Know your Skills

Source: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FlGGSnzm74XKRd_pf6QKHfUfxbLJKs-E/view

So, you’re making a character, and you’re wondering about skills...

Well, honestly, what you want will depend on your archetype. However, there are some common

ones to consider taking, regardless of what you’re wanting to be. Also, if you’re on a lower skill

priority, some of these might be worth skipping in favour of your archetype skills.

This is by no means a list of “Must have skills” but it’s something which might inform decision

making when deciding what you want the character to be able to do out in the Sixth World. Don’t be

afraid to go outside the archetype if you’ve got a reason to do so... Variety makes the game

interesting.

One more thing, don’t try and somehow fit all of the listed skills into your character if you’re light on

available points (or even if you’re points rich.) It’s usually better to be specialised in the things

you’re meant to be good at, rather than to be a jack of all trades. Pick what you want to do, and do

it well.

General (Consider these if you have points spare)

• Etiquette: Knowing how to act like a normal, civilised person. The LC has a requirement that

you be able to roll four dice (thereby having the ability to buy a hit on this test under normal

conditions.) This, however, does need you to take into account any negative qualities that

impact social pools. If you’re a sufferer of superhuman psychosis, for example, it applies a -2

penalty to etiquette tests...

• Perception: The ancient art of seeing things, hearing things, and so on. There are situations

where you might not want to take ranks in this... But at least a couple of ranks are usually

advisable, if you’ve got the points.

• Con: You’re a career criminal. Lying to people, at least a little bit, can be helpful. If you’re

working closely with more socially oriented characters you might be okay, but defaulting on

a lie can go badly.

• Intimidation: If you’re not going to lie to people, consider being scary instead. Neither is

strictly needed, but the ability to not default when trying to dissuade someone looking at

you can be valuable.

• Sneaking: Much like lying, being able to make yourself harder to see and hear can be useful.

It’s the main domain of infiltrators, but as with con it has uses on everyone. A small pool is

possibly worse than no pool, as it’ll make you think you can try. Can be ignored if you’ve got

a magical means to get stealth.

• Palming: If you want to conceal gear on yourself you need to be able to make a roll to set a

threshold, and you can’t default this one. Someone else with the skill can hide stuff on you

in a pinch.

• Pilot Groundcraft: Gridguide isn’t guaranteed to be available to you. If you haven’t got a

vehicle, or it’s got a good pilot rating with a relevant autosoft, you can probably disregard

this one.

• A ranged combat skill: Okay. Mages, riggers and deckers (okay, technos too, you exist out

here). You might not have many dice for it but the ability to help in combat when your

normal approaches don’t work can be invaluable. 6+ dice is enough to suppress with an

automatic, and at least force a dodge roll on an enemy. Also, a mage with an AK looks less

like a mage than an unarmed guy.

• First Aid: This is somewhat of an odd one to have on here. If your ranks in the skill plus logic

are less than 6, you can be outperformed by a medkit operating in autodoc mode. However,

if you’ve got a good logic score, or want to invest a bit in this you can use that same kit to

get a good pool for putting teammates back together. If you take it and want to be the

combat doc, specialise in gunshot wounds.

Archetype – Street Samurai (Mundane)

The mundane street samurai is the archetypal combat monster. You’re likely to be the one in the

middle of a fight with big gun, or a big sword, or just giant chrome arms punching thing. You

probably have lots of chrome, or bioware, or a hell of an addiction.

However, violence doesn’t need to be all you do.

• Combat skills: Automatics, Blades, Clubs, Longarms, Pistols, or Unarmed Combat are likely to

be your main options here, but any of the options are viable (though more niche). You’ll

want at least one of these skills at a good rank, and probably with a specialisation on top.

