Re: [DL] Re: Mad Scientists are so weak

[Tifainé <pusifoot@pacbell.net>]

> You've also got a bias towards what happens in your
> own campaign. If 75% of your players are Mad
> Scientists then they're certainly going to be cranking
> out gadgets and they're definitely going to be
> complimenting each other. Most travelling Mad
> Scientists are not so lucky to travel with their own
> lab technicians and scientific support.

I play in Marshall Black's group.  The first Mad Scientist we had played for
two and a half years (real time) with no support other than his alchemy kit.
He did almost everything in a wagon.  The advent of the rest of the
scientists and the warehouse are very recent.

 And your
> players seem to be lucky enough to have their own
> psychologist on hand, a Blessed who can cast Panacea
> on your Mad Scientist once a week is truly a Blessing.

I think the miracle you are thinking of is Solace.  And while it is nice to
have the miracle available, a) determining that the character has the
dementia in the first place and b) getting them to talk about it in
character for a week of IC time is MUCH easier said than done.  (I haven't
managed to accomplish it yet!)  If someone ends up with an obvious phobia,
and I can get that character to open up to my character about it for several
hours a night for a week then it will do a LOT of good (and man, I wish we
had had a Blessed in the party with it SOONER!  Some of those phobias are a
real pain in the butt!)

However, the way the miracle is written, it is a lot like a God-assisted
psychotherapy session, and thus there are some inherent difficulties in
getting it to work.

> I would say it's time for a little industrial
> espionage to gum up their cushy lifestyle.
> As far as I know, I'm the only player in my gaming
> group who has ever played a Mad Scientist, and only
> the second one to ever play a Blessed. I think mostly
> because the other players believe it's a waste of time
> to play one. Usually when I play a Mad Scientist the
> character is handled with kid gloves because of the
> insanities they acquire through devising blueprints.
> My last one was put down by the posse because they
> believed him to be homicidal.

Cushy lifestyle?!  They don't need industrial espionage.  They have my
character constantly getting into trouble to keep them on their toes :)
Our groups "cushy lifestyle" had us chasing nasties under Dodge recently,
and currently has us chasing even nastiers in Grand Junction (eeek!  Was
that the Navoo Legion?  Noooooooo!).  It makes developing stuff a lot easier
to have multiple scientists around, however, as I said, that is an amazingly
recent occurrance.

Tif