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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7441773" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Hmm, well, I didn't get a chance to rewrite chargen yesterday... I have a lot to think about Skills, so lets think about what else we can look at. How about Inspiration, and Vitality Points? That sounds like fun! So, I'm abandoning any pretense of doing anything in any sort of order, we'll just go directly to the fun!</p><p></p><p>[h=1]<span style="color: #8b4513">Traits and Inspiration</span></p><p><span style="color: #8b4513"></span>[/h] <span style="color: #8b4513">Each character has many traits. These are all the elements which go to make up the character, background, personality traits, class, race, and the various boons and possibly other things which a character may accumulate. Players may leverage these traits by spending his character’s inspiration to add or alter elements of the narrative. This gives players an incentive and allowance to make the story engage the dramatic needs of their characters. Thus when selecting traits for a character the primary thing to keep in mind is how these traits will help to produce a fun game. </span></p><p> [h=2]<span style="color: #8b4513">Personality Traits</span>[/h] <span style="color: #8b4513">Each character normally has 3 personality traits, a strength, a weakness, and a goal. The character's strength is something he does well, some aspect of his personality which helps him, etc. The weakness is likewise an aspect of the character which causes him problems. A goal is something that the character wants to achieve.</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513">Each trait should be a single simple statement, such as “I always tell the truth” or “I accept no quarter from orcs”, or “I desire to be recognized by the king for my prowess in battle”, etc. </span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513">Note that in play a player may use any trait, positive or negative, either to justify spending inspiration or to use to create a setback to gain inspiration with. Having a strength and a weakness are just convenient ways to make it easier to find something to play off of in a given situation. Some traits may not be clearly one or the other in every case, and if a player wants to describe only positive traits for a character, or only negative traits, this is acceptable. Just remember it may sometimes be hard to find a way to generate a setback from a collection of positive statements! </span></p><p> [h=2]<span style="color: #8b4513">Inspiration</span>[/h] <span style="color: #8b4513">Inspiration is binary, a character either has inspiration, or not, it can't be 'stored up', there's no such thing as having '2 points of inspiration'. Every character starts play in each session with inspiration. Characters can acquire inspiration by accepting a setback. They can spend inspiration to achieve an advantage.</span></p><p> [h=3]<span style="color: #8b4513">Gaining Inspiration</span>[/h] <span style="color: #8b4513">There are two ways to gain inspiration. First of all each character starts each session with inspiration. Secondly a player may accept a setback for his character in order to gain inspiration if she doesn't have it. The setback should relate to one of the character's traits.</span></p><p> [h=3]<span style="color: #8b4513">Spending Inspiration</span>[/h] <span style="color: #8b4513">Whenever a player who's character has inspiration wishes, he can expend his character's inspiration. The player simply states which of the character's traits are being invoked and the narrative explanation for how it applies to the situation. The player now gains a benefit for spending inspiration as explained in the next section.</span></p><p> [h=3]<span style="color: #8b4513">Setbacks and Advantages</span>[/h] <span style="color: #8b4513">Setbacks are accepted in order to gain inspiration. A setback should be a narrative story element that presents an obstacle for the character. This could be the appearance of an NPC, becoming lost, running out of supplies, etc. It could literally be almost anything, but it needs to relate to one of the character's traits. For instance Roger the Rogue is attempting to unlock a door leading into the bursar's office of a guild. The player wants to have a point of inspiration and decides that Roger has lost his lockpicks, which ties into his weakness “forgetful”. Roger reaches into his belt pouch and comes up empty. The GM decides the setback should have some substance (IE not just “I kick in the door instead”) so Roger hears the night watchmen standing around outside the window talking. He's going to have to come up with something clever, or else go empty-handed; however, Roger now has a point of Inspiration, maybe he can win the day anyhow!</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513">Likewise, when spending inspiration, advantages are narrative story elements. While advantage could be as trivial as actually gaining advantage on a check, it should be something more interesting. Primarily it needs to tie into the character's traits. Lets say Fred the Knight has 'resourceful' as a strength. He's trying to evade some orcs and he comes to the top of a cliff. His pursuers are not far behind, and he really needs a break! His player spends his inspiration, and Fred remembers the length of stout line he picked up earlier and wrapped around his waist. Soon he's out of reach of the orcs, who have no rope of their own.