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Academia

Academic Knowledge involves study with teachers, tutors, and books. Basic academic knowledge involves the basics of reading, writing, mathematics, and history. Further knowledge includes the study of more specialized subjects such as politics, law, literature, and religion as well as the study of etymology, alphabets, and the study of other languages, spoken and written, including dead languages.

Unlike other knowledge where character specialize in disciplines, academics simply add degrees to Academia itself, and these come with appropriate groups of knowledge. Because there are no disciplines, having the Academia knowledge also implies having first degree in such without require additional skill points to have such.

In the real world, a person would likely specialize in certain groups of knowledge, but to make things simple in Dice Mob, characters are taught a variety of progressively more difficult subjects that hopefully serve some purpose in Dice Mob campaigns. In general, if a character knows something in one of the lists, they can do so with no Skill Check.

If a character does not have a degree that would know something yet but they might be able to figure out, they may perform a Skill Check to see if they might be able to “fake it” using the knowledge they already possess with the GM deciding how many success dice would be appropriate to do so. They cannot gain extra abilities using this skill check, just knowledge, and they can only move up “one degree” doing such. A fifth degree knowledge would not be available to a first degree academic… or even a third degree academic for that matter.

First Degree

A first degree academic in modern day terms has completed elementary school. In medieval times, that would generally be considered quite a feat, one that few people actually accomplished or even had the opportunity to accomplish.

Reading and Writing	This implies the ability to be able to read and write in any language that the character can speak. This does not imply any ability to read or write other language except, at the GMs judgment, some language that is very close to one of the ones they already speak, read, and write.
Basic History	This implies knowledge of the history of the region where the character grew up as well as well-known history of the world, often biased by wherever the instruction was received.
Basic Mathematics	This implies knowledge of arithmetic, greater than what a shopkeeper might know, but not necessarily knowledge of advanced mathematics
Weather Patterns	Although they have no practical knowledge of weather and its effects, they do have book knowledge of weather and what might be expected based on climate and other conditions. This might or might not prove practically useful.

Second Degree

Literature	This implies a knowledge of poetry, literature, and legends from the area where the instruction was received. It also implies knowledge of well-known literature and legends from around the world.
Politics	This implies knowledge of governments in the region and well-known ones throughout the world. It also implies knowing well-known lines of succession including ones localized to the region where the character was instructed.
Common Creature Knowledge	Commonly known strengths, weaknesses, what they eat, if they're nocturnal… Second degree academics have some knowledge of creatures they're likely to face from their instruction and the books and other materials they have studied, even if the players might not. This could be a skill check or this could just be instructions by the GM.

Third Degree

Religion	This implies knowledge of various religions including being able to recognize types of religions and deities based on symbols, runes, ceremonies, religious apparel, etc. It does not imply any ability to cast divine incantations or the like.
Advanced History	This is a much greater knowledge of world history to a much more specific level. Generally this knowledge is just awarded upon asking, but the GM could require skill checks to see if a character would know lesser known tidbits of history that could be valuable.
Algebra and Geometry	This implies a much greater knowledge of mathematics, including algebra and geometry. It's debatable how much help this can be in a medieval campaign, but the character has that knowledge, helpful or not.
Languages	This implies an ability to “guess” at the meaning of other languages with a reasonable amount of accuracy and to communicate in a rudimentary way with creatures who speak a different langauge.

Fourth Degree

Law and Diplomacy	This implies knowledge of many legal and political systems as well as the best ways of taking advantage of them.
Call in Favor	Calling in a favor refers to having done political favors in the past with the expectation that others will reciprocate in the future. Once per city, a character can call in a favor to accomplish something difficult (per the GMs discretion) with a successful Persuasion check. It's like deus ex machina on a smaller scale.
Uncommon Creature Knowledge	With a successful skill check (GM determines the dice required), the GM can instruct the player on strengths and weakness of creatures they're facing or are likely to face, even if the knowledge wouldn't be all that wide-spread. It has to be something that someone would know and have written about, however.

Fifth Degree

Advanced Mathematics and Sciences	This implies the ability to take advantage of advanced scientific knowledge like calculus, astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, botany, and other sciences that might be known at the time. At the GMs discretion, this could add one or two dice to attacks, defenses, or skill checks if advanced knowledge of the sciences would aid one of these in any way.
Advanced Languages	This implies a healthy knowledge of many languages, including the ability to decipher, given enough time, pretty much any language they might come in contact with (with GM approval).
Reading Magic	A character understand written languages well enough to be able to perform spells which are written down on scrolls or magic books.

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