Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs
No. If you want Memetics to do that you should allow and buy Memetics Talent. That represents the theory that Memetics gives you a broad general competence in hacking into individual human minds. That's canonical in Changing Times, and it makes sense to me: The theory is that this is not just empirical skill in engineering symbol complexes to stick in the human mind, but is founded on a deeper theoretical insight into human cognitive and emotional processes. If you don't have that theory in your setting, I think you really don't have memetics at all and should stick with ordinary strategic social skills like Propaganda and Psychology (Applied).
Bill Stoddard
|
This is the clash between the original material (TS137) and Changing Times that always puzzled me. The combat equivalent would've been removing the damage bonus of Karate and offering people to buy Striking Strength instead. Then again, Changing Times came out before Manipulation was made generic, and (IIRC) even before Complimentary Skill Rolls became known.
From a purely gamist perspective, the use of a Memetics Talent to represent training in memetics aiding that skill list partially steps on the toes of other social Talents and Charisma.
I was actually considering taking Memetics Talent for Caine when I was first imagining him. I eventually picked Empathy Talent instead. Now the memetic misconception keeps haunting him - including the last session when NPC mistook his specialisation for campaign-scale memetics.