Biologist

Studies and observes organic things.

woman wearing a pith helmet using binoculars and a computer in the jungle.

Watching a biologist watch

Biologists are personas with a deep connection with the workings of the organic physical world. The vocation is broad as the organic world. Their scope can vary from creepy crawly bugs to complicated economic systems.

Biologists are more interested in studying the organic world than repairing the organic world. Biologists are more interested in organic systems than mechanical systems. Veterinarians, mechanics and biologists work well on research teams together.

Biologists do not have degrees or diplomas or certificates from training programs. They are self-taught, and their knowledge base is haphazard. Their knowledge comes from keen observation, gardening books, environmental leaflets, nature shows, sagely advisors, and personal experience.

If your table is using attribute determined vocations a biologist must have a total AWE and INT greater than or equal to 18.

Knowledge

The biologist’s abilities cover all aspects of the organic world. Anything to do with organic life, anthros and aliens, falls under her purvey. This includes the observation, discovery, and identification of aliens. Biology covers the knowledge spheres of sociology, ecology, culture studies, and more. A biologist’s abilities do not include robots (mechanic) or organic repairs (veterinarian). However a biologist could take tasks from the mechanic or veterinarian vocation.

Interests

Interests are broad areas that cover a swath of the organic world. Biologist interests are: Taxonomy, Research, and Culture. The Taxonomy interest could help with an alien identification task. The Research interest could help with a laboratory task. The Culture interest could help with a linguistic task.

At startup, the persona gets one interest per three points of Intelligence score. A persona with a 12 INT would get four rolls on the Biologist Interest Table. After startup the persona earns another interest with each new experience level. The player can choose to roll on the Biologist Interest Table, or choose a specific interest.

**Biologist Interests Table**
Broad areas of interest and aptitude.
Die Roll	Interest
01-20	Culture
21-55	Research
56-89	Taxonomy
90-00	Extra Roll
Die Roll	Interest
Startup: 1 per 3 INT at startup. +1 per additional level.
Players may choose their areas of interest.

While it is possible for players to create bespoke interests it is not recommended. Creating bespoke interests requires an experienced table of players.

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is about identifying and categorizing organic species. The taxonomy interest describes the classical biologist as a naturalist. Taxonomy interest would apply to things like identifying subterranean swarm beetles or ancient aquatic aliens. Recall than the mere categorization of finches has had a large impact on mundane Terran society.

Research

The research interest includes laboratory, invention and extension interests for the biologist. Tasks like cloning, immunology, and antitoxin creation are found under the research interest

Culture

The culture interest involves interaction of a population. Knowledge like languages, family structures, and political nuance are found under the culture interest.

Expertise

Biologist expertise is grouped by interest. A taxonomy interest could come with expertise in: burrowers, hivers or herbivores. A culture interest could come with expertise in: language, religion or politics

At startup the player gets one areas of expertise per interest. So a biologist with taxonomy 2 and culture 1 would get 2 taxonomy expertise and 1 culture expertise. After start up the persona gets one new expertise per experience level. While it is recommended to have a persona’s expertise limited to her interests, it is not essential. For example, a biologist with taxonomy interest and no taxonomy expertise seems odd.

Taxonomy

Taxonomy expertise is focused on knowledge about categorizing specific types of diversidae. A taxonomy expertise could look like this: Taxonomy - Aggressive. This would allow the biologist strengths when engaging aggressive aliens.

**Taxonomy Expertise Table**
Areas of taxonomic expertise.
Die Roll (1d100)	Taxonomy Expertise
01-04	Aggressive
05-08	Ancient
09-12	Aquatic
13-16	Armoured
17-20	Detritivores
21-24	Flying
25-28	Gigantic
29-32	Hidden
33-36	Infestors
37-40	Microscopic
41-44	Mechanical
45-48	Mutated
49-52	Omnivores
53-56	Oviparous
57-60	Parasitic
61-64	Photosynths
65-68	Poisoners
69-72	Psionic
73-76	Solo
77-80	Subterranean
81-84	Swarms
85-88	Tiny
89-92	Trappers
93-96	Viviparous
97-00	Extra Roll
Die Roll (1d100)	Taxonomy Expertise
Startup: 1 per taxonomy interest. +1 per additional level
Players may choose their areas of expertise.

Research

Research expertise focuses on specific areas of research of the organic world. These areas of expertise can be used to make an antivenom, clone an alien, or enhance a mutation.

**Research Expertise Table**
Areas of biologist research expertise.
Die Roll (1d100)	Research Expertise
01-04	Aging
05-08	Archeology
09-12	Bioelectrics
13-16	Biochemistry
17-20	Bioprinting
21-24	Cloning
25-28	Conservation
29-32	Cryogenics
33-36	Cybernetics
37-40	Ecology
41-44	Epidemiology
45-48	Genetics
49-52	Hyperspace
53-56	Immunology
57-60	Microbiology
61-64	Mutations
65-68	Paleontology
69-72	Physiology
73-76	Regeneration
77-80	Reproduction
81-84	Synthetics
85-88	Toxins
89-92	Virology
93-96	Xenobiology
97-00	Extra Roll
Die Roll (1d100)	Research Expertise
Startup: 1 rolls per research interest. +1 per additional experience level
Players may choose their expertise.