• Throwing Weapons: Being a Sam, you’re likely to have enough strength to get some good

range on a grenade, and the agility to put it exactly where you want it. In Shadowrun,

grenades can deal a lot of damage, and smoke or gas grenades offer tactical choices. If

you’re just taking this for throwing grenade-type weapons, 10-11 dice in the pool is enough

to reliably get 3 net hits for an accurate throw. However, a grenade’s range is defined by

your strength, so if you’ve got noodle arms, you might want more ranks to offset range

penalties. For thrown weapons like knives, you’ll want to treat this like any other weapon.

• Heavy Weapons: Okay. I’ve been reminded that I need to point this one out. It’s not

(usually) a primary weapon, but you might well want it as a Samurai, for when the drek

really hits the fan. It’s used for machineguns, rocket launchers, grenade launchers (including

that one under the Ares Alpha) and assault cannons. You know, things you don’t conceal but

are really glad to have when you’re running through the barrens and the world falls on you.

• Gymnastics: Surprisingly versatile. It can be used for improving your chances of dodging

ranged attacks, it can be used for mitigating fall damage somewhat, it’s the skill used for

climbing.

• Sneaking (Optional): Unlike the general skill case, you’re going to be good at this one with

ranks in it. Combat needs agility, and you should have it in spades, meaning sneaking is also

a decent choice.

• Palming (Optional): Okay, it’s the domain of the infiltrator, really. But you’ve got the

attributes, and you can’t default on it. Being a test opposed by perception, you probably

don’t want to attempt this on a single rank unless you’ve got a hell of a distraction.

• Locksmith (Optional): See palming. It has the same limitation of not being defaultable, but

you’ll need tools as well to enable you to try. See the infiltrator section later for more

details.

• Running (Optional): If you’ve got good strength, being able to sprint further if you need to

can be good. Get into range, get out of range, surprise the mage who thought he was a safe

distance away...

• Swimming (Optional): It’s definitely not core, but when you need it you’ll be glad if you’ve

got ranks.

Archetype: Street Samurai (Physical Adept)

I’ll be honest, I was very tempted to roll this up with the mundane Street Samurai section, as they

can overlap quite a lot in what they do. However, the Physical Adept has a few tricks available that

the cyberware, bioware, or chemically boosted one doesn’t.

As there’s a lot of overlap between the two, I’m not going to go into too much extra depth, but I will

point out the notable exceptions. Between the core abilities, the street samurai list, and these

additions most of the usual suspects should be covered. However, as I’ve said before, it’s not an

exhaustive list, and if you’ve got an idea that doesn’t fit one of these groupings it’s fine to pick and

choose.

• Combat Skills: You’re a combat adept. You’re still going to be expecting to put some decent

damage out in a fight, and depending on your powers chosen you are going to have some

impressive dice pools. Much like a mundane Samurai, the entire list is viable, but it’s worth

noting that adepts get abilities that can make unarmed combat, archery, and thrown

weapons especially deadly.

• Gymnastics: If you’re awakened, you’re probably not going to want the lovely cyber or

bioware to give you massive soak pools. As a result, you’re going to want to dodge attacks,

and the dodge interrupt allows you to add your gymnastics skill to a single defence test for

the cost of five initiative points. Don’t need to soak if you don’t get hit!

• Assensing (Cannot be defaulted): As an awakened, you have the ability to see into the astral.

This can be hugely helpful, in some circumstances. If you’ve got the Astral Perception

power, you’re probably going to want at least a few points of assensing to make meaningful

use of it.

• Arcana (Cannot be defaulted): It goes without saying, but at some point you might want to

increase your magical abilities, and that requires initiation. Initiation needs at least one

point of arcana to allow you to make the required roll.

• Astral Combat: If you’ve got the Astral Perception power, and either the Killing Hands power

or a weapon focus bound and active, you can punch spirits before they materialise. If that’s

sort of your thing. Might be useful if you end up travelling to the metaplanes for some

reason.

Archetype: Physical Infiltrator

So here, we’ve got sneaky sorts of all types. Unlike the more mainline combat focussed Street

Samurai and Physical Adepts, these will tend to want to avoid combat, or start it once it’s massively

stacked in their favour.

