Cannot Learn (B125) [-30] is a mental, mundane disadvantage, described in Basic Set, p. 125.
A version of this limited to a set of skill is part of Anti-Talent while a version limited to a single skill is part of Incompetent.
- unlike these it does induce a penalty to the use of defaults
- nor does it prevent HAVING skills: you just can't improve existing ones or gain new ones
- since you can "temporarily acquire" new skills via Modular Abilities, this is a means of gaining skills perhaps indefinitely
- note however that since Cannot Learn prevents the improvement of mental traits, this prohibits spending points to improve Modular Abilities. They would only be able to use their fixed CP capacity established at time of creation.
- since you can "temporarily acquire" new skills via Modular Abilities, this is a means of gaining skills perhaps indefinitely
Can Learn is the reciprocal advantage which can cancel it out. Applying limitations to this would be the way to design mitigators for the disadvantage as of PU8.
Largely a Taboo (often worth 0 points) because it has no mechanical disadvantages to capability other than shaping how they "spend earned" points. Temporarily afflicting someone with Cannot Learn (much like Unhealing, Slow Healing, Doesn't Eat, Unaging or Short Life Span) for short periods of time has negligible effects due to it influencing things which happen over a long period of time (healing, starvation, aging, learning) so it's moreso the long-term afflictions where these begin to matter more.
That does not create a loss in terms of "bonus points" since those can still be spent on the non-taboo traits.
Where it IS a mechanical disadvantage, however, is via losing OTHER means of gaining character points other than GM bonuses.
B292's Quick Learning Under Pressure is not one of them, because it gives 1 CP in the skill if you spend a bonus point.
Assimilation under Possession is also not one of them: because any CP it gives in skills from the host are sacrificed from skills of the one who used Possession
Improvement Through Study is where it applies: time-based acquiring of character points in a separate process from bonus awards: Cannot Learn removes this capability.
- this may not be seen as a loss to those who don't take time to study, but this is not necessary: On the Job is basically free points over time (1 per 400 hours, or 50 eight-hour work days, or 10 five-day work weeks, less than 1/5 a 52-week year, less than a 3 months season) while fulfilling other responsiblities of time like earning money or adventuring
Familiarities (169) are singled out as one such thing ungainable. They don't actually have an assigned point value. The low amount of time they take to get is below 1 point threshold based on ITS ratios: 8 hours is 1/25 the required 200 hours needed to earn a skill via 1:1 education. 1/50 if meant to be Self-Teaching and 1/100 if this is meant to be On the Job training
Cultural Familiarity and Languages are one such thing which can be acquired free: B294 mentions it under Learnable Advantages noting that you get 4 hours per day toward BOTH. It follows the standard rules of "have a suitable instructor" which means it uses the 1:1 ratio: this is not OTJ training (4:1) or self-teaching (2:1) !
- 4h/day implies you are splitting a standard 8-hour "workday" into two 4-hour periods dedicated to CF and Language
- presumably one could opt to spend those hours towards just-speaking or just-literacy to acquire half a language level at a sooner time, rather than need to buy it all at once
- "Time Spent" makes it sound like this might not need a teacher unlike the other learnable advantages, but then you'd at best have "self-teaching" ratios. Self-teaching has a suggested limit of 12 hours per day, so that might be 4 hours CF, 4 hours speaking, 4 hours writing. It's possible "4 hours language" is meant for both speaking/writing and they're acquired more gradually, or alternate between developing or or the other
Due to note "even studying skills – an exception to the “one skill at a time” rule)" you are also presumably setting time apart for other things like OTJ training which is still a form of 'studying' (just not being 'taught' by self or teach)
Overlap[]
- Bestial creates a "cannot learn" condition for certain social skills and also removes their defaults.
- Innumerate creates a "cannot learn" condition for certain tech skills, and also removes their defaults. While this is described as "effective incompetence" it is worse since incompetence penalizes rather than removes defaults