It's something I've been using a lot when playing SR3, and i wanted to add it to SR4.

Some skills are really helpful when using others. (Camouflage when trying to remain stealthy, Enginneering when trying to improve a firearm, etc.)

When such circumstances occur, and when a character is trained in both the main skill and the complementary skill, roll 2 different dice pool.

The first pool is made using the complementary skill rating and it's relevant attribute. Each hits acheived in this roll is then added to the dice pool of the second skill check.

The second skill check is made with the main skill rating, it's relevant attribute and all the normal skill modifiers.

Example: Swarm ™ is trying to hide in the forest. He has Agility 5, Intuition 3, Inflitration 3 and Disguise 2. First he rolls his complementary skill (Disguise + Intuition for a total of 5 die) to see how well he is able to use camouflage and achieves 2 hits. His main skill dice pool (Agility + Infiltration) is improved by two, for a total of 10 die.

Comments?

That's pretty much the way we did it in the last game I played.

In SR3, you only get to roll for a complementary check if you had at least one success in you main check, and you received one success for every two successes acheived in the complementary check.

Jaid: I used the first name that came to mind and it was your character...I edited my post in order to respect copyrights.

...I'll have to talk my GM into using this houserule.

Letsee,

Negotiation + Charisma [+ hits from Complementary Skill: Psychology]

That should do the trick.

I like the idea, i really liked how complimentary skills worked in SR3. I dont see why they couldn't work in SR4. (Either 2 hits on Comp test=1 real hit, or as you do it, each hit is extra die to roll for real test.) If anything, i think it encourages rounded skills..someone taking a skill group at 2 has a broad range of skills that can compliment each other.

If I were to use this, I would probably restrict the Complimentary Skill used to just Knowledge SKills, as in SR3.

Well, part of the plan was giving a use to the camouflage specialization of Disguise...I think it's a GM call anyways. (And it's far from broken. On average, you need a complementary pool of at least 9 die in order to get an additional hit on your main check.)

I would add a little restriction, though. When making a complementary skill check, the time taken for the skill is essentially doubled, same things when using it for an extended test.

This mean the take aim action could be a complementary skill. Roll Intuition+Perception, all hits are added to the attack pool. I wonder if it's too broken, though.

this overcomplicates the system.
instead of
<roll dice, apply hits>
it's
<roll dice, apply hits>
<new dicepool>
<roll dice, apply hits>
it slows down game play, less emphasis on the game and more on rolling dice.
this system isn't about huge dicepools.
but if your group prefers that then it's great.

You could always apply the rules for purchasing successes to speed it up. For every four (full) points in the character's Complementary Pool, add 1 dice to the actual Active Skill being attempted. Make it so there's no roll whatsoever, a kind of instinctive thing.

what about this? I imagine he is using a combination of gymnastics, running, climbing and unarmed combat, all being complimentary at some points.

Note, while this was staged for a movie, the actor, David Belle, does this sort of thing all the time in real life.