Meriss
Apr 10 2007, 07:51 PM
This subject came out of a small discussion of a char of mine for a PbP game. What does uneducated mean? Well let's talk about this for a moment. According to some the flaw means that your character has not graduated High School or recieved a GED. But does that make you stupid? Not nessecarily, using a RL example, my dad and my uncle. Now neither one of them ever graduated high school or got their GED. But my father has held a number of jobs, one of which was a high rise superintendent, and he does crosswords, a lot of crosswords. My uncle owns his own construction business, and does all kinds of building research. But according to the RAW both of them have the Uneducated flaw. This brings another thought to mind, what is 2070 high school like. Considering the high level availability of BTL's, AR, commlinks and hot sim what are kids in SR learning? Also the age factor is a point with Elves living 400 years or more and Trolls only living 50 or so. Does Life Long learning mean anything any more? Back on topic Uneducated means different things to diffferent people. Thank you and good night.
Rotbart van Dainig
Apr 10 2007, 08:08 PM
No, Uneducated means 'no modern education whatsoever' - being raised by wolves or luddites.
Eryk the Red
Apr 10 2007, 08:24 PM
Also, remember that it's vague. Not every person without formal education will have this quality; some people are just the right kind of smart anyway. Likewise, some folks slept through school or are otherwise dull-witted enough that this quality would make sense for them even with real education.
You give it to a character if it works for the character. Education level is just a guideline.
ornot
Apr 10 2007, 08:26 PM
The description in the book is of growing up in a primitive society, such as Amazonian Indians or an anti-technology collective. I doubt they even have grade school, let alone any high school. An uneducated character can scarcely read and write.
Mechanically you may not make any rolls involving technical skills or academic and professional knowledges, without purchasing at least 1 skill rank at increased cost. Conversely your average sprawl dweller can roll for a wide range of skills with their Logic-1.
Nim
Apr 10 2007, 08:38 PM
Actually, I'd think an Uneducated character might read and write just fine., but they wouldn't have had much exposure to books about the modern world. And they don't have to be stupid. The flaw represents someone who lacks the basic background knowledge that anyone growing up in a modern society picks up just from exposure.
An ordinary person in a modern society today can default on an attempt to drive a car, even if they've never had a lesson. They've ridden in cars, they've seen people drive cars in TV shows and movies. A person with Uneducated wouldn't know that the steering wheel controled the direction the car went, or to turn the key to start it. They wouldn't know that a red light means 'stop' and a green light means 'go'. They wouldn't know which side of the street to drive on, or even that there WAS a right side of the street to drive on.
Frankly, they'd be pretty darn hard to roleplay right.
DireRadiant
Apr 10 2007, 08:41 PM
It means you cannot default on any Technical, Academic Knowledge and Professional Knowledge skills. It means you also may be required to make success tests for these skills when most people won't. And your karma cost for improving these skills are double, and you cannot ever learn a skill group in this category.
During a normal game that is a lot of potential tests.
Everything else is whatever fluff you want.
Kyoto Kid
Apr 10 2007, 08:42 PM
...for KK4.3 we used the quality to describe the fact that she had a severe learning disability.
Supposedly, the the Negative Quality as written refers to someone who would have grown up totally out of mainstream society, (e.g. "back to earthers" or tribal types living in remote areas). Basically all technical, professional and academic knowledge skills are at double cost (BP & Karma) and the character is "unaware" in any of these skills she does not already possess. Thus, she cannot default to logic for skills she does not already know and may have difficulties adapting to things others take for granted (like commlinks).
Unfortunately In KK's case Uneducated is somewhat a kluge, for she did grow up in a highly civilised setting (Salem TT) and was exposed to formal education. She's the kind who just "didn't quite get it" though and thus would have some of the negative effects of
Uneducated (extra BP/Karma for Logic based skills, unable to default), but also has issues with multi tasking, dealing with overly complex situations, and of course mastering technology (kind of the "never could figure out stop the clock on the trivid recorder from flashing "12:00" until she pounded it with her fist & broke it). Of course she really is mildly brain damaged due to beatings she received form her father (which is why I reworked the
Dain Bramaged Quality to include some of the limitations from
Uneducated and the old
Computer Illiterate flaw) and reduced/replaced some of the Reaction based penalties since those are more intuitive.
