Unusual skills, Less common skills you've chosen Options

[Talia Invierno]

Shadowrun character design comes with a list of active skills, some of which have become virtually standard to take. Knowledge skills give a bit more flexibility, but most runners tend to customise knowledges to their primary running focus. The points are limited, after all.

What are some of the more unusual skills (active and knowledge) a PC of yours has had? What is the most non-common language they've ever learned? (Sperethiel and the proto-language don't count!)

Kicking this off with a general example:

Because of the worldview of a small Tir college from which many PCs/NPCs in our campaign hail, every student graduating from there has a minimium of (Wilderness) Survival 1, Magic Theory 1 (whether Awakened or not!), Riding/Knowledge of Horses 1, and a (Tir-required!) creative skill of their choice.

Edit: for the future, please separate active, knowledge, and language skills? But the lists given thus far are great :D

[Nova]

Our Rigger...a delusional and ugly dwarf who thinks he is an elf (man...can I pick em or what?) has "Elven Wines" at 4...

I am boring in comparison as I think the most unusual skill I had was "Pool 4" (Pool as in billards). As you mentioned I usually buy my skills to reflect my background...and what can I say? I just don't like elven wines ;-)

Nova

[YerMum]

My troll sammie/fixer Jay had 2 skills he used on special occasions, they were Winning Smile and Letcherous Grin. I guess I had too much karma to throw around, but they did work *very* well in Dante's ;o)

[Sunday_Gamer]

I have Skateboarding at 6 =)

Wait till I get centering and start doing rail slides as a precursor to casting. :wobble:

Sunday.

And let's be clear, Legolas (or Legless as he call him since he looks like an elf taken off at the knees) is a dwarven elf poser with a 1 cha who firmly believes he's an elf and all other elves look at him funny because he's too pretty. He's obviously speaks spereth, has a vast knowledge of elven wines and is an avid collector of elven porn. Ya, we sure can pick'em.

[RedmondLarry]

Fashion Sense, Cooking, Being Ignored, 19th Century Dance, Trucking Business, Pachinko, Skydiving, American History, British Royalty, Geology of Olympic Peninsula, Astrology, Cartoon Ideas, Beers of the Barrens, Drawing, Finding People, Begging, Male Fox Hangouts, Watering Holes.

These are across a variety of characters. The last two were knowledge skills of a female Fox Shapeshifter.

[Rain]

Seattle Area Dives, Cooking, Wines, Microbrews, Orienteering, International Law, Maritime Law, Marine Navigation, UCAS Foreign Policy, Meteorology, Marine Vessel Identificaton, Naval History.

[Rev]

I took "strike dramatic pose" one time for a shaman.

Eventually it was a centering skill (and, no, you cant strike a dramatic pose without an audience :)).

[kevyn668]

Trivia, World History(Epic Battles), Greek History(Spartan), Corporate Accounting (embezzling), Sixth World Hockey, Not-So-Famous-Quotes, Porn Industry, History of Porn Industry, Lines-That-Strippers-Haven't-Heard-Before

:D

[Zazen]

I can't really think of bizarre active skills I've had, but as far as knowledge skills, four jump to mind:

Coffee Brewing, Crack Smoking, Felching, and Child Molestation.

[Ezra]

Active Skill = Crawl With Lips.
(For when you need to leave, the lead is flying, and you can't feel your arms or legs.) :D

[Bölverk]

I just started running a character with the knowledge skill "Badasses and Badassitude." It's used both for knowing about people (such as runner teams or others with a certain sort of street rep) and also for knowing how best to behave in any social situation. (Or, as the GM describes the skill, "Knows everything about Shaft." :))

Less interesting, but still somewhat unusual, is his highest level knowledge skill - "Mundane Methods" - in other words, "I'm a runner, yet I can't use cyberware and I can't do magic. How do I get the job done without getting fragged?"

[Kurukami]

For amusement value, I once had a character with knowledge of "Science Fiction of the Late 20th/Early 21st Century". On another character (a female ork who had the flaw "compulsively boy-crazy"), I threw in the knowledge of Thrash Metal Bands with a specialization in "Especially with Cute Elves in Them".

Others? "Fine Italian Recipes", "(Martial Art) Style Weaknesses" (a complementary roll with Martial Arts to take advantage of an opponent's weak spot in a particular style, in that case Kung Fu), "Electronic Locks, Access Controls, & Security Systems", and more stuff like that.

[Entropy Kid]

Had a street doc/interrogator who had "J-Pop" knowledge at rating 3, which was used once to torture a subject, and Kendo at 3. He actually fought with a stick, not a sword when in close combat, which was thankfully rare. The GM gave that character some free skill chips, which was great, but they were "Wok cooking" and "Ballroom Dancing." Never used them, but kept them handy, just in case.

[Adarael]

Post-Modernist Literature, Firmware Manufacturers, Macroeconomics, Parabotany (I love that skill...), Magic History/Myth (Arthurian Legend, 'Books of Magic', etc), Book Appraisal, Papermaking, Inkmaking, Penmanship, Dumpster Diving (different from scrounge, yes), Eerie Trivia.

[Morphling The Pr...]

[Arab_One]

I had one kind of obsessed player who took the active skills Sex and Seduction at 8 each. He had a Lesbian scene with another character who was effectively a Blood Elf (Thats why he took Pain Resistance for the character) and at one point tried to seduce Ryan Mercury.
I once had a character who had his own special Language Skill for centering called Krozmartium. It was basically a collection of every cool sounding sentence used by magicians in movies that weren't actually from a language.

[Siege]

Tidbit skills that characters should pick up just for practical application -- the much overlooked "cover skills".

"Corporate Drone" -- know how to mimic the average wageslave and not be noticed.

"Bartending" or "Mixing drinks" -- besides professional drinkers, you'd be amazed at how many functions hire part-time or free-lance bartenders.

"Corporate policies and procedures" -- it sounds funny, but if you don't know how corps tend to function, you can stand out even if you're wearing a suit.

"Cleaning" -- for all those times you want to pose as a cleaning crew.

"Waiting tables" -- if you don't think it's an active skill, remember all the truly bad waiters you've ever endured.

"Small talk" -- while most GMs and players will use Etiquette to cover this, it never hurts to practice the art of wasteful conversation.

"Grooming" or "wardrobe and fashion" -- always a plus when trying to blend. Complements "disguise" active skill.

-Siege

[FlakJacket]

History of the Mesopotamian regions with a specialisation in the early to mid Sumerian period- 4/6. Might have been useful if he was ever in the Middle East but the nearest he ever got out of Seattle was Denver.

[Warmaster Lah]

Basketball ^_^ I mean come on, I never here about bball.

I also made a Troll SS that was fixated on Anime. He ran under Zaxon a character from a very obscure anime. I doubt anyone would have the guts to complain about his constant cosplaying.

I wanted to run a Barber one time. Nice way to make a quick few nuyen for fastfood or something.

[Adarael]

[Abstruse]

"Great Dragon Talon Clippings". The character could tell which Great Dragon a clipping came from. Not that he ever got to actually see any over the course of the game, but he could if he needed to!

I gave the skill to the character for free because I laughed so hard at it.

The Abstruse One

[RedmondLarry]

Sleep Standing Up

[Phylos Fett]

BushBashing, Gambling, Pub Games, to name but three...

[Namer18]

Shipping routes 6, Nautical Law 6, Fishing 6, Sea Life 6, Tales of the sea 6, Songs of the sea 6, Accordion 1

[TinkerGnome]