Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious

johndallman · 01-18-2019, 02:15 PM

Incurious [-5*] is a mundane mental disadvantage with a self-control roll. You are not interested in new things and often ignore them; the Staid quirk is a lower level of this behaviour. Incurious appeared in GURPS Uplift for 3e, where there was a related disadvantage, Obdurate. That was replaced in 4e by Incurious with a harder self-control roll.

If you’re Incurious, you react at -1 to anything new. When you encounter something strange, you need to make a self-control roll before you can deal with it; if you fail, you just ignore it. You also tend not to even notice things that aren’t part of your current activities. Obviously, this is mutually exclusive with the Curious disadvantage or the Nosy quirk. Equally obviously, this disadvantage is going to be crippling for a detective or other investigator; I’ve played somewhat surreal games in which it would be lethal for any character. It forms part of the Automaton meta-trait, with a self-control roll of 6.

Incurious is an occasional option on templates for characters whose background does not include much novelty, or who have a fixed way of life. Discworld proves it for nobles, peasants, ruffians, career soldiers, trolls and arcane automata while Banestorm reckons mercenaries suffer from it. Bio-Tech can engineer Incurious, and DF spirits and servants often have it. Fantasy also provides it for some undead, but Horror is not so helpful, although Madness Dossier can, naturally, provide it. Incurious is a side-effect of Powers: Enhanced Senses’ Hypercognition, and Reign of Steel dumbots all have it as part of Automaton. Space species with it don’t tend to develop much science, and Zombies have it in lots of ways.

I’ve finally understood why so many non-combat robots in the Reign of Steel campaign I played would just ignore human intruders: Incurious (6) [-10] from Automaton. Of course, we could never rely on this. There are, of course, settings where at least pretending to have this disadvantage may be a good idea. Any oppressive state will value it in their uniformed police, and any underground group or secret agent that can inflict it on their enemies will have a much easier time.

Has this disadvantage been entertaining in your games?

01-18-2019, 02:15 PM	#1
johndallman Night Watchman Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Cambridge, UK	[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious Incurious [-5] is a mundane mental disadvantage with a self-control roll. You are not interested in new things and often ignore them; the Staid quirk is a lower level of this behaviour. Incurious appeared in GURPS Uplift* for 3e, where there was a related disadvantage, Obdurate. That was replaced in 4e by Incurious with a harder self-control roll. If you’re Incurious, you react at -1 to anything new. When you encounter something strange, you need to make a self-control roll before you can deal with it; if you fail, you just ignore it. You also tend not to even notice things that aren’t part of your current activities. Obviously, this is mutually exclusive with the Curious disadvantage or the Nosy quirk. Equally obviously, this disadvantage is going to be crippling for a detective or other investigator; I’ve played somewhat surreal games in which it would be lethal for any character. It forms part of the Automaton meta-trait, with a self-control roll of 6. Incurious is an occasional option on templates for characters whose background does not include much novelty, or who have a fixed way of life. *Discworld* proves it for nobles, peasants, ruffians, career soldiers, trolls and arcane automata while *Banestorm* reckons mercenaries suffer from it. *Bio-Tech* can engineer Incurious, and DF spirits and servants often have it. *Fantasy* also provides it for some undead, but *Horror* is not so helpful, although *Madness Dossier* can, naturally, provide it. Incurious is a side-effect of *Powers: Enhanced Senses’ Hypercognition, and Reign of Steel* dumbots all have it as part of Automaton. *Space* species with it don’t tend to develop much science, and *Zombies* have it in lots of ways. I’ve finally understood why so many non-combat robots in the Reign of Steel campaign I played would just ignore human intruders: Incurious (6) [-10] from Automaton. Of course, we could never rely on this. There are, of course, settings where at least pretending to have this disadvantage may be a good idea. Any oppressive state will value it in their uniformed police, and any underground group or secret agent that can inflict it on their enemies will have a much easier time. Has this disadvantage been entertaining in your games? __________________ The Path of Cunning. Indexes: DFRPG Characters, Advantage of the Week, Disadvantage of the Week, Skill of the Week, Techniques.