[Chalkarts]

I want to make a Face type that has high ability scores and resources, a top tier skillwire system and a boatload of skillsofts, real world skills for any situation.  Just give me a couple actions to change out this skillsoft and I'll be able to patch that gushot/Thrown this knife/Speak Japanese/Defuse that bomb/etc ad nauseum.  . 

I had rules questions
#1 is skillwire still the same in 5th as 4th?

#2 Does the skillwire rating act exactly like skill ranks with all applicable modifiers even if naturally unskilled?

#3 How many skillsofts can be active and plugged in at once, if I have 5 chipjacks can i run 5 skillsofts?

 

[Kincaid]

Skillwires are really really expensive in 5e.  I love this concept, it's iconic to the setting, but I'd shelve it for a bit.

[Chalkarts]

I played a chip head 20years ago but he was a gun bunny.  I'm thinking something much more social, maybe a skill wire and some bioware for tailored pheromones.

[JackVII]

It's hard to pull off. There are a lot of limits with skillwires that make them challenging.

1) They're way, way expensive. Not just the wires and skilljack (the two required devices for skillwire use in 5e which run 20K per Rating for each different piece of cyberware), but the skillsoft themselves (5000 nuyen per rating). At best, you can only get Rating 4 skills at CharGen without a Restricted Gear option or something by purchasing Used R4 skillwires. So, without some very intensive investment in physical attributes, you're going to have a DP of like 9.
2) You can't use Edge on skillwire skills. I can't tell you how many times I've had to put a frowny face in a PbP post when asked "Do you want to spend Edge on that roll"

[I_AM_ZHOUL!!!]

I want to make a Face type that has high ability scores and resources, a top tier skillwire system and a boatload of skillsofts, real world skills for any situation.  Just give me a couple actions to change out this skillsoft and I'll be able to patch that gushot/Thrown this knife/Speak Japanese/Defuse that bomb/etc ad nauseum.  . 

I had rules questions
#1 is skillwire still the same in 5th as 4th?

#2 Does the skillwire rating act exactly like skill ranks with all applicable modifiers even if naturally unskilled?

#3 How many skillsofts can be active and plugged in at once, if I have 5 chipjacks can i run 5 skillsofts?

 

First ask you GM if you can use the German rulebook prices (it is Canon) for the Skilljack... they are only Rating x ¥1000. If he says No... just scrap the idea, it's really not worth it.

If he says yes.... definitely use the Restricted Gear quality for a Rating 6 Skillwires. You can run Rating X2 or Rating x3 with wireless on worth of skillsofts... so 3 active rating 6 autosoft skills. When Chromed Flesh comes out in July/August you'll have access to a Skillwire Expert System (or with GM approval you can use the 4th edition one from Augmentation) which let's you use Edge on Skillwires.

Have a couple skills maxed out & specialized that you'll be able to raise with Karma. Negotiations, Con, Automatics... .cause skills go to 12 now.

But mainly talk with your GM... this build needs help to do under the current rule set. I've only ever run one as part of a Move by Wire System... I was contemplating an idea like this but it was to much of a pain..

[Glyph]

Honestly, in Priority, "natural" skills are cheaper.  Sure, you could start out with, say, Resources: A and Skills: C, and get, let's say, a rating: 6 chipjack (120,000 Nuyen), rating: 5 skillwires with the restricted gear quality (100,000 Nuyen), and four rating: 5 activesofts (100,000 Nuyen), still leaving you enough for those rating: 3 tailored pheromones.  On the other hand, you could get Skills: A and Resources: C, getting just the rating: 3 tailored pheromones - and have 18 more points for individual skills and 8 more points for skill groups.  Skills that you can spend Edge on, and raise with Karma.

[north]

don't forget addiction.

[Rooks]

Dunno, seems weird autosofts are based on physical active skills muscle memory (like serious autosofts for navigation survival maybe, tracking uh what?) I rule all skills but social and outdoors are autosoftable but ya the prices seem like theres an extra 0 in there based on SR4 prices should be 2k per rating not 20k I mean this is stuff menial works are implanted with people sign up get implanted make whatever in a sweatshop they just need the meat bodies for production

[Chalkarts]

What kinda money you guys getting from runs?  Are your Johnsons too stingy to let you afford an extensive library of skill softs?

[Kincaid]

If I learned anything from writing a chapter for Bloody Business, it's that I'm a hella cheap GM.  Don't tell my players.

That said, if a player comes to me with a character idea that isn't broken, but is still tricky from a rules standpoint, I'll do what I can to make it work.  Maybe you'll stumble across a shipment of skillsofts.  You'll have to convince the rest of the PCs not to fence them ("But they're so overpriced!  It'll be a fortune!"), but there are non-monetary ways of developing a character's gear.

