A Little Learning...
... is a dangerous thing!
By Lady Jestyr (jestyr@iname.com)
Greetings.
In this, the second instalment of A Little Learning, I present more useful
Knowledge skills for your edification.
Knowledge Skills
Accounting
Default
: Stockbroking
Specializations
: Embezzling, Fraud Control, Cost-Cutting
This skill allows characters to interpret financial data and manipulate it to
their advantage. Using Accounting, characters can understand corporate profit
and loss statements, prospectuses and other financial reports. A successful use
of this skill will allow a character to falsify or manipulate financial data in
such a way that it appears genuine. At the GM’s discretion, characters may also
use their Accounting knowledge to embezzle funds, or identify frauds committed
by others. This skill is especially useful for deckers.
Conspiracy Theories
Default
: Current Affairs
Specializations
: By region, by group, by type (corporate, government, policlub, magical etc)
Stereotypically the favorite topic of wackos everywhere, knowledge of
Conspiracy Theories can be very useful to the paranoid shadowrunner. This skill
imparts knowledge of many secret conspiratorial groups and covert activities by
public organizations (such as those presented in Threats).
Use of this skill also allows characters to analyze patterns in current affairs
to identify the activity of many known and unknown power-crazed cabals. Even if
the identity of the group in question is unknown, it is still possible to
postulate its existence by identifying related events and assessing their
influence on society.
The GM should feel free to offer characters somewhat misleading information if
they rely too heavily on this skill - after all, eventually a paranoid will
start seeing patterns and conspiracies even when they don’t exist.
Current Affairs
Default
: Conspiracy Theories
Specializations
: By subject matter, by geographical area, by news media
This skill represents general/trivia knowledge in current affairs; the
character keeps up with the newscasts and newsfeeds, and has a wealth of
knowledge about random current events.
Use of this skill, at the GM’s discretion, may allow characters to recall a
range of information about current and recent happenings, if the information
was publicised broadly in the public media. Characters possessing the
Photographic Memory edge (see p. 24, Shadowrun Companion) can be devastatingly
informative if they use this skill, slowly becoming a walking news archive.
Police Procedures
Default
: Security Procedures
Specializations
: By company, by area
Knowledge of Police Procedures gives characters a good understanding of the
standard operating and investigative procedures of a variety of law enforcement
contractors (such as Lone Star, Knight Errant, and other similar companies). It
allows characters to predict the reactions and behaviour of police personnel in
standard areas of operation.
Among other examples, this skill allows the characters to estimate the police
manpower likely to be assigned to a particular operation, to predict the
severity of police response to a reported crime, to work out which officer they
need to speak to about an issue, or to guess the departmental jurisdiction over
a given case.
Security Procedures
Default
: Police Procedures, Security Systems
Specializations
: By security force, by risk level
The Security Procedures skill covers the techniques, tactics, and standard
operating procedures of security personnel. Using this skill grants the
character knowledge of the alertness of typical security personnel and their
level of training and equipment, allows a prediction of typical reactions to
security situations, and so forth. It also allows people to design appropriate
security staffing rosters, and to assess their integration with other security
measures on-site (such as technical or magical security).
Sign Language
This skill allows the character to know one specific sign language. The
character must specify which sign language their character knows, and must take
this skill separately for every sign language they wish to learn; however,
defaulting from one sign language to another only adds a +2 penalty to Target
Numbers.
There are a number of sign languages in existence, including Ameslan
(one-handed), Sign English, Auslan, and a number of military sign ‘dialects’.
Stockbroking
Default
: Accounting
Specializations
: By corporation, by stock type, by market, by area
This skill allows the character to predict the impact of current events on the
state of the stock market, and to take advantage of it appropriately. While
direct usage of this skill to make money from playing the stock exchange should
be carefully monitored by the GM, it allows characters to benefit from their
insider knowledge of a corporation’s situation