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Why is it restricted to Adventurers and Scholars? Is Kevin seriously saying that a Robot Pilot or a Mind Melter or every one of the various OCCs in the dozens of books can't haggle? Only those few OCCs are able to barter. It was almost a mandatory skill when I was in the military. Do GMs just ignore that less-than-brilliant choice of restrictions?

That's the way Rifts is...If you don't like it, change it!

Adventurers are more likely to be paid in stuff, but those with a 'in demand' occupation get paid in Credits.

I treat it like the alignment restriction on hand-to-hand: Assassin and ignore it.

Rifts is a lot like LIFE ... it just doesn't make sense.

Any GM can allow a character to learn any skill if they have the aptitude.

always thought it was left in as a typo.

I have but one... two questions. Can one use the barter skill in Bartertown and who runs Bartertown?

I figure it is like all the other skills. Everyone else can do it they're just not good at it. Any discounts received without it are likely cuz the merchant wants to give you a discount. While with the skill you know things like the items actual worth, what the merchant probably purchased it for and how to intimidate the merchant. Without the skill you could use worth identification skills and intimidation skills to talk an unfriendly, unwilling, greedy merchant into reducing prices. But anyone can talk a friendly or grateful merchant into a reasonable discount.

I would ignore the side note in the skill description and treat the OCC Related and Secondary Skill lists as overriding the note. While previous books might be an issue, with RUE they did take the time to update the respective lists and (I didn't check every OCC but the Secondary Skills list I did) the skill is available. Pre-RUE books I would just treat it as being restricted to the Secondary Skills list as that is now superseded by RUE (prior to that the RMB-era would just be the OCC Related list but w/o bonus, RUE uses a universal list).

To each their own, but I don't like the universal list and use the pre-RUE method of bonus-less OCC Related skills instead. The skill limitations of the universal list make no sense in many respects. If a PC has the aptitude to learn something as a OCC Related skill, they should be able to learn the same skill on an informal basis with no bonuses to reflect that reduced educational investment. Heck, if must, toss on a learning penalty modifier.

So, when it comes to skills, the only hard limitation I typically impose when I GM is physical limitations - can't juggle with no arms. Other limitations, such as alignment or cultural limits, depend on context. A principled person could learn HtH Assassin and even excel at it, however the player has to roleplay properly and not use any moves that would be dishonorable, unethical or immoral - or suffer loss of XP, changes in alignment, penalty-inducing moments of doubt, or other creative consequences.

Barter should be fair game for everyone.