I've modified the priority charts so that they make more sense for mundanes and for magically active characters. Other than the revised priority charts (and the sections presented below), character creation is the same. The main reason I did this was to make it easier for starting players (who I usually don't allow to play magically active characters), as well as to allow for a poor magician with many force points or for a rich magician with few force points.

Knowledge Skills (somewhat yanked from SR3)

Knowledge Skills represent what a character knows about certain subjects. A character may have any number of Knowledge Skills at any time. Knowledge Skills are useful for fleshing out a character by defining his or her background or areas of interest. They can range from fields of knowledge important in the game universe – such as Corporate Finance, Political History, Cyberware Research or Magic – to more esoteric, bizarre or mundane interests such as Sim-Starlets, Troll Thrash Metal Bands in Seattle, or Elven Wines. Knowledge Skills fall into five categories: Street, Academic, Sixth World, Background and Interests.

Many Knowledge Skills also provide the character with the theoretical basis of actions related to the field of study and the expertise for new designs in an area. During character creation, each character is given a number of Knowledge Skill points equal to their Intelligence * 5.

All of the Knowledge Skills listed in the SRII handbook have been divided into the five categories of skills (Street, Academic, Sixth World, Background and Interests). Other skills have been added to these lists as well, but these listed skills are by no means the sum total of all Knowledge Skills available. If there is something that you'd like (and don't see below), work something out with your GM.

Because Knowledge Skills in Shadowrun are open-ended, a skill that one character considers a general skill might be a concentration to another. These differing uses merely indicate a difference in focus and depth of knowledge. For example, Crash has a general skill in Elven Wine; he doesn't know drek about other liquor, but he sure knows his elven wines. Cheetah, on the other hand, has Alcohol as a general Knowledge Skill with a concentration in Elven Wines. Both are legitimate. Crash likely knows more specific details about vintages and wineries than Cheetah does, but Cheetah will be able to tell anybody who cares how elven wine compares to other wines.

A single Knowledge Skill might also overlap several of the five categories. Something like Corporate Politics might fall under either the Academic category (the corporate policies within any megacorporate organization) or the Street category (who do I need to sleep with in order to get the information I need). In this case, the character needs to distinguish the Knowledge Skill category in which the Corporate Politics Skill is based. Each is interesting in its own right, but radically different in background.

Street Knowledge Skills

Street Knowledge Skills are the skills learned on the mean streets of the sprawl. This kind of street savvy can only be learned from living, observing and surviving at the lowest levels of existence. These skills represent a character's ability to use and maintain a level of contact with the street. These skills are limited to a specific location or city; the Seattle Sprawl feels very different than the Denver Sprawl or the Berlin Sprawl. If a character would have the same skills in different locations, that character must either specialize in a location or take the skill again for the new location.

Academia Knowledge Skills

These Knowledge Skills are mostly learned through schooling and are used by professionals and academics. They cover the basics of the natural world, the physical and social sciences, history, philosophy, literature and the arts.

Sixth World Knowledge Skills

This category covers the unique nature of the world now that magic has returned to it. For practical purposes, this skill covers the base of knowledge possessed by people living in an Awakened world (found within various Shadowrun sourcebooks). Sixth World Skills can cover specific individuals if a character wants to narrow in on someone they just can't stop watching.

Background Knowledge Skills

Background Knowledge Skills are based on Active Skills. Each active skill has a corresponding background Knowledge Skill that represents the theory rather than the practice. Knowledge Skills like this represent an understanding of the basic principles, laws and facts behind any Active Skill. For example, Computer Background might mean that you understand the how and why of decking. You might even understand the principles of iconography. However, that doesn't mean that you've ever jacked in (especially if you have no Computer Skill). Background Skills are useful for characters who cannot (or don't want to) perform an Active Skill, but wish to know as much as they can about their enemies and how they operate.

As a character with an Active Skill becomes more proficient at it, he or she begins to learn the theoretical background knowledge in that field. To represent this, it is assumed that characters have a Background Skill at a rating of 3 less than the rating in the Active Skill. For example, if a character has Demolitions 5, that character would also have Background in Demolitions 2. As long as the Background Skill remains 3 less than the Active Skill rating, the Background Skill will automatically improve when the Active Skill does. If the player wants the Background Skill to be higher than the Active Skill rating minus 3, they must improve it like any other Knowledge Skill.

Just about any Active Skill may be taken as a Background Skill.

Interests Knowledge Skills

Interests is the fun category, where you choose skills that give your character an inventive background and hobbies. The only limits are your imagination and what type of background you want your character to have.

