New Science Skill Speciality

[alex_greene]

I have been thinking about this idea since I was a freelancer for White Wolf. The Computers skill comes in handy for a lot of things. Computers pretty much run all aspects of human and other species' existence from about TL 8 onwards. You can't so much as buy a bus ticket or a stick of gum without using a computer of some sort these days.

Tech Levels 0 to 7 ... now that's a whole different story.

Unless your setting (like the OTU) has spacefarers selling hand held TL 13 computers to every Joe Subsistence Farmer on every TL 1 hardscrabble colony, so that everybody's got a car in their garage and a Nintendo DS in their pocket even if they're living out of a castle and have swords as weapons, you're likely to find a low enough TL civilisation with no computers to hand, and nobody with even the slightest skill in how to operate one.

And yet you'll encounter accountants, scientists, medics and architects, all of whom are perfectly capable of building a civilisation without our little beige box friends. So how do they do it?

Pretty much every TL will eventually come up with its own Engineer, Science and Trade skills - quite possibly Comms skills (Morse Code, semaphore, heliograph, smoke signals) and archaic Sensors skills (thermometer, hygrometer, clockwork chronometer, sextant, astrolabe, voltmeter) - but no Computers skill.

Instead, they would have Mathematics as a speciality of Science skill.

Which of the Science skills? Any of them. Every Science needs mathematics to underpin its theories.

Alternatively, replacing Computers skill you could develop an entirely separate Mathematics skill, and make Mathematics a skill with its own specialities.

Specialities of Mathematics skill include:-

Set Theory: The study of groups.
Logic: The study of symbolic and verbal logic and reason. Derives from set theory.
Mental Arithmetic: The study of arithmetical operations performed in one's head.
Algebra: The application of formulae to find proofs and solve problems.
Calculus: The study of differentiation and integration of algebraic formulae; the study of changing phenomena and the summation of processes.
Vector Analysis: The study of vectors.
Vedic Mathematics: The study of mathematically provable mathematical principles established by the Hindu Vedas.

I submit both ideas to the House for consideration.

 

[CosmicGamer]

[rhetorical questions]
The most skilled doctor in an isolated TL3 society would be less adequate in the TL13 hospital of a different system. Is an expert in contagious diseases the guy you want operating on your brain?

Would a person who is an expert in low tech electronics such as TV's and radios with tubes be able to use their electronics skill to repair much more advanced electronics with microscopic digital circuitry, fiber optics and whatever else we can only imagine the future will have? Can someone that has a shop repairing household appliances repair communications satellites and radar systems just as easily, even if they are similar tech levels?
[/rhetorical questions]

I understand where you are coming from in regards to adding or redefining skills and specialties to help better define a characters abilities.

[Real question]
I'm not sure if you are trying to add additional math skills or replace current skills with math skills?
[/Real question]

Unfortunately, your breakdown of mathematics is beyond my comprehension for knowing when each specialty should be applied.

I believe that this is a game and not a simulation and for game playability there needs to be a limit to the number of skills. Obviously, different people will have different opinions on what that limit should be.

IMO, since this is a RPG, the GM should utilize a characters background and consider the tech level, and other similarities or differences in the specific situation to determine a corresponding difficulty level for tasks. If this is done, the need for numerous skills and specialties is reduced.

 

[dreamingbadger]

I think there is an argument for a Mathematics speciality, indeed Cryptography comes to mind. But as CosmicGamer points out there are a number of skills that imbed mathematics as an assumption, Astrogation and Navigation and Physics as examples.

I would suggest you think about the outcome of how the skills will be used, in the context of the game... Vector Analysis for an example? how would it be used in the game and do already existing skills cover it?

I don't think it is wise to remove computing as a skill and replace it with "the components", it is not a great precedent and doesn't feel real, I know many a mathamatician who might know how to build an operating system, but, probably couldn't run one. Similiarly I know aerospace engineers who can't fly planes....

One thought is that you add a limit to how effective the skill can be; e.g. my character has the skill Compters 3 but learned on a TL 7 world, when He comes to use the skill in on a TL10 computer only a proportion of the skill is available (e.g. the difference in TL/2 rounded down is applied as a negative DM) so at TL13 his effective skill would be level 0 and at TL14 it would be like not having the skill at all.

This should be bi-directional e.g. If a skill is learnt at TL12, the same modifer should be used when trying to use the skill on lower tech equipment.

personally I think that is to tough to deal with, unless the scenario specifially demands it. Maybe an initial skill roll with a DM to see if you know how to use that skill with that level of technology, even that is going to be unwieldly.

 

[GypsyComet]

Vector Analysis is covered by Astrogation and Pilot.

The problem with adding more skills like this, from a purely gamey perspective, is the danger that you will strand some PC with a raft of skills that will never come into use once high tech society is encountered. A PC with no useful skills but high skill numbers is on the losing end of the experience system, too.

If you must, however, consider attaching these skills to existing skills and using them as "place holders". Once the character enters hightech society and situations, the skills gradually flip over to their core equivalents. Perhaps Vedic Math is particularly appropriate training for understanding how Jump Drives function, for example, while Set Theory and Mental Arithmetic translate to Broker, and Logic maps well to Admin/Legal.

 

[alex_greene]

If you think of skills as just numbers to roll, rather than as skills, as in "things characters can do," then you'll see why I believe in the requirement for a Mathematics skill, particularly in higher tech environments - after all, in a world where a computer can run everything, do every calculation you will ever need to do, why would you actually need to study mathematics?

For the same reason that someone with Survival skill must learn the basics of firelighting. A fancy piezoelectric lighter works just fine in a survival situation - until it gets broken, or runs out of the refined fuel it needs to run. Matches run out or get damp, and lasers run out of juice. So in the end two sticks and a bit of muscle could prove essential to keep you from starvation, or to keep predators from making you the next item on their menu.

Isaac Asimov made a short story along these lines, about a man imprisoned by the State for the terrible crime of learning how to use his own head to calculate numbers, instead of allowing computers to take that bothersome burden of thinking away from him.

Incidentally, I see the same danger in this modern society. People make typos when inputting data, leading computers to erroneous results. Without the ability to memorise figures and keep track of numbers in your own head, how can you ever feel certain of any computer output any more?

(For the record, I do double check my numeric inputs mentally).

Even without finding a practical use for a Maths skill and speciality, it can still find use as something a character has in his background which adds to his character. Some soldiers pursue Art (holography) when on furlough; other characters put their otherwise unused Steward skill to use by hosting dinner parties for friends, or use Athletics (climbing) to go mountaineering or spelunking. That Seafarer (sail) skill gathering dust? Your character goes off sailing every time he hits the water.

And the guy with the neglected Mathematics skill uses it to discover new and wonderful facts about the world of numbers, poring over any old book on maths that he can find. Also, he can go over the ship's finances and make sure that the accounts balance. Anything that can help the Captain shave Cr. 5k off the monthlies.