Well, you're of course free to let your GM force you to do whatever, but that doesn't change the fact that, if you simply go by the rules, there's very little reason to try to jack multiple skills at the same time.

Or, to put it differently, it's entirely possible to design your character in such a way that your chipped skills are of the kind you won't be - under any reasonable circumstances - required to use at the same time.

Assuming, of course, that you're a runner, and not a surgeon.

And as far as squeezing things to the last drop... I'm a big fan of keeping the law of diminishing returns in mind at all times. That last 5% isn't worth it if it requires as much effort as the first 95%.

I wonder how you can be an ideal decker or mage with skillwires. If memory serves, the skillwire computer skill doesn't apply while decking and can't be used for magic skills, and for you to get a skillwires system high enough to be "ideal" (as in lvl5 or 6 wires, plus 1 or more CEDs), you've already burnt 2 magic points, which immediately makes you less than ideal as a mage.

Skillwires don't make for a great rigger either, unfortunately. Yes, a rigger needs to know a *TON* of skills, but more importantly, they need a lot of expensive gear. The penalty for defaulting from winged craft to rotor craft cannot compare to the bonus from goign from a VCR2 to a VCR3, and unfortunately, if you have a VCR3, you do not have a skillwire of any notable rating (unless you run on the idea that the VCR and skillwires share the same simsense rig, which could save essence). Similarly, if you blow $500k on your skillwires, you don't have a full $1M to blow on vehicles, cyber and stuff.

The best use I've seen for skillwires are for skills where you don't normally get a pool - stealth, athletics, biotech, negotiations, etc. A runner with a non essence, non cash intensive hobby (deckers, gun bunnies, electronics experts, faces, doctors), can go from being excellent (rating 6) to best in the country (rating 9). One of my favorite characters would chip a weapons skill and stealth (not that she didn't know them on her own). Before combat she could roll 9 dice to hide herself as opposed to 6 naturally, she had 9 dice to spot stuff (since spotting things is part of stealth), then when combat started, she'd draw on the CED while shooting and have her entire CP available for dodging, giving her an effective 3 die bonus to her CP.

Outside of that, the best I've seen is for riggers who have a rating 3 skillwire and a CED so they can learn stupid, oddball skills quickly and play the face if he had to.

You just proved my point, actually... About all that kind of skill setup is good for is joyriding, shooting at things that can't shoot back.

In a combat environment, a non-rigger behind the controls of a rotorcraft is dead meat - you only make yourself a big juicy target by getting off the ground in the first place.

As for GM tactics - they are very much relevant, since they help to establish what kind of game you play in. (as does the fact you talk a lot about doing actual full-blown cyber-surgery on your teammates)

Which, once again, brings us back to the issue that your advice on how to get the most out of skillwires isn't necessarily broadly applicable.

I'm pretty sure (well, not pretty sure, I know, since I play in his game ) that you're misreading Taran's post...

I don't think by "rigger-decker-etc. ideal" he means "a character who's an ideal rigger, ideal decker, ideal mage and ideal face", just someone who can credibly pull off aspects of the various jobs. The character in question is actually a very good face / summoner that's also a competent decker and who dabbles in drone work (for simple surveillance purposes), rounded out with a decent assortment of skillwire-based skills.

He also said "approaches" not "epitomizes".

So basically, the only sort of vehicular combat anyone can have in your game is if they're Riggers. Since a datajack'd user with a relative skill of 9 (except when he's multi-tasking) would be obviously too poor a driver to outrun any except the most incompetent of chasers.

I think you're saying alot more about your GM than you are mine.

But Nezumi does have a point that, the ideal mage-rigger-decker-face is generalized enough to not be as good as a specialist, even with skillwires. However, any mage can be a decent decker/face without skillwires. Actually, not having skillwires makes him a better one. I don't see the im-balance suggested at all.

Gee, thanks

You're overstating the case here, but yes, it would be a poorly-equipped (for the situation) opponent that would give chase without a Rigger. Most datajacked relative-skill-9 users cannot stand against a Rigger, even a mediocre one.

~J

Considering how cheap a VCR1 is, and how big an advantage it gives you... why wouldn't there be?

And, yes, non-riggers suck at vehicular combat. They might be ok for simply running away or getting from A to B, but the moment combat starts, between the fact their TNs are high, that their initiative sucks (so they're most likely to only get one initiative pass per turn), and that making crash tests is extremely hard when your TN is high and you have no control pool, they tend to be victims in actual vehicular combat.

Done it. I called the p-fix chip 'linked' into the hardware of the skillwires. Soon as the p-fix was activated (via remote), skill wires booted up and he was a pretty nasty pseudo sammi. Worked out well till my PCs decided he was a bigger liability then an asset and basically stole all his toys and left him in a dumpster. Turns out skillsofts are worth money... go figure!


When it boils down to it, a rigger (or anyone with a VCR) is going to be better then someone with out it (unless its an adept with 12 dice to wing around for every action).

Yes, a datajack/skillwire mix is the next best thing (barring the bizarre adept half-breeds we've seen) to a dedicated VCR wired rigger. The datajack/skillwire mix also has the advantage that for less cyber, he can easily adapt to many more roles.

A rigger who got the cash for VCR 3 should probably have 5-7 in their driving skill. VCR 2 should correspond to approximately 3-6 in my thinking, VCR 1 with 2-4. Generally you don't get a VCR unless you drive marginally professionally.

At first glance, I'd assume that 4 dice with a -2 TN modifier plus a modest rigging pool would do alright against 9 dice, no pool, -1 TN. The primary advantage will be at higher TNs, since as the TN goes higher, the negative modifier becomes more important than the number of dice thrown. Truthfully, for your basic needs, a 9 dice, -1TN "rigger" can hold up pretty well against a 5 dice -4 TN rigger. Just avoid the stunts and make sure you have someone else to handle gunnery (or that your gunnery skill is actually YOUR skill so you can use CP with it).


A rigger does not have to simply be the wheelman (although I've seen PCs run with that concept, unfortunately). A smart vehicle rigger will have a secondary skill - decking or drone rigging being the most common. Drone riggers generally have about as much fun as everyone else in the game, so I don't see them as being especially left out, plus they get the uber huge guns.