There's something in effect during skill-development that I really don't understand. Why is it that characters with a very high attribute have little inducement to develop basic skills linked to that attribute?

For example: character A (Rocket!Scientist) has an intelligence of 6. To increase knowledge of, say, computational theory from 1 to 2, it would cost 2 karma. The same cost, however, would apply to character B (Blathering!Idiot) with an intelligence of 2. In fact, Rocket!Scientist wouldn't even get much use out of his spent karma, since defaulting to intelligence would be more effective than using the actual skill.

The net result seems to be to discourage characters that are (for example) very strong from branching out into other strength-related skills. For Hercules, dabbling in javilin throwing would "cost" just as much as would a forray into theoretical nuclear physics. Something seems amiss.

Am I not understanding the rules properly? Or are there common house-rules to work around this?


Thanks muchly,
TS

______

Knowledge is not a passion from without the mind, but an active exertion of the inward strength, vigour and power of the mind, displaying itself from within.
--Ralph J. Cudworth

There are limits to defaulting - anything with a TN of 8 or greater before adding the defaulting modifier cannot even be attempted when defaulting.

However, even with a skill of two you still have a chance of achieving that goal (TN of 8 ) on two dice.

Going from skill of two to three however, has different karma costs for both.

For the Rocket Scientist with intelligence of 6, it will cost 4 Karma (3 x 1.5, round down)

For the Blathering Idiot, it will cost 6 Karma (3 x 2), because it exceeds his linked attrbute.


For both raising from say, 4 to 5, the cost difference is even bigger:
Rocket Scientist: (5 x 1.5, round down) = 7 Karma
Blathering Idiot: (5 x 2.5, round down) = 12 Karma (skill is greater than 2x linked attribute)

Karma Cost increase big time if the linked attribute is low.

For each, the Karma cost to raise an intelligence linked skill from 0 to 6 is:
Rocket Scientist (INT 6 ): 30 Karma
Blathering Idiot(INT 2 ): 45 Karma

"Blathering Idiot" would be the IN of 1, with an Incompetence in all things KN-related and a couple of other appropriate flaws besides (but, ironically enough, could include the Educated edges ).

A skill level of 2 still indicates a very basic knowledge level, per the table in SR3. It's when a PC is trying to increase a skill beyond the linked attribute level that the differences really come into play: double karma cost on everything. [Edit: double *bp*; the actual karma multiplier are as ShadowGhost and tanka said.] I've found very few PCs willing to pay that much, with the result that all but the core skill or two tend to be increased only to the attribute limit, ymmv.

If you desire something beyond that limitation, it will have to be house-ruled.

That's it, except the costs.

Costs for active skills (Computer) are 1.5xrank (save first rank, which is 1 karma) up to the Attribute rating. After that it's 2xrank.

If you're looking at a TN of 4, defaulting to 6 intelligence will get you 5/6 of a success, a skill of 2 will get you 1 success, typically. A dabble here and there is more effective for those specific things that being fricking brilliant, but overall you're better off with the genius level intelligence rather than 2 points in every INT linked skill.

In the future, perhaps. Now -- I think not yet.

IN is a complex subject, going far beyond the conventional quantification of the analytic reasoning measured by Intelligence Quotient, far beyond perceptiveness, or ability to learn, or even (apparently not so straightforward) common sense. One rarely recognised aspect of IN -- not CH -- is reflected in the background Knowledge of how to manipulate people.

Try this: among the mental attributes:

Your IN gives you the capacity to know how.
Your CH gives others the willingness to work with you (or for you) in doing it.
Your WL gives you the determination to see it through.

[Edit: And the reason WS was always shaky as a stat was because theoretically it ought to tell you whether you should do it -- and players often want to do it regardless.]