Let say you buy the Cul. Biowear of Reflex Recorder (Skill Group). You have it apply to Firearms, but you didn't take the firearms skillgroup. You have some amount of Pistols and Automatics.

Would the reflex recorder just add one to each skill (Pistols, Automatics, and Longarms) even though you didn't buy the firearms skill group?

Or can you only buy Reflex Recorded (Skill Group) for a Combat/Physical Skill group that you have.


Thyme...

Hmm, good question. I'd personally vote that a skill group reflex recorder gives a bonus die to whatever skills of that group you do have.

it's not like it comes with the skill pre-programmed. It's not bio-skill wires. The reflex recorder just makes it so that something you already do becomes more reflexive, more intuitive, so you spend less time thinking about it. So you'd have to have the skill (or at least wires) to get a use out of it.

I miss the old fluff they had on skill wires. THere was shadowtalk about a guy that had a reflex recorder. He was setting up a sniper position, keeping tabs on a target for a meet. basically "cover this guy, if things go screwy, shoot him" or something like that. The important part though is that once he took aim on the guy, he reflexivly pulled the trigger.

Like driving the same way day after day, say going to work, and you always take the same freeway exit. Then one day you need to go past there. You've driven this way a hundred times, so you zone a bit, just go on auto pilot. Before you know it, you've taken the exit to go to work again.

hmm, side thought, would it be too much of a stretch for them to eliminate the -1 die for defaulting, if you dont have the skill?

It is an interesting question, but I don't know some one would want to boost a skill they didn't have. My personal opinion is that they would work. If you give a noob a pistol with a laser sight they are more likely to hit something.

I have never been really sure how the reflex recorder worked so I tend to just take it literally like magic. It said it gives a bounus die so thats what you get; what ever you normaly roll +1 die

A Reflex Recorder can't create an Augmented Skill rating for a Skill you don't posess:

The cap for that rating would be 0 x 1,5 = 0

Thus, you would still have to default with the usual penalty doing so.

The section says it "adds one to a specific skill or group", not "gives you one additional rating in a group". As someone above said, it allows memorization of certain actions; it doesn't come with those actions memorized. If you got a skill group recorder without having all the skills in the group (for example, Firearms recorder but only having ranks in Pistol and Automatics), I'd allow it to apply to those two skills, but I would NOT allow it to work on a defaulted skill test.

The errata on this item states that it adds to the modified rating of the skill or group. That means that the maximum it can add is 1/2 the skill level you already have (rounded down). So if you have a Firearms Reflex Recorder, and you don't have a Longarms skill, you don't get any benefit for your Longarms. But if you had both Pistols and Automatics (of at least 2), you would realize a +1 effective rating bonus to both skills.

-Frank

ok... thanks for the help...

Thyme...