It seems to me that the double-cost associated with the Infirm, Uncouth, and Uneducated qualities should only apply to active skills. The RAW clearly says that a normally active skill can be taken as a knowledge skill if a person so chooses. In fact, it's enforced by saying that a non-awakened character could only take Sorcery as a knowledge skill and not as an active one.

Now, consider Infirm. This flaw means that physical skills, i.e. Running, cost double and that you can't have any physical skill groups. If a person took Running as an knowledge skill, that would be -- to me -- an Interest knowledge and thus, would no longer be a Physical skill. Thus, it would cost 2 points (for the knowledge skill) and not 4 because the double-cost from the flaw would no longer apply. Do you all agree?

Also, what do you feel constitutes a Physical skill group. Clearly Athletics applies since all four skills within that group are in the section of the book labeled "Physical Active Skills" but what about Outdoors and Stealth, both of which contain a mix of skills within and not within the Physical Active Skills?

I'm fine with an infirm character taking Physical skills as Knowledge skills at normal cost, since they are no longer Physical skills to that character.

Just don't go get un-Infirm and think you can get away with a discount. I'd still make you go learn the Physical versions. Rehab, and all.

Of course. Makes sense that someone that can't do something spends his time learning the theory behind it. Like film critics. He can tell you all about it, he just can't do it himself.

I built a Troll Mercenary with the qualities of First Impression and the neg qual of Uncouth. The thought was one of the rowdier boys at the bar whom on first contact really nice guy, a true extrovert but after about 10 minutes he really really gets on your nerves. He is loud, rude and crude, and totally obnoxious.

I like that, Magus. I knew a character that had both uncouth and improved social skills from adept powers. The idea was similar: you hated the guy but found yourself doing whatever he wanted you to do regardless.

I was thinking further on this and it occurred to me that there could have been a problem in the works: if a character took infirm and uneducated, then active skills taken as knowledge skills could have been subject to the doubled knowledge skill cost if a GM decided that the normally-active-but-knowledge skills were either Academic or Professional knowledges. However, luckily, since you can only have 35 points of negative qualities this can't happen as Infirm and Uneducated are both worth 20 build points. Dodged that one, then.

Though it does beg the question: what category would these normally-active-but-knowledge skills be in? I'd say Interest Knowledges. Knowing about rifles (Knowledge Longarms) seems like a hobby.

Well in SR3 they would have been in Background Knowledges. Taken like this I would have to classify them as Professional knowledges. Afterall reading and data searches can only take you so far. If you read on how a rifle works, and now how it is put together schematically, it is stll not the same as physically learning about it.