[Moonshine Fox]

With the new system the Magic background skill would add two anytime it applies to the situation.

"Geek the mage guard!"

If you have Magic, then you get a +2 to spot which of the CorpSec officers looks like a mage.

...OK so let's take my Jack of all Trades character Leela (who has the quality), a mundane who's backstory is that she was a member of a resistance cell in an occupied nation and thus had to fill a number of different roles like armed combat, demolitions, infiltration, driving, and field medic.  What "advantages" would she get, or would she get any?

Advantage to what? I'm assuming you mean with your knowledge skills and not the active skills for such tasks.

In the above example a bonus to being able to spot that silver and gold spiraling ear ring that you recognize as a standard pattern for a spell focus that was commonly used among the occupying force your resistance cell fought.

If you mean to Jack of all Trades, no idea as the quality doesn't have a public write up yet that I'm aware of.

If you mean bonuses from your knowledge skills to fit the character, that's for you and your GM to work out via cooperative world and character building that's not that far off from where it is now since even with numbers assigned most knowledge skills are so broad as to require some thought into what parts of the topic you know more about and what parts you don't.

[kyoto kid]

...in Missions play there are a lot of "roleplay" and "Player-GM" decision situations that are not allowed (like certain qualities for example) to accommodate the more "standardised" structure required so that the same character can be run under different GMs, at Game Store meets, and at conventions. 

In many cases role play is often held to a minimum because of the time constraint (usually 4 hours maximum).

[Moonshine Fox]

Ok. I know this sounds crass, but mission play is not normal play. Missions has it’s own set of house rules and guidelines that are not part of the standard rules. It’s been said already that mission play will update a new document once the main rules for non-convention play are in the wild, and will deal with how the new knowledge skill rules will work at that point.

[kyoto kid]

...not crass at all. 

Indeed, as I mentioned, Missions uses its own set of "house rules" to support rotating GMs and gaming sites as well as dealing with a tight time constraint (4 hour sessions). 

Unfortunately, where I live, this is the only way I can get my SR fix as home spun campaigns are far and few between (D&D 5th, Magic, and Pathfinder are the popular games here) and the few I have been in eventually died out after a month or so.

The last long running home campaign I was in (just over two years meeting about every two weeks) was one I GM'd under 3E several years ago.

[BeCareful]

One: I know how frustrating that can be. Two: I think it's admirable that you've had a campaign that's outlived whole editions.
As for Knowledge skills, I'm eager to know how much Karma it'll take to gain more. Will you be largely stuck with your starting ones, or will it be like other editions, wherein you're only stuck with your starting ones because you're stuck between putting Karma toward "Knowing More Things" (which may give you a helpful factoid somewhere down the road, or round out characterization) or "Shooting More Things" (which brings an obvious, immediate benefit)?

"Anyway, my LOG 1 pixie wearing nothing but undergarments will know exactly as much about the blizzard that's going on as-" actually, I'll just wait it out and see what the entire Core rules are like before making worst-case examples.

[Marcus]

Ok. I know this sounds crass, but mission play is not normal play. Missions has it’s own set of house rules and guidelines that are not part of the standard rules. It’s been said already that mission play will update a new document once the main rules for non-convention play are in the wild, and will deal with how the new knowledge skill rules will work at that point.

Missions play should/does represents official play. It's where many players learn the system.  Missions play has special rules b/c thing are going to work differently in non-contiguous groups. But those things are pretty clearly outlined. To me it serves an important purpose in the modern gaming market. It's also worth noting most of the problem rules they change are the same problem rules home game may well have to address. We will see how errata works in 6, but lets just go with my faith isn't high at the moment.

[Michael Chandra]

They're now at a level where their binary nature may seduce me into splurging on a few.

[Quantronic DreamViolence]

For most stuff which are knowledge skills having super varied levels doesn't make sense in a game.

Because like, only one player is likely to have a given niche knowledge and the GM is unlikely to put in a check that their knowledge wouldn't be good enough for if it's important.

It's kind of like how Lock Picking and getting doors open is a flowchart in 5e but the realistic answer that works with how the game's set up is that the GM isn't going to put an entry obstacle you can't deal with in the game.

[Michael Chandra]

I also like how the skill can have different use depending on the character and situation, making it different from just throwing a separate skill for info. That Knowledge Skill on Seattle Street Gangs can be used for a Perception check to spot their gang colors, a Memory Test to figure out what the local people are in the neighbourhood you're in to go negotiate with them, a Con (Impersonation) check to act like one, an Influence check appealing to them specifically (hello bonus Edge!), and so on and so forth. It encourages both GMs and players to be creative.

[Hobbes]

I also like how the skill can have different use depending on the character and situation, making it different from just throwing a separate skill for info. That Knowledge Skill on Seattle Street Gangs can be used for a Perception check to spot their gang colors, a Memory Test to figure out what the local people are in the neighbourhood you're in to go negotiate with them, a Con (Impersonation) check to act like one, an Influence check appealing to them specifically (hello bonus Edge!), and so on and so forth. It encourages both GMs and players to be creative.

It also encourages PCs to define Knowledge skills as broadly as possible and ask for dice/edge/cookies more frequently. 

Knowledge skills like, Small Unit Tactics, Matrix Security, Magic Theory, Arcana, and so on.  All seem like reasonable knowledge skills, but when applied as broadly and as frequently as possible almost function as an additional Expertise. 

Similar to the Edge system it's another discussion for the player/gm to be constantly having at first until the table settles into an understanding.  It's going to have a wide degree of variation between tables, which is fine for home games, as a Missions GM gives me a "Meh" feeling. 

[Shinobi Killfist]

In home games it seems kind of a pain in the ass to try and remember all the times it might give bonus dice. So I’ll be getting a lot of I have x can I get bonus dice questions. Before I’d just say if you have x skill roll it. And rarely if it’s a connection I didn’t think of a player might say I have x knowledge skill can I use it like y.

[Michael Chandra]

All seem like reasonable knowledge skills, but when applied as broadly and as frequently as possible almost function as an additional Expertise.

Not sure what you mean with an additional Expertise? Knowledge Skills don't give you a dicepool bonus on a roll you'd be making anyway, they enable a separate roll to figure out things related to the Knowledge skill.

Also, I disagree with you that it's ammo for bonus-hungry players. It's a useful storytelling tool for GMs in my opinion.

[Hobbes]

Knowledge skills are a Narrative tool used by players to gain some mechanical advantage on a test of some kind.  There may or may not be some additional steps to get to that mechanical representation, but Knowledge skills are not purely for exposition. 

Knowledge skills are not just so the GM has a reason to read some extra block text or just to be adjectives used to describe a character.  They're to give a PC "something", edge, lower threshold, alternate resolution path, whatever. 

[Michael Chandra]

Ah okay. You were talking about Expertises as if Knowledge skills give you a dice bonus, got me confused.

I don't think players will be able to get away with fishing for bonuses that much, but we'll see. I suspect most of it will be to figure out more. Yes, that may lead to alternate resolution paths, but that doesn't sound that bad. And honestly, if you are worried about people fishing for an advantage, nothing stopped them from doing so in SR5 with specific skills in chargen so it's not as if this binary system is worse.

[Marcus]

It also encourages PCs to define Knowledge skills as broadly as possible and ask for dice/edge/cookies more frequently. 

Why yes I would like some Cookies

How do you roll a these knowledge skills? Logic x2? Logic+Int?