See:
Dain Bramaged II
ornot
Apr 10 2007, 08:51 PM
QUOTE ("p83") |
...posessing only a rudimentary knowledge of reading, writing and arithmatic. |
Hence my interpretation that an uneducated character can scarcely read and write.
Note that being uneducated (and not being able to read or write) does not mean you are stupid. It just means you've not had the opportunity to learn how to do any technical stuff, but you could be very logical and analytical.
Nim
Apr 10 2007, 09:04 PM
Fair enough, ornot - I'd forgotten that was in there. For some reason, I had language skills in my head as one of the things it DIDN'T affect.
BlueRondo
Apr 10 2007, 09:07 PM
Regarding 2070 education, I haven't read any SR books besides the SR4 rulebook, so I'm just going to guess it would be something like the following:
Schools would be run mostly by megacorps (so they can raise the youngsters to be loyal, obedient worker-bees from an early age.) Most kids would be given just enough education to become proficient employees - not much focus on arts, humanities, imaginative thinking, or leadership skills. It wouldn't exactly be bad education (probably better than many of today's public schools in the USA); after all, it's in the interest of the corporation to have engineers and whatnot who know what they're doing. Gifted students, or kids of the big shots, would be singled-out from an early age and placed in special, advanced education programs - with the hope that they would grow up to be future leaders of the corp.
There might also be some independently-owned private schools that focus on providing a serious education, but naturally they would only be available to the select few who can afford the tuition. In fact, perhaps the private universities would expand to include primary and secondary education departments ("Alum of Harvard Elementary, Harvard High, and Harvard College!")
And public schools, if they exist at all, probably wouldn't be much more than a place to stick kids during the day. I'm not sure if there would be any need for public schools, though, because if Joe Average is working for a megacorp, it seems in the megacorp's best interest to "provide free education" for his kids. (1) It makes Joe happier, (2) it helps justify the crap paycheck, and (3) it's a source of future employees raised specifically to meet the corp's needs.
FriendoftheDork
Apr 10 2007, 09:46 PM
QUOTE (BlueRondo) |
Regarding 2070 education, I haven't read any SR books besides the SR4 rulebook, so I'm just going to guess it would be something like the following:
Schools would be run mostly by megacorps (so they can raise the youngsters to be loyal, obedient worker-bees from an early age.) Most kids would be given just enough education to become proficient employees - not much focus on arts, humanities, imaginative thinking, or leadership skills. It wouldn't exactly be bad education (probably better than many of today's public schools in the USA); after all, it's in the interest of the corporation to have engineers and whatnot who know what they're doing. Gifted students, or kids of the big shots, would be singled-out from an early age and placed in special, advanced education programs - with the hope that they would grow up to be future leaders of the corp.
There might also be some independently-owned private schools that focus on providing a serious education, but naturally they would only be available to the select few who can afford the tuition. In fact, perhaps the private universities would expand to include primary and secondary education departments ("Alum of Harvard Elementary, Harvard High, and Harvard College!")
And public schools, if they exist at all, probably wouldn't be much more than a place to stick kids during the day. I'm not sure if there would be any need for public schools, though, because if Joe Average is working for a megacorp, it seems in the megacorp's best interest to "provide free education" for his kids. (1) It makes Joe happier, (2) it helps justify the crap paycheck, and (3) it's a source of future employees raised specifically to meet the corp's needs. |
Not bad, but i think you're forgetting the human face of corporations here (as alot of Shadowrunners do).
Corp executives have children too, and do you think they will let them recieve education meant for worker drones? Social standing and wealth will still matter alot to what education is recieved within a corp. The education may be free in some corps (type depending on status and income of the parents), or available at reduced cost in others.