</span></p><p> <span style="color: #8b4513">One easy rule of thumb would be that gaining inspiration should be similar to failure on a check in an abstract challenge, and spending inspiration should be as good as succeeding in a check in an abstract challenge. However note that Inspiration allows the player to reach into the world and change the situation, not just allow the character to succeed (or fail) where dice might produce that result anyway. The player is allowed to add any kind of element, or invoke any sort of event or circumstance, as long as she is able to explain how it fits into the story. It is permissible, for example, to invent a secret door, or an NPC ally. It isn’t permissible to simply invent into existence some kind of ridiculous deus ex machina which is entirely non sequitur or fails to fall within expected genre conventions.</span></p><p> [h=2]<span style="color: #8b4513">Character Evolution</span>[/h] <span style="color: #8b4513">Character's traits don't need to remain static. A character might achieve her goal, in which case she will probably set new goals. Likewise characters may grow or change in personality, taking on new and different strengths and weaknesses. The GM may also declare a trait to be void if the character simply doesn't embody this trait at all, or conditions change such that it becomes meaningless. Likewise the GM might impose a trait if it fits the character, but this should usually be done in consultation with the player.</span></p><p> [h=2]<span style="color: #8b4513">Alternate Traits</span>[/h] <span style="color: #8b4513">Strengths, weaknesses, and goals are simple basic types of traits. They are meant to be easy to define and clear in their application. However they aren't the only possible kinds of traits. Players and GMs should feel free to come up with others. 3 is a nice simple number of traits to keep track of and doesn't clutter the character sheet too much, but characters may have more or fewer traits as desired.</span></p><p> [h=2]<span style="color: #8b4513">Boons and Afflictions</span>[/h] <span style="color: #8b4513">An affliction could manifest itself as a trait. This could be a curse for instance which causes a character to behave in a new/different way. Such a trait might overwrite an existing trait the character has, changing his personality, or it might simply be an additional trait at the GM's discretion. Likewise a trait could be a boon. For example a character could be granted 'fearlessness' as a strength by some sort of powerful magical agency as a boon in reward for service. </span></p><p> </p><p>Comments? Dr [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7441773, member: 82106"] Hmm, well, I didn't get a chance to rewrite chargen yesterday... I have a lot to think about Skills, so lets think about what else we can look at. How about Inspiration, and Vitality Points? That sounds like fun! So, I'm abandoning any pretense of doing anything in any sort of order, we'll just go directly to the fun! [h=1][COLOR=#8b4513]Traits and Inspiration [/COLOR][/h][COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]Each character has many traits. These are all the elements which go to make up the character, background, personality traits, class, race, and the various boons and possibly other things which a character may accumulate. Players may leverage these traits by spending his character’s inspiration to add or alter elements of the narrative. This gives players an incentive and allowance to make the story engage the dramatic needs of their characters. Thus when selecting traits for a character the primary thing to keep in mind is how these traits will help to produce a fun game. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][h=2][COLOR=#8b4513]Personality Traits[/COLOR][/h][COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]Each character normally has 3 personality traits, a strength, a weakness, and a goal. The character's strength is something he does well, some aspect of his personality which helps him, etc. The weakness is likewise an aspect of the character which causes him problems. A goal is something that the character wants to achieve.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]Each trait should be a single simple statement, such as “I always tell the truth” or “I accept no quarter from orcs”, or “I desire to be recognized by the king for my prowess in battle”, etc. [/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]Note that in play a player may use any trait, positive or negative, either to justify spending inspiration or to use to create a setback to gain inspiration with. Having a strength and a weakness are just convenient ways to make it easier to find something to play off of in a given situation. Some traits may not be clearly one or the other in every case, and if a player wants to describe only positive traits for a character, or only negative traits, this is acceptable. Just remember it may sometimes be hard to find a way to generate a setback from a collection of positive statements! [/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][h=2][COLOR=#8b4513]Inspiration[/COLOR][/h][COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]Inspiration is binary, a character either has inspiration, or not, it can't be 'stored up', there's no such thing as having '2 points of inspiration'. Every character starts play in each session with inspiration. Characters can acquire inspiration by accepting a setback. They can spend inspiration to achieve an advantage.