Other skills
- Thread starter rinku
- Start date
Chemistry is under the Life specialisation.
MasterGwydion
Guest
Shouldn't that be Biochemistry that is under the Life Specialization instead of general chemistry?
They both are, according to the preview rules.
Pretty explicit. To be honest, the grouping makes sense, and do not forget that Science (Physics) still means level zero skill in the other two specialties. Plus, some things are going to be Engineering anyway. Science (Life) may know all about the reactions, but it's probably Engineer (Aerospace) if you're calculating fuel consumption.
Those examples are a bit rubbish too. Fuel from water is clearly not a Physics task; Reconfiguring equipment REALLY sounds like an Engineering job, though I guess a Physicist could have a shot at it. The asteroid one sounds alright. Probably with an Orbital Mechanics task in there somewhere.
But the usual caveat that more than one skill might do applies. And that this is a draft of a work in progress.
Pretty explicit. To be honest, the grouping makes sense, and do not forget that Science (Physics) still means level zero skill in the other two specialties. Plus, some things are going to be Engineering anyway. Science (Life) may know all about the reactions, but it's probably Engineer (Aerospace) if you're calculating fuel consumption.
Those examples are a bit rubbish too. Fuel from water is clearly not a Physics task; Reconfiguring equipment REALLY sounds like an Engineering job, though I guess a Physicist could have a shot at it. The asteroid one sounds alright. Probably with an Orbital Mechanics task in there somewhere.
But the usual caveat that more than one skill might do applies. And that this is a draft of a work in progress.
CordwainerFish
Emperor Mongoose
A college physics curriculum will have a laboratory component, and mine included a month or two of machine shop training - you can't pick up a particle accelerator at Ace Hardware, you've got to make it yourself.
Ultimately what skills are clustered, or in as their own thing, or farmed off to Profession has a lot to do with setting focus.
I do think there's a case for a Social Sciences cluster or skill. History definitely overlaps with Archaeology, and Psychology with Sociology. But if that should be kept completely away from "lab*" sciences, fine.
(*Mathematics isn't really a Lab science, and Astrophysics barely is. That and Astronomy - which I assume is under Physics - share more with Archaeology and Paleontology, in that they both gather data and can make predictions, but generally can't set up experiments. Mathematics, of course, doesn't sully it's pure hands with gross experimentation...)
But I don't buy the argument that it's not going to be a focus area, given that the people focussed sciences would be pretty important in a space colony. You could easily just have a Humanities skill (History, Archaeology, Anthopology, Sociology, Psychology, Economics).
For that matter, in a pre-stellar setting, there's a good case to Specialise Medic, maybe into Trauma, Surgery and Mental Health? For the purposes of a game, the choice to have a one size fits all situations skill, or to have related skills comes down to story design. Do you WANT the team doctor to always be a cross-discipline expert, or is that going to need a few more skill points?
No size fits all answer, but things for people to consider.
I do think there's a case for a Social Sciences cluster or skill. History definitely overlaps with Archaeology, and Psychology with Sociology. But if that should be kept completely away from "lab*" sciences, fine.
(*Mathematics isn't really a Lab science, and Astrophysics barely is. That and Astronomy - which I assume is under Physics - share more with Archaeology and Paleontology, in that they both gather data and can make predictions, but generally can't set up experiments. Mathematics, of course, doesn't sully it's pure hands with gross experimentation...)
But I don't buy the argument that it's not going to be a focus area, given that the people focussed sciences would be pretty important in a space colony. You could easily just have a Humanities skill (History, Archaeology, Anthopology, Sociology, Psychology, Economics).
For that matter, in a pre-stellar setting, there's a good case to Specialise Medic, maybe into Trauma, Surgery and Mental Health? For the purposes of a game, the choice to have a one size fits all situations skill, or to have related skills comes down to story design. Do you WANT the team doctor to always be a cross-discipline expert, or is that going to need a few more skill points?
No size fits all answer, but things for people to consider.
