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Old 01-18-2019, 02:15 PM   #1
johndallman
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Default [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?
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Old 01-18-2019, 05:18 PM   #2
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious

I believe I can state with certainty that no PC in any campaign I have been involved in has ever had Incurious.

Which pleases me, as I doubt I'd enjoy a game with Incurious PCs. They'd ignore the call to adventure and heroically stick to their boring old routine, no matter what intriguing events they encounter.

I think I recall an Incurious and Unfazeable NPC butler, once. Couldn't care less how weird you were and what mysterious activities you got up to, but simply wanted to remind you that the Master expects his guests to dress for dinner.
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Old 01-18-2019, 05:46 PM   #3
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
I believe I can state with certainty that no PC in any campaign I have been involved in has ever had Incurious.
Same here.
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Old 01-19-2019, 12:13 PM   #4
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious

I don't think I've ever had an Incurious PC in my games, but I have had (and have) Staid ones.
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Old 01-19-2019, 01:31 PM   #5
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious

I had one mechanic/engineer PC with it in a game I ran once, Incurious paired with his Single-Minded, Clueless, and Bad Sight... basically he just followed the other PCs (and they were absolute madlads) around and tried to repair everything they broke.

Worked fine, but you do want the PC to be partied up with Characters that will jump in the hole just to see what's down there.
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Old 01-19-2019, 07:22 PM   #6
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious

There's one PC in the muli-GM DF game with incurious. They player has mentioned several times how it's great that this dwarf has other characters around to care about the plot hooks.
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Old 01-19-2019, 07:50 PM   #7
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious

'Nonc' Morel (PC) in my Caribbean by Night campaign doesn't really have Incurious, but because he's the only PC without Curious, it sometimes seems like it.

He's taken to being really economical with the data he reveals to the other PCs when he uses a Divination spell or any ritual with a Sense effect. If there is any chance it will lead to a mad dash away from their Quest and into incomprehensible, awful and utterly pointless danger, he classes it as Thing Man Was Not Meant to Know and doesn't mention it.

Things he has so far avoided drawing attention to include: a) Too much detail about White Riders on some kind of ice spiders, armed with bows and lances, hunting yeti-like being who appeared to have at least a rudimentary society, b) Signs of a mysterious structure on a cliff at the Plateu of Leng, with tendrils of the icy fungi that represents influence or control by the Lords of the Last Waste coalescing into a great snarl of innumerable strands, and c) A great city of alien crystaline spines to the south and east of the frozen desert the PCs are crossing.
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Old 01-20-2019, 04:59 PM   #8
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
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.
IMO non-combat robots are typically unable to do anything about an intruder, so depending on where they are they'll either ignore or report-then-ignore. (Possibly report-then-run-away.)

This feels to me very much like an NPC trait, though I could see it on a PC built for a specific scenario.
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Old 01-20-2019, 07:07 PM   #9
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious

This trait doesn't seem very interesting. Why bother investigating it?

Poe's Law: That was a joke.
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Old 01-20-2019, 08:14 PM   #10
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Incurious

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This trait doesn't seem very interesting. Why bother investigating it?
Poe's Law: That was a joke.
Oy mate, ya got a loicense to dispense dem comedies?

;)
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