Scholar Tradecrafts

Introduction

This is part two in a series of four posts written to expand on the tradecraft information listed in the rulebook. This is intended to be used as a reference rather than read straight through (though you’re certainly welcome to do that as well); it is meant to be a way to access more detailed information on a craft to both support its use and help players decide what tradecrafts to take next.

For general tradecraft rules, see the post on tradecrafts and advice; for other trade groups, see their respective posts.

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General Scholarly Craft Information

Scholarly Crafts’ primary purpose is research and context-gathering; however, many scholarly crafts have secondary on-the-field applications as well.

Research: Scholarly Crafts work best as an information-gathering tool. This includes both doing research before or between missions and checking in with what your character would already know about a topic while out on a mission. They represent knowledge that your character has that you as a player may not. Scholarly Crafts work best with time and materials – access to books, notes, or people to work with will often yield better results than a tradecraft used without resources in the moment.

Field Applications: In addition to asking questions of the GM about what your character might already know, some scholarly crafts can be used actively as well. These vary widely between crafts; check individual crafts for individual field applications.

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Individual Tradecrafts

Scribe
Scribe is the study of languages and linguistics. It allows you to recognize languages being spoken or written, understand languages that you’re familiar with, and speak languages that you are experienced in. Scribe covers both spoken and written language; without scribe levels, a character is considered illiterate and cannot read or write (though they can speak just fine). In order to be fully conversant in a language beyond their native tongue, a scribe typically has to be fluent in the language they’ve learned (ie, taken a fluency in it). Alternatively, languages can be treated as sub-crafts and levels put into them directly; when doing so, it takes about 5 lvls in a craft to be fully conversant in the language. Keep in mind that in order to learn a language, the resources for doing so must be available: dead languages may require the assistance of a historian or a library, and languages from distant places may require some travel to pick up. Deciphering a new language without supporting resources is typically a mastery-level feat.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Individual Language (eg: Old Falnorian, Illion, Ogreish); Regional Dialect (eg: City of Syenon, Rural Mountains Oldmin, Falnorian Dwarven); Linguistic Element (eg: Swearwords, Grammar, Scripts). 

Diplomat
Diplomat is the study of laws, legal systems, and rules. It allows you to determine what is illegal in a given region and situation, what the finer points of a particular rule or law are, how a region’s system of laws and governing function, and understand and construct legal arguments. It can also help you identify the insignias of various groups as well as distinguish between real and forged official documents. When used on the field, diplomat doesn’t make your arguments more convincing per se (that would be rhetoric’s domain) – instead, it fills in the gaps in detail that we tend not to worry about in a LARP, such as citing specific precedent or using a region’s legal terms. While certain opponents may find legal arguments convincing (eg, everyday people), opponents that don’t care about the law (eg, bandits) may ignore what you have to say entirely.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Region (eg: Falnin, Gildmar, Illionor); Subject (eg: guilds, trade, trespassing); System (eg: law enforcement, nobility, courthouses). 

Historian
Historian is the study of history. Because it is knowledge of past events, it cannot be used to gather information about current events (that would be innkeeper’s domain) – a good rule of thumb is that if it happened this season, historian won’t help you. What historian will do is provide context for current events: it lets you ask what’s normal for this area, what the timeline or chain of events has been up until now, or whether something has happened before. It also helps you determine qualities of artifacts and ruins – age, region, culture, purpose, and so on – that can help determine why something might be important and how it fits into the rest of a situation. Historian is, above all else, about context and making connections.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Time Period (eg: 4th Age-1st Era, 1st Age-2nd Era, The Fall); Region (eg: Eldspeli history, Falor Plateau history, Mandel history); Topic (eg: war, royalty, populations).

Messenger
Messenger, unlike many of the crafts here, is about memory rather than knowledge. Messenger helps you remember information that you as a player may not; typically it lets you remember one word per lvl in messenger you have. It can also help with recall of images, directions, and other nonverbal information – for these you will typically get one word of description per lvl you have in messenger. In a research sense, messenger will give you some knowledge about the flow of information: how mail is sent, what the proper protocol is for delivering a message to someone of high social status, whether a letter has been tampered with or not, and so on. It also allows you to serve as an official message-carrier for either spoken or written messages and means that others will be more willing to trust you with certain correspondence or allow you to pass unhindered.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Mode of Information (eg: spoken, written, drawn); Type of Information (eg: names, faces, riddles); Type of Message (eg: threats, instructions, requests).

