Ex-Barbarians, Technophobia, and Technological Items

[clementk]

Ok, I'm writing up a Barbarian off to see the universe character. I'd like for him to be a little useful around the ship so I'm trying to make him an ex-Barbarian.

However I'm not sure if he'd still penalties on using technological items. The THB on p. 41 mentions that an ex-Barbarian "no longer suffers a -2 penalty when attempting to use technology related skills" but doesn't say anything about using technological itesm.

So my Barbarian who can shoot a bow while riding upside down on a horse will still be -2 when shooting any gun or even after being shown how to use it?

I guess this could represent a lingering fear of or unease with technology. Any suggestions, clarifications, or home rules?

Thx,

Casey

 

[snrdg082102]

Evening Casey,

First, I must say that I have not done anything with character generation, but I have looked the system over. Okay, with that stated here goes.

A similar example of a "barbarian" learning to use modern firearms is the Native American and European settlers. Basically, the Native Americans learned how to use rifles as effectively as their traditional weapons. The downside, is that the Native Americans began to depend more on the settlers tech than their own.

Other than the above, I don't have an answer that I can find written on a page or web site. Hope the tidbit helps.

Originally posted by Casey:
Ok, I'm writing up a Barbarian off to see the universe character. I'd like for him to be a little useful around the ship so I'm trying to make him an ex-Barbarian.

However I'm not sure if he'd still penalties on using technological items. The THB on p. 41 mentions that an ex-Barbarian "no longer suffers a -2 penalty when attempting to use technology related skills" but doesn't say anything about using technological itesm.

So my Barbarian who can shoot a bow while riding upside down on a horse will still be -2 when shooting any gun or even after being shown how to use it?

I guess this could represent a lingering fear of or unease with technology. Any suggestions, clarifications, or home rules?

Thx,

Casey

 

[Ellros]

To avoid any pelaty for using Technical items of TL 4+, the Barbarian needs the Technosavvy skill, and needs a successful skill check. I would still use that even if they are unable to take any more levels in Barbarian

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by Ellros:
To avoid any pelaty for using Technical items of TL 4+, the Barbarian needs the Technosavvy skill, and needs a successful skill check. I would still use that even if they are unable to take any more levels in Barbarian

Ok, I went back reread that section and created a new barbarian w/+7 in Technosavvy and made sure he had more non-Barbarian levels by the end of Prior History. So he won't have any penalties to use technological skills but still have to roll a 13 or better to avoid the item penalty. So there's a good chance this won't affect play*, until (knowing my luck with a D20) I really need to use a critical item

, which works for me.

The ex-barbarian would still be new to a lot of tech most people take for granted and still trusts his familiar bow more than any fancy gun.

Thanks,

Casey

*especially in a circumstance in which I can take 10 or 20

 

[MichaelL65]

According to the T20 book on page 41:

"An ex-Barbarian keeps all abilities previously earned, and no longer suffers a -2 penalty when attempting to use technology related skills"

The skills are listed earlier on the page; all the T/ and K/ skills and a few others. I'm not sure if (or why) this doesn't apply to technological items, since they would need to be used in many of the tech-related skills (He wouldn't need it to use a T/Computer skill, but a computer is a tech device so he should). If it were my call, I would say the -4/-2 penalty on tech-devices shouldn't apply anymore either. They no longer make any sense.

 

[clementk]

Originally posted by MichaelL65:
According to the T20 book on page 41:

"An ex-Barbarian keeps all abilities previously earned, and no longer suffers a -2 penalty when attempting to use technology related skills"

The skills are listed earlier on the page; all the T/ and K/ skills and a few others. I'm not sure if (or why) this doesn't apply to technological items, since they would need to be used in many of the tech-related skills (He wouldn't need it to use a T/Computer skill, but a computer is a tech device so he should). If it were my call, I would say the -4/-2 penalty on tech-devices shouldn't apply anymore either. They no longer make any sense.

That's the reason for posting this topic. It's like they ran out of space on that page and left out the rest of the sentence...

I'll keep the item/skill relationship in mind.

Thanks,

Casey