<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=163921.msg7697383#msg7697383">Quote from: CarnivalOfTheGoat on 09-02-2013, 20:16:57</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">...Except that he's also got Xenoarchaeology at a beyond-doctoral level, which would make him pretty damned good at it.<br/><br/>Again, it depends on how you want to limit and narrow your character's field of knowledge. I've heard that Physics and Mathematics are so horrifically abused in some EP games that GMs request that characters be more specific WITHOUT claiming a specialization. 'Your Academics: Topology helps you understand the really weird 4-dimensional alien artifact but you can't use it to ricochet bullets.'<br/><br/>Oh, hey, for bonus confusion, check the article on Forensic Archaeology.<br/><br/>Basically it depends on whether or not you'd rather have a focus group or a skill which bridges two focuses. Technically 'forensics' could be applied to all sorts of things. Ballistic forensics is more about physics than anything else, as an example, and structural forensics ('Why did the bridge collapse?') is about structural engineering and design.<br/><br/>The long and short of it in any game, as a rule of thumb, should probably be 'If you can't figure out how your character would apply this to anything in the game, it's probably a good idea to put your points elsewhere.'<br/></blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br/>Except<em>except</em>it's Academics: Xenoarch, which the book says under Academics that the field can be used to reflect a working<em>theoretical</em>knowledge of that skill - the book gives Interrogation and Armorer as examples - which has nothing to do with practical application.<br/><br/>It's why I got shafted out of college in jobs when I was up against guys who didn't have my shiny degree - they had<em>practical job experience</em>, which companies want more than someone who has book learning.<br/><br/>Also probably because they could get away with paying less, the bastards.