Arts, humanities etc, will still be important for some occupations (mainly entertainment), and may be even considered obligatory for all children and students in some corps. Perhaps the original CEO or founder had a thing for Japanese art and culture, I can definatively see Renraku or MCT employees recieve both japanese language and culture education.
Bottom line is: There are differences between the corps, and I agree that most of them will have some form of education, in a more or less equal terms.
Ravor
Apr 10 2007, 11:59 PM
Of course, I'd agrue that the executives don't give a drek about the school that Joe Wageslave's children go to, after all Tom Exec's children get some of the best schooling that his money can buy.
Right or wrongly, I see corp society as looking like a modern version of the Dark Ages, the execs are the Nobles, and they sure as hell aren't going to give the lower classes the tools they would need to unsurp power in the future.
ornot
Apr 11 2007, 12:25 AM
I don't see it as quite that Feudal, although there should be a significant gap between the Rich and the Poor and what they can expect from life.
FriendoftheDork
Apr 11 2007, 12:29 AM
QUOTE (Ravor) |
Of course, I'd agrue that the executives don't give a drek about the school that Joe Wageslave's children go to, after all Tom Exec's children get some of the best schooling that his money can buy.
Right or wrongly, I see corp society as looking like a modern version of the Dark Ages, the execs are the Nobles, and they sure as hell aren't going to give the lower classes the tools they would need to unsurp power in the future. |
Well if Joe Wageslave want save money in the corp's low-rent accounts for 30 years while working overtime 90% of the time so that his son can get a premium college education, why should Tom deny him that? After all, Tom Jr. might even make it and become a much more valuable employee for it.
The main difference in medieval feudalism and corporate elitism is that the big time executives actually are good for something - they are worth alot not just because their father inherited land, but because their social, administrative or biz skills are great.
In early medieval age lords gained their power because they could fight and lead men in battle, but as time passed they were just as likely to be completely incompetent lazy sobs.
Incompetent lazy sobs doesen't fit with my view in corp. exec. Cynical, power-hungry and ruthless? Yes. Incompetent? Seldom. Someone higher up would probably put them out of biz real soon. The higher you come the harder you fall. On the heights, all paths are paved witth daggers.
Besides I don't buy the "us against them" attitude. The bigshots may look out for number 1, but those who spend their time keeping everyone else in the corp down will be beat by the more liberal corps that sees people as resources ready to be exploited. Not giving a genius a good education is a waste - even if he's the son of a mere security guard.
BlueRondo
Apr 11 2007, 12:30 AM
QUOTE |
Not bad, but i think you're forgetting the human face of corporations here (as alot of Shadowrunners do).
Corp executives have children too, and do you think they will let them recieve education meant for worker drones? Social standing and wealth will still matter alot to what education is recieved within a corp. The education may be free in some corps (type depending on status and income of the parents), or available at reduced cost in others. |
That's why I provided two alternatives for the wealthy execs; they can either (1) place their kids in the advanced programs of their corp-owned schools (how easily this can be done would depend on one's position in the hierarchy), or (2) send their kids to one of the private schools (again, how high you are in the hierarchy would determine whether you can afford it or not.) Or maybe they'll simply hire private tutors and have their kids home-schooled; the rich and powerful have plenty of options by sheer virtue of being rich and powerful.
For the masses, though, I intentionally wanted the bulk of education to be de-humanized in order to maintain some of the dystopian flavor that SR is supposed to have. I would even argue that typical training programs for entertainment/marketing/graphics design/etc. wouldn't study the arts very seriously; they would be focused on "formulas for success" more than anything else. After all, judging by today's standards, it doesn't take a sophisticated understanding of art in order to produce a wildly successful song, TV show, movie, novel, or any other form of entertainment. And besides, if the masses aren't getting much exposure to art in school, then they probably won't even recognize that the songs and movies they watch are crap.
2bit
Apr 11 2007, 12:35 AM
the book is pretty harsh with the quality.
