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 PERSONALITY
TRAITS
Yep—you can actually choose
Personality Traits from a table, or even roll them up randomly if you want
to challenge yourself. In fact, a Quick character's Image Category Score
(or a Complex Character's DEPPER Quality Score) actually assigns X number
of them. Now, hold the scoffing until you've heard me out. Personality Traits have no direct bearing on the
character except to flesh out quirks about who he is, and they work well. Too
many gamers get so absorbed in beating up the bad guy that they forget
about role-playing. If it's only abut beating up the bad guys, a rolegame
isn't what you should be playing. Try a wargame, Try video games. Try
boxing.
Defining Characteristics
You focus on choosing those PTs that you want to
apply to your character—or you choose to take the plunge and drop some
dice, and be challenged with random PTs. Either way, the result is
enjoyable rolegaming. PTs are the hallmarks of who a character is; they're the things that, when someone says, "What do you
think about Such-and-Such?" we can all rattle off, "Really nice guy, very
helpful, will give you the shirt of his back—but he'll talk about nothing
as long as you'll listen, and his manners are lacking." Or "She's a
mean-spirited bitch when she doesn't like you, but she's as honest as they
come, and she has her goals clearly in sight." Or "He's a raging womanizer
with the sex drive of a rabbit, not pleasant to be around, and just plain
rude." PTs are are never to the level of
Drawbacks but are
the things a character is best known for—probably those things anyone
around him for a short time can figure out.
Rolegamer Democracy -
What's this?
This was an interesting one.
I had the idea of including these way back, and began asking gamers what
they thought. Most thought it wasn't necessary, yet most agreed players
needed to focus more on role-playing. I incorporated it anyway, since it
takes almost no time to add PTs to a character's profile, and not a single
person has complained through all the playtesting; rather, many commented how they liked the
role-playing challenge it gave them.
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