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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dbm" data-source="post: 9464596" data-attributes="member: 8014">I really like some kind of personality mechanics in RPGs, ideally carrot rather than stick. Real human beings are not emotionless beings of perfect will but rather we all have foibles, sore spots or things we are a sucker for, be that a cute face, a fluffy tail or a tasty treat. I like it when characters are induced to have similar flaws by a system but where this is a positive thing rather than a negative at a meta level.Systems like GURPS give you extra points at character creation for flaws, though the lack or subsequent positive reinforcement makes this one of the weaker implementations in my mind and players are kind of encouraged to minimise their failing. More recent systems like Savage Worlds have a  similar ‘bonus creation points’ system but they reinforce that choice by either mechanically enforcing a penalty (e.g. if a character only has one eye they have a penalty to ranged attacks) while if they succumb to a flaw of behaviour they get a Bennie (a meta token) in reward. Systems like Fate give you a meta token (a Fate point, here) if you succumb to a foible expressed as an aspect.Listening to Trevor Duval talk about his upcoming system Broken Empires, it borrows* some ideas from games like Burning Wheel where characters advance most by striving for their own goals and beliefs, which is supported by the personality mechanism he is implementing. I think that is a really good positive reinforcement for these kind of mechanics and makes the game focus on characters goals and ideals rather than just on getting an ever-bigger stick to whack people with.* Trevor is very upfront that he has taken his favourite bits from many different systems and is mixing them into a new game with the aim of hitting all his favourite notes.</blockquote>

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