Shield
Default: DX-4.
This is the ability to use a shield, both to block and to attack. Your active defense with any kind of shield – your Block score – is (skill/2) + 3, rounded down. You must specialize:
Shield: Any shield held in place with straps. Such shields have the advantage that you can hold (but not wield) something in your shield hand, but the disadvantage of being slow to put on or take off. This is the most common specialty – list it as "Shield" on character sheets.
(Errata: shields were never strapped to your arm! They were held by the handle. Ignore the above. You can not hold anything else in your shield hand. If you carry a shield on your back, it takes at least two turns to ready. Dropping a shield is a free action.)
Buckler: Any kind of shield, usually a small one, held in the hand. A buckler occupies one hand completely, but you can ready it in only one turn and drop it as a free action.
Force: Any shield with a blocking "surface" formed from energy rather than matter.
Shield, Shield (Buckler), and Shield (Force) default to one another at -2.