, the Sturm-Teslakannon, an unwieldly but powerful heavy capacitator driven tesla coil/bazooka hybrid, though it is slow to charge. His support equipment includes his implanted biomechanical lightning blast units, his machine-mind interface ports in his palm, which allow him control over any electrically driven device as long as he keeps his hand on it and his faraday cage armour, allowing him to stop most bullets and swords with an electromagnetic field that tends to short out other electronic equipment. He is currently working in collaboration with the mad space agency NOVARR to launch a satellite capable of launching radioactive and electronically charged astro-zombies from orbit, after the failure of his Lightning Lair, his now destroyed flying weather machine, which was capable of causing huge storms, due to its flaws.
Resources: An adept union leader, Doc Sturm has proved himself as a science hero, bringing him to the attentions of NOVARR (Non-verified Orbital Alternative Research and Reconnaissance) where he is assigned to the aforementioned Astro Zombie project, as well as being given the role of a training sergeant at the Institute of Clandestine Peers, though he still has to compete for grant money within both, as well as working a day job as an electrician to keep himself above.
Nature Of Madness: Jan suffers from bipolar disorder, causing both delusions of grandeur and bouts of destructive behaviour, directed at either himself, or more often, his perceived enemies. Some are real. Some, not so much. He managed to crash the Lightning Lair in a crazed, slightly drunken assault on a mountain base of a dangerous, violent cult masquerading as a subsect of the Amish.
Played by Electric Kool-Aid
Chosen Name: Alice
Age: 22
Appearance: Alice is petit, standing only 5'3" and weighing 110 lbs. She has very narrow and pointed features and straight brown hair reaching her shoulders. This is usually pulled back in a sloppy bun to keep it out of her face. Nearsightedness leads her to rely on a pair of thick red-rimmed glasses. When not in her lab coat, she could be mistaken for a librarian: knee-length skirts, sensible shoes, cardigans. On a Sunday she might wear jeans and a Wellbridge University sweatshirt.
Personality: Alice is arrogant and obsessed with acquisition of knowledge. She is a "know-it-all" to the highest degree, willing to argue any point with any one if she has the proof to back it up her side of it. She is ambitious, always seeking the next form of award or grant she can achieve. She graduated valedictorian from her highschool, full scholarship and grants to university and graduated summa c** laude with a B.S. in biology. After being recruited by several graduate degree programs she accepted a fellowship at Wellbridge to study bioengineering and genetic modification, though lately her research has turned toward cryptozoology in the search for new traits to add to her genetic modification projects.
Discipline: Bioengineering/genetic modification coupled with some cryptozoological research
Catalyst: Her success have led her to feel generally entitled and that she is an extraordinary person who should therefore be above the laws of ordinary people.
Alignment: Self-interested. If she thinks that breaking into a lab will further her ambitions, she wouldn't think twice. At the same time, if she has money in the bank, there's no reason to rob one.
Gimmick: Genetic modifications: by blending sequences of cat DNA with her own she could give herself an injection to see more clearly in the dark. Or if it were squid DNA, glow in the dark. No specific weapon specialties to speak of, she would probably rely on the nearest sharpest piece of lab equipment.
Resources: Graduate Fellowship, laboratory access. Her fellowship is handsome in scope, but she still had to take a position as a TA (below her, in her opinion) and live on ramen noodles.
Nature Of Madness: Narcissistic Personality Disorder coupled with some obsessive compulsive tendencies.
Played by: Tanakietsu
Real Name: Nathan Mercer
Chosen Name: The Serer
Age: 29
Appearance: Nathan (The Serer) is of average stature and appearance, standing just less than six feet in height and hides a slightly muscular build under his grey trench coat. Paired with a set of grey slacks, dress shoes and fedora, he does as best he can to blend in during any social environment (or to seem as inconspicuous as possible even in a 1 x 1 situation) as it is his goal to be as forgettable as possible to anyone outside the level of his social stigma. When operating as The Serer, he wears a pair of cheap sunglasses, even at night.
Personality: Nathan is driven by his selfish desires to have everything and anything he wants so long as no-one else knows he has it or why he wants it. He is secretive even to those who know his true identity and constantly lies to cover up any intentions he has. So concealed in lies, it is impossible for him to tell the truth and have anyone believe him. Contrasting his profession, Nathan is also uncontrollably spontaneously altruistic with any money he comes across claiming that since he takes whatever he wants he doesn’t need money. Nathan believes he is smooth with the ladies, but always gives up before-hand afraid he’ll stand out and the fact that he is uncomfortable with wome.
Discipline: Chemical and Mechanical Engineering
Catalyst: Selfish desires
Alignment: Self interested criminal (thief and bank robber)
Gimmick: Equipment related to erosion as well as manipulating the physical size of objects. He uses vials of liquids and gases to corrode, melt, disintegrate, or wither both living (botanical life) and nonliving objects often leaving behind what’s left as his calling card. He also carries several types of self-constructed weaponry including laser pistols which change the physical size of objects to make it easier to steal, shotguns armed with non-lethal, cloth disintegrating charges, and a bolt action sniper rifle which fires tranquilizers with a compound which causes unconsciousness in a matter of minutes and causes severe disorientation paired with minute memory loss (anywhere from fifteen to thirty minutes prior to being shot) once they wake up.
Resources: Theivery (banks, laboratories, junk yards – anything)
Nature of Madness: Overly self-indulgent tendencies paired with irrational lying, uncontrollable altruism, and unwarranted paranoia.
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