10-23-2015, 12:48 PM
Ok, after re-reading (again) and checking through a few other parts of the book, this is the official list of all the ability traits that need to be purchased separately for each discipline the character learns:
Art
Crafts
Martial Arts
Academics*
Esoterica
Science*
Area Knowledge
Lore
In the cases of Academics and Science, both of these traits state that, in addition to representing a specialized field of study, the dots also indicate general academic/scientific knowledge. Meaning that these traits can be rolled for "general" academic or scientific applications regardless of the chosen specialty. However, if the roll in question involves specialized understanding within a certain field, the character must have the appropriate specialty. For example, say that someone has Science 4: Biology and they run into a problem that requires high-level astrophysics to solve. They would not be able to roll that.
It's possible I may have left one or two out - there are a couple of other abilities that could potentially be included. But the traits in question were a lot more vague and they all said that additional specialties CAN be purchased, rather than MUST be purchased. So I interpreted that as meaning that it isn't necessary to roll the trait - it's just an option people have if they want to take more than one specialty.
We're just about finished with voting and it looks like most of you want to go with the canon rules, so this information may not be necessary anymore, but I wanted to post it just in case anyone was still waiting on me to clarify things.
Art
Crafts
Martial Arts
Academics*
Esoterica
Science*
Area Knowledge
Lore
In the cases of Academics and Science, both of these traits state that, in addition to representing a specialized field of study, the dots also indicate general academic/scientific knowledge. Meaning that these traits can be rolled for "general" academic or scientific applications regardless of the chosen specialty. However, if the roll in question involves specialized understanding within a certain field, the character must have the appropriate specialty. For example, say that someone has Science 4: Biology and they run into a problem that requires high-level astrophysics to solve. They would not be able to roll that.
It's possible I may have left one or two out - there are a couple of other abilities that could potentially be included. But the traits in question were a lot more vague and they all said that additional specialties CAN be purchased, rather than MUST be purchased. So I interpreted that as meaning that it isn't necessary to roll the trait - it's just an option people have if they want to take more than one specialty.
We're just about finished with voting and it looks like most of you want to go with the canon rules, so this information may not be necessary anymore, but I wanted to post it just in case anyone was still waiting on me to clarify things.