Hello everyone, I've recently taken a shot at standardizing the 'magical' knowledge skills in my game, and I'm toying with writing a list for players to choose from. The goal is to provide consistent knowledge skills with obvious in game applications, with little overlap. I find my players turn first to their own knowledge skills rather than going to contacts (I think this stems from playing Mage: The Awakening and D&D, who have set knowledge skills).

What I did was told my Magicians that three separate knowledge skills would cover most questions they could ask- "Astral Knowledge" would cover info on Spirits and Astral planes, "Spellcraft" would cover spell effects, foci, and magical traditions, and finally "Paracritters" would cover awakened animals and potential animal telesema. The groups Magician took all three, while the Mystic Adapt skipped Spellcraft.

Now, you can't standardize skills without sacrificing the creativity allowed by Knowledge skills. Hopefully players will pick a few from the list and come up with some on their own. I'm sure dumpshock can come up with a list to cover the basics. What knowledge skills do runners turn to the most?

For starters, here's some I've come up with. I'd rather they be too broad than too specific, and I'll see what people think.

Street Skills
Organized Crime (Spec- Mafia, Vory, Tongs, etc.)
Street Drugs (Spec- by Drug type) (I always thought Street Drugs was more of a Street skill, I mean it's in the title.)

Professional Skills
Corporate Structure (Spec- by Corporation) (Useful for figuring out if Johnson is a little fish or a shark.)
Tactics (Spec- Small Unit, Armored, Naval, Drone Deployment, etc.) (Something to supplement the Leadership skill.)

Accounting
Law
Logistics
Management
Engineering
Construction
Finance
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Psychology
Sociology
Math
Economics
Computer science
Law enforcement
Forensics
Politics
Journalism
Public administration
Anthropology
Tradecraft
Con schemes
Smuggling
Weapon systems

Euro Wars
Desert Wars
Militrary Hardware
Black Ops Specialists

Okay, here's how I would standardize those, to make it easier on the player-

Academic- Modern Wars (Spec-Euro Wars, Yucatan Uprising)
Interests- Premium Television (Spec- Desert Wars, LA Live Runner Feeds, Urban Brawl fights)

Military Hardware could stand on it's own with Specs inside, but I don't know what you mean by Black Ops Specialists, too vague.

Smokeskin, I'd make Accounting, Management, Finance specializations of a "Business" professional skill, with Economics as the academic alternative.

Black Operations Specialists (Russian BOS, UCAS BOS, British BOS, ARES BOS, etc.). They are those people who are in the business, but who are not generally considered Freelance (which I usually refer to as Shadowrunners)... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Ahh, I gotcha. I can see it now...

GM "You see five men in combat fatigues carrying Ares Alphas."
Player- "It's cool guys, I got this."

Indeed... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Player "What do their haircuts look like?"
GM looks puzzled and describes whatever he thinks
Player Character "British BOS! Very distinctive hairstyle!"

That may be a case where the character's player knows more about the subject than the GM does. Anyways, I prefer my specialty to indicate an acquaintance (Who's Who List; after all, at a certain level, there are just not that many people in the trade) rather than a specific group, though they both have their uses.

My list of magical knowledge skills:

Security Procedures: Magical
Forensics: Magical
Metaplanar Theories: Specific tradition or plane
Magical Theory (kind of leftover from previous editions): Specific tradition
Magical Artifacts / Objects: By tradition / era (e.g. 4th World) / place / function / etc.
Magical Effects: Mana Storms, Alchea, etc.
Magical Places: By tradition, country, etc.
Spirits / Astral beings: By type
Parazoology: Type, country, etc.
Parabotany: Type, country, etc.
History of Magic: By era, place, tradition, etc.

THIS. That's exactly what I'm talking about people. Although I'd fold Metaplaner Theory and Magical Effects into Magic Theory. And maybe take Parazoology and Parabotany and make one Para-natural Studies (or call it Awakened Nature).