Language Skills (somewhat yanked from SR3)

Language Skills represent languages a character knows and his or her ability to speak, read and write them. Language Skills are usually only used when language may cause a problem in communication, such as when a correct translation or message in a secondary language may be particularly important. It won't bode well for the characters if their translator accidentally insults the Yakuza Oyabun, or they can't find the address of their safehouse because they didn't quite understand when their contact whispered it to them in German. It is not necessary to roll dice for Language Skill to communicate on an everyday basis. Characters need not make tests to understand each other every time they speak.

At character creation, a character receives a number of points for Language Skills equal to his or her Intelligence * 1.5. These points represent the language(s) they grew up speaking or the language(s) of their main surroundings. In most situations, a character will have the primary language of the game setting (English/Cityspeak) as his or her base language.

Some languages are close enough in roots that they may be used for rudimentary communication with someone who speaks a different language. This imposes at least a +2 TN modifier to the difficultly of getting the point across. Defaulting from Spanish to Italian or Portuguese would be a +2 TN penalty because of the strong similarities between the languages. However, defaulting from Spanish to German would impose a +4 TN penalty because the two languages derive from different linguistic roots.

The only language that stands alone, outside all known language classifications is Sperethiel, the language of the elven race. Sperethiel is spoken in the elven nation of Tir Tairngire, near Seattle. Linguists are mystified as to its origins, claiming that its complexity and structure point to thousands of years of evolution. Its apparent lack of links to any other known language only adds to the puzzle. Sperethiel can be taken at character creation, or learned as the game goes on. Despite its label as "the elven language," characters other than elves may speak Sperethiel fluently, and elven characters may well not speak a word of it. Trolls, orks and dwarves do not have any race-specific languages.

Lingos

Lingos are concentrations of existing languages. They exist because a subgroup has created its own language from specific terminology, phrasings and slang. Any language may have multiple lingo concentrations. Some common lingos are Cityspeak (the language of the gangs and other "street-educated" people), Legalese (the language of lawyers and therefore of the business and political worlds), Mage-talk (the language of the magically active), Military Jargon (those who have formal military training), Netspeak (the language of deckers), Rigger-speak (the language of riggers and those who spend a great amount of time around vehicles), Trog (the language of the Seattle Ork Underground), and Scientific Jargon (the language of research scientists and people who never leave the lab). Many lingos (such as Cityspeak and Netspeak) have incorporated a fair number of visual clues, body language and hand signals that denote emphasis, inflections and so on. If there is a lingo that you'd like (and don't see above), work out something with your GM.

Reading and Writing

Halfway through the 21^st century reading and writing have lost much of their importance as society has become more attuned to icons and images. To reflect this trend, at character creation, the ratings for all Reading and Writing Skills (R/W) are set at one-half of the Language Skill on which they are based. The reduced R/W rating reflects the fact that the average character can speak a language much better than he or she can read or write it. Since Lingos are almost exclusively spoken or visual, they have no corresponding R/W Skill.

R/W Skills do not automatically improve as the related Language Skill improves. However, they may be improved in the same manner as other Language Skills. At character creation, Knowledge Skill points may be spent buying Language Skills.

Improving Knowledge/Language Skills

A Knowledge Skill can offer benefits and, in some cases, direct support for an Active Skill. Skills that do this are called Complementary Skills.

If a character has a Knowledge Skill that can legitimately support an Active Skill, then the player can roll dice for the Knowledge Skill against the same target number as for the Active Skill. Every 2 successes rolled on the Knowledge Skill Test count as an additional success toward the Active Skill's Success Test. At least once success must have been scored in the Active Skill Success Test for the Complementary Skill success to have an effect. Background Skills ARE NOT considered Complementary Skills unless specifically noted.

In a very few cases, an Active Skill may act as a Complementary Skill – for example, Active Skills serving as complements to the corresponding Build/Repair Skills. For the purpose of reducing the base time to build or repair something, the player can roll dice for the Active Skill as a complement to the Build/Repair Skill. However, the complement from the Active Skill cannot be used to make the initial Build/Repair Success Test; if that test fails, any success from the Complementary Skill Test do not count. If the B/R Success Test succeeds, however, successes from the Complementary Skill Test help to reduce the time it takes to perform the task in question. Another Active Skill that can act as a Complementary Skill is the Electronics Skill when making tests using certain Device Ratings. This use reflects the ability of characters skilled in electronics to coax better performance from their devices. The Electronic Warfare Concentration, in particular, can aid certain devices in tests to defeat jamming and so on.