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View Full Version : Original System Stature and personality as traits



Avianmosquito
2016-07-29, 12:44 PM
So, here's an idea I've been toying with since yesterday: Putting stature and personality on your character sheet as traits, which affect your attributes. Basically, for example, you could include under traits "waif" and "borderline", and that would affect your stats by allowing you to increase your agility and charisma up to 3x their base values (default maximum in this game is 2x), but preventing you from increasing your constitution and resolve at all. It would also affect your character's appearance by having your character be of normal height but abnormally low weight, and they should of course them being "borderline" should affect how you play them, but both of those only matter if you care about roleplay at all.

Just to make it clear, these affect the CAPS on your attributes, they do not actually raise or lower your attributes themselves. Let's say that example waif with BPD is a young woman. Her starting agility is exactly the same as a normal woman's starting agility (12) and her constitution is exactly the same as a normal woman's starting constitution (10), and the cost of increasing her agility is exactly the same (2500xp/point), but she can't invest into constitution (so it will forever be 10 unless she loses the trait), she can go up to 3x her base agility (36) instead of 2x (24), and as the cost per point is the same that will be much more expensive than reaching the lower cap (60,000xp instead of 30,000xp), but very agility-heavy builds probably won't mind that. The same applies to her higher charisma cap and inability to invest in resolve.

There's six stature traits and nine personality traits.

The stature traits are "bruiser", "tower", "titan", "shorty", "waif" and "half-pint". You may only have one.

Bruiser: Normal height, above normal weight. Strength cap changed to 3x base strength, agility cap changed to 1x base agility. Can be lost by losing weight. If lost, any strength above 2x base value is transferred to agility.

Tower: Above normal height, normal weight. Strength cap changed to 3x base strength, constitution cap changed to 1x base constitution. Cannot be lost, but can be changed to titan by gaining weight. If changed to titan, any agility over base value is transferred to strength.

Titan: Above normal height and weight. Strength cap changed to 4x base strength, agility cap changed to 1x base agility, constitution cap changed to 1x base constitution. Cannot be lost, but can be changed to tower by losing weight. If changed to tower, any strength over 3x base is transferred to agility.

Waif: Below normal weight, normal height. Agility cap changed to 3x base agility, constitution cap changed to 1x base constitution. Can be lost by gaining weight. If lost, any agility above 2x base is transferred to constitution.

Shorty: Below normal height, normal weight. Agility cap changed to 3x base agility, constitution cap changed to 1x base constitution. While statistically identical to waif, it cannot be lost. However, it can be changed to half-pint by losing weight. If changed to half-pint, any strength above base value is transferred to agility.

Half-pint: Below normal height and weight. Agility cap changed to 4x base agility, strength cap changed to 1x base strength, constitution changed to 1x base constitution. Cannot be lost, but can be changed to shorty by gaining weight. If changed to shorty, any agility above 3x base is transferred to strength.

So, for the obvious question, "normal" means "within the range listed on the species, below the description and above the stat block". For example, for a human young adult female the listed "normal" ranges are 140-180cm and 50-80kg. So a girl who is 145cm tall and weighs 45kg is a waif, a girl who is 130cm tall and 55kg is a shorty and a girl who is 130cm tall and 45kg is a half-pint. These three different short girls aren't too different, but where the lines are drawn will give them very different stats. Note that these traits all say "below" and the others say "above". They do NOT say "at or below" and the others do NOT say "at or above". If you're right on the line, you are inside the normal range. Not that the distinction makes much difference, but if you're copying yourself in or a character whose height and weight are pre-determined, that could potentially make a difference.

The personality traits are "narcissist", "borderline", "histrionic", "schizoid", "schizotypal", "obsessive-compulsive", "avoidant", "dependent" and "paranoid". You may only have one.

Narcissist: Grandiose, praise-seeking, sense of superiority. Charisma cap changed to 3x base charisma, perception cap changed to 1x base perception. Cannot truly be lost, but it can be suppressed. This is often quite difficult and may require professional help. While suppressed, any points in charisma over 2x base value will be transferred to perception. When the suppression inevitably fails and the traits re-emerge, any points in perception above base value will be transferred right back to charisma.

Borderline: Unstable, impulsive, overly emotional. Charisma cap changed to 3x base charisma, resolve cap changed to 1x base resolve. While suppressed, any points in charisma over 2x base value will be transferred to resolve. When the suppression fails, any points in resolve above base value will go back to charisma.

Histrionic: Melodramatic, attention-seeking, overly emotional. Charisma cap changed to 4x base charisma, resolve cap changed to 1x base resolve, perception can changed to 1x base perception. While suppressed, any points of charisma over 2x base value will be split evenly between perception and resolve. When suppression fails, any points in perception and resolve above base value will go back to charisma.

Schizoid: Apathetic, detached, low empathy. Resolve cap changed to 3x base resolve, charisma cap changed to 1x base charisma. While suppressed, any points of resolve over 2x base value are transferred to charisma. When suppression fails, any points in charisma over base value go back to resolve.

Schizotypal: Anxious, superstitious, delusional. Resolve cap changed to 3x base resolve, perception cap changed to 1x base perception. While suppressed, any points of resolve over 2x base value are transferred to perception. When suppression fails, any points in perception above base value go back to resolve.

Obsessive-compulsive: Conformist, perfectionist, controlling. Resolve cap changed to 4x base resolve, perception cap changed to 1x base perception, charisma cap changed to 1x base charisma. While suppressed, any points of resolve over 2x base value are split evenly between perception and charisma. When suppression fails, any points in perception and charisma above base value will go back to resolve. (The name of this trait comes from obsessive-compulsive PERSONALITY disorder, not the similarly named obsessive-compulsive disorder. This is your manager overcompensating for his fear of being found inadequate, NOT the nutter who absolutely must brush their teeth 144 times or be terrified that they'll all turn black and fall out.)

Avoidant: Poor self-image, anxious, avoids others. Perception cap changed to 3x base perception, charisma cap changed to 1x base charisma. While suppressed, any points of perception over 2x base value are transferred to charisma. When suppression fails, any points of charisma over base value go back to perception.

Dependent: Poor self-image, insecure, dependent on others. Perception cap changed to 3x base perception, resolve cap changed to 1x base resolve. While suppressed, any points of perception over 2x base value are transferred to resolve. When suppression fails, any points of resolve over base value go back to perception.

Paranoid: Distrusting, anxious, insecure. Perception cap changed to 4x base perception, charisma cap changed to 1x base charisma, resolve cap changed to 1x base resolve. While suppressed, any points of perception over 2x base value are split evenly between charisma and resolve. When suppression fails, any points of charisma and resolve above base value go back to perception.

You may have noticed that all the personality traits are considered personality disorders. This is for the same reason that the game only has abnormal statures listed for stature traits. The reason they use the real-world names, specifically, is because that gives more in-depth guidelines on how to play these characters without me having to write ten pages on each of them. If a trait is plainly labelled as schizoid personality disorder, that gives the player leave to go Google it and I don't need a long description.