02-17-2017, 07:22 AM | #31 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [Madness Dossier] Skill of the Week: Esmology
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The problem with the other part, "perfect predictive analysis of any group or mass of people", is basically the same as any other kind of precognition. It's a plot destroyer if you take it literally, though it's pretty obvious you aren't supposed to even in Madness Dossier. After all the Anunnakku didn't predict and program for our resistance group to appear. Well probably.... Extending the +3 to any situation where knowing what a group might do would help would make sense though.
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02-17-2017, 07:26 AM | #32 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: [Madness Dossier] Skill of the Week: Esmology
Esmology is kind of combat sociology. I guess one might use it (renamed for preference) in a cinematic Transhuman Space campaign, in which expert memeticists can predict group-based actions by analysing the memetics that motivate them.
(The Madness Dossier assumes that free will is an illusion because the Anunnakku built us this way. Cinematic memetics assumes that free will is an illusion because we are creatures of our mental structures. Different causes, potentially similar results.)
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02-17-2017, 07:28 AM | #33 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: [Madness Dossier] Skill of the Week: Esmology
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02-17-2017, 08:23 AM | #34 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Madness Dossier] Skill of the Week: Esmology
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In Madness dossier it does 2 things: 1 - Predict, 2 - Aid in Manipulation attempts (via the +3). Both apply only to groups. A proper student of the sc-fi concept of Psychohistory (from Asimov's Foundations series) could use it to predict extremely large groups, but I could see it also being applied to small groups who have had lots of intensive training (ie, how a military squad would react, how veteran police officers might respond to a situation, etc). Note this application of the skill can be covered by other skills (Tactics, Savoir Faire (Police), Psychology, etc). Also keep in mind, getting the skill in Madness Dossier requires a 10 point UBC, but it comes with a number of other things, so, I'd say 5 points for just having the skill might suffice. Or no UBC if you drop the manipulate aspect from it. Both of these are unnecessary (depending on what he wants), and the name simply comes form the Greek word for 'swarm (also flock or herd, or other large groups that act in like accordance), so... it's not exactly something purely unique to the setting. Last edited by evileeyore; 02-17-2017 at 08:29 AM. |
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02-17-2017, 08:46 AM | #35 |
Hero of Democracy
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Re: [Madness Dossier] Skill of the Week: Esmology
If you want to make it human-specific, anthroesmology probably can't mean anything else. Though in most cases, you should look hard at sociology first.
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02-17-2017, 10:36 AM | #36 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [Madness Dossier] Skill of the Week: Esmology
Should be "anthropoesmology." The Greek for "human being of either sex" is anthropos; as far as I know there is no Greek word anthros.
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02-17-2017, 11:41 AM | #37 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [Madness Dossier] Skill of the Week: Esmology
There probably is in some dialect - the word spelled αντρας, husband, in modern Greek seems to usually be rendered andros in neo-classical coinages, but there are a lot of Greek dialects through history and standard spelling is a pretty modern thing anyway. If you spelled it with δ instead of τ, which is what you'd probably expect from d in andros you'd even correctly pronounce it with the hard th sound in modern Greek. It's close kinship to anthropos should be obvious too.
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02-17-2017, 11:50 AM | #38 |
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Re: [Madness Dossier] Skill of the Week: Esmology
That's the sort of thing that keeps me coming back to these forums in preference to any others.
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02-17-2017, 12:09 PM | #39 | |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: [Madness Dossier] Skill of the Week: Esmology
The huge bonus is because human groups are highly predictable in the setting. If human groups aren't as predictable than you shouldn't get the same large bonus. A skill like Sociology could be used as a complimentary skill for +1 instead (and be able to realistically predict vague trends in group behaviors).
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02-17-2017, 12:36 PM | #40 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [Madness Dossier] Skill of the Week: Esmology
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Besides, in forming modern English scientific words from Greek roots, it's customary to use the standard classical forms, not dialect forms and certainly not Modern Greek.
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