[Herr Brackhaus]

If it's any consolation, Kincaid, I don't think a single book has been released that contains reward suggestions without it getting grief by people who think it's under/overwhelming. My guess is rewards vary so much from table to table that whenever specifics are mentioned in published content someone will think it's too high or too low regardless.

As for skillwires and the skilljack; if you use the German version, as mentioned previously, it's doable, and it can be great for language and knowledge skills. Need to listen in on a conversation but don't know the language? 1000¥ and a direct download and you can. Need to attend a social event at a corporate facility/embassy/syndicate hangout, but don't know anything about the history of the organization, the people in it, and/or the topic of the night? 2000¥ and you've at least got a chance.

Active skills are expensive, yes, but the ability to essentially load up anything you need on a moments notice can be invaluable. And as Kincaid mentiones, there's ways around acquiring skillsofts; in several published adventures the Johnson offers use of certain skillsofts for the use on a job he's hiring for. These could be one-use only, like BTL chips with self-erasing features, or even a part of the payment/expenses for the job.

[Top Dog]

If I learned anything from writing a chapter for Bloody Business, it's that I'm a hella cheap GM.  Don't tell my players.

That said, if a player comes to me with a character idea that isn't broken, but is still tricky from a rules standpoint, I'll do what I can to make it work.  Maybe you'll stumble across a shipment of skillsofts.  You'll have to convince the rest of the PCs not to fence them ("But they're so overpriced!  It'll be a fortune!"), but there are non-monetary ways of developing a character's gear.

We had a similar situation with our decker a while back - Decks being practically impossible to upgrade without some circumstances helping. So at one point, we found a few, and the decker could keep one (with the rest being sold off).

It was discussed out-of-game that the decker should be able to get one, so that helped. What also helped was that we couldn't fence them at full price - we could get 20% or so. So we decided the decker could buy one of the found ones at 20%. The other players were happy - we got a lot of money still, since those were expensive decks (even at 20% sell value) - and our decker got a new deck and shiny new matrix stats for an 80% discount.

I could see something like that working for skillsofts too.

You should be careful with that, though, and discuss it with the players. Giving one player stuff for free while not giving other players something similar breeds resentment, even if it's to offset a previous deficiency in the character that's receiving it. That's not something that can't be solved in most groups with a good talk and explaining why it's happening, but it's something to consider nontheless.

Dunno, seems weird autosofts are based on physical active skills muscle memory (like serious autosofts for navigation survival maybe, tracking uh what?) I rule all skills but social and outdoors are autosoftable but ya the prices seem like theres an extra 0 in there based on SR4 prices should be 2k per rating not 20k I mean this is stuff menial works are implanted with people sign up get implanted make whatever in a sweatshop they just need the meat bodies for production

Skilljacks are very much capable of running non-physical skills - see knowledge and language skills. The real question is why you would need skillwires for social/outdoors skills (especially the latter, which usually act more like knowledge skills anyway, which you can already do without skillwires). That's probably for balancing reasons though, so I wouldn't change that. But social and outdoors should be, and are in core, Skillsoftable.

[prionic6]

Social interaction involves a lot of gestures, facial expressions and control of your tounge and breathing apparatus for speaking.

[Chalkarts]

With social situations it might be good to have a skill soft for ballroom dancing, a full library of languages would be invaluable. 

Give hi a high natural charisma and several high end natural social skills.  Leave the physicall and computational to his skill wire.  Without a skill wire he's still a very smooth talker, just a kinda gimpy one that couldn't fight his way out of a playground of dwarf children.

I'm actually going to be running this game and wanted to make this character as a Johnson/recurring nemesis so the cost isn't an issue.

[Top Dog]

Oh yeah, for an NPC it'll work well.

Ballroom dancing and languages would be nice (though a full set will be hard; but you can easily get say 20 or so at 1 to at least be conversational).

You asked how many you can run. You can actually combine them, for which I will refer to the rulebook, but you can run a maximum of 3 full-rating skillsofts at once (this includes language- and knowsofts). You can load lower-rating ones too, which means you can run more at the same time. I'm pretty sure you can only have one skilljack (the thing that actually runs the software). You can, of course, have as many ready in the background to be loaded as you want.

You'd probably want at least some naturally - say, negotiation and/or etiquette. You can't load a "full" social suite at once otherwise. You'd then finish that up with the others, and switch some out for languages, or dancing, as needed. With a combat autosoft in the back for when that happens of course.