Cartographer
Cartographer is the study of maps. This includes both making maps of your own and reading maps that other people have made. The higher your level in cartographer is, the more precise, detailed, and correct your maps will be – and the easier a time you will have interpreting complicated maps made by others. Cartographer is most often used to keep track of individual locations or sites that your party may come across in the course of their adventures – but it is also indispensable in an exploring context and when navigating in places where there is no preexisting map. In a research context, cartographer lets you find or compile maps the same way that historians might find and compile historical notes about an area, and to gain the context and research that local maps might provide.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Map (eg: terrain, roads, dungeons); Use of Craft (eg: making, restoring, reading); Type of Skill (eg: measurements, directions, ???)

Priest
Priest is the study of divinity. This includes not just knowledge of individual deities, their practices, their pantheons, and the mythologies that go along with them; but also practice of secular priestly skills such as making sacrifices, performing blessing or burial rites, sanctifying spaces, and so on. Priests do not need to choose a particular deity to serve; it is typical not to choose a particular patron, but instead perform services on behalf of people who worship a variety of deities. Priest allows you to identify the insignias or symbols of individual religions, understand the purpose and workings of found rituals or divine objects, and recognize and understand the involvement of the divine in earthly matters.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Ritual (eg: blessing, sacrifice, marriage rites); Type of Deity (eg: death deities, Mayan pantheon, Odin); Type of Knowledge (eg: insignias, oracles, nature of divinity).

Mathematics
Mathematics is the knowledge of arithmetic. Just like the scribe craft, any character without mathematics levels can only perform very basic math operations such as addition or subtraction using their fingers. Mathematics allows a character to use more complicated operations – multiplication, algebra, geometry, etc – to solve problems. This would in turn allow a character to more accurately estimate the quantity of supplies needed to last a group of people for a week, the total area needed for a wall to cover and the amount of stone needed to do it, bookkeeping for a trader, and so on. Mathematics pairs well with many artisan crafts as well as with crafts such as cartographer and trader; in a research capacity, it lets the player ask questions of the GM pertaining to area, volume, quantity, scale, and so on.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Mathematics (eg: geometry, calculus, statistics); Type of Skill (eg: estimation, solving a variable, fractions); Use of Craft (eg: bookkeeping, measurements, logistics).

Literary Arts
Literary Arts is the study of stories. This includes not only written literature but also oral storytelling, poetry, and even technical writing. If scribe is the use of individual bricks, literary arts is building the house itself: it involves knowledge of narrative structure, symbolism, use of rhyme and refrain, description, and otherwise simply communicating information the way you want it communicated. It can be useful when interpreting anything symbolic – oracles, riddles, and even narrative art – as well as understanding and remembering stories or finding stories about a particular topic. It differs from historian in that historian deals with true events; literary art deals with culture and interpretation.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Art (eg: poetry, storytelling, instructions); Particular Topic (eg: love, death, nature); Cultural Context (eg: Syenon literature, children’s stories, mythology).

Doctor
Doctor is the study of anatomy. It does not deal with illness or medicine (that would be herbalist’s domain) but instead issues such as broken bones, heavy bleeding, concussions, and other anatomical problems. It includes both the diagnosis and treatment of these issues – doctors can set broken bones, sew stitches, pull teeth, and even perform surgeries of varying complexity. Doctors are also useful for identifying injuries on dead bodies, from type of weapon used to type of skills inflicted – as well as the identity of bodies when there are few remains left over (such as whether a skull belonged to a human or an elf, etc).
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Possible Fluencies Include: Part of Body (eg: eye, foot, spine); Type of Issue (eg: broken bones, imbedded objects, bruising); Type of Person (eg: hobbits, elderly, warriors). 

Additional Scholarly Crafts
These are the nine scholar crafts that we use regularly throughout the game. There are many more not listed here. Some of them, such as Poetry, could be considered sub-crafts of listed trades; others, such as Metaphysics, are difficult to obtain and can only be trained when the craft is locally available. The list of other artisan crafts and sub-crafts that come up in the game from time to time includes but is not limited to: Metaphysics, Psychologist/Therapist (“Behavior”), Poetry, Archeology, Philosophy, and Naturalist.