Using traits to influence attributes -- similar to MET.

[the-golem]

One of my buddies was talking to me about his Vampire LARP game, when I had this crazy thought regarding character creation and D&D. I haven't tried to "fine tune" the idea, or anything, but overall, I think it would be a nice way to beef up the PCs and kinda give them more flavor.

In MET, a character chooses traits in three attributes: Physical, Social, and Mental.

So, for example, Bob wants to make a character with Physical as his primary attribute; he gets 7 points. Let's say he wants to make a fast character, one thats leanly built, and quick-witted also. He could take, for example,

Each attribute is divided into three-subcategories. For Physical, that would be strenth, dexterity, and stamina related traits. Since Bob wants to be a fast guy, he chooses mostly dex-related traits: Quick*2, Nimble, Lithe. His muscles are finely toned, so he takes Wiry. All his hard training has really extended his stamina, so he also takes Tireless*2.

Now, the idea here is to take those traits, and correlate them to stat-bonuses. In the previous example, Bob has 4 dex traits, 1 str trait, and 2 stamina traits. This would equate to a +4dex bonus, a +1str bonus, and a +2con bonus.

However, this gets trickier with the other three D&D stats, as there are only two mental-type and one social-type. In MET, the social traits are divided into Charisma/Personality, Appearance, and Manipulation. For an MET character, this works out fine, but for a D&D character -- well 7 points into cha isn't probably a good idea.

Anyway, long story short, the idea is to have a trait system similar to the MET system, allowing the characters to pick traits that then reflect the appropriate attribute.

Your ideas?

 

[Garthanos]

And D&D charisma isnt anywhere near purely social, charisma includes spirit and creativity and divine inspiration/guidance

Wisdom arguably has aspects which affect social context as well.(the ability to notice motivations of others)?

 

[Garthanos]

The idea I had circa 20 odd years agon was to have somebody pick skills and backgrounds and work back from them to determine core attributes. (the idea works best in a game with lots of explicit skills though)

 

[Fanaelialae]

One thing you'd need to look out for is assigning all your traits to a single ability score. Brawny x7 (+7 Str) is too much for a level 1 character. Even banning that, it would be difficult to balance this against the current system (note, I don't think PCs need beefing up in 4e; they're quite tough as is).

If you do implement this, you might also want to consider rolling Mental and Social together since, as you're noted, D&D doesn't follow the WOD ability score paradigm.

That said, I don't especially care for the way WOD (particularly MET) handles ability scores. I think the best thing you might be able to take from it is to have players assign a trait for each +1 modifier they have in a given score, and even that seems a bit clinical IMO.

 

[eriktheguy]

Is that larp game D10?

 

[Fanaelialae]

Is that larp game D10?

No, OWOD MET is rock/paper/scissors (and sometimes bomb), with ties usually resolved by comparing the number of traits you have remaining.

However, NWOD MET is more-or-less d10, though the default method uses a deck of cards numbered 1-10 (rather than an actual d10). There's no reason AFAIK that you couldn't use a d10 though (beyond that cards are probably more convenient than dice when larping, since you don't need a flat surface for resolving tests).

 

[Nytmare]

I think the best thing you might be able to take from it is to have players assign a trait for each +1 modifier they have in a given score, and even that seems a bit clinical IMO.

My vote would be one trait to describe your highest score, and one trait to describe your lowest.