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traits

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Traits

Traits help define a character by describing the tasks they're uniquely good at or struggle with. Traits are similar to the skill systems in many other roleplaying games, but instead of picking from a set list, they're left open to your ideas; you can define your character's strengths and weaknesses in your own terms.

Each character has four Traits, as defined below. How the Traits impact gameplay is defined in the Rolling Traits section.

Types of Traits

Competence

Incompetence

Reliability

Struggle

Examples

If you're having difficulty coming up with your Traits, here are some ideas you can use for inspiration.

Maintaining Balance

In order to keep the game fair, there needs to be balance between the Traits. For example, a character whose Competence is “all academic pursuits” shouldn't select the Incompetence of “hiding Easter eggs.” There's no parity between the two, since the Incompetence doesn't realistically offset the benefits of such a generous Competence.

Before your traits are finalized, the Game Master should have an opportunity to accept or reject the Traits you've selected. We recommend evaluating them as follows.

First, it's important to see Competence / Incompetence and Reliability / Struggle should be evaluated as pairs. A character's Competence should be balanced with their Incompetence, but it's OK if the Competence isn't balanced against their Struggle.

Second, make sure the items in each pair are equal (1) in scope and (2) relevance to the game.

traits.1556728375.txt.gz · Last modified: 2019/05/01 11:32 (external edit)