Is there any negative quality these days that represents a psychological limitation like a phobia or avoidance?

Combat paralysis? not sure if it is what you're looking for. There were phobia flaws in SR3, but they are not included in SR4 (at least so far)

Augmentation has quite a bit on Mental Negative Qualities, including phobias.

Really? I don't have Augmentation . So I just did a cursory scan of the qualities page in the BBB (what the heck does the third 'B' stand for?)

Flip the Addiction quality and you get a Fear quality.

Big Black Book, By The Way.

Originally, Big Blue Book for SR1, but that was changed for the next two editions to Big Black Book. With SR4, it just means Big Butt-ugly Book.

and here I thought one of the B's was for 'base' I mean it is the Base Book and all...

Sorry for digging up this old thread, but I'm absolutely unsure about how to judge a phobia of water: is it common or uncommon for an urban, Seattle-based campaign?

that's pretty much common in a city where it supposedly rains about 90% of the day *g*
then there's puddles, water-bottles, showers etc. O.o
and all drinkable stuff is made partly of water, and your own body is made of water to a large part so you're afraid of yourself? O.o

You might get away with fear of drowning, rather than fear of water. In which case it would occur whenever there is a danger of drowning, much like vertigo would occur whenever there was a chance of falling. In Seattle, with it's extensive docks, it could be common. I'm not sure how Seattle is situated as far as lakes, canals and reservoirs, but those could also trigger it.

I have a friend who, following a particularly brutal swimming instructor when he was 6, refuses to even contemplate swimming, and even gets a bit panicky when his face is immersed in water. He has no problem with rain or glasses of water etc.

OMFG...IT'S an EVIAN!!! GET IT AWAY, GET IT AWAY!!!!! ::starts clawing at the walls, trying to climb them::

Now I must create a water-phobic Big Bad Evil Guy and make my players repel him by spitting in his general direction...

It would depend on what kinda water fear your working with. Fear of drowning would be uncommon, fear of contaminated water (Because its just dirty) would be common.
I would think most hydrophobics are scared of water thats deep enough to submerge themselves, so only the deeper puddles (2-3 ft) would trigger the phobic reaction. I would still keep it at uncommon because for the most part I don't think they will have a hard time avoiding the object of their fear.

"how do you keep a humanis fanboy from drowning? simple, take your boot off of his neck"
everything deep enough for your face is deep enough for drowning i says . . and those should be pretty much common in seattle *g*

However, phobias don't tend to be logical.

My latest hacker's father committed suicide during her teens, and was then possessed by a Shedim, and ate the face of his wife... in front of the daughter (the hacker).

She now has a phobia of meat. She's got a psychosomatic allergy to animal products. Obviously she doesn't like to attend meets in restaurants.

Phobias are fun. Our merc/sam had his arm blown off in south America and lay in a ditch for days with rats gnawing on the stump. Instant Phobia of rats.