Hey, I have a player over here that's generating up a new character (don't ask what happened to his last one...) and a little issue came up:
He wants to give his character a pair of in-line skates/a skateboard, but I don't know which skill he would use for it (Running, Pilot Exotic Vehicle, etc...), how to determine what his acceleration and top speed would be--my initial thought would be his strength or base speed multiplied by, say, 4--and other stuff like that.


At the moment, I'm leaning towards this setup:
Pilot Exotic Vehicle (Skateboard/Skates), with a Handling of +3 or +4, an Accel of Walkingx3/Walkingx4, and a Speed of Walkingx(Body/Reaction/Strength, whichever is highest)

So, any thoughts/advice/suggestions/bones for the newbie GM?

Honestly, I'd use the running skill for them. I'd have skates just increase the number of meters that are added to your movement for each sprinting hit. (+2 for skates, +1 for boards.) Then I'd have you suffer a penalty of like -2 or -3 to some actions that would be made more difficult by being on wheels, like jumping.

Keeps it simple, so you don't have to use the vehicle rules for a character who is ostensibly still moving on foot (but faster). Those rules are ill-suited for that.

That's how I'd do it, anyway.

For what it's worth, I agree with Eryk completely. Use running. Maybe even allow him to take "skateboard" as a specialization.

That was my first thought, but his primary reason for requesting this option was doing tricks and such--rail grinding being the example he gave--so while the running skill works fine for using it as a means of transportation, using it for agility in stuff like combat still needs to have a linked skill; I mean, I've seen him using his board around campus and he's damn skilled with it, which is what lead me to having it as a Pilot Exotic Vehicle skill.

Oh. I misunderstood.
Athletic tricks (of any kind) should probably be handled by Gymnastics.
Ideally, he'll probably want a combination of both skills, one for speed (which he'll use for chase scenes) and one for tricks.

I wouldn't bother giving the board "vehicle stats" like handling and top speed and such.

I'd allow him to specialize both skills.

So, two skills, Running and Gymnastics, specializing in both? Awesome. Thanks for the assist.

Make sure he realizes that skateboards and skates give you a -5 to your dodge pool. It's -1 per ganger/cop/random wagemage that just shot at you for running around on a skateboard or skates.

I would say skates could be used under athletics or running if they are just being used to increase speed. Doing stunts with them could fall under athletics as its own skill. Skateboarding could also fall under athletics with its own skill, or could be developed as a special skill in its own right.

...I posted a similar question a while back and the consensus was just use the various Athletics skills and allow the skates/skateboard to increase the multiplier.

What happened to his last one?

It would be rather funny playing an adept super-skating z-zone shadow courier.

...the original KK did that. Her SR4 follow-on KK4.3 also has a skateboard and Rollerblades.