Hi all, just something I stumbled upon and I am not sure about. Under Academic it reads
You may only specialize at the time a focus is first selected
Under Pilot it reads:
You may only specialize at the time of operative creation
Is there a reason why the Pilot can only specialize on Operative creation while an Academic can do so during play when the Focus selected? Why can´t the Pilot specialize once per Focus and the Academic can do so? I do not see why they should be functionally different. Would love to know the reasoning behind it. I am probably missing a detail.
The Academic can have a specialty in each Focus because each focus covers a lot of possible specialties.
For example, an Academic can take the Scholar Focus and specialize in Law, then take the Scientist Focus and specialize in Genetics.
The Pilot can only have one specialty of either Air, Sea, or Space. The player must also start with the Pilot skill or they can't select a focus. If you add the Pilot skill later, you do not get the chance to focus.
That is IMO how the rules are written but I would not have a problem letting a new Pilot focus on one area.
Hi Mitch,
thank you for your reply, that is how I understand it as well. I am just not undertanding why. It seems an arbitrary choice to say that a pilot can only specialize in one thing like speedboats forever while an Academic could be a spezialist in Law and Archeology and able to switch to Philosophy and Astrophysics. I have an easier time imagining a driver that is great at various vehicles then a scholar that is a specialist in various scholarly fields. I think there is some thought process and play rasons why it is how it is. I would houserule this different but want to understand where they are coming from before hacking it.
It's not arbitrary at all. Just because you know how to fly a jet professionally doesn't mean you know how to drive a boat professionally. They're completely different mediums with different physics.
An academic just studies. it's all they do. Study is their specialty. Study is simply brain learning. Flying or boating, however, requires trained reflexes and muscle memory. Flying a spaceship has very little relationship to aerial flight. If you tried to fly in space the way you do atmosphere, you wouldn't get anywhere but lost. If you try to fly in atmosphere the way you do in space, you'll rip your ship apart. A person who performs transatmospheric flight has to know both disciplines. Likewise, a stuntcar driver is in no way going to be able to pull off stuntboat driving, or a stuntboat driver pull off stunt flying. They each require their own training and their own amount of practice.
IMO, a Jetboat is very specific so making the Pilot specialize in Watercraft:Jetboat is very limited. So the pilot gets to specialize in all watercraft.
For the Academic, Law is a fairly broad area so specializing in Scholar:Law is not too restrictive.