GURPS non-Phobia technophobia?

[Tallor]

Some creatures are afraid of high technology, possibly the Zerg or somesuch, but most sapient creatures that eschew high-tech stuff do so--not out of a widespread natural phobia--but as a cultural decision.

If a character were to say, not use any TL4+ tools or weapons outside of very dire circumstances, what would the price be for that disadvantage? I'm thinking it would be some kind of Vow, but very specific.

For instance, luddites of the 22nd century could call themselves old-fashioned by having Vow (TL8 and below), refusing to use new VR programs and such. :P

What do you think?

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Tallor

Some creatures are afraid of high technology, possibly the Zerg or somesuch, but most sapient creatures that eschew high-tech stuff do so--not out of a widespread natural phobia--but as a cultural decision.

If a character were to say, not use any TL4+ tools or weapons outside of very dire circumstances, what would the price be for that disadvantage? I'm thinking it would be some kind of Vow, but very specific.

For instance, luddites of the 22nd century could call themselves old-fashioned by having Vow (TL8 and below), refusing to use new VR programs and such. :P

What do you think?

Low-Tech [-5/level]?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Low-Tech [-5/level]?

No, you don't get that. You know about this stuff, get the normal defaults for it, could learn it if you wanted to, and even as worded get to use it in "very dire" situations. That's not Low-Tech.

If anything you likely have a tech related *advantage* that allows you to use obsolete stuff without the TL penalties, which the RAW don't handle well at all.

With that loophole in there, it's probably a quirk. If you took it more seriously and still avoided this stuff in very dire situations, it's probably TL (not TL difference) dependent. Avoids modern medicine is a lot more limiting in a setting where it can cure death than it is in one where leeches are cutting edge, even if both of them are just -1 TL.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by malloyd

No, you don't get that. You know about this stuff, get the normal defaults for it, could learn it if you wanted to, and even as worded get to use it in "very dire" situations. That's not Low-Tech.

If anything you likely have a tech related *advantage* that allows you to use obsolete stuff without the TL penalties, which the RAW don't handle well at all.
.

There's no TL penalty for using low tech stuff with low tech skills and there's no penalty to learning low tech skills. While a person who rejected high technology as an adult would have the normal defaults and any skills they acquired before rejecting it, a person who was raised by a community who rejected "modern" technology would possibly be low tech.

[Flyndaran]

They would learn low tech versions of the skills, I agree. Though with how vicious penalties are for going up in TL than down it wouldn't be without its faults.

Though a hypothetical character that grew up in such a society may gain defaults in both sets of skills, low tech and present tech depending on how draconian they are in limiting outside knowledge seeping in.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

They would learn low tech versions of the skills, I agree. Though with how vicious penalties are for going up in TL than down it wouldn't be without its faults.

There's no reason for the two things to be symmetrical. High tech is built on lower techs and includes them.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by malloyd

No, you don't get that. You know about this stuff, get the normal defaults for it, could learn it if you wanted to, and even as worded get to use it in "very dire" situations. That's not Low-Tech.

If anything you likely have a tech related *advantage* that allows you to use obsolete stuff without the TL penalties, which the RAW don't handle well at all.

Anachronistic Training (IW page 183)?

[Celti]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Anachronistic Training (IW page 183)?

For certain Action-y games where the tech level of skills really mattered, i generalised that into what is essentially a Wildcard Technique, but increased in cost to [5/level] for the sheer versatility of it (as well as pentaphilia). Each level of it lets you ignore all TL penalties for one specific TL that is equal to or less than your personal TL (that is, the campaign TL as modified by your level of High or Low TL). That hit just the right price point that I had players wanting to take it as a flavour trait even in games where it wasn't super-important (one example being a secret-agent-y sort who was both a dedicated medieval reenactor and broadly cross-trained in top-secret classified hush-hush ultra-tech goodies straight out of Q's lab: High TL 1 [5], Anachronistic Training (TL 9) [5], and Anachronistic Training (TL 3) [5]).

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Tallor

Some creatures are afraid of high technology, possibly the Zerg or somesuch, but most sapient creatures that eschew high-tech stuff do so--not out of a widespread natural phobia--but as a cultural decision.

If a character were to say, not use any TL4+ tools or weapons outside of very dire circumstances, what would the price be for that disadvantage? I'm thinking it would be some kind of Vow, but very specific.

For instance, luddites of the 22nd century could call themselves old-fashioned by having Vow (TL8 and below), refusing to use new VR programs and such. :P

What do you think?

It would be both a five point Vow, and the Low Tech disadvantage.

[Flyndaran]

Low Tech means they don't have access to certain skills.
OP's hypothetical characters could know how to use a computer but refuse to do so. Most zealots came from non-zealot backgrounds so it's not absurd that they'd know skills they now refuse to use.