Learning New and Improved Skills

The following rules are modifications to Shadowrun Second Edition. They regard the time required to learn new skills and improve old ones. They were created and playtested by Craig Sanchez, Dave Hoops, Walt Schellin, John Jacobson, Josh Karabin, and Linda Naughton.

These rules were first featured in Shadowland, the official Shadowrun magazine. They were later incorporated into the Shadowrun Companion.

Learning a new skill

The base time to learn a new skill (at rating 1) is 30 days. The character may reduce this time by making a skill check using that skill against a difficulty of 4. Obviously, since you're just learning the skill, you're going to have to default to something for the roll. The difficulty is modified as per the normal defaulting rules explained on p68 of the SRII book.

Divide the base time by the number of successes generated on this roll.

Example: Sasser wants to learn Thrown Weapons:1 . It would take her 30 days. To cut down on that time, Sasser makes a Thrown Weapons roll against a difficulty of 4. She must default using the skill web. She has a few different choices: Sasser can default to Quickness (a difference of 2 dots, or a +4 difficulty), or to Firearms (a difference of 3 dots, or a +6 difficulty), or to Armed Combat (also a difference of 3 dots). Since Sasser has a good Quickness (a 9 to be exact), she decides to default to that. So she gets to roll 9 dice against a target of 8 (4+4). She gets 2 successes, so the total time required to learn the skill is 15 days.

Improving a skill

When a character wants to improve an existing active, build-repair, or social skill, the base time required is (in days) seven times the number of karma points being spent to improve the skill.

When a character is improving a knowledge of language skill, the base time is (in days) 30 times the number of karma points being spent.

Note that this means it takes longer to improve a general skill than to improve a concentration or specialization, since general skills cost more karma points.

As with new skills, the character may make a skill check to reduce the base time. Only this time he doesn't have to default. He *could* default in order to get more dice, especially if the skill being improved is at a low level, but mostly the character will be rolling the skill he's improving. The difficulty, as before, is a 4, modified per the normal default rules.

As with new skills, the base time to improve the skill is divided by the number of successes.

There is another modifier to the base time, but it requires some GM bookkeeping. After you divide by the number of successes, take the resulting time and subtract the number of days worth of practice the character's had in that skill SINCE THE LAST TIME IT WAS IMPROVED.

Example: Wraith wants to raise his Sorcery skill from a 6 to a 7. It's a general skill, so that's going to cost him 14 karma points. 14x7 is 98, so the base time is 98 days. However, Wraith gets to make a Sorcery skill check to reduce that time. Wraith could default to another skill, but his sorcery is high enough that he doesn't want to. He allocates 3 dice from his karma pool for "extra dice", rerolls failures and ends up with 9 successes. So it's going to take him 11 days to improve the skill. However, the GM rules that Wraith has already gotten 11 days worth of practice since the last time he raised Sorcery, and subtracts 11 days from the total, bringing it down to a 0. It takes Wraith no time to improve the skill. He's gotten enough practice at it that he can just spend the karma and advance.

Example #2: Sasser wants to raise her Medicine from a 2 to a 3. (Medicine is a concentration of Biology.) The karma cost is 4 so the base time is 120 days since Biology is a knowledge skill. (30x4) Sasser must make a Medicine skill check. She would be rolling 2 dice against a target of 4, but she decides to default to Biotech instead (since she has a skill of 7 in that). There are two dots between Biology and Biotech, so the target number is an 8. Sasser uses her karma pool to get some extra dice and reroll failures, and ends up with 4 successes. The time is reduced to 30 days. Sasser doesn't use Medicine very often, so the GM doesn't let her subtract any time from those 30 days.

Instructors

These rules assume that as long as you are able to default to something on the skill web, you don't need an instructor to learn it. However, the GM may feel free to impose a restriction that you do need an instructor for certain skills.

When you get someone to teach you, you can learn faster. The instructor must have the skill at least at the level you're trying to learn.

The instructor makes a skill check using the special skill "Instruction", which we decided fits at the same place as Leadership on the skill web. The target number is a 4, modified if you are defaulting. Every two successes generated by the instructor count as a success for the pupil when cutting down the base time.

Example: Fenris is trying to learn Kappo, a concentration of Unarmed Combat, at level 7. (For those of you who are interested and don't know already, my group also has a set of modified martial arts rules. Email me if you're interested, or check out the link from my home page.) Kappo: 7 costs 10 karma points, so the base time is 70 days. Fenris has Unarmed Combat at level 6. He just raised it so the GM isn't giving him any pre-existing practice time to subtract from the final time. Fenris spends some karma and ends up with 9 successes.

However, Fenris has asked Oak to teach him Kappo. Oak has Kappo at level 8, so he is able to instruct Fenris at level 7. Oak doesn't have the Instruction skill, so he defaults to Charisma (which for him is a 3) and must roll against a target of 8 (4+2 dots of defaulting). He gets 2 successes, which adds an extra success to Fenris' total. This gives Fenris a grand total of 10 successes, so the time required is 7 days.

A Day By Any Other Name

The rules above talk about it taking a certain number of "days" to learn or improve a skill. This uses the following convention:

A "day" when we're talking about base time means eight hours of training. So you could just as easily say that learning a new skill takes a base time of 240 hours rather than saying 30 days. However, not everyone is capable of practicing one single skill for eight hours a day. So, you can only spend a number of hours per day equal to your willpower rating studying. This time can be divided among different skills, but most often you will be spending them studying one skill in particular.

In other words, in order to determine the actual number of days it takes to learn a skill, take 8 divided by your character's Willpower (hold onto the fraction, don't round down), and multiply that by the base time (now you can round down).

Example: In the previous example, it would have taken Fenris 7 "days" (in which he studys 8 hours a day) to improve the skill. However, his willpower is only a 5. So he can only spend 5 hours a day in training. Therefore, to find the real time, divide 8 by 5, which gives you 1.6 Then you multiply that by the seven days, which tells you that Fenris must spend 11.2 days in training (round down to 11). During those eleven days, he has dedicated five of his hours into studying Kappo, so he can't study any other skill.

Improving Attributes

This system of skill improvement can also be used when a character wants to buy up one of his attributes. The base time is the same as for an active skill (7 days times the number of karma points being spent), and is reduced by making an attribute check against a target number of 4.

Just as with skills, you must practice the attribute in order to improve it. For the physical attributes, it's pretty obvious how to practice. With Strength, weightlifting would be appropriate. With Body, a regular regimen of exercise and good eating would work. The non-physical ones are a bit more difficult, and can require some creativity on the part of the players. For Charisma, a suggestion have been trying to socialize more. In short, the player must state how his character is practicing to improve the attribute, and the GM must decide if it's appropriate.

Virtual Instructors

A character can attempt to buy a virtual tutor program instead of finding a real-life instructor. The program must have two ratings. The first is its effective skill rating (remember, an instructor can only teach a student whose skill is less than his own). The second is its quality rating, which is its effective rating in the "Instruction" skill.

The cost and size of the program can be determined by using the average of its two ratings, and consulting the skillsoft chart. A virtual instructor program counts as a general knowledge skill for such purposes.

So a program "electronics in 2 easy hours a day", with a rating 3 Electronics skill and rating 3 Instruction skill would cost the same as a rating 3 General knowsoft.