Culture

Culture expertise focuses on understanding the interactions of groups of organic life forms. These expertise can be used to predict what a pack of aliens might do, or try and predict an election.

**Culture Expertise Table**
Specific areas of biologist cultural expertise.
Die Roll (1d100)	Culture Expertise
01-05	Arts
06-10	Communities
11-15	Ecology
16-20	Economics
21-25	Education
26-30	Families
31-35	Foods
36-40	Governance
41-45	Health
46-50	Informatics
51-55	Laws
56-60	Linguistics
61-65	Markets
66-70	Military
71-75	Privilege
76-80	Rituals
81-85	Technology
86-90	Tools
91-95	Traditions
96-00	Extra Roll
Die Roll (1d100)	Culture Expertise
Startup: 1 per culture interest. +1 per additional level
Players may choose their areas of expertise.

Gifts

Biologist gifts are tasks that the player does not need to make a task roll for. The persona gets one gift at first level and more difficult ones are added at prescribed levels.

**Biologist Gifts Table**
Gifts are biologist tasks that require no task roll.
EXPS Level	Amount	Difficulty	Recommendation
1	One	Trivial (<25DD)	Dangerous?
3	Two	Normal (<43DD)	Smarter than me?
6	Three	Hard (<85DD)	Mutated?
9	Four	Tough (<127DD)	Phenomic ID
12	Five	Impossible (<200DD)	Psionic ID
EXPS Level	Amount	Difficulty	Recommendation
A biologist gift was previously called a knack.
Maximum number of gifts is 5.

Tasks

Biologist tasks involve anything organic that does not involve healing. Most biologist tasks are knowledge based unless an obvious physical intervention is involved. The minimal equipment required by a biologist is her notebook. The referee may make a target roll more difficult if the biologist does not have her notebook. For the intricate details of how to resolve tasks in EXP jump to Task Rolls.

Each vocation have special tasks called gifts at which they automatically succeed. The player can choose from the below list of tasks or create a bespoke gift.

Compendium

A non-exhaustive list of biologist tasks arranged by increasing difficulty.

**Biologist Task Compendium**
A non-exhaustive list of biologist tasks arranged by increasing difficulty.
Task	Difficulty	Description
Trivial
Biological	12	Is it biological? Yes/No.
Sentience	12	Sentience present. Yes/No.
Easy
Living	24	Is it alive and living? Yes/No.
Dangerous	24	Is biological organism a threat?
Flora or Fauna	36	Is the alien flora or fauna? Yes/No.
Ranged Attacks	36	Is this alien gonna fling stuff?
Normal
Age	42	Estimate chronological age.
Maturity	42	Estimate stage in life cycle (child, adult).
Smarter than me	42	Is an anthro or alien smarter than the biologist?
Energy Source	42	What does it eat?
Threat level	42	Degree of danger potential.
Alien organization	56	Solo, family, herd, pack.
Leader Finder	56	Identify leader or presence of leader.
Hard
Health Care	84	Is there a healer in the group?
Mutated	84	Mutated. Yes/No.
Mutation Type	84	Psionic or phenomic.
Tough
Phenomic Identification	126	Identify nature of phenomic mutation.
Impossible
Psionic Identification	168	Identify nature of psionic mutation.
Bizarre
Cloning	242	Make a copy of a biologic entity.
Gene Design	242	Create new gene expressions.
Task	Difficulty	Description

List

A similar list of tasks arranged in alphabetical order.

**Biologist Task List**
A non-exhaustive alpha ordered list of biologist tasks.
Task	Difficulty	Description
Age	42	Estimate chronologic age.
Alien organization	56	Solo, family, herd, pack.
Biological	12	Is it biological? Yes/No.
Cloning	242	Make a copy of a biologic entity.
Dangerous	24	Is biological organism a threat?
Energy Source	42	What does it eat?
Flora or Fauna	36	Is the alien flora or fauna? Yes/No.
Gene Design	242	Create new gene expressions.
Health Care	84	Is there a healer in the group?
Leader Finder	56	Identify leader or presence of leader.
Living	24	Is it alive and living? Yes/No.
Maturity	42	Estimate stage in life cycle (child, adult).
Mutated	84	Mutated. Yes/No.
Mutation Type	84	Psionic or phenomic.
Phenomic Identification	126	Identify nature of phenomic mutation.
Psionic Identification	168	Identify nature of psionic mutation.
Ranged Attacks	36	Is this alien gonna fling stuff?
Sentience	12	Sentience present. Yes/No.
Smarter than me	42	Is an anthro or alien smarter than the biologist?
Threat level	42	Degree of danger potential.
Task	Difficulty	Description

Experience

The benefits of increasing experience levels is increased knowledge, aptitude and gifts, improved task success. Biologists marginally improve their combat tasks as well. Biologists earn experience points for completing procedures and role-playing within their vocation. Only 20% of combat experience can go towards a biologist’s experience point total.

**Biologist Experience Points Table**
EXPS required to advance in levels of expertise for biologists.
Experience Points	Experience Level
0-1250	1
1251-2500	2
2501-5000	3
5001-10000	4
10001-20000	5
20001-42500	6
42501-70000	7
70001-110000	8
110001-220000	9
220001-450000	10
230000	Per level beyond 10th
Experience Points	Experience Level