If I jump into a Renraku Manservant that's holding a gun, do I still use Gunnery? What about if I jump into a Renraku Manservant using a katana?

Augmentation page 160 (the black box) says: "Cyborgs using anthroform bodies may use the relevant weapon skill for any weapon they wield instead of Gunnery." You could just extrapolate that to jumped-in riggers.

Of course inclusion of the word "may" seems to indicate that they can also use gunnery if they'd prefer. Gunnery katana FTW.

You're right, but that would be just silly.

Not much more silly than using the same skill for a pintle-mounted machine gun and for a submarine-launched ballistic missile, but different skills for an assault rifle and a squad automatic weapon.

Nope. You won't find any argument about that here.

Hmm, just thought of this conversation between a sammy and cyborg after a sparing match.

Sammy: "How did you get so good with a blade? It was fairly even out there."
Cyborg: "Oh, well, you see, I've spent alot of time down at the shooting range practicing with my pistol."
"...... and?"
"And what? That's why I'm so good with a Katana"
"Because you practice with a pistol at a firing range."
"Yep."
"That doesn't make any sense. At all."
"Really? Seems to work out well to me. That's the problem with you fleshies, you don't understand how things work."
"But... but you're... you're training with a gun is making you better at slashing and blocking with a sword."
"Yeah, look, can we move on to another topic, I'm getting tired of answering the same question over and over."
"BUT!!!"

From SR4A page 171



This seems to suggest that Gunnery is ranged weapons...not melee.

The conversation didn't really reflect the rules. The cyborg shopuld have been operating tanks to become a better swordsman.

I'd imagine the cyborg might see it as training in how to tear someone apart rather than training in how a particular weapon works ...

This is how I run it at my tables as well.

the whole controversy is about the word "may". It implies the brain in the jar does not have to use those skills and since the only skill covering vehicle weaponry is gunnery, you get those weird synergies.

Gunnery is listed in the skill description as for use with mounted weapons, and goes onto specifics even more than that.

While this is my interpretation, I believe weapons held in a robotic hand and not firmly mounted into a weapon mount, and accessed through weapon mount controls, should then use appropriate weapon skills. Makes more sense to me that way.

Beyond my interpretation, the skill description does necessitate a weapon mount.

Welcome to Rules Lawyering. This is not to mean Rules Lawyers are bad, just this is the nature of Rules Lawyering. I should open a practice?