Police Academy Skills

Here's a list of skills that everyone graduating from the academy should have, at minimum, so when allocating skill points, don't forget to make sure you have these minimums in place. Most of you would be taking these skills anyway, but these are the minimum levels you'd need in order to graduate from the academy program.

Athletics +2
Awareness/Notice +2
Brawling +2
Driving +1
First Aid +1
Handgun +2
Human Perception +1
Interview +1
Melee +1
Rifle +1
Shadow/Track +1

Also, a quick note on the Education/General Knowledge skill. It represents you formal education. Every character in this game gets Education/General Knowledge at +2 for free. If you want to raise it higher to represent a higher level of education, you can, but the first two points won't cost you anything.

To define the levels of Education/General Knowledge (just FYI):

+1: Grade school education (6th-8th grade).
+2: High school diploma or equivalent.
+3: College education (Associates degree).
+4: Bachelor's degree.
+5: Master's degree.
+6: Doctorate.

Higher levels indicate even more expansive knowledge of a variety of topics and/or additional degrees.

Skills and Multipliers

Here's the list of skills with multipliers. These multipliers apply for both initial purchases (with skill points) and long-term purchases (with improvement points, ie, experience points).

Some of these totals may contradict multipliers in the published rules. If they do, these totals supersede those in the book. Also note that some of the martial arts styles do have multipliers of x1, and I'm listing them for posterity. Oops.

INT SKILLS
Know Language (varies depending on language group)
African x2
Baltic x2
Celtic x2
Farsi x2
Germanic x1
Greek x2
Japanese x2
Korean x2
Pacific Island x2
Romantic x1
Semetic x1
Sino-Tibetan & S.E. Asian x3
Slavic x3

REFLEX SKILLS
Martial Arts (varies)
Aikido x3
Animal Kung Fu x3
Boxing x1
Capoeria x3
Choi Li Fut x3
Judo x1
Karate x2
Tae Kwan Do x3
Thai Kick Boxing x4
Wrestling x1
Pilot Gyro x2
Pilot Fixed Wing x2
Pilot Dirigible x2
Pilot Vectored Thrust Vehicle x2
Stealth x2

TECH SKILLS
Aero Tech x2
AV Tech x2
Basic Tech x1
Cyberdeck Design x2
CyberTech x2
Demolitions x2
Electronic Security x2
Gyro Tech x2
MedTech x2
Pharmaceuticals x2
Weaponsmith x2

So, that's that. Any questions, drop me a line or come by my cube and ask. Next stop: starting gear (ie, issued equipment).

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.