Leadership? Isn't that one skill that has no function / purpose / rules except for if you have an Adept with Commanding Voice? Would supplementing a skill that does nothing make much difference?

My characters always have the knowledge skill: Shadowrunning. It's an in-game phenomenon, after all. Depending on the character's mindset, this is either Professional (for a tactical runner) or Street (for a more pink-mohawk character).

I find plenty of characters benefit greatly from their players' intimate knowledge of the rule books but the character has spent / invested nothing to get this boon. By having a concrete knowledge skill I can gauge how savvy my character is. I could see him being aware of certain items and properties in the books, but being completely oblivious to obscure exploits, with generally nuanced info being only available if he has the skill at a high rank and rolls well.

The new rules for the Leadership skill one of the very very few things War! did good. I really like them. It's now the skill with the most rules for it.

Security Procedures: Matrix
Hacking Exploits: Malware, Backdoors, Botnets
Data Havens: Shadowrunners, Conspiracy Theorists, Public
Matrix Phenomenon: Technomancers, AIs, Dissonants
Simsense: Skillsofts, BTLs, Sim Recordings
Matrix Media: Spamming, P2.0, Blogs

This has been done a few times before on dumpshock.

I USED To have a handy list of the big posts, but i lost it.

Try the search function for "knowledge skills" and go for the older ones first.

also this one

Sometimes i really wish we had game resources stickies in this forum.

Personally? I don't see the need. Knowledge skills come in basically two flavors: General knowledge of a subject, and vanity skills. For the general skills, it's always a game to make them as broad as possible while still being specific enough to get useful information. I do try and reward specific knowledge skills with a lower threshold, but it varies dramatically. Vanity skills might come in handy, or they might never come up at all; they're just there to give a character some depth. I mean, when is NASCAR racing ever going to be used as a shadowrunning skill?

Hey, 6 ranks in cyberpunk fiction and pen&paper RPGs is a great investment.

Useful for Non-Metahumans

Metahuman Society
Metahuman Culture
Metahuman Psychology
Metahuman Handling

The above should give AI's, Shapeshifters and other creatures an understanding in how they should care for their pets, food etc...

Complementary skill dice in a car chase where you can only drive in one direction and only have left-turns? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Sooner or later it will happen. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)

I'd let a Tactics knowledge skill be used for predicting enemy tactics, discerning the enemy's objective based on his movements and gear, and such. Sure it is useful.

And Leadership has plenty of uses for people actually engaging in leadership roles. Boss calls an employee in the weekend, asks him to come in - that's a Leadership roll (fail it, and you'll have to offer him overtime pay and that's a Negotiation roll). How motivated and thus less likely to accept a bribe or steal is an employee? That's a Leadership roll. Effectively handling a project, so deadlines are met, resources are used optimally, everyone knows what to do - that's a Leadership roll.

Plus all the stuff in WAR! that gives bonuses to attack and initiative.



Me too, though I call it Tradecraft.

Trid Shows
Unless you have Gremlins'4, I think most characters would have this skill at least rank 1, and it is actually extremely useful. What kind of paranormal animal is that??...you remember seeing this on Discovery Awakened Channel. Does that orc look familiar to me? You recognize him, he's an Ares Corporate Executive's son, he's on The Real Sixth World.

Ah good to know. I don't have War so only knew it was used for what the BBB / SM says it is... which is Commanding Voice alone. Sure, you could use Leadership to order lackeys around, but you could just as easily use Etiquette or Intimidation - and they have rules in the book they're introduced in. If they weren't going to supply any mechanics for Leadership until releasing War, I wonder why they introduced the skill stub unimplemented in the basic book? They could have introduced it and its rules together.

Leadership is as well-defined and with as many mechanics as Con, under Using Charisma-Linked Skills.

And if you think Leadership can be replaced with Intimidation or Etiquette, you need to read the skill descriptions again. Leading people is not just about instilling fear and otherwise fitting in.

When you are placing a bet with the bookies... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I thought NASCAR racing gave you a bonus to making left hand turns.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVdFJIEk5wY