Please can I double-check that I haven't missed something in the rules regarding task checks where the character doesn't have the relevant skill.
On page 44 it says "If you don’t have a level in the skill you’re using, just roll one (dice) for the attribute" but is there any penalty for attempting a task check without having the skill?
Taking the Driving skill for example, I believe that a character can attempt to fly a helicopter even if they don't have the Driving skill, rolling just their Agility attribute with no penalty. Is that correct? Obviously the chance of success is significantly reduced if they don't have the skill but if they have a high Agility then it's quite feasible that they will pass the task check.
The way I handle this is a house rule, but absolutely necessary IMO. It's two-fold:
1) There are some things you just absolutely cannot do without the skill or specialty, and these things tend to be scientific and knowledge based. Step into the control room of a nuclear reactor and hope to interpret or operate it. Correctly apply radio decryption software/hardware. Identifying specific molecular components. Doing serious astronomy or meteorology. Identifying very specific military equipment, if you don't have the background for it (or can't just read the label written on it for some reason, ie what purpose does that weird truck with the giant trusses and boxes coming off it actually serve?). A further version of this is can you tell the difference between a T-55 and a T-80? Not unless you have the experience for that... but of course a lot of T2K characters do. Everyone else just sees "tank."
2) Other things you can attempt. But I tell everyone right up front that the consequences of failure are going to be significant and maybe unforseeable to them. Flying a helicopter is a great example. Maybe that character is a natural stick and can manage to take off or land it. If they could figure out how to start it up (which I figure most people could sort out with the manual and a lot of time, anyway), I'd let them try to fly it, with something like a -2 penalty. If they don't succeed, it's going to get very ugly, very fast. If they push the roll and get mishaps, they probably won't even know what went wrong but the result will be somewhere between a flaming crater full of PCs and a helicopter that doesn't want to work right after that one flight.
Option #2 comes up more often (although never something as dramatic as a helicopter in my experience). Defusing a bomb would be another example. Messing with a power transformer. As you'd expect, the players rarely try it. But if they want to, the option is there...
Then there's a third and most common version, for stuff that really anyone can do. Which is that yeah, you just do it with only your attribute roll. Shoot a gun, sprint, try to duck-and-roll, ruck march for 30 miles. For this there's no specialty penalty other than I escalate the stakes for mishaps somewhat. If you don't know what you're doing, you're likely to just make problems worse.