Just so you don't think I'm ignoring kc's question, it was discussed via PM.<br/><br/>Now, a little explanation of skill levels.  Borrowing from the official book, but tweeking the numbers for our purposes.   Once again, this is just a general guideline.  Basically, you can have heroic level mad skillz at something, but you'll have to sacrifice something somewhere else:<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Skill level</span><span class="bbc_u">Proficiency</span><span class="bbc_u">Comment</span><br/><br/>0            Incompetent                     “That ain’t the ‘on’ button, is it?”<br/>1 - 2             Novice                   “Don’t pull the trigger, squeeze it.”<br/>3 - 5             Competent                    “Believe I know this dance. Shall we?”<br/>6 -  9            Expert                  “I can reprogram this trash bin to go wherever we want.”<br/>10 - 14         Professional                    “The dermal mender will keep that ear on fine. Just don’t fiddle with it!”<br/>15 - 19         Master                  “A Crazy Ivan? Right now? Okay.”<br/>20 +            Supreme                    “You’re holding eights, low queen, jack, and ace. Your eyes gave it away.”<br/><br/><br/>So, looking at this list in light of icecradle's young mechanic character -- he could run for his college track team (if he was in college) but wouldn't be going to the Olympics.  If he needs to climb up there, he probably can, but he won't be able to catch the escaping monkey.  Picking pockets and locks - probably doable as long as they're ordinary people who didn't stash their money in a jock strap and the locks are standard locks and there's no security guard making rounds.  Mechanical maintenance and repair - While he's not going to be working as chief engineer on a big luxury liner, as mechanics go on old crates like this one, you're lucky to get him.  There's mechanics twice his age who don't know as much - probably because he was raised on a ship.  Computers ... "Uh, this ain't Windows 8, I hope"<br/><br/>With my guy, we get similarly "makes sense" results.  Journalism, he's been studying it or doing it for 8 or 10 years, so he's a pro.  Cultures - he's read about 'em, but never been off Ariel to experience them.  History - his father taught it, so he'd better know a little something.  He might be great at writing music, maybe even make a little money at it on the side, but his book isn't going to win any Pulitzer Prizes.  It probably won't even get published.  He should probably stick to what he does best.  He can pick out the songs he's writing on the keyboard to see what they sound like, but don't hand him a sheet of music and expect him to start playing.  As for driving a car .. the public transportation system on Ariel is pretty good, so he never got a lot of experience driving.  He knows how, barely.  He shouldn't be your first choice for driving the getaway car on your next bank job.<br/><br/>Yeah, 10 might be a little high for his journalism skills, given that he's still relatively young and inexperienced.  Maybe I'll change that.<br/><br/>So anyway, hope this helps.