Missing Prereq on Speed-Reading

[nerdvana]

Shouldn't Speed-Reading (p222) have Literacy as a prereq?

Before anyone says I'm nitpicking, look at Research/TL on p217...

[David Johnston2]

No. Research requires understanding. Speed-reading doesn't, if you have Photographic Memory.

[Kromm]

Yeah, Speed-Reading has nothing to do with comprehension. It's just being able to glance over strings of symbols quickly. Olaf the Illiterate could take both Native Language (Native/None) and Speed-Reading, and use his skill to examine magical runes quickly without knowing what, if anything, they spell.

[Kawaii_Koneko]

speed reading is THE skill for flip picture books ^_~

[nerdvana]

Thanks for the quick answers!

[Anaraxes]

Olaf the Illiterate could... use his skill to examine magical runes quickly without knowing what, if anything, they spell

So, does Speed-Reading hurt Olaf's saving throw if he's pursuing a certain elven wizard?

[pawsplay]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

No. Research requires understanding. Speed-reading doesn't, if you have Photographic Memory.

My background in psychology says this is utterly unrealistic. Speed-Reading is assuredly not a skill for absorbing vast amounts of atomically remembered symbols. Speed-Seeing is an entirely different skill.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by pawsplay

My background in psychology says this is utterly unrealistic.

Photographic memory is utterly unrealistic.

[nik1979]

Originally Posted by pawsplay

My background in psychology says this is utterly unrealistic. Speed-Reading is assuredly not a skill for absorbing vast amounts of atomically remembered symbols. Speed-Seeing is an entirely different skill.

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Photographic memory is utterly unrealistic.

the way photographic memory works, kinda makes you wonder about the real photo-mem people. On the thought http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_memory

when i was a kid my mom was told by the psychologist that i had been tested with perfect memory. I admit I have better memory when it comes to details, but not much better than anyone who was trained or habitually observant or attentive. I wouldn't say I had a +5 over my peers, maybe a +2 and on only things i actually paid attention too. I would add t say that in the Information Age we are suffering Attention poverty.

I don't think people of higher memory ability than me the real photo-mem and the eidetic mem. As an example, if you asked me to observe chinese symbols unless I wrote them down i would not remember each detail precise and reliably enough even if my life depended on it.

If there were to be a measure of context- maybe alien symbols should be a -5 TDM to remember, -10 TDM when speed reading.

Oh yea, I used to do the Speed Read, Photo-mem combo, for my spies and hackers. After a while it was utterly unrealistic.

[pawsplay]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Photographic memory is utterly unrealistic.

Some forms are obviously realistic. Globally is rather unrealistic, but I would not say utterly, at the level of detail GURPS usually works at.