• Sneaking: It probably goes without saying that an infiltrator probably wants to be good at

evading notice in the first place. High ranks in this, good agility, and a chameleon suit or RPC

covered suit of armour will be your friends for this skill.

• Combat Skill: You’re still going to want one. Suppressed Longarms or Pistols are probably

your most likely options, coupled with your sneaking it’s entirely possible you might be able

to surprise someone entirely, making the first shot the last one (or at least putting the hurt

on before they can react). However, if you want to be up close and personal, melee options

can be quiet too.

• Palming: If you’re being sneaky, being able to plant things and quietly pick things up is fairly

useful. It also allows you to make concealment tests, which allow you to hide things on your

person if you’ve absolutely got to be seen in public.

• Locksmith: Infiltrators tend towards breaking and entering. This skill is essential for dealing

with locks when you’ve not got another method of bypassing them such as a decker. You’ll

want a toolkit to go along with this, as well as the gear to bypass the internals of security

systems.

• Gymnastics: This is coming up a lot, maybe I should have made it core. It’s one of those

wonderful skills for getting you around places, climbing, falling and the like.

• Etiquette: It’s camouflage for when you’re in a social setting. If you know how to blend in

correctly, you’re effectively invisible.

• Con: When you inevitably screw up a sneaking test (don’t lie to yourself, it’s going to happen

at some point) being able to throw a convincing lie out to justify being inside a company’s air

vent in a chameleon suit might save you from being immediately shot. Just saying.

• Exotic Ballistic (Niche): I put this on the list for one reason in particular. Grapple guns. If you

want to use them to get a rope to let you climb to a high place, you need this skill.

• Escape Artist (Niche): It’s useful for getting out of restraints. It’s also useful if you’re going to

try and do an entry through air vents, because being able to contort yourself into funny

shapes helps... This is a hugely niche option, but can fit the archetype.

Archetype: Social Infiltrator / Face

Where a physical infiltrator will try and avoid being seen and slip into a building without being

noticed, a social infiltrator will walk to the front door, schmooze the guard, and be escorted in as an

honoured guest. Or that’s the plan at least.

• Etiquette: It’s social camouflage. Knowing how to blend in and act like you belong is this

archetype’s bread and butter skill. Being able to tell your teammates how they should

behave is also a bonus. They might just ignore you.

• Con: You’re a career criminal, and you’re talking your way into places you shouldn’t be going

into. Being able to lie convincingly is another skill you really don’t want to miss out on being

excellent at.

• Leadership: You’ve got buckets of charisma, you’re putting yourself into the limelight a lot,

so you’re going to want to be able to direct teammates and convince people to follow your

instructions. Consider taking a decent amount of the Small Unit Tactics skill as well, and lead

those combat manoeuvres.

• Negotiation: Sometimes you can wring a bit more out of a Johnson. Sometimes you’ll need

to reach some middle ground with a person you meet on a run. Sometimes, you just want

to be able to find gear yourself without a contact. This is the skill for that.

• Intimidation (Can be optional): Sometimes, threats work better than anything else. It’s more

convincing when you’ve got a clearly combat-tooled troll behind you, but knowing how to be

imposing can turn some encounters when a nice word isn’t working.

• Palming: As Physical Infiltrator, with a twist. You’re going to hopefully walking into places

with people watching you. Being able to acquire keycards and the like on a walk through a

building can save you hassle later.

• Combat Skill: Personally, I’d lean you towards Automatics or Pistols here. Basically,

concealable weapons are your go-to approach. Not many businessmen walk to meetings

with an AK97 over their shoulders, but a stylish pistol in a concealed holster might just be

acceptable.

• Disguise: Because you don’t want people seeing your real face, do you? A synthskin mask

can replace this in a pinch, but being able to set up a disguise can help you blend in.

Impersonation (Niche): Sometimes you need to pretend to be someone else. With a good

disguise, and a good knowledge of your target, you could replace them for a while... It’s not

the easiest skill to leverage in a lot of runs though.

