[neomerlin]

I call for knowledge skill rolls a lot, but I must admit, there are some skills that, unsurprisingly, get more use: Seattle, Knight Errant, police/security procedures, matrix security and Matrix design.

For a lot of the interest skills, either I as the GM or the players have to work to make use of them. I have to plan for knowledge of VR games to be relevant. Knowledge: Fashion has been used a few times to judge an NPC's social class. Making them useful takes doing. But I think it's worth it. One of my favourite parts of Shadowrun is the time between jobs, when characters are living their lives and being in the sixth world, and that's when their interests come up the most.

I've also allowed them to use knowledge skills related to the topic in question but with a higher threshold, or to contribute to teamwork rolls with knowledge skills. These have been good for increasing their value.

I might try giving them some bonus points for interest skills, just to see what they use them for and what I can get out of them. This is a groovy idea.

[Beta]

I try to throw in the occasional situation where a shared interest will make an NPC more friendly towards a PC (making other social skill use easier).  Some are obviously more apt to show up than others, so I try to make the rarer ones a bit more impactful.  i.e. "interest: urban brawl" can probably help break the ice in a lot of situations, and a player can even try using it a bit more assertively in expectation that in certain situations it could help -- but because an interest in urban brawl is expected to be common it only helps a bit.  "Interest: high end racing motorcycles" isn't going to show up so often, but because it is rare when you do encounter somone with the interest it is apt to make more of an impression.  Adding that to a key NPC that looked like they'd be difficult to get on-side can make an encounter a lot more fun than just "So, trying to bribe, sweet-talk, or con?  Roll your dice."

Also don't forget that knowledge skills include profession skills.  Those can often be useful in disguise/impersonation types of issues (as well as the 'break the ice with someone' factor of the interest skills).  I'm particularly fond of janitor and things like barista or waiter.

[Redwulfe]

In my home games I like having more knowledge skills but I just have them start with the basic amount of points. I do allow all active skills to be used as knowledge skills and allow knowledge skills to give them a teamwork test with themselves if they apply.

I have been toying with the idea of integrating a "I know a guy" mechanic. In Sprawl they allow players each game to create a contact that they know by connecting them to their backstory some how. I was going to allow the players to spend an edge to "Know a guy" they get a new contact at loyalty 1 and I create his connection rating and such but they must be wove into the characters background with a monologue or something told to the other players. It is the cheesy character development parts of the movie or show that revels new information about a person.

This could also be adapted to a "I once was a..."  or "I used to study..."which does the same thing for hobbies and interests. I am not sure if that will work as well though. I would have to give the skill a rating, maybe  the edge point allows them the skill at rating one but they can spend 1 karma per level to have it higher to a max that I decide based on the story they tell. This would also fill in their background and slowly they wouldn't have room to write more skills in easily.

Like I said still toying with the idea. the reason that I like these kinda mechanics is that they help flesh out a character in the tables mind. You start with a loose background and then flesh it out as you develop the character.

[Stoneglobe]

In terms of creation I haven't really given it much thought. Generally for my home games I just increase the modifier to either x3 or x4.

During play I use a slightly modified version of the Informed Opinion social manoeuvre where by if you have a related knowledge skill you can roll that and add the hits as both a dice pool and limit modifier for social skill tests. This allows for lower skilled characters to still have input/effect during social encounters and gives incentive to having broad knowledge skills. I always try to give 3 or 4 different hooks that can be exploited this way so it doesn't just become have this knowledge or nothing.

Recently I had an scene where the team were involved in a sit down with the Yakuza and the techno/off face had a knowledge skill of Japanese Culture with a specialism of Tea Ceremony. He rolled well and got significant dice pool bonuses to all of his social rolls throughout the course of the encounter. It also gave him a social modifier as it made the Yakuza more receptive to the team.

For me I always will allow the use of an active skill as a knowledge skill, though perhaps at a minus. For example the pistols active skill used as a knowledge skill to identify what the weapons found would be at -3 dice pool but allow you to roll on a guns knowledge roll as if you had it.

[Redwulfe]

I was thinking about this the other day and thought it might be good to create an everyman skill list. Everyman skills where used in Hero system they where basically the free skills you got for growing up in a certain culture or environment. for example everyone should have a computers of 1 or 2 just growing up in a modern shadowrun world so that should be an everyman skill.