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][h=3][COLOR=#8b4513]Gaining Inspiration[/COLOR][/h][COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]There are two ways to gain inspiration. First of all each character starts each session with inspiration. Secondly a player may accept a setback for his character in order to gain inspiration if she doesn't have it. The setback should relate to one of the character's traits.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][h=3][COLOR=#8b4513]Spending Inspiration[/COLOR][/h][COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]Whenever a player who's character has inspiration wishes, he can expend his character's inspiration. The player simply states which of the character's traits are being invoked and the narrative explanation for how it applies to the situation. The player now gains a benefit for spending inspiration as explained in the next section.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][h=3][COLOR=#8b4513]Setbacks and Advantages[/COLOR][/h][COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]Setbacks are accepted in order to gain inspiration. A setback should be a narrative story element that presents an obstacle for the character. This could be the appearance of an NPC, becoming lost, running out of supplies, etc. It could literally be almost anything, but it needs to relate to one of the character's traits. For instance Roger the Rogue is attempting to unlock a door leading into the bursar's office of a guild. The player wants to have a point of inspiration and decides that Roger has lost his lockpicks, which ties into his weakness “forgetful”. Roger reaches into his belt pouch and comes up empty. The GM decides the setback should have some substance (IE not just “I kick in the door instead”) so Roger hears the night watchmen standing around outside the window talking. He's going to have to come up with something clever, or else go empty-handed; however, Roger now has a point of Inspiration, maybe he can win the day anyhow![/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]Likewise, when spending inspiration, advantages are narrative story elements. While advantage could be as trivial as actually gaining advantage on a check, it should be something more interesting. Primarily it needs to tie into the character's traits. Lets say Fred the Knight has 'resourceful' as a strength. He's trying to evade some orcs and he comes to the top of a cliff. His pursuers are not far behind, and he really needs a break! His player spends his inspiration, and Fred remembers the length of stout line he picked up earlier and wrapped around his waist. Soon he's out of reach of the orcs, who have no rope of their own.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]One easy rule of thumb would be that gaining inspiration should be similar to failure on a check in an abstract challenge, and spending inspiration should be as good as succeeding in a check in an abstract challenge. However note that Inspiration allows the player to reach into the world and change the situation, not just allow the character to succeed (or fail) where dice might produce that result anyway. The player is allowed to add any kind of element, or invoke any sort of event or circumstance, as long as she is able to explain how it fits into the story. It is permissible, for example, to invent a secret door, or an NPC ally. It isn’t permissible to simply invent into existence some kind of ridiculous deus ex machina which is entirely non sequitur or fails to fall within expected genre conventions.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][h=2][COLOR=#8b4513]Character Evolution[/COLOR][/h][COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]Character's traits don't need to remain static. A character might achieve her goal, in which case she will probably set new goals. Likewise characters may grow or change in personality, taking on new and different strengths and weaknesses. The GM may also declare a trait to be void if the character simply doesn't embody this trait at all, or conditions change such that it becomes meaningless. Likewise the GM might impose a trait if it fits the character, but this should usually be done in consultation with the player.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][h=2][COLOR=#8b4513]Alternate Traits[/COLOR][/h][COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]Strengths, weaknesses, and goals are simple basic types of traits. They are meant to be easy to define and clear in their application. However they aren't the only possible kinds of traits. Players and GMs should feel free to come up with others. 3 is a nice simple number of traits to keep track of and doesn't clutter the character sheet too much, but characters may have more or fewer traits as desired.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][h=2][COLOR=#8b4513]Boons and Afflictions[/COLOR][/h][COLOR=#8b4513] [/COLOR][COLOR=#8b4513]An affliction could manifest itself as a trait. This could be a curse for instance which causes a character to behave in a new/different way. Such a trait might overwrite an existing trait the character has, changing his personality, or it might simply be an additional trait at the GM's discretion. Likewise a trait could be a boon. For example a character could be granted 'fearlessness' as a strength by some sort of powerful magical agency as a boon in reward for service. [/COLOR] Comments? Dr [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION]? ;) [/QUOTE]
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