Maerdwyn
First Post
ColonelHardisson said:
D20 Personality Traits and Passions -
(Adapted from Green Knight's Pendragon RPG. )
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Notes – this uses traits and passions descriptively, rather than prescriptively in that score reflect a character’s actions rather than dictating them, and this is different that they are used in Pendragon.
The bookkeeping has not proved to be a problem, as during the adventures, players record only a checkmark here or there. At the end of an adventure, the totaling takes place, but doesn’t add much time over and above division of treasure, etc.
During play, the modification of saves or skill checks with traits and passions has - due to my brain's limitations - proven quite dependent upon the individual player’s interest in the system. I tend to remember the characters’ most prominent traits, but players generally need to remind me if they have a particular bonus or penalty due to a passion I’ve forgotten about.
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To Determine Personality Trait Values:
Player rolls/sets charisma as normal, but many standard game effects of charisma are ignored. Similarly, alignment is scrapped. Instead, things normally governed by Charisma or alignment are handled by this system of Personality traits and Passions, adapted from the Pendragon RPG.
To set personality traits, a player takes 20 points and divides them between each pair of traits. However, the difference between the two values cannot normally be greater than 10 (i.e. One value 15, the other, 5). For each point of Charisma bonus or penalty, that maximum difference is increased or decreased by 2. Thus, someone with a 1 CHA would have all 10s for his personality trait, and will have basically no discernable personality. By contrast, any trait that is 18/2, 19/1, or 20/0 is extremely exaggerated – the character may develop a reputation or nickname based upon the trait with the higher value. Having more than a couple of these exaggerated traits may tend to turn a character into a caricature.
Passions are similar, but not handled in pairs. One’s CHA score is the maximum starting value for any Passion that a character develops, though a character may choose to set it lower.
Game effects:
Skills involving charisma are now modified by the appropriate personality trait. For example, Disguise is modified by the Deceitful score. Turning Undead is modified by the Hate (Undead) passion.
An exaggerated (18-20) score on the Left side of the table will result in increased Enech (This is a measure of honor. See the Celts Historical reference in the conversion library if it gets added again, or my webpage at http://www.gaiatec.com/maerdwyn/enechset.htm) while exaggerated right side scores result in decreased Enech. Which traits fall on which side depend on the character's society. ( In Thuringia, cruelty is valued more highly than Mercy, so Cruel is on the left side of the table for Thuringian characters. In Kerniw, where rough living conditions make every life valuable, and force neighboring villages to work together closely in order to survive, Mercy is placed on the left side of the chart.)
A score of 18 on a left score score results in +1 Enech; 19 receives +3; 20 receives +5. On a right side score, 18 receives -2; 19 receives -6; 20 receives -10 enech. +10 is the maximum Enech bonus from personality scores; there is no maximum penalty.
Whenever a character’s needs to make a roll that corresponds to a particular trait or passion, the modifier gained from that trait or passion is used, rather than the Character's CHA modifier. For example, Vog (a Half-Orc, CHA 6) has a Loyalty(Cunneda):12. He is charmed and told to attack King Urien of the Cunneda. Rather than an opposed charisma check, which would result in a –2 to Vog’s roll, he uses Loyalty (Cunneda) which results in a +1. If the character has no particularly applicable trait or passion, use the character's CHA modifier instead.
Both Traits and Passions change over the course of the game, as character actions warrant. If someone with Honest 15/Deceitful 5 lies and uses subterfuge consistently over the course of an adventure, Honesty may be lowered by a point, and Deceitful raised by a point, to reflect the drift in personality. If a character with a Loyalty(Cunneda) 8, puts himself at great personal peril to help the tribe, his loyalty would increase.
During the adventure, as the characters actions warrant, the DM directs the players to put hatch marks next to appropriate traits. At the end of an adventure, if there are enough points next to a trait according to the following table, the score changes appropriately. If a character has marks on both sides of a trait pair, subtract the smaller number of marks on one side from the number of marks on the other.
[snip - chart showing number of checkmarks needed to shift a trait one number in either direction.. It cost more checkmarks the further away from 10 you are shifting, but only 1 checkmark to shift towards 10. Full chart is on my site - http://www.gaiatec.com/maerdwyn/Personality Traits.htm]
Personality traits cannot rise above 20 or drop below 0. Passions can rise infinitely.
EXAMPLES:
Say you have a player running a Paladin, with a pairing of Merciful 17/Cruel 3. On defeating a group of hobgoblins, a prisoner is taken, and the party is out of danger, and the paladin says "I kill it - he'll probably try to escape anyway." If in the DM’s judgment, the cruelty was particularly out of place, he would also place a mark next to his cruel score.
If being merciful was particularly difficult (if the prisoner had previously killed the character's wife, for example), and he was merciful, you might have him place a mark next to "Merciful." If in this same situation, the paladin kills the hobgoblin, the DM might not place a checkmark next to Cruel, as the action was not particularly out of place.
At the end of the adventure, our paladin, Richard, has three checks next to cruel, and only one next to merciful. Subtracting 1 from 3, leaves two checks next to cruel, dropping his merciful score to 15, and raising his cruel score to 5. He also has, over the past several adventures, amassed 8 marks next to his “Valorous” trait, raising it from 17 to 18, in the process earning +1 Enech and the moniker “Richard Lionheart.” However, should his Merciful score ever drop below 15, he will have run afoul of his religious order, and will lose his paladin status.
Trait and Passion sheets for Characters from various regions in the campaign (Need to fix these links)
Ceredigion and Icenia
Kerniw
Caithness
Thuringia
