Chargen: Expertise

Expertise represents your character’s training and experience.

Pick one or more types of Expertise, which will give you a certain number of Professions. All characters should have one type of Baseline Expertise. You may also select as many Enhanced Expertise options as are appropriate for your character. All characters also receive the Locality Profession at level 2.

Baseline Expertise Options

Choose just one of these options. They are open to all characters regardless of enhancement.

• Professional: You may choose three Professions and rate them 1, 2, and 3. This is the default option.
• Amateur: Choose three Professions and rate them at 1, 1, and 2. This option is good for young characters who do not have a lot of experience under their belts. Amateur-level Expertise gives you an additional point of Import, but does not change your Tech score. Characters lose this benefit if they choose Omnicompetence.
• Master: Choose four Professions and rate them at 2, 2, 3, and 3. This option is good for characters who are old and well-experienced but not immortal. Master-level Expertise costs one point of Import, but does not change your Tech score.

Enhanced Expertise Options

Choose as many as you like. Each of these options has Capability and/or CV prerequisites, and an associated cost.

• Adept: You have trained extensively in one particular technological area, or you have a natural knack in it. Pick one technology and receive the Engineer and Researcher Professions, as well as three other related Professions, all at level 3. You must have a Dynamic neuroform and/or enhanced Biotech. If you have only enhanced Biotech you must be at least 500 years old. Adept-level Expertise adds one point to Tech (which will also reduce your Import).
• Omnicompetent: Your character is broadly competent in a vast array of fields. Perhaps you are a long-lived jack of all trades, or perhaps a Lens collector. In any situation where Expertise is relevant, you have a rating of 2, without needing to download Lenses. If you have an existing Profession of 2 from a Civilization or Society bonus, you may raise it to 3. You must have a Dynamic neuroform and/or enhanced Biotech. If you have only enhanced Biotech, you must be at least 500 years old. Omnicompetence adds one point to Tech (which will also reduce your Import).
• Satori: You have a great depth of experience in a particular field, the kind only seen from a severely obsessed individual or an immortal who has dedicated a lifetime of effort to the topic. Choose a Profession and rank it at 4, and gain Competitive Advantage in that Profession (see page 48). You must have both Dynamic neuroform and enhanced Biotech, or choose a Core Value that you consider linked to this Profession and rank it at level 5. If you lack the linked Core Value, you must be at least 1000 years old. If you have both the CV and sufficient Capabilities and are old enough, you may rank the Profession at 5. Satori adds one point to Tech (which will also reduce your Import).
• Temporal: You can use Chronotech to repeat actions until you do your absolute best. Add 1 to all of your Professions. You must have Chronotech at level 3 or higher. Temporal Expertise adds one point to your Tech (which will also reduce your Import).

Professions

Professions are ranked from 0-5, with 0 representing no training or experience at all.

1. Modicum of training – just a year or two. Many tasks are still likely to be beyond your reach.
2. Professional level. Ten years of training. You can do almost all of the things that fall into your field, and can earn a living in this profession.
3. A lifetime of experience. You are respected by others in this field and are capable of innovating within it.
4. One of the best ever. A thousand or more years of experience, or complete obsession with the subject.
5. Both millennia of experience and total obsession.

A Profession represents a narrower focus than a Capability, but still include all of the skills necessary to do a job well.

Profession List

Select your Professions from the list below. Each one tells you the Capability most commonly associated with that Profession, in parentheses. The GM may agree that a different Capability is more important under certain circumstances.

• Analyst (Chrono)
• Artist (Meta) - Pick two areas of specialization
• Athlete (Bio) - Pick two areas of specialization
• Courtesan (Meta)
• Criminal (Meta) - Restricted to certain Societies
• Crisis Control (Nano)
• Engineer (Cog) - Pick one technology
• Explorer (Cog)
• Farmer (Cog)
• Financial (Cog)
• Fluctuator (Chrono)
• Kismet (Chrono)
• Legal (Cog)
• Locality (Meta) - Pick one civilization
• Media (Meta)
• Medical (Cog)
• Outdoorsman (Bio)
• Police (Nano)
• Political (Meta)
• Programmer (Cog)
• Religious (Meta)
• Researcher (Cog) - Pick one technology
• Soldier (String)
• Spacer (Nano)
• Spy (Meta)
• Synthesist (Chrono)
• Teacher (Meta)
• Wavecalmer (Chrono)

Game Effects

• Your Professions influence your effectiveness in Conflicts.
• Your Professions determine what you can do without using Themes. If the GM declares that a certain specialized task requires a particular Profession, you cannot even attempt that task unless you have the right Profession. Because Professions are intended to be restrictive, if the answer is uncertain, treat it as a “no.”
• Characters with the Multiple neuroform do not receive multiple sets of Expertise. To have a broad skill set across dozens of bodies, consider becoming Omnicompetent.

Once you have chosen your Expertise and selected Professions, calculate your Import and Tech scores.

Links

1. Civilization
2. Society
3. Neuroform
4. Core Values
5. Themes
6. Capabilities
7. Expertise
8. Import and Tech
9. Finishing Touches