Shoptalk: Enabling Abilities

In Scion RAW, there are 24 Abilities listed on the character sheet. Some of these are fine and dandy, they work perfectly. Some have odd and slightly confusing names or descriptions of what they do and do not cover. There are holes in what Scion's RAW Abilities cover. So, in this post, I'll go problem by problem, identifying the issues and offering solutions.

Problem 1: Black Holes
Four of the Abilities (Art, Control, Craft and Science) are broken up into what is essentially an infinite number of Abilities, which becomes extremely annoying for anyone that cares about them and suddenly has to sink dozens of extra XP into their abilities while their friends who aren't interested in Art, Control, Craft or Science only have to deal with the 20 regular Abilities. That's an issue for me. A scientist who wants to know biology and chemistry has to spend a lot more XP than an athlete who wants to be good at both weightlifting and gymnastics.

More than just being an XP penalty to specific types of characters, the difference between a Black Hole and a regular Ability isn't very clear. Why is Academics alright as a single Ability, but not Art? It's somehow easier to learn history, philosophy and literature together than it is to learn painting, drawing and printmaking? Pfft, says I. What about Medicine and Occult, which are easily as broad as Control and Science? Again, pfft.

Solution! Remove this concept from the game. Collapse the Black Holes. Art, Control, Craft and Science become single Abilities, just like Academics, Athletics, Medicine and Occult.