Underrepresented skill(s)?, Interrogation and interpretive dance Options

[tschofie]

I'm beginning to realize that teams can be very weak in specialized areas without ever realizing they're missing anything -- until the feathers hit the fan, of course. In your games, are there skills, or skill sets, which tend to get neglected by many teams? And those of you who GM -- do you capitalize on this? That is, try to arrange situations in such a manner that uncommon skills become vital?

Thanks muchly,
TS


_____

"Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by stupidity."
--Robert A. Heinlein

[The White Dwarf]

Yes, a team can be (intentionally or otherwise) weak in a certain skillset. No, as a GM I rarely, if ever, have conciously exploited that. To do so would be 100 kinds of retarded. However, likewise will I simply never include it to avoid hindering the players. Usually good players/teams make a concious effort to cover all the bases to avoid coming up short.

Point being, if they avoid, say, negotiation because no one had enough skill points and no one bothered to raise it, and Im designing a run that will require negotiation, then it goes into the run and they better have karma pool on hand when it comes up. But simply adding negotiation rolls everywhere to punish them would do nothing but prove a lack of gm-ing skill.

So yea, it happens on occasion. No, its never added in due to metagame reasoning.

[Grinder]

Usually deckers and their skills are rare in the games i played, so the runners often have to rely on NPC-deckers.

Other than that, most skills are covered, even the social ones. Medical skills are a bit behind, besides the usual First Aid.

[TheBovrilMonkey]

Most of the time I end as part of a balanced group that covers most skills, which is always nice :)

I don't think I've seen a character with an interrogation skill of more than 2 or 3 though, mainly because it's so easy to ramp up how effective the interrogation is with social modifiers.

[Shockwave_IIc]

One of the common Skills i Find missing is Biotech/ First Aid. Players all seem to think that they will have a mage handy to patch them up, and not bothered as to what happens if it's the mage that needs patching up.

[Sokei]

[Lantzer]

I find B&R skills beyond electronics and cars to be fairly rare.

It's kind of cool that one of the PCs in my game is greatly in demand by the rest of the group for his "B&R Home Improvement" skills.

[Jrayjoker]

I tend to have a crew with a lot of skill redundancy. AS a GM I would never target a lack of skill, but I won't avoid it either.

[Kagetenshi]

I try to avoid overtargeting a skill lack, but it's hard at times because I frequently take the game logic into account before I take the players into account. I've got one group right now with neither Decking nor magic, and it's reasonably difficult for me to keep things from getting too out of the characters' league. In another game, a medium-difficulty run turned downright hard after I forgot that the mage of the party was a conjurer and thus couldn't astrally project.

~J

[Toshiaki]

I'd have to say that Biotech is the worst one that I see lacking. In the current group, the only character with Biotech is the mage. So when the mage gets taken down, all hell breaks loose.

Of course, it does create some pretty good roleplay situations. Said mage's girlfriend is the team's combat monster and she tends to react quite strongly to the mage being severely wounded. End result is that on several different occassions some poor NPC or street doc was forced to give medical aid. While she never actually "threatened" any of them, the way she went about it sent a clear signal of "Mage dies, you die. No pressure though."

The drawback to this is that Street Docs talk with each other, and it's getting hard for the team to find medical attention in certain parts of the city.

[hahnsoo]

In our group, the Holy Trinity of skills seems to be Etiquette, Athletics, and Stealth (which every Runner created by our players seems to have). If points are skimped, they tend to be in the Vehicle skills (can't remember how many times the PCs were in trouble because the Rigger was off with his drones and none of the team members had any skill in driving) and Interrogation, which I've always felt to be an almost essential skill for intel. We use it to encompass Verbal Interviewing as well, so it's the most direct way to get information in even non-hostile situations. At the moment, the only skills that aren't covered at all are... umm, Laser Weapons and Whips? Underwater Combat?

[U_Fester]

[hahnsoo]

[U_Fester]

With my group we usually only have one player that has a charasima of more than one and most of them don't care about the etiquette. They figure if a gun to the throat or a stun batton in the colon doesn't get them answers, then a skinning them alive will.

[Kagetenshi]

Oh, it gives them answers. More importantly, it gives them any answer the recipient thinks they want.

~J

[Dax]

Am I the only guy who pictured that one scene from Resevior Dogs when he read the title of this thread?

[Weredigo]

Uncommon skills are never Vital but they can be used somehow in the game to help. Interpretive dance can be used to gain the benevolence of a Prince, or MafiaDon, or some such. Playing of Instruments can make a few creds on the street each night and can help make new contacts.
As a general rule I have characters start out with the necessary skills. Combat Armed and Unarmed, Firearms, Melee, Stealth, Survival, Ettiquette, a Vehicle skill and the B/R skill for that vehicle, StreetSams get Military Theory and Leadership, Mages get Magical Theory, sorcery, and conjuring, Deckers get Electronics B/R Computer B/R and Computer Theory.
After that they purchase whatever strange and unusual skills they think they are gonna need.

[U_Fester]

Resevior Dogs a very good representation of this group.

[Kagetenshi]

K-billy's super songs of the seventies…

~J

[algcs]

Computer. Charisma based skills were originally lacking but then people started to realize how much they needed to talk to the locals.

Way too many of them take computer illitericy and then pay fixers to dig up basic news data for them. A google fu master would do them wonders.

[Rev]

The one I never ever see that should be very common is Intimidation.

Basically every street combat charachter should have it at some level.

Not that mine do, with skills always ending up at priority C in sr3 for such charachters, charisma usually being somewhat low (2-3) and low skill ratings being so useless I always end up deciding to try to get it later.

[Sokei]

[cheeze monger]

I usually design runs without thinking of the character's skills. Often, there are many ways to do things so my players can usually get it done. They also get help from contacts in areas they are lacking in.

[Veracusse]

To TS and others in this thread;

Since I am TS's GM I ought to reply. Basically when I design a run I try and make the run balanced and include as many of the aspect of the game that make sense. Negotiation and other Social skills are generally important in my game, and I stress this during chargen and throughout the game. If the team is lacking in a certain area then that is a weakness that they need to overcome. I don't target them in these areas personally, but I am not going to put on kiddie gloves for them either. Also, during chargen I expect the players to make characters that make up a fairly balanced team. I don't allow all mages, or all sams, etc. Generally I tell them what is needed for the campaign and then let them decide as a group who will play what. I let them do this on their own, usually by leaving the room and leaving them alone to do this. I also stress the importance of having a backup. If there is only one person in the team that has negotiations and that person is not able to perform his/her duties then that could be a problem. Having someone who can also negotiate as a secondary purpose is a good thing. It is akin to having a plan B for all situations. I think that this is a problem that TS was facing in our game last session. The player of the face has been sick and has missed the last two sessions, and they didn't have anyone to fill the spot really well. :read:

Veracusse

[Kanada Ten]

I often create scenarios that both play to and against the characters' and teams' strengths and weaknesses. It encourages roleplaying and is fun to watch them overcome. I don't ever require something they don't possess to succeed, but "boy, it'd be nice if we could just fly in" happened enough that they up and learn how to.