Jaid
Apr 11 2007, 01:23 AM
all of the qualities that deny you more than one skill are quite harsh. try being infirm sometime, and see how well you do when you can't make perception tests, climb tests, swim tests, run tests, gymnastics tests (including jumping), stealth tests, disguise tests or escape artist tests.
try being uncouth, and watch in awe as you fail miserably at conning, negotiating, etiquette, detecting cons, intimidating, and being intimidated.
uneducated is no different, it's just crippling in a different way... in a manner of speaking, i would actually consider an uneducated character to be potentially more playable than either an uncouth character or especially an infirm character...
Kyoto Kid
Apr 11 2007, 01:44 AM
QUOTE (2bit @ Apr 10 2007, 07:35 PM) |
the book is pretty harsh with the quality. |
...actually not really. Of the 20BP Negative Qualities, I think that Infirm, Uncouth, and Unlucky are worse.
Uncouth could get you killed (or at least shot up), Infirm is broken in my book (I put forth a homegrown version that is similar to the old SR2/3 Flaw in the Homemade Negative Qualities thread), and I won't bother to go into what Unlucky can cause.
So KK4.3 had to make rolls to use simple things like her commlink, the trivid, and the autocook. Actually it resulted some pretty humorous situations on occasion. Does she mess up on occasion? You betcha, but sending out a Dwarven porn site to everyone on her subscription list (which actually happened one time) has a lot less consequences than getting the troll bouncer mad at you & your mates because you insulted him & didn't realise it, or rolling that one when you used your Edge to avoid getting hit by that last burst.
Denicalis
Apr 11 2007, 03:30 AM
I think uneducated means just that. Uneducated. You lack formal education. It doesn't mean you're a complete git at everything, but you probably lack the hard, formulaic logic taught by the education system. You probably don't have a great hold on things like history or mathematics. The way I see it, an uneducated cat, not the flaw, just a guy who never went to school, is probably pretty well set up in terms of street smarts and the ability to reason things out. However, someone with the uneducated flaw is exactly that: flawed. This is over and above simply not being educated. It's not being educated and being highly hampered by it. At least that's how I read it.
Ravor
Apr 11 2007, 05:59 AM
QUOTE (FriendoftheDork) |
Besides I don't buy the "us against them" attitude. The bigshots may look out for number 1, but those who spend their time keeping everyone else in the corp down will be beat by the more liberal corps that sees people as resources ready to be exploited. Not giving a genius a good education is a waste - even if he's the son of a mere security guard. |
Chummer we'll just have to agree to disagree because in my view, in the dark and dirty dystopia that is the Sixth World, it really is "us against them", because the more liberal corps and out-of-the-box thinkers have either been beat down or bought off to get with the program, and by the year 2070, there are very, very few people still alive who can even remember the better days before the world simply broke, and don't get me wrong, the world itself is old, tired, and broken. In many ways, the upcoming Scrouge will be a favor to both Mother Gia and meta-humanity as the cancer that plagues them both is cut away and the hope of a fresh start is given. Of course more then likely, instead of embracing that fleeting hope, we'll simply hire a Shadowrunner to choke the very life out of it from both greed and fear.
Yes, in my campaigns that means that even the Shadows are starting to get darker as time wears on, where in the past 'Hooders' might have gained some measure of respect for what they do, the up-and-comers and even many of the 'pro' crowd are likely to scoff at what they see as weakness and loyality is even more priceless and rare then it used to be in the 'old days'.
Glyph
Apr 11 2007, 06:23 AM
I think defining Uneducated as lacking a formal education is too limited of a definition. Part of the cyberpunk genre is the explosion of information - science isn't locked in an ivory tower any longer. Even today, you have people like Meriss' aforementioned dad and uncle, and there are probably plenty of other high school dropouts who can put their formally educated brethren to shame when it comes to practical know-how. There are probably lots of shadowrunners who grew up on the streets, but still learned skills beyond most wage slaves, such as hacking commlinks, disabling maglocks, and so on. But they learned it all informally, or through mentors, or self-study, or even trial and error.
