[JimJungle]

How often do you use Full Defense? Is it worth putting skills into?

[bigity]

Full Defense isn't a skill, it's a complex action that lets you roll more dice when defending from ranged attacks or melee, etc.

Like against a gun shot, you normally roll reaction in defense.  With full defense it'd dodge+agility.

[Critias]

Keep in mind that Dodge is not the only option, nor is it (often) the best.  The Gymnastics skill can also be used to resist ranged attacks (an option that's rather attractive to street samurai, adepts, infiltration experts, and other characters who are likely to be fairly athletic), and for close combat you are free to use your appropriate melee skill (blades, clubs, or unarmed combat) instead of Dodge in order to resist an attack (once again, enticing to anyone who's likely to have some melee ability, which often overlaps with character concepts that fit the idea of extreme athleticism).

Dodge is there as a last-ditch skill for those who would avoid close-combat skills and Gymnastics.  What's more, unlike the other two, it's good only for dodging;  you can't jump farther thanks to Dodge, nor can you kick someone's teeth in or stab 'em. 

That said?  Yes, it's worth being skilled at not getting shot/stabbed to death.  I tend to make characters that would have points in Gymnastics, melee combat skills, or (much more rarely) Dodge anyways, but it's terribly useful to not die.  For most characters and against most attacks, it's a whole lot easier to avoid being hit than it is to take a hit and not get hurt from it.  There are certainly exceptions (Trolls, hi!), but for most characters out there I'd say it's a pretty good idea to be able to avoid getting smacked in the first place.

[DarkTyger]

Full Defense isn't a skill, it's a complex action that lets you roll more dice when defending from ranged attacks or melee, etc.

Like against a gun shot, you normally roll dodge+reaction in defense.  With full defense it'd dodgex2+agility

Not to nitpick, but that's inaccurate.

If you don't use Full Defense, you don't add your Dodge skill to Ranged combat.  When getting shot at, if you aren't using Full Defense, your dice pool is just your Reaction.  If you use Full Defense, you get to add the Dodge skill as well.

Only in melee combat do you get to add it twice.

[bigity]

Yea I typed that up wrong.  Gonna fix it.

[Accipiter]

One advantage of dodge is that you can specialize in either melee or ranged combat.  So technically the average person, who maxes out the skill and chooses a speciality can be better in that area.

However...Gymnastics can benefit from Enhanced Articulation which gives a +1, Synthacardium which can give up to a +3, and it is cheaper to increase with the Adept's ability to improve skills - it counts as a physics skill, not a combat skill.  Therefore it is .25/rtng to increase.  Plus, as previously said, there is more benfit in general from Gymnastics over Dodge.

All stated, it would also depend more on your background and personal flavor.  Which is th far more meaningful reason to choose one over the other.

[JimJungle]

My main question is how often Full Defense is used?

[dashifen]

At my tables, it tends to get used fairly often during the first round of combat as everyone not already behind some form of cover runs for it.  The melee types who tend to have to charge the enemy and who, therefore, draw a bit of fire also tend to call full defense since movement is either not an action (walking) or a freebie (running).  Once everyone is either comfortable with their placement or in melee range, the full defense tends to stop as people need those actions for making the other team dead rather than keeping themselves alive.

[Accipiter]

I see it used quite a bit.  If nothing else, as mentioned in the previous post, it is an invaluable asset in closing to melee distance or taking cover.

[James McMurray]

It tends to get used some when someone sees that they've got more passes than the opposition. Full Defense in the first pass or two can leave you with little risk of injury and two undefended passes later.

I also use it with NPCs that are about to die. It rarely helps them.

[The Laughing Man]

I recommend a dodge skill for most of the players in my games.(Unless they're adepts who already have gymnastics.) As stated it's useful because you can specialize in ranged dodge or melee dodge. (I usually recommend ranged, bullets hurt.) Which adds a nice +2 bonus to help negate bad circumstances you might be in. Which tends to be the case when guns are involved.

Yes Gymnastics can be increased by other means but 2 karma for a specialization is cheap and effective in my book. 

[Morg]

My main question is how often Full Defense is used?

Full Defense is often used by tactical players, and less by Murder Trolls

However if you make getting hit by the attack something horrifying you will see it more often

i.e. Ares S-III Super Squirt a sapient goul loaded with DMSO and his own Blood

[Fortinbras]

A great deal depends on how many IPs your average NPC has.

[Maelstrom]

I agree with dashifen and Accipiter

I like Full Defense.  My troll character regularly uses Full Defense when closing for melee.  He has dodge (+2 ranged specialization).  I've noticed the other characters at our table don't use Full Defense and they get shot more often than I do.

Gymnastics is often a better route than dodge for agile characters.

A character with Move-By-Wire-System (AU40) cybertech gains +1 to their Dodge skill rating per MBW point - but MBW is costly and pretty rare.

Also a rigger will need Dodge instead of gymnastics.

[bigity]

What about vehicles with lots of hydraulics?