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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8276695" data-attributes="member: 42582">As I said, it depends on the system.In 4e there is nothing to suggest that the INT score is an important consideration in how to roleplay one's PC. The PHB (p 17) says the following about INT:Intelligence (Int) describes how well your character learns and reasons. <ul style="margin-left: 20px"> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Wizard powers are based on Intelligence.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Your Intelligence might contribute to your Reflex defense.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If you wear light armor, your Intelligence might contribute to your Armor Class.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Intelligence is the key ability for Arcana, History, and Religion skill checks.</li> </ul>The following pages that discuss establishing and playing a character's personality don't mention INT at all; it turns up again in discussions of how checks are made. Taken as a whole, this (to me) makes it pretty clear what INT is for in 4e. I see it as similar to ME(mory) and RE(asoning) in Rolemaster: in these systems, the stats are really only generators of numbers that feed into check/resolution processes. They have no self-standing significance.Classic Traveller is (in my view) not like that. Stats don't tend to feed into resolution, at least not in any straightforward way. They do feed into PC lifepaths, and are affected by those too. INT can drop due to age, just like physical stats can. I didn't need to say anything to my players for them to infer that INT establishes part of the parameters for deciding what actions to declare for one's PC, and more generally for deciding how to portray the character.Likewise when I am playing NPCs, I will sometimes mention their INT to the players as part of the context for a decision I make as to what the NPC does. Less bright NPCs will make different sorts of decisions from cunning ones. (Again, 4e handles this in completely different ways: what makes an ogre act brutishly in 4e is not the GM playing its INT score, but the GM playing its attack abilities.)I just see this as a difference in systems.EDIT: I saw this, later, post from AbdulAlhazred:I think this was true in early D&D. Moldvay Basic has rules about how low INT scores correlate to linguistic ability, for instance.I think it is the 2nd ed AD&D PHB that has advice on how to correlate INT, WIS and CHA scores against roleplay. I don't know if this is present in 3E. It's notably absent in 4e, as I said above. And I think it's still absent from 5e.</blockquote>

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