I would define Uneducated as lacking a modern education. It could be someone from the inner, isolated areas of the Barrens, someone raised in a Neo-Luddite pinkskin tribe, and so on. It is probably taken by characters using Logic as their dump stat anyways, but it doesn't have to mean that the character is stupid. The Barrens rat could know how to decipher the incomprehensible scrawl of graffitti into markings of gang territory, hunt devil rats and cook them over a garbage can fire, dumpster dive for a set of furniture, and otherwise survive in an environment that other characters would be lost in. Similarly, the pinkskin could be able to tell the good mushrooms and berries from the bad ones, cure hides, make and use his own tools and weapons, tame and ride a horse, and so on.
FriendoftheDork
Apr 11 2007, 08:31 AM
QUOTE (Ravor) |
QUOTE (FriendoftheDork) | Besides I don't buy the "us against them" attitude. The bigshots may look out for number 1, but those who spend their time keeping everyone else in the corp down will be beat by the more liberal corps that sees people as resources ready to be exploited. Not giving a genius a good education is a waste - even if he's the son of a mere security guard. |
Chummer we'll just have to agree to disagree because in my view, in the dark and dirty dystopia that is the Sixth World, it really is "us against them", because the more liberal corps and out-of-the-box thinkers have either been beat down or bought off to get with the program, and by the year 2070, there are very, very few people still alive who can even remember the better days before the world simply broke, and don't get me wrong, the world itself is old, tired, and broken. In many ways, the upcoming Scrouge will be a favor to both Mother Gia and meta-humanity as the cancer that plagues them both is cut away and the hope of a fresh start is given. Of course more then likely, instead of embracing that fleeting hope, we'll simply hire a Shadowrunner to choke the very life out of it from both greed and fear.
Yes, in my campaigns that means that even the Shadows are starting to get darker as time wears on, where in the past 'Hooders' might have gained some measure of respect for what they do, the up-and-comers and even many of the 'pro' crowd are likely to scoff at what they see as weakness and loyality is even more priceless and rare then it used to be in the 'old days'.
|
Yeah, each to his own. I think the Shadowrun world is dystopian simply because it is an extreme version of our own, and even this world is pretty bad in overall terms.
But I just have trouble believing in a world where 90% of the population of a democracy (corrupt, but even so) are little better than slaves, and the remaining 10% are all rotten to the core and only seeks to exploit the rest as much as possible. Too Orwellian for my taste. Not that I don't like Orwell, I just wouldn't play in his 1984 world as it is too unlikely to me.
And the books also support the fact that working for and being in a corporation is pretty much a good thing unless you value freedom. Basically, loyal, honest, and talented individuals will live good lives unless they try to leave the corp or some stupid thing.
Shadowrunners are miscreants, criminals, rebels and the damn unlucky ones that for some reason lost their SIN or pissed off the wrong people. Everyone else are corp.
Meriss
Apr 11 2007, 03:02 PM
Heh, I love inspiring discussion. And that's exactly what this topic did. Here's a thought. Say you have a Neo-Luddite with no commlink etc. and a Uneducated Troll with full Matrix access, skillwires and the whole nine yards, the troll would be functionally smarter than the Neo-Lud.
ornot
Apr 11 2007, 03:26 PM
I don't quite get your point Meriss.
It seems you're saying someone with skillwires and appropriate skillsofts can do stuff someone with no skill or experience in that particular area can't.
Meriss
Apr 11 2007, 08:25 PM
Not quite ornot. Say you put these two dudes in a Jeopardy style quiz fest. The troll would appear smarter than the Neo-Lud.
mfb
Apr 11 2007, 08:42 PM
can i just point out how hilarious the title of this thread is?
Moon-Hawk
Apr 11 2007, 09:27 PM
QUOTE (mfb) |
can i just point out how hilarious the title of this thread is? |
I'm glad somebody did.