[X] My Assistant

[DMiller]

6 - Professional
7 - Veteran
8 - Expert
9 - Exceptional
10 - Elite
11 - Legendary
12-13 - Apex

Reading the text that goes with each of these, 8 or 9 sould normally be max for characters (fluff). At 9 "Your name is synonymous with the skill." At 10 "You are famous, even among the very best in your field."

[Fatum]

[ Spoiler ]

Rating 6: Professional
You could easily sell your skills on the open market. This is the maximum skill level for starting player characters.

Rating 7: Veteran
You’ve seen a lot of what the skill can do, and what it can’t. Other people ask you how to do it.

Rating 8: Expert
You are a highly sought-after talent. Corporations seek you out (or extract you from other corporations).

Rating 9: Exceptional
Your name is synonymous with the skill. If you have multiple skills at this level, you’re lauded as exceptionally gifted.

Rating 10: Elite
You are famous, even among the very best in your field.

Rating 11: Legendary
You are a paragon to those trying to excel at your skill. Techniques are named after you.

Rating 12–13: Apex
You have reached the pinnacle of mortal achievement. This expertise represents the top 0.00001% of all practitioners in known history. The very highest rating, 13, can only be reached with the Aptitude quality (p. 72).

[Moirdryd]

Aye, it's pretty close to the SR3 chart. It's also worth noting that Rating 6 Professional is the sort with the Capital 'P' it's noted somewhere else that a rank of 3 or 4 (which is something like Trained or competent) is the average skill rank for most people who use that skill on a professional day to day basis. So your average human doing what they do will be Stat2- 3 Skill 3-4. So extrapolating from Average Human Joe's stats: a Low dice pool is 3-4, and Average dice pool 5-7 and a High dice pool 8-9 in any given field of expertise. That bracket includes most Rent-a-cops, Lonestar grunts, Gangers, Weapons Dealers, Casino Jockeys etc.

Shadowrunners will tend to be a bit more varied. The Low Pool will still begin at 3-4 (for those with Stat 2-3 and the raw bones of 1 in skill), the average pool however jumps a little as most runners will tend to have a stat of at least 4 which links best with their chosen field and odds are skills of 4-6(max) pushing the range up to 8-10. The High pool for a Runner is typical max or near max at chargen being 11-12+Specialisations, I would expect to see one or two pools at this level for most runners in their chosen field at chargen. Obviously it shifts around with Metatype adjustments.