The Shadowrun skill system has a couple of major flaws that can be addressed if you’re willing to cope with a little math.
One of the problems with the Shadowrun skill system is that it makes no provision for the possibility that someone might want to broaden a skill. By the standard rules, if you buy a specialization, if you want to go back and buy the concentration, you have to pay to bring up the concentration as a completely separate skill.
Another problem that appears at character creation is that skills are assigned at creation time in a radically different method from actual play. Six points used at creation time for buying skills can be worth anywhere from 6 karma (if used to buy six skills at 1) to 51 karma (if used to buy one general skill at 4 with a concentration at 6 and a specialization at 8).
The skill system also has limits that ordinary experience does not. It is possible (through play) for a character to have a specialization at 5, but an accompanying concentration and general skill still at 1. This cannot be done at character creation time.
None of these seems terribly realistic.
One can avoid a number of these problems with some extended rules:
When creating a character, instead of buying skills with points as per the standard FASA rules, sum their points. Starting characters, as usual, should not have general skills higher than 6, concentrations higher than 7, or specializations higher than 8. Gamemasters may wish to insist that if a concentration is used, the general skill must be at least two points lower, and if a specialization is used, its appropriate concentration must be at least two points lower and general skill at least four points lower. The number of karma points corresponding to a given character creation priority can vary with how you calculate it. The maximum number of karma points is based the character taking as many specializations at the highest possible levels, i.e., taking all possible 8/6/4 specializations and then another specialization. This method can create any starting Shadowrun character. One may also calculate on the maximum number of general skills, i.e., all general skills at 6 and then another general skill at the highest possible level.
| Priority | Skill Points | Maximum general | Maximum special |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 40 | 265 | 333 |
| B | 30 | 210 | 255 |
| C | 24 | 164 | 204 |
| D | 20 | 128 | 164 |
| E | 17 | 111 | 140 |
If you have a specialization, the cost to bring a concentration that encompasses that specialization up to the level of the specialization is the difference between the karma cost of the specialization and the karma cost of the concentration.
Example: Theora recently used 7 karma from a run to bring her Computer 6 skill up to Computer 6, Matrix Software 7, so she can start working on utilities at rating 7. After another run, a subsequent 4 karma can bring her skill up to Computer 6, Software 7.
The same principle applies for a general skill.
Example: After that last run, Theora realizes that Concentrating on pistols just wasn’t a great idea. She decides to spend 1 karma to take her Firearms 1, Pistols 3 to Firearms 2, Pistols 3. On a later run, going from Firearms 2, Pistols 3 to Firearms 3 only takes her another karma point.
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Some skills do not exist in a general form at all; etiquette skills are the most obvious example, and in our campaign different martial arts are each a concentration-level skill, rather than a concentration of Unarmed Combat.
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