Skills

Cyberpunk features a vast array of skills. Skills are ranked from 1 to 10, with a score of 1 representing rudimentary training, and 10 indicating a master's grasp of the subject at hand (which usually takes decades to develop). During character creation, you will only be allowed to raise skills as high as rank 6.

During character creation, most skills are purchased with Skill Points (SPs) on a one-for-one basis. Some skills, especially those involving esoteric martial arts and highly technical subjects, have cost multipliers, which represent that they are significantly more difficult to learn or require more dedication to improve. The multipliers are applied to the cost of the ranks you buy in such a skill, so a skill with a x2 multiplier will cost 2 points to buy at Rank 1, 4 for Rank 2, 6 for Rank 3, etc.

Skill Points are assigned based on your character's starting age. Younger characters have fewer skill points than older characters. Older characters, while more experienced, eventually succumb to decrepitude and lose points from their physical ability scores due to age.

Because of their place in the police academy, your characters will need to fall somewhere between 20 and 25 years old. Odds are that people will prefer to start as older characters for the skill point bonus, thus gaming the system. If you guys are comfortable, I may require age to be determined by a random 19+1d6 roll to ensure that there is some variety.

Skill Points can also be used to purchase Advantages. Advantages are perks that your character begins the game with. I will be limiting advantage purchases to 6 total points. Since most advantages cost between 2 and 6 points, this will allow you to buy between 1 and 3 of them.

Conversely, you can also take Disadvantages in order to gain extra Skill Points. Disadvantages are quirks and disabilities which hinder your character in some way. You are limited to 6 points of Disadvantages to begin with. You can use the extra Skill Points to buy additional skills, or you can spend them on Advantages.

Note that some Disadvantages are oriented around personality traits or psychological issues, such as Honesty, Honor, or Bad Temper. Be aware that you can play a character with such a trait without taking the Disadvantage of the same name. The difference is that when you're saddled with a Disadvantage, you'll be forced to act a specific way from time to time. If you don't take the Disadvantage, you'll have the benefit of choosing when your character flies off the handle, tells the truth, or acts in accordance with his code of honor.

The rules for Advantages and Disadvantages can be found in this document. The restrictions listed in this blog post precede any restrictions (or lack of restrictions) that are outlined in the document.