[AtE] Wastelanders and Social Stigma: Uneducated

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

Would Social Stigma: Uneducated would be a good fit for a smart (IQ 13+) wastelander who learned practical things like Tactics, Soldier and Survival, but who has no idea what a molecule is?

Would it be fair to consider the -1 reputation almost never applies since most wastelanders share similar backgrounds and even those who are educated know there is no public school in the wastelands, but the characters with that trait can't even roll default on book smart skills?

Since it's not a social stigma anymore, I should probably rename the disadvantage to simply "Uneducated".

[Rysith]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

Would Social Stigma: Uneducated would be a good fit for a smart (IQ 13+) wastelander who learned practical things like Tactics, Soldier and Survival, but who has no idea what a molecule is?

Would it be fair to consider the -1 reputation almost never applies since most wastelanders share similar backgrounds and even those who are educated know there is no public school in the wastelands, but the characters with that trait can't even roll default on book smart skills?

Since it's not a social stigma anymore, I should probably rename the disadvantage to simply "Uneducated".

If the -1 reputation almost never applies, it's not a real disadvantage and you probably shouldn't get more than a quirk for it.
The 'no default for book smart skills' might be worth something, but you'd need to figure out what that set of skills is, and then figure out what you want to do with the 'obvious' cases - they may not get a default for Physics, but they likely still subscribe to some variant of Newtonian gravity.

Some version of low-TL might be a better choice, mechanically.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

Would Social Stigma: Uneducated would be a good fit for a smart (IQ 13+) wastelander who learned practical things like Tactics, Soldier and Survival, but who has no idea what a molecule is?

Would it be fair to consider the -1 reputation almost never applies since most wastelanders share similar backgrounds and even those who are educated know there is no public school in the wastelands, but the characters with that trait can't even roll default on book smart skills?

Since it's not a social stigma anymore, I should probably rename the disadvantage to simply "Uneducated".

Actually that sounds like the Primitive disadvantage.

[aaron819]

I don't think many people outside of the Doc or Tech templates would care what a molecule is anyway.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

Would Social Stigma: Uneducated would be a good fit for a smart (IQ 13+) wastelander who learned practical things like Tactics, Soldier and Survival, but who has no idea what a molecule is?

How did someone of their class gain access to those skills?

Would it be fair to consider the -1 reputation almost never applies since most wastelanders share similar backgrounds and even those who are educated know there is no public school in the wastelands, but the characters with that trait can't even roll default on book smart skills?

If they are from a class of people traditionally considered uneducated in comparison to the common class of people, then no, it's still applicable.

Since it's not a social stigma anymore, I should probably rename the disadvantage to simply "Uneducated".

If it's not a Social Stigma anymore you should make the PC pay it off and remove it from the character sheet.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

If it's not a Social Stigma anymore you should make the PC pay it off and remove it from the character sheet.

I think its worth a quirk. Its a fun bit of flavor, and places some soft limits on the character.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit

Would Social Stigma: Uneducated would be a good fit for a smart (IQ 13+) wastelander who learned practical things like Tactics, Soldier and Survival, but who has no idea what a molecule is?

Would it be fair to consider the -1 reputation almost never applies since most wastelanders share similar backgrounds and even those who are educated know there is no public school in the wastelands, but the characters with that trait can't even roll default on book smart skills?

Since it's not a social stigma anymore, I should probably rename the disadvantage to simply "Uneducated".

Given your description, no, Social Stigma: Uneducated isn't a good fit. By the text for Social Stigma, the character must be bound by the stigma. If there isn't a significant (for some given value of significant) chance that the character will ever meet someone sophisticated, to whom the -1 will apply, he may be uneducated, but he doesn't have Social Stigma: Uneducated.

In that case, being uneducated isn't even a quirk, it's a 0-point feature. It's similar to the idea behind limiting Ineptness. It would be a point crock because you would gain points for skills you might not even be planning for your character to take, which is why Ineptness limited you to taking it for a single skill. It was worth a single point. and it lowered your default and limited your future progress with the skill. Being uneducated doesn't necessarily preclude having defaults for the actual "book-learning" skills; it doesn't even preclude having the "book-learning" skill, as long as the skill isn't exclusively learned by "book-learning." For example, Geology is a "book-learning" skill, but you could learn Prospecting as a practical, not "book-learning" skill, and since Geology has a default from Prospecting, you could probably develop your Geology from your practical knowledge of Prospecting. You might even reconstruct geological theories from your practical knowledge, though you should probably be taking heavy penalties for working with a smaller database of factual information.

The lack of defaults for skills you've never seen or heard about being used comes with the territory of being from After the End and should be covered as part and parcel of your Cultural Familiarity. Coming from an uneducated culture or subculture implies certain things that may not be true in your setting and you may not want them to be true, either. You (any and all characters from the culture) lack a cultural repository of wisdom, so no schools, no libraries*, no checking in with the local, or distant, priest for advice, or seeking out "Granny"/the village elder to see what they have to say. You eschew formal learning, so again no schools (or colleges or universities or even military academies). And finally, you take a dim view of activities that don't relate directly to survival or procreation. So you probably don't sit around the campfire at night telling stories, unless they're true stories of the "today I found a new kind of berry, ate it and it was good/made me sicker than a dog" type. Likewise Poetry and Dancing have to be either directly related to keeping the gods happy, or averting their unhappiness (survival) or a recognized, as effective, part of courting (procreation) for your kith and kin not to see you as wasting valuable time that could be spent better resting up for the next round of activity, if not on the activity itself.

* You might be Literate (unlikely) but even if you were to recognize the answer might be in one of these books, you would not have a Research default to use the card catalogue to narrow down which one of the thousands of books might actually be helpful. Similarly, you probably can't use a VCR or microfiche (assuming powering them isn't an issue, as well).

[PTTG]

In some cases, Social Stigma: Too High-Falutin' could replace Uneducated, representing those rare characters who blather on about molecules and electrodes when there's work to be done.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by PTTG

In some cases, Social Stigma: Too High-Falutin' could replace Uneducated, representing those rare characters who blather on about molecules and electrodes when there's work to be done.

That's an Odious Personal Habit. Social Stigma literally relates to being a member of a class that is oppressed or disliked, regardless of whether one acts like a member of that class or not.

[Culture20]

Does your wasteland have towns where people have some books and maybe some learning, at least to TL 6? If your character is literally uneducated, he might be seen as Grizzly Adams by the townfolk. I would say Uneducated would apply, especially if your PC groups ended up in a high tech sanctuary. The HT folk would treat the townies as people who could learn, but they'd view your character with contempt or pity.