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Jack of All Trades: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."''
|'''[[Robert Heinlein]]'''}}
Specialization is a common trend in fiction. It allows the author to create an ensemble cast where every member of a team provides a specific function, and avoids role duplication.
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See also [[The Red Mage]] and [[Power Copying]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Ussop from ''[[One Piece]]'' (before the time skip) seems to be this. He's not an especially good fighter, though he gets in on the action here and there and uses his cleverness when he can. He was doing his best to fix the ship, as the only one who had any skills in that area before they got a shipwright. He mostly did odd jobs on the ship for the crew, not having a specialization like all the others.
** Whilst his pure combat skills where sub-par compared to the other (Admittedly super-human) characters, his aim was always extremely good (Which did in at least one occasion come to great help). Since the time-skip it simply seems he has gotten the combat power to use it effectively against more powerful enemies.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
* [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s character
▲== Literature ==
▲* [[Robert Heinlein]]'s character, Lazarus Long, an immortal, and the source of the page quote, was a firm advocate of learning a wide variety of skills to be prepared for change (a matter of some concern for an immortal, of course).
* The aptly named Jack of ''[[The Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'', a freelance businessman who does "a little bit of everything", though he will assure you that he is ''not'' one of those giant-slaying Jacks.
* Michael from the ''[[Knight and Rogue Series]]'' has a multitude of unusual skills ranging from
== [[Live
* ''[[Remington Steele]]'': he may be a fake detective, but Steele's previous life as a conman left him with a wide variety of useful skills.
* A nonfictional example: Mike Rowe from ''[[Dirty Jobs]]'' tries to be this, though he often ends up closer to [[Master of None]].
* ''[[Highlander (TV series)|Highlander]]'' has Methos who after 5000 years has held just about every possible job and has picked up just about any practical skill imaginable. This makes him different from most other immortals who seem to pick a niche and stick with it.
* Seventeen-year-old Glo from ''[[Misfits of Science]]'' has a surprising assortment of skills, some learned while in juvenile detention and others acquired during missions with the Misfits, including lock-picking, auto repair, truck driving and speaking French.
== [[Music]] ==▼
▲== Music ==
* [[Bruce Springsteen]] has a song called "Jack of All Trades".
{{quote|''I'll mow your lawn''
''Clear the leaves out your drain''
''I'll mend your roof, to keep out the rain''
''I take the work that God provides''
''I'm a jack of all trades''
''Honey, we'll be all right.'' }}
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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* Classic ''[[Traveller]]''. The Jack of All Trades skill allowed a character to use any other skill at level 0, which meant that they would avoid penalties for lack of skill but not gain any bonuses either.
* ''[[Hollow Earth Expedition]]'' supplement ''Secrets of the Surface World''. The Jack of All Trades skill gives a broad familiarity with a variety of different tasks, without any formal training. The character may use any skill that they have no training in at no penalty (General Skill) or reduced penalty (Specialized Skill).
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', all of your characters can eventually use any class, not just the three that they start with. However, classes developed outside of a character's main three are relatively underpowered and may not be suited to that character's strengths. (For example, Hope ''can'' become a [[Stone Wall|Sentinel]] but his very low HP makes him unsuited for the role.)
* The Shaman class in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' used to be this when the game was young, being able to tank, heal, hit and cast, but not being particularly good at any of them.
** The Druid class would probably better fit this role, seeing how Shamans have no viable tanking specialization.
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** Can be Taken [[Up to Eleven]] if you train everything, you end up being a [[Lightning Bruiser]] [[Magic Knight]] who [[Genius Bruiser|knows something about everything, can fix anything and can kill anything that bleeds (and some things that don't)]].
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Quentyn Quinn, hero of ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'', failed every apprenticeship he applied for, leading him to think he's not good at anything. Once he become Questor, however, it becomes clear that while he's not good at anything, he's a ''little'' bit good at ''everything'', allowing him to combine his skills in unexpected ways.▼
==
* Before the accident which resulted in her reincarnation into fourteen-year-old Victoria Sophia de Guevera in the [[Trapped in Another World|Isekai]] web novel ''[[Tori Transmigrated]]'', forty-year-old career woman Tori Felix had for nearly twenty years dedicated herself to learning one new skill a year (and keeping all her previously-acquired skills fresh). Among the skills she ended up bringing with her into her new world were [[w:Historical European martial arts|Historical European martial arts]], cooking and baking (including formal pastry chef training), business administration, project management, and computer programming, just to name a few. Virtually everything came in handy in some way, and just in her first couple years in her new world she continued to acquire skills, sometimes piggy-backing them on her existing skills.
▲* Quentyn Quinn, hero of ''[[Tales of the Questor]]'', failed every apprenticeship he applied for, leading him to think he's not good at anything. Once he become Questor, however, it becomes clear that while he's not good at anything, he's a ''little'' bit good at ''everything'', allowing him to combine his skills in unexpected ways.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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