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Old 07-27-2018, 04:08 PM   #1
johndallman
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Default [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

Dyslexia [-10] is a mundane mental disadvantage. It’s a total inability to read; you can never have any language at a literacy level above “none.” The negative points for this are already included in the value of Dyslexia. Real-world dyslexia is usually much less severe, and probably limits you to Literate or Semi-Literate in languages, which might qualify as a quirk. This disadvantage appeared in GURPS 1e, although it changed for the 4e language rules.

Non-Iconographic [-10] is likewise a mundane mental disadvantage. It allows you to deal with text normally, but you cannot grasp abstract images and symbols. This disadvantage appeared in Cyberworld for 3e, to provide an inability to use advanced computer interfaces, and I’m dubious about its relationship to anything humans suffer in the real world. Would it render a human unable to learn to read Traditional Chinese? It makes more sense for beings on the edge of sentience.

Dyslexia makes you unable to learn from books, of course. You can study “book-learned” skills at full speed if you have a teacher, according to the Basic Set, although I’m dubious about that, because you can’t take notes. Without a teacher, such skills are learned at quarter speed, if the GM reckons it’s possible to teach yourself at all. In many fantasy settings, Dyslexia will prevent you from learning magic.

Non-Iconographic makes you unable to learn Cartography, Heraldry or Symbol Drawing, or any other skill which is mainly about graphical patterns and symbols. This includes many forms of magic, limiting you to oral traditions. You also cannot use graphical computer interfaces, short of high-quality virtual reality.

Both disadvantages are normally due to structural problems of the brain, according to the description of Non-Iconographic, which makes them hard to buy off without ultra-tech medicine or very subtle healing magic. Both disadvantages also say that they prevent you using maps, which seems odd. I can see that Non-Iconographic could have that effect. Dyslexia would prevent you reading labels on maps, but would not interfere with the basic idea of a picture of the territory. It could give penalties to the use of maps, but I don’t see how it blocks them entirely. The descriptions of the quirk-level versions of both disadvantages in Power-Ups 6 support the idea that Dyslexia allows the use of maps.

Bio-Tech regards both traits as genetic defects, and provides genefixing to prevent them, and genetic therapy to cure them. Fantasy trolls are Dyslexic, Horror’s Wolf-Men are Non-Iconographic and Madness Dossier has drugs or implants to cause either. You can get Dyslexia from Martial Arts’ brain damage table, or both disadvantages together from the Psionic Powers crippling rules. Social Engineering: Back to School expands on these traits’ effects on learning, and has more quirk-level versions, while Ultra-Tech has ways to fix these problems.

Personally, I’m happy to leave these disadvantages as effects of brain injury, or for modelling creatures that aren’t fully sapient. They don’t seem like disadvantages that would be fun to play, but I’d be happy to be proved wrong. How have they been used in your games?
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Old 07-27-2018, 04:26 PM   #2
johndallman
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

Oops - forgot to include "and Non-iconographic" in the thread title. Could a kindly moderator fix it?
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Old 07-27-2018, 04:54 PM   #3
ericthered
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

I actually have a few modifiers on non-iconographic that I use to make it an exotic trait for building very alien creatures and beasts with poor eyesight but great battle coordination.


complete: You cannot identify anything by sight, other than perhaps a vague shape. you cannot distinguish between faces or read emotions. Your sight is limited to the detection of an object and analysis by general shape. +100%


The idea here is to model the sight of creatures that have working eyes and can use them to chase, fight, and navigate just fine, but don't have the granularity to identify things. I use it as an "Anti-discriminating sight" disadvantage. From what I understand, humans have really good sight, but most animals with worse vision aren't hampered in combat by their eyes: they're hampered in identifying thins.



visual: Your non-iconography is limited to visual input. You can learn the forbidden skills, but only in a non-visual manner: you could learn to read a map based on touch for example. -50%

This is less for beasts and more for aliens in settings where alien physiology is a big deal.
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Old 07-27-2018, 05:51 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

I'm not sure why dyslexia is more than a taboo trait, and I have no idea why non-iconographic is even a distinct trait, it's just illiterate (symbols) and thus redundant with dyslexia.
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Old 07-27-2018, 07:18 PM   #5
Flyndaran
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