• Performance (Niche): It has uses, but they’re not the most commonly used. Sometimes, you

need a distraction and this can work. Special note: if you’re a socially focussed adept, the

enthralling performance power can use this skill.

• Arcana (If Adept): As per physical adept, you’re going to want to raise your initiate grade at

some point.

Archetype: Mage / Aspected Mage / Mystic Adepts

Okay. The first of the archetype groups that have sort of their own rules as for what they’re

expecting to take. Mystic adepts are here because they can pull from just about anything that’s not

Resonance-based, so have access to the skills in this group. Of course, feel free to pull from any

other section if you’ve got an interesting hybrid idea.

• Spellcasting: Assuming you’re not aspected, you’re likely going to want maximum possible

ranks in this one. Mages are defined by being able to make spells happen, and this is what

you’ll use for that.

• Summoning: And this is the other fairly typical skill for mages. Spirits can do a lot of very

interesting things, and can have some incredibly useful powers. On the other hand, if they

don’t want to play you’re looking at a lot of drain, but them’s the risks.

• Assensing: Mystic Adepts will need the Astral Perception power to make use of this, but

otherwise this is something you’ll want to be able to provide astral overwatch, and to read

people’s auras.

• Arcana: As per physical adepts (and social adepts I guess) at some point you might want to

increase your magical abilities, and that requires initiation. Initiation needs at least one

point of arcana to allow you to make the required roll.

• Alchemy: It’s probably only valuable if you’re actually specialising in alchemy as your

spellcasting type, but you’ll need this to make preparations. At least you get the drain out of

the way before the run is done, though.

• Binding: If you’re summoning spirits, you might want to have them hang around longer than

just the next dusk or dawn. If that’s the case, you’ll need this skill. It’s worth remembering

each attempt to bind takes (force) hours, and eats (25*force) of reagents, regardless of

success or failure. It also gets 2*force dice to resist, with you taking 2* the number of hits

(total, not net) it rolls on defence. It’s entirely possible to have a spirit knock you out from

full condition monitors if it says no.

• Counterspelling: You can use it to force sustained spell effects off the opposition, or to give

your team more defence against incoming spells. It’s not essential, but it can be very nice

when you need it.

• Banishing: Say “no” to spirits. It’s much better than in core due to the house rules, but if

you’ve not got it you’re still capable of just hitting spirits with manabolts and other spells.

This is viewed as the nice approach, if you care about astral reputation.

• Ritual Spellcasting: There are some nice rituals, and if you want to use them you’ll need this

skill. It’s definitely not essential though.

Archetype: Rigger

Riggers are an archetype who make use of a lot of skills which others won’t. You’re going to be the

one who has drones and vehicles to play with, and you’re frequently going to be sleeping in the van

whilst people go in. Well, unconscious in VR, doing something with a drone at least.

• Gunnery: If you’re jumped into something that’s not an anthro-drone (and therefore

doesn’t have arms) you’re going to want to have this skill. It’ll roll from logic, which should

be a good attribute for you. It applies to any weapon in a mount, so you can have the exotic

ones work just fine.

• Sneaking: If you’re trying an infiltration with small drones for intel-gathering, you need this.

Drones can get expensive if you lose several on a run, even with a contact that has

Nanomachines, Son! It’ll be calculated from Intuition when jumped in, or running through

VR.

• Electronic Warfare: If you’re using drone sensors, you might want to consider electronic

warfare. It has a couple of uses which otherwise wouldn’t be available to you, and if you’re

primarily planning on being jumped in, it can replace perception for you. It also can be used

to target lock opponents, detect and break locks on yourself amongst other things.

• Pilot <X>: You’re a rigger. You probably need at least one of these at a decent pool, possibly

multiple. If you’re moving a drone or vehicle round, this is the skill.

Nice to have skills:

• Navigation: It’s absolutely not essential, but you might appreciate being able to find your

way back home when jumped in.

• Computer: You can perform some matrix techniques as a rigger, so you can use this as a skill.

Notably, Matrix Perception uses this, but there are a lot of techniques you’ll have access to

as a rigger that can come in handy.

