[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Numb

[johndallman]

Numb [-20] is a mundane, though quite rare in the real world, physical disadvantage. You have no sense of touch, and limited proprioception, which has a variety of drawbacks, and no helpful aspects. This disadvantage appeared at GURPS 4e.

You numbness does not protect you from heat or cold, pain, or shock, but you feel injuries as generalised shock, rather than in a specific area of your body. You can’t do First Aid on parts of your body you can’t see. You have a limited sense of pressure and weight, sufficient to allow you to walk and carry things. You can’t distinguish textures by touch, or work by touch in any other way, which rules out touch-typing, playing most musical instruments, and much of the Escape skill. To do work that requires hand-eye coordination, you must be able to see clearly what you’re doing and take twice as long. If you can’t meet those conditions, you effectively have Ham-Fisted 1, giving you -3 to DX for any task that would be aided by High Manual Dexterity. If you are Ham-Fisted anyway, this adds to it.

Numb is common, though not compulsory, for characters and robots with the Machine meta-trait, and Bio-Tech provides it as a species modification, or a result of not-quite-high-enough-TL brain transplants. Magic has a spell that inflicts Numb, and Bodies of Wood or Leaves are Numb by default. Martial Arts makes it a possible effect of severe neck injuries, and Powers: Enhanced Senses uses it in cunning ways. Psionic Powers has a psi attack that can inflict Numb, but Psi-Tech brains-in-a-jar have it already. Space describes aliens with shells or carapaces, and Ultra-Tech has missiles built as characters, who need Numb. Zombies may be Numb, but it doesn’t matter much to them.

One of the Infinite Cabal PCs has this, as part of his not-exactly-alive state. He got a mitigator for it after a while, and decided with that, he did not want to return to life. How has it played in your games?