Dyslexia means you can never read or memorize written letters or words.
Non-iconographic is far more severe not allowing one to recognize symbols that aren't ultra realistic.
I took it to mean that they couldn't identify smiley faces, or stick figures. They're too visually symbolic. Dyslexics certainly could recognize them.
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Old 07-27-2018, 08:25 PM   #6
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
They're too visually symbolic. Dyslexics certainly could recognize them.
Real dyslexics can. GURPS dyslexia is not a trait that exists in the real world. GURPS dyslexia will forbid learning logograms, as they're a form of writing, and symbols are logograms.
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Last edited by Anthony; 07-27-2018 at 08:30 PM.
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Old 07-27-2018, 09:43 PM   #7
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

Realistically, most forms of moderate to severe dyslexia seriously slow down your reading and writing speeds, and usually limits your ability to read or write your native language to Accented or even Broken level.

It also causes more severe problems when attempting to accurately read or write, and sometimes attempts to accurately read or write symbols, such as when doing mathematics. While you don't "spell things backwards," it is very common for dyslexics to omit or transpose letters within a word, or misspell words because they focus more on how the entire word is shaped rather than how it should be spelled. Dyslexics, and people with similar learning disabilities might also skip words or numbers in a sequence, which makes things tricky when extremely close reading is required.

GURPS Dyslexia is basically "Illiteracy - All Written languages" plus Incompetence (Magic Spells). Since GURPS 4E dropped the value of full Illiteracy from -5 points to -3 points, the value of Dyslexia should have dropped as well and it probably should have been set at just -5 points.

-3 for Illiteracy, -1 for Incompetence (A whole bunch of skills), and -1 for the minor other hassles that the GM invents.

To make it actually worth -10 points, the full range of troubles that a Dyslexic suffers should be modeled. Additionally, to get the range of full range of Dyslexia, you could have limitations to the basic disadvantage.

Mild Dyslexia - Treat mild dyslexia as one or more Quirks, such as bad handwriting, slightly slowed reading speed, or a tendency to misspell or transpose written words.

Moderate Dyslexia (-80%): You have a serious learning disability which interferes with your ability to accurately read and write in any language.

It takes you 10 times as long to read text in any written language you know and penalties for reading or writing in a language in which you have less than Native are doubled. You can never learn the Speed Reading skill.

You must also make IQ rolls to properly interpret text written in complex or unfamiliar scripts, or text which involves complex words, long sentences, or symbols.

When writing text it takes you 10 times as long as normal, penalties for less than Native Fluency are doubled, and you have a penalty to correctly compose anything more than the simplest sentences, or to properly spell anything other than the simplest words.

The GM can also impose penalties to IQ or skill rolls where you must accurately read or write symbols by hand, such as when you are doing mathematics, or when you must carefully read or edit text.

Frequently, people with this limitation also have further Disadvantages or Quirks related to their Dyslexia, such as Bad Handwriting, Incompetency with certain skills where accurate data entry or close reading of text is a must (e.g., Computer Programming, Law, or Symbol Drawing), Difficulty remembering or recalling words, Difficulty following spoken instructions to turn right, left, etc., Minor Speech Impediments, Poor Time Keeping, or Slow Learner when learning from books or when learning skills which involve a great deal of reading and writing.

Dyslexia might be associated with mental problems such as ADHD, which bestow disadvantages such as Absent-Minded, Impulsiveness, and/or Short Attention Span. Additionally, it might be associated with, or caused by, various forms of Hard of Hearing.

In many advanced cultures, Dyslexics will have a bad Reputation for being stupid due to their difficulty learning in a classroom setting, or else a Social Stigma (Ignorant or Uneducated). They might also have less than full written fluency with their native language.

At the GM's option, you might have a penalty to learn certain spells or types of magic, particularly those which involve learning from books or accurately writing words or symbols.

To compensate, many Dyslexics have, or develop, a Talent for non-academic skills (Artistic Talent, Business Acumen, or Outdoorsman are common). Additionally, they might naturally have traits such as 3D-Spatial Sense or Absolute Direction (despite the inability to properly respond to directional orders) and possibly Eidetic Memory or Versatile.

Severe Dyslexia (-50%): As above, but the time required to read or write is multiplied by 20, and you can't learn any written language above Accented level. (You get additional character points for reducing your level of Literacy, however.)

Additionally, you must make an IQ or IQ-based skill roll to accurately read, write, or transcribe any written symbol, with penalties if you are dealing with complex text or numerous symbols (e.g., transcribing an entire page of numbers).

