GLOG Class: Vernian Science Hero

Jules Verne was probably the first writer whose books I truly loved, and most definitely the one whose work has influenced me most in life. It’s doubtful I would’ve become such a science nerd at a young age if not for his books making it seem cool. I won’t claim that his writing style was particularly great; perhaps three or four characters in his immense oeuvre actually stand on their own as characters and not just narratively-convenient cliches. But the Vernian Science Hero has become an archetype in himself, even though he usually just served as a convenient exposition mouthpiece in Verne’s own works; here’s a basic Science Hero class. They would suit a game with exploration-as-XP well. 

Vernian Science Hero 

You are a dreamer, an optimist, and- most essentially- an expert. Magic and violence are the domains of fools; all you’ll ever need is to keep your wits about you.

 Start with a dandy’s formal clothes, 2x your system’s normal starting funds, and a few widely-respected research papers already published. 

 A 

 You are an expert in [INT mod] scientific disciplines. Do not declare these at character creation; instead, you will decide what they are as they come up in play. Should your INT mod increase, you will be able to learn more things. You know absolutely everything there is to know about these topics at your setting’s current technology/knowledge level. This may only include magic if magic is a widely-accepted field of rigorous scientific study in your setting. These areas of expertise also count as skills, of course. 

 B 

 When you attempt to do something ridiculous and totally improbable, but you have a decent science-based explanation for why it should work, you can test INT to see if it works. If it falls in the domain of an area of your expertise, you automatically succeed.

 C 

 When you discover something totally new and unknown to modern science, you can ruminate upon it for an hour to intuite 1d4 true facts about it (2d4 if it falls within your areas of expertise). 

 D 

 Whenever discovering something new that falls within one of your areas of expertise, you may immediately declare one fact about it; as long as this fact is within the realm of pre-established possibility, it becomes a provable truth. 

 1d8 Example Scientific Specialties 

 Astronomy 

 Marine biology 

 Mechanical engineering 

 Geology 

 Paleontology 

 Chemistry 

 Medicine 

 Botany