[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Oblivious

[Flyndaran]

Anti-talents do exist as optional rules in the Talents supplement. But they are absurdly crippling.
Whatever you call them, some disadvantages really are primarily anti-talents.

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Anti-talents do exist as optional rules in the Talents supplement. But they are absurdly crippling.

They are crippling because they can easily be free points.

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Well first of all, disadvantages created in play almost never give you points. At most they act as some kind of tradeoff for losing a different one like Secret or Enemy.

Hmmm. Kinda thought so after I hit enter. Thanks for confirming before I riffled through all of BS for it.

And no, encountering an alien species and not being able to read them isn't Oblivious. Oblivious applies to every species including your own. You simply aren't on the lookout for the signals that tell you what other people are feeling.

So this is wrong (from OP) - "Aliens: Sparrials are often Oblivious among aliens, since their emotions don’t smell right."?. It certainly implies that they aren't Oblivious to each other and the problem is with the non-Sparrial aliens not giving the proper signals. And that makes sense to me. The question is what gradient of contact should trigger this in a setting and what should mitigate it?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Anders

They are crippling because they can easily be free points.

It's that you can never learn the skills that I fine most crippling. Even though I don't think allowing someone to spend a few points on such skills is that easy to abuse.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by martinl

I have seen it used for points by players who were already planning to play their PC that way. Not hugely common, but there.

If I'm not scrimping for every last point, this is the way I prefer to build: find out what the character is going to be like, then take the disadvantages that match the way I was already planning to play.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Joseph Paul

So this is wrong (from OP) - "Aliens: Sparrials are often Oblivious among aliens, since their emotions don’t smell right."?. It certainly implies that they aren't Oblivious to each other and the problem is with the non-Sparrial aliens not giving the proper signals. And that makes sense to me. The question is what gradient of contact should trigger this in a setting and what should mitigate it?

If the reference society isn't Sparrial and the specific character isn't going to be able to adapt then something like "Oblivious (not versus own race -10%) might be appropriate.

[Joseph Paul]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

If the reference society isn't Sparrial and the specific character isn't going to be able to adapt then something like "Oblivious (not versus own race -10%) might be appropriate.

Good, 'cause a I gots a major portion the Orion arm that is going to have some interpersonal relationship problems...