Weird Science: realistic or not?

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

I would argue about the practicality of OTPs even today, when 12 GB of random noise on DVD costs basically nothing and is enough to encrypt every email you will ever send in your life, and you can have a computer do all the math for you, as well as keep track of how much of the pad you've used.

I would point out that such a DVD is, in fact, a one-time pad. :)

[mlangsdorf]

I know a DVD full of white noise is a OTP. I also know that people don't routinely use DVDs full of noise for OTPs, because even though the cost and convenience of creating, using, and maintaining a OTP is as low as its been in history, it's still a hassle to make sure that everyone you want to communicate with has a matching DVD. Public key encryption isn't nearly as secure, but the convenience factor makes up for a lot.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

Thank you very much. I marked as unrealistic and will support it with this if my decision is discussed.

Just to add a bit, here is what I came up with in Powers: The Weird:

Not a specialized area of scientific study, but the art of generating
hypotheses regarding new or unknown phenomena. In
general, it should be treated as a cinematic skill like Computer
Hacking or larger-than-life martial-arts skills – one not available
in realistic settings. Weird Science rolls grant bonuses
to inventing and understanding weird devices, and to investigating
weird natural phenomena.
The GM may allow an Unusual Training perk (Power-Ups 2,
p. 21) to grant access to Weird Science in a realistic campaign.
The “believable circumstances” may be that the researcher had
good luck in hitting on a fruitful speculation (such as Watson
and Crick’s model for the structure of DNA) or has a talent for
wild ideas (Richard Feynman might be an example).

[Anthony]

The realistic version of Weird Science is Expert: Weird Science, and it covers familiarity with the various crackpot theories out there. If the campaign changes in some way to introduce actual functional weird science, that skill would likely become Weird Science.

[dataweaver]

In Chinese Elemental Powers, we’re given five skills that have both a cinematic use and a more mundane use: Alchemy, Erotic Art, Esoteric Medicine, Fortune Telling (Feng Shui), and Herb Lore. I don’t see why Weird Science couldn’t work the same way, with the mundane use being something along the lines of “you know a lot of mostly useless trivia about fringe science and pseudosciences”. In a setting where its cinematic functionality isn’t available, it’s not a particularly cost-effective skill choice; but then, if you suddenly get transported to a setting where it is available, you don’t have to relearn it as you would if you insisted on treating the mundane version as a separate skill, like the aforementioned “Expert Skill (Weird Science)”.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

In Chinese Elemental Powers, we’re given five skills that have both a cinematic use and a more mundane use: Alchemy, Erotic Art, Esoteric Medicine, Fortune Telling (Feng Shui), and Herbary. I don’t see why Weird Science couldn’t work the same way

It could with some rephrasing. Currently, weird science has some specific mechanical effects, but those could be noted as being setting-specific.

[dataweaver]

Or cinematic.

Basically, I'm suggesting that the existing Weird Science write-up in Basic Set be treated as the cinematic use of the skill, while the non-cinematic use would be equivalent to Hobby or Profession (Weird Science), depending on whether you can take a living off of bizarre scientific theories.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Or cinematic.

Basically, I'm suggesting that the existing Weird Science write-up in Basic Set be treated as the cinematic use of the skill, while the non-cinematic use would be equivalent to Hobby or Profession (Weird Science), depending on whether you can take a living off of bizarre scientific theories.

Alternately, you can just delete "and never provide the ability to do practical tasks" from the description of Expert skill, and a whole bunch of other skills become unnecessary.

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Alternately, you can just delete "and never provide the ability to do practical tasks" from the description of Expert skill, and a whole bunch of other skills become unnecessary.

Although at that point, you're starting to read on Wildcard territory. But yeah.

I'm assuming that you'd let Weird Science encompass nearly every Science skill, but only for the purpose of fringe specialties? Basically, like Science! but only for the really weird stuff, and without negating familiarity and TL penalties.

[AlexanderHowl]

Weird Science should never be in a realistic game (and it is actually not that useful in a cinematic campaign if you have Gadgeteer because it does not negate any penalties, only gives +1 to skill rolls when using Gadgeteer, and gives really bad side effecfs). It is, paradoxically, a cinematic skill for realistic campaigns (or a poor version of Gadgeteer in cinematic campaigns). In general, I ban it from my campaigns because it just is not worth the effort of changing it.

That being said, I could see Weird Science instead being like Ritual Magic or Thaumaturgy for scientific forms of magic and creating gadgets. If you removed the 'primary' use and said that it was the core skill for scientific magic and allowed scientific magicians to spend points to create gadgets, then it would be worthwhile.