comeliness

[Umbran]

Most appreciate beauty the same way. We adore the same supermodels around the globe and there is not a man with a heartbeat that doesn't think Marilyn Monroe is beautiful. Physical differences have nothing to do with beauty.

I heartily disagree. Even between human cultures, the definition of beauty varies widely. What is beautiful in China is not what is beautiful in India, which is not what is beautiful in Nigeria, which is not what is beautiful in the USA...

And the statement, "Physical differences have nothing to do with beauty" is among the most nonsensical things I have ever heard. Unless you're talking about inner beauty, the beauty of personality, what else could beauty be about but physical differences?

And finally, for supermodels - I am reminded of the Kevin Klein movie "In and Out". In it, there's a scene where a young, popular actor finally gets fed up with accepting the media-promoted version of beauty. He turns to his supermodel grilfriend and says, "Eat soemthing. You look like a swizzle stick. It's not healthy."

Beauty is most definitely in the eye of the beholder. It is not a universal, by any stretch of the imagination. Ergo, a comliness score is pretty much meaningless.

 

[Darraketh]

Beauty is most definitely in the eye of the beholder. It is not a universal, by any stretch of the imagination. Ergo, a comliness score is pretty much meaningless.

I thought of it more as an appearance of healthfulness. Look at a tomato plant bursting with fruit and a drought stricken one. Which is more pleasing to the eye?

 

[Tsyr]

But we already have a score for "health"... Constitution.

 

[Umbran]

I thought of it more as an appearance of healthfulness. Look at a tomato plant bursting with fruit and a drought stricken one. Which is more pleasing to the eye?

Aside from the fact that health is covered by another stat, beauty does not always equal healthy. Some examples -

Foot binding? Healthy? I think not.

How about stacking so many gold rings around a woman's neck that it stretches, eventually to the point where the neck can't hold up the head without the rings? That can't be healthy...

Corsetting a woman's waist down to the point where she cannot take a deep breath, her internal organs get squeezed out of position and she faints regularly? Yeah, that's healthy...

And, the commonly accepted standard of beauty in modern America calls for extreme slimness. But, extremely low body fat is detrimental to child-bearing. Not to mention the eating disorders. If you want a nice, healthy girl to bear your babies, a swizzle-stick isn't it. If you want a nice healthy father to sire your babies and protect you, a guy hopped up on steroids isn't it either.

Actually, often enough beauty standards take a normal human trait (like small feet, or graceful neck) and then take it to unhealthy extremes for some social reason.

 

[Erekose]

Comeliness is frought with problems as outlined above. However, I did use it in 1E based purely on race. As Humans were the most common race it was set at their standard.

In reality of course it's affected probably mainly by culture and personal preference.

I would argue that the reason supermodels are seen as beautiful by so many is part of the increasing global culture rather than their intrinsic beauty.

 

[Leopold]

beauty is in the eye of the BEERHOLDER...get it right..

 

[TalonComics]

The physically beauty of a character should be a roleplaying element and not a stat. Charisma covers everything else like it's suppose to.

The only problem I've seen when gaming is many gamers just can't roleplay a high Charisma.

Player with 18 Charisma: Hey, how's it going?

NPC 1: Oh my Pelor! He's the most charismatic man I've ever met!

NPC 2: I would follow this man to hell!

NPC 3: Lead us to victory oh powerful one!

Player with 18 Charisma: Um... Okay. Let's go!

That makes my brain hurt.

~Derek

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

I thought of it more as an appearance of healthfulness. Look at a tomato plant bursting with fruit and a drought stricken one. Which is more pleasing to the eye?

As others have said a stat already covers health. Besides even with this different species would have different opinions. I'm sure there are species that would find rotten, damaged stuff more pleasing to their eye than healthy stuff.

 

[Painfully]

My theory is that the "geek" factor prevents players from even understanding what to do with comliness if their characters ever had any. So it has become irrelevant from disuse.

Dare ya to prove me wrong

Whatever happend to beauty is in the eye of the beholder [no pun intended] and all that?

 

[Voadam]

And to answer the original question, my campaign uses comeliness as well.

In general it is simply a rough descriptor, are you a handsome elf or a plain human?