• Hardware: Less essential, but if you want to jack out from a drone this is the skill you’ll

want. If you needed to repair matrix damage your drones your drones have taken mid-run

(if it’s a longer one) hardware is needed.

• Mechanic: If you want to make physical repairs to vehicles on a longer run, here’s your skill.

Also has uses for things like working out how to disable HVAC systems and water pumps, or

other similar things.

• Armourer: You might want to switch weapons on a drone mount one day. It’s probably a bit

niche but it’s got some value somewhere.

Archetype: Decker

This is one of the groups where I’m going to advise that if you take a skill, you take maximum ranks

in it. The matrix is an arena where things not going your way can get dangerous, rapidly, and you

don’t want to fail through a simple lack of skill. However you look at it there’s a list of skills that

you’re really going to want to consider strongly.

• Software: This is one of your main skills, though surprisingly not used for that many actions.

It’s used for data bombs (both setting and disarming) and the Garbage In Garbage Out

action. It doesn’t sound much, but a data bomb can ruin your whole week.

• Hacking: If you’re being a sneaky decker who doesn’t want to be seen, this is the skill to

emphasise. Hack On the Fly and decrypting files are this one’s main uses, but there are other

uses as well.

• Cybercombat: On the other hand, if you’re a brute force sort of person, you’ll use this as

your main approach. Brute Force, Crash Program, Data Spike, and Erase Marks are this one’s

main benefits, but again, there are others which I’m not going to list.

• Computer: Matrix Perception. That alone’s enough, but this is also used for editing files, and

rebooting other people’s devices. Or commanding them to reformat themselves on the next

reboot, you monster. Again, I’m picking a few actions from the list.

• Hardware: Apart from being used to repair matrix damage, it’s got one use, but it might be

an important one: Jacking Out. When you absolutely, positively need to be out of the host

and rebooted RIGHT NOW, you’ll look at this one. It’s an opposed test if you’re link locked,

and if you’re in VR you’ll get dump shocked, but it beats being kept there whilst ICE eats you.

• Electronic Warfare: It keeps coming up for the technical roles. For deckers, though it’s got a

couple of different uses. Snooping on targets, hiding from those looking for you, reducing

noise, and controlling devices you have access to are all E-War skills. Again, there are more.

Archetype: Technomancers

This one... This one caused me problems, somewhat. Technomancers are a little odd, and are very

flexible in how they can be built. There are some common things to recommend, though.

• Software: If it’s important for a decker, it’s CRITICAL for a technomancer. Every single

complex form uses Software in its test, so you’re going to want a lot of ranks in it.

• Compiling: Unlike deckers, technomancers can get little friends in the form of sprites, pulled

from raw matrix code. This is not entirely unlike how a mage summons spirits. These little

guys have a lot of flexibility in what they can do and how they can help you, and they can be

asked to use various matrix powers on your behalf. You’re going to want to put a good

number of ranks here to allow you to summon stronger sprites.

• Registering: And here’s the counterpart to binding. There’s no material cost, unlike a spirit,

but the fading you can take from this is not dissimilar to what a mage can take when binding.

• Decompiling: You’re probably not going to choose to do this when you can just resonant

spike something into oblivion anyway. It’s not like the sprites are alive.

• Computer: You don’t get away from this one. There are some actions that there aren’t

complex forms for, and they’re tied to this skill. Matrix perception being the big one (again.)

• Hacking: About as important as for a Decker when getting into hosts. Clever usage of

Puppeteer and Editor CFs can let you get away with less of an emphasis on it, but Hack on

the Fly is still valuable.

• Cybercombat: Some CFs let you deemphasize some aspects of it, like Resonance Spike,

Derezz, Misread Marks.

• Hardware: Less useful since you don't have a device to repair but surprise surprise; it's still

the test for Jacking Out

• Electronic Warfare: About as useful as for a decker

• Other skills can be valuable, as per deckers, but you might have ways around needing all of

them with careful choice of complex forms.