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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6297720" data-attributes="member: 4937">Again, the fundamental problem is that one of the big differences between magic and science is that science doesn't require esoteric or gnostic knowledge which cannot be shared.  In magic there is some sense in which YOU are doing things.  In science, you aren't the important actor - the universe is.  There is nothing special and esoteric about your knowledge or you yourself in science.  Wizards are 'special people'.  Scientists at a fundamental level, really aren't.Note that we can use this standard to recognize when magic is being given the color of science - which happens a lot in say comic books.  At some level there is a valid concept called 'combat engineer', and presumably some day their might be combat programmers and combat scientists.  But this would be as much about knowledge of how to use certain specialized gear as it would be anything.   And most of what a combat engineer does is concerned with preparing a battlefield, not what they actually do in battle.  When actually in battle, combat engineers mostly fight like regular infantry (though in practice, rather smart infantry that has Engineering degrees, see US Combat Engineers during the battle of the bulge).  But all this would involve a pretty drastic shift in how RPG encounters generally play out.   You'd need to adopt a trope similar to that in the TV Series 'The A-Team', where every episode involves the team finding a defensible location and having sufficient time to dig in before the enemy forces arrive, before 'Combat Engineer' would be a relevant skill set.Encounter design can fix many things, but it won't cause people to choose to be scientists.  It's more what you do after they've chosen to be scientists to give them needed spotlight.</blockquote>

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