Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 9360585" data-attributes="member: 12731">I would say that if your game only has a couple of numbers that define the entirety of your physical, mental and spiritual state, a score to define how beautiful or attractive you are simply doesn't cut it.But the core idea, that surface attractiveness is not the same thing as charisma and force of personality, is still valid. My go to example to explain the difference is Hollywood actors. Some daytime soap opera actors are genuinely and unquestionably attractive people, but they can't hold a candle personality-wise to great actors whose high Charisma is not in doubt but that aren't considered &quot;conventionally attractive&quot;. Bringing up male examples is much easier, so Al Pacino or Harvey Keitel would have sky high Charisma scores but not necessarily very high Comeliness scores. Somebody like Glen Powell or Colin Farell would.In real life, the very first impression you make is super important. But if you want to model the unfairness inherent in beauty standards, you could use Comeliness to represent that surface-deep first impression (including things like clothing and the way you present yourself). If you actually start talking to the person, Comeliness would quickly (very quickly) fade into irrelevance as Charisma takes over.Skipping this is entirely reasonable, just like you might skip bathroom breaks. For many types of campaigns, there is zero reason to include Comeliness. But for some types of campaigns, it definitely can play a role. I'm not necessarily thinking about a game set in Hollywood, but for a classic Sword &amp; Sorcery campaign, or other campaign involving body horror, I could definitely see myself using it or something like it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="CapnZapp, post: 9360585, member: 12731"] I would say that if your game only has a couple of numbers that define the entirety of your physical, mental and spiritual state, a score to define how beautiful or attractive you are simply doesn't cut it. But the core idea, that surface attractiveness is not the same thing as charisma and force of personality, is still valid. My go to example to explain the difference is Hollywood actors. Some daytime soap opera actors are genuinely and unquestionably attractive people, but they can't hold a candle personality-wise to great actors whose high Charisma is not in doubt but that aren't considered "conventionally attractive". Bringing up male examples is much easier, so Al Pacino or Harvey Keitel would have sky high Charisma scores but not necessarily very high Comeliness scores. Somebody like Glen Powell or Colin Farell would. In real life, the very first impression you make is super important. But if you want to model the unfairness inherent in beauty standards, you could use Comeliness to represent that surface-deep first impression (including things like clothing and the way you present yourself). If you actually start talking to the person, Comeliness would quickly (very quickly) fade into irrelevance as Charisma takes over. Skipping this is entirely reasonable, just like you might skip bathroom breaks. For many types of campaigns, there is zero reason to include Comeliness. But for some types of campaigns, it definitely can play a role. I'm not necessarily thinking about a game set in Hollywood, but for a classic Sword & Sorcery campaign, or other campaign involving body horror, I could definitely see myself using it or something like it. [/QUOTE]

Verification