At this level, you can never instantly "sight read" unfamiliar text, even in your native language, nor can you sight read musical notes or any other symbolic information. Instead, you must consciously parse the symbols at your normal reading speed.

At this level, you are likely to have severe penalties to learn any sort of "academic" magic which requires use of books, words, or symbols.

Extreme Dyslexia (-20%): As above, but you can't learn any written language above Broken level, time to read or write is multiplied by 40, and all IQ or IQ-based skill rolls to deal with written symbols are at -2.

Total Dyslexia - Per RAW, plus you must roll vs. IQ-4 or skill to accurately transcribe any symbol. Realistically, at this level, you can't have any IQ-based Hard or Very Hard skill which requires a high level of book learning or written classroom instructions, although you can still learn technical skills which just rely or memorization. Without an appropriate advantage such as Lightning Calculator, you cannot do math by hand, although you can mentally calculate, or use calculating devices such as abacuses, normally.

Last edited by Pursuivant; 07-27-2018 at 11:31 PM.
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Old 07-27-2018, 10:09 PM   #8
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

Non-Iconographic should have been knocked down to -5 points, but with the possibility of doubling its value in campaigns where symbol recognition is vital skill that people use every day, such as in a world where VR-style cybernetic interfaces are a reality.

In many respects, it's "Clueless with regards to visual images," plus a bunch of Incompetence Quirks.

While you can see and describe visual symbols normally, and even duplicate them using Artist skill, you don't understand them on a cognitive or metaphysical level. This makes it impossible for you to learn certain skills or to perform certain everyday tasks.

In any campaign where written symbols, or symbolism, isn't likely to be an issue the GM can forbid Non-Iconographic or treat it as a Quirk.

In most campaigns, it is worth -5 points, since it prevents you from understanding things like shop signs which, in largely preliterate societies, are identified by using icons instead of words.

In TL6 or higher campaigns, it is worth -10 points since it prevents you from understanding the dozens of symbols that people see every day and understand on an intuitive level. You don't recognize, or confuse, brand logos, care instructions on garments, currency symbols, hazmat markings, gang markings, military insignia, "No" signs which forbid certain behaviors, stars or other symbols used to rate a product, traffic signs, and so forth. At TL8+, use of modern computer or cell phone interfaces is nearly impossible, as is the use of any other gadget which uses symbols rather than words or letters to mark its controls.

You can never learn skills which rely entirely on symbols, such a Cartography, Computer Operations/TL8+, Heraldry, or Symbol Drawing. The GM can also impose IQ or skill penalties, similar to those imposed by Clueless, to any task which requires you to understand or create a message partially communicated by visual symbolism.

Tasks which require you to interpret visual symbols are impossible for you. For example, you don't understand the intent of obscene or threatening graffiti, religious symbolism in a painting, the overtones associated with religious or occult symbols, the meaning of insignia or service ribbons on a uniform, or even directional arrows used to mark a trail!

In some cases, the GM can rule that you are incapable of understanding other sorts of symbols, such as morse code, smoke signal or the symbolic meaning of pieces of music such as "Taps" or a country's national anthem.

You might be unable to learn some or all written languages, especially those which use ideographic scripts, except possibly your own language. In such cases, you gain additional character points as a result of your Illiteracy and you must also take the Dyslexia disadvantage. If you don't understand written number and mathematical operations symbols, you might have Incompetence (Mathematics), or even the Innumerate disadvantage.

If you can still recognize letters or ideographic characters, you only understand them in the context of being used to form words. You cannot understand the meaning of letters or characters used as abbreviations or as symbols. For example, the meaning of common English acronyms like "AC/DC," "ASAP," or "OK," elude you, as does a marking such a "A+" or "D-" at the top of an essay, or words, punctuation marks, and numeric symbols used to symbolize full spoken words, such as "???" or "ICU2."

At the GM's option, you might not understand the symbolism associated with certain types of magic. In any case, you can never learn spells, or use magic items, which work by means of a symbol, such as the Pentagram spell.

Last edited by Pursuivant; 07-27-2018 at 10:52 PM.
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Old 07-27-2018, 10:39 PM   #9
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

You could probably add in Innumerate to this thread, as it's like dyslexia but with numbers (dyscalculia).
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Old 07-27-2018, 11:01 PM   #10
Flyndaran
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Dyslexia

Innumeracy affects ability to perform simple arithmetic in one's head. Dyslexia doesn't affect one's understanding of spoken language as far as I know.
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