How is Hidebound a disadvantage?

[malloyd]

Another place you should consider it is when building your character. That skill isn't traditional for my class/caste/profession/whatever, so I certainly wouldn't learn that, no matter how useful it would be.

Spending earned points on something new instead of improving something you already have also ought to require a justification. And you survived without it last time, so discovered you really needed it in play is clearly false, anyway the sensible thing to do is avoid situations like that again, not learn something new to cope with them.

But ultimately a lot of psychological disadvantages don't earn their points if you don't roleplay them - Shyness, Overconfidence, Curiosity....

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

Quite a few templates end up with Hidebound, including quite a few alien templates if you follow the GURPS Space alien creation model, and quite a few of the monsters/races scattered throughout books (but especially some of the Horror templates I was looking at).

I like the concept of it. You're more rigid and less flexible than others. Seems reasonable. But the actual execution of it is: If you don't have any artist skills or engineering skills or gadgeteer, you'll never notice it. It's a weak anti-talent that gives you a -2 to some skills you're probably not going to take anyway. If you do take hidebound and gadgeteer or artist, then it might be worth the negative points, but if you don't, they're never an issue.

Hidebound isn't limited to only artist skills or engineering skills or gadgeteer, those are just examples of things it covers. What it covers is: "You have a -2 penalty on any task that requires creativity or invention", so that could cover science skills to make discoveries, or cooking to make new dishes for example.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Hidebound isn't defined as disliking innovation, it just can't innovate by itself.

Doing anything new is going to require new thoughts. So no, you aren't going to like innovation much, because it's hard.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Doing anything new is going to require new thoughts. .

Yes.

Originally Posted by malloyd

So no, you aren't going to like innovation much, because it's hard.

This statement doesn't follow from your first statement. People often enjoy doing hard things.

[Dalillama]

For those familiar, the Race from Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series is a classic example of a Hidebound species. The difference between the tanks they make now and the tanks they made ten millenia ago is that the modern ones were constructed more recently. They invade Earth during WWII, and are offended and appalled by the technological progress that's occurred since their scout ship (4-500 years ago), since their tech hasn't changed a whit. They stare in horror as humans appropriate their technology, cram prototypes into experimental vehicles and shove them out on the battlefield, screw the casualties the test pilots take. They take years to realize that they should be using human built trucks and such to supplement their own logistics. Coming from a dry world, they fail completely to understand even the idea of naval combat and they never learn. etc.

[Dwarf99]

For me in my games, if you're the one with the nice original idea for getting out of the fix you're in, the players can't use it, because you can't tell them in game, and telling them out of game would be metagaming if they tried to use it.

[The Colonel]

Come to think of it, you could even apply this trait to species that are essentially pets of the precursors - they are used to being told what to do (and what not to do) by benevolent outsiders and so are accustomed to doing things "by the book" and not thinking for themselves. They can still be alarmingly high-tech by human standards ... but not very inventive.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Hidebound isn't limited to only artist skills or engineering skills or gadgeteer, those are just examples of things it covers.

I think that's what people most often miss.

—

Fundamentally, Hidebound is carte blanche to the GM to hand out -2 whenever the task isn't one you've done before or could fairly say you've trained for. That would definitely include nearly any roll to set up a multiple-moving-parts caper of the Ocean's Eleven variety, a good chunk of Tactics rolls for unconventional warfare, and any Acting, Fast-Talk, or Public Speaking roll made extemporaneously . . . though I like to wait for a Quick Contest with a rival, where the -2 makes it likely that the adversary sees the uninventive approach coming from kilometres away. Thus, the conman is at -2 when trying to foil an opposing security-related skill, the force commander is at -2 when up against her counterpart on the other side, and the face is at -2 when attempting to penetrate Will or Detect Lies. The lack of innovation means the Hidebound one is playing by a textbook her rival read back at the police or military academy – or at the school of hard knocks. Personally, I'll often add the -2 as an extra penalty where there's already a penalty for using the equipment for another skill, because the creative use of available resources greatly challenges the character.

In a campaign with next-to-no intellectual tasks – no inventing, art, scheming, or social interaction, just fighting – it would be reasonable to treat Hidebound as -2 to combat skills when being predictable would work against you or being unpredictable would be essential. Thus, it gives a fighter an extra -2 to all skill rolls to attempt a Deceptive Attack and -1 to defend against one, and -2 to make or resist a Feint. I'd avoid this as too severe in most games, but not in one that amounts to Fight Night, where the disadvantage won't otherwise be meaningful.

[DocRailgun]

It seems to me that only NPCs should have Hidebound. It's pretty much the opposite of being an adventurer (that is, a PC) of any stripe.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by DocRailgun

It seems to me that only NPCs should have Hidebound. It's pretty much the opposite of being an adventurer (that is, a PC) of any stripe.

It fits my idea of a barbarian that just wants to smash problems. Simple direct solutions even when indirect methods would work far better.

Or even the bureaucratic dogmatic cleric that follows "the book" on what is and is not the right thing to do.

Classic henchman that does what his leader tells him to even while muttering to himself, "this is never gonna' work."