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Old 09-24-2016, 03:51 AM   #10
Phil Masters
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Research

Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
One important modern application I keep wavering back and forth on being Research, Intelligence Analysis, or an entirely separate skill is dossier building. The art of combing through public records, credit reports, home town newspaper morgues, high school yearbooks, usenet posts, facebook pages and the like to construct a capsule biography of somebody. In a way this is the thing that Zeroed opposes, only all at once instead of to answer a specific question.
I'm sure that's Research. It's certainly finding data, and collating found data into a continually usable form is an important part of any Research above default - otherwise you just have a heap of notes that you have to shuffle all the time. What you do with that data might be Intelligence Analysis (or Psychology, or Leadership, or Brainwashing...).

I rather like the way that this skill became absolutely critical for every Ally AI assistant in Transhuman Space. Much of the point of having those things is being able to subvocalise "What's this about?" whenever you run into something unfamiliar.
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