Knowledge Specialties and Physical Rolls

[Spatula]

Discounting Combat and Acrobatics... You have a hero with some knowledge specialty, like Tech or Science. They use some mechanical or electronic gear that's essential to their character. Do they add the specialty in for attacks? Reactions vs attacks targeting the gear?

For example, Spider-Man's mechanical web-shooters. Would he add Tech Expert to web-related rolls? Just when attacking with webs? If a villain tries to destroy the shooters? Or even when a web-related complication is being targeted? And then if he gets organic web shooters, does the specialty no longer apply?

Other examples are Doctor Octopus and his arms, Green Goblin and his glider & bag of tricks, or Mysterio and his mechanical illusions. Or the Punisher and his arsenal, even.

I would see Tech being used to build those things or repair them. Or to be used when attacking something technological (from identifying its weak points, for example). Using it on physical action rolls with your normal gear feels a bit weird to me - it seems to me that there's a difference in being a skilled combatant (pulling a trigger, pressing a button, throwing a bomb, etc.) and a skilled inventor.

[Supplanter]

The official guidance is to be forgiving about including specialties rather than strict. e.g. Iron Man wears a high-tech battlesuit, so he can roll Tech Expert whenever he does something in his battlesuit. When I played Iron Man I was a little more restrictive with myself - I rolled Tech Expert only on turns where I was monkeying with SFX like his various Shutdowns and such. Given that the Iron Man datafile is basically the score for a Shutdown Symphony, this wasn't much of a hardship.


Jim

[Doc Hydrogen]

I'm also really loose with these things, it's a narrative game. The story is more important than worrying overmuch about the rules.

Besides: "Tech - You can use, repair, and invent electronic, digital, or mechanical gear."

Any time Tony uses that suit, it falls under Tech.

[Unknown Blitz]

Aye, I concur with the notion of using Specialties for combat reasons that are not really at face value ones that look that way. As said, Iron Man using his suit? Tech spec. Dr.Strange blasting a foe with an arcane blast? Mystic spec. Professor X mind tricking someone? Psych spec.

-Blitz