Re: Science: How to Grow Friends and Influence People
Weird Science
Explosive are not the only fun you can have in a laboratory. Curious girls will always want to make interestng things in their science projects, and who are we to deny them?
Players can make almost anything at all, but the more outlandish and bizarre it is, the more likely it is that something wll go Wrong. Capital W. Getting the materials to make Weird Science creations can provide a whole subplot. And then hunting down and disantling the creation after it goes badly wrong and sets off to wreak havoc on its own then provides another. Players are encouraged to come up with totally insane science projects, with the proviso that if they do so, and it comes back to spank them hard, they have only themselves to blame.
Creating Strange Devices
The Weird Science creation system is designed to ake creation easy so that the business of using the items can get underway wth all possble speed. Frst, you must explain to the Headmistress what you are trying to make, and exactly what it is and does. The more detail the better! Not only for the creation process, but for the sake of detail in the story. Slopply described creations may result in players being penalised when the Headmistress decides that it doesn't work the way players wanted. So be thorough!
When the creation is described, the Headmistress must decide how many forms of science are used in the creation of the item. And also how many of the Laws of Man and God this creation breaks.
The player must first of all make successful science rolls for each science skill the creation requires. Each skill can only be rolled once per day, and the player can only roll on two skills for this per day. So if a creation needs physics, CDT, and computer science to create, the player can roll Physics, and CDT one day. And Computer Science the next - presuming that no re-rolls need to be attempted.
The Laws of Man and God
The rules that you must be broken to create weird science are simple, and they are there to teach the unwary a lesson. To create Weird Science, you must work out how many of these laws the creation breaks, and roll to see if you can overcome them one at a time. Which laws are being broken will be determined by the Headmistress. The dfficulty to break the rules is always 6. The skill to be used is always one of the science skills needed to create this monstrosity, whichever seems most approprate to the situation at hand.
Any failed roll can be reattempted, but the difficulty goes up by 1 each time until it hits a level where success becomes impossible, and the project is a dismal failure.
The laws are as follows:
* Only God can create life. If you want it to think, you have to cross a line, whether you are building a monster or a sentient AI.
* That's just icky. We are repulsed by things for good reason, so dealing with dead bodies, slime, or sewage requires you to overcome this repulsion.
* Some things shouldn't be mixed. Be it certain chemicals or stripes and plaid, some things just don't well together. If it feels plain wrong, it breaks the rule.
* Everything has a limit. Even steel will bend and break under pressure. If your device functions under extreme stress, you need to cater for this or it will explode. If you're lucky.
* Einstein is not your bitch. Physics has rules, gravity makes things go down, forces have equal and opposite reactions. You want to get in the ring with Einstein and Newton, be ready for a cage fight.
* Big things for big jobs. Weird science isn't usually pretty and neat: if you want to break the laws of nature and put the result in your pocket, you've got to work at it. The stranger the creation, the larger (and possibly uglier) it wll be.
* You can't Xerox a zombie. We assume you are only making one of these things; if you want two or more, it is going to take longer.
* One time only. As above, these devices have limited power and uses as they draw on obscure and arcane forces. You want it to do the job more than once? You need to give it more power!
You do not have to craft things from scratch. If there is already a device that does what you need it to do, although it needs an adjustment, you only need to roll to adjust the device and not build it from scratch. This will make matters much easier, and the Headmistress will modify the creation process accordingly.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:03, Sun 24 July 2011.