Character-making rules for RPG MP's

[Swuul]

These are character making rules for RPG heavy MP's. These rules have been used in a few MP's, and it is known a number of people have been toying with these in SP as well


Age can be anything, whatever suits the RPG feeling of the scenario. 17 years is an adult who can produce heirs and has still a good life-expectancy, thus it is a popular starting age.

ATTRIBUTES​

There are two methods to give the character attributes.​

Method 1
The character has 40 points to divide between six attributes.

Method 2
The character has 160 points, the six attributes are seen as levels, where each level cost as many points as the level (example, to take Stewardship to 9 wouldcost 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9=45 points).

TRAITS​

Traits can be bought with "traitpoints". Some traits cost points, some traits gives points. A character must have one educational trait, and two other traits. Crusader is a trait that can't be taken initially.


A character has initially 4 trait-points to use (these are in addition to the 40 "attributepoints").


A character can not have more than five traits in any case.


The educational traits

Each character must have one educational trait.

The educational traits cost 0, 2, 4 or 6 points depending on the level.
1st level: misguided warrior, naive wirepuller, amateurish pettifogger, hole in the pocket You may choose *two* additional other traits if he takes a 1st level educational trait
2nd level: martial cleric, flamboyant schemer, tough soldier, proven dealbreaker, proven accountant
3rd level: scholarly theologian, intricate webweaver, knowledged tactician, charismatic dealbreaker, fortune builder
4th level: mastermind theologian, illusive shadow, brilliant strategist, grey eminence, midas touched


Other traits

The other traits either costs points or give back points.

The following traits cost 0 points:
cruel, deceitful, forgiving, generous, honest, indulgent, merciful, modest, proud, reckless, temperate, vengeful

The following traits cost 1 point:
energetic, just, lustful, selfish, suspicious, valorous, zealous

The following traits cost 2 points:
wise

The following traits give you 1 additional point:
arbitrary, bastard, chaste, clubfooted, coward, harelip, hunchback, lazy, lisp, sceptical, stress, stutter, trusting

The following traits give you 2 additional points:
heretic, illness, intestinal worms, kinslayer

The following traits give you 3 additional points *and* you may choose 1 more trait than usual:
inbred, maniac, pneumonia, schizofrenia

The following traits give you 5 additional points *and* you may choose 1 more trait than usual:
depression, leper, plague infested




Examples:
1) The character has 7-7-7-7-6-6 as the attributes.
He is a brilliant strategist and valorous, but suffer an illness.
2) The character has 6-6-7-7-7-7 as the attributes.
He is a misguided warrior, valorous, zealot, energetic and just.
3) The character has 7-7-7-7-6-6 as the attributes.
He is a proven dealbreaker, wise and generous

 

[unmerged(27106)]

I like it. I think that this is a solid base for other people to work from for a character-driven MP campaign.

 

[unmerged(27106)]

Just moving the thread up.

 

[unmerged(26933)]

I was directed here by Patrucio and I like the idea personally.

 

[unmerged(27106)]

Having got to make a couple characters with this system, I now have a few comments...

Traits can be bought with "traitpoints". Some traits cost points, some traits gives points. A character must have one educational trait, and two other traits. Crusader is a trait that can't be taken initially.

A character has initially 5 trait-points to use (these are in addition to the 40 "attributepoints").

I think this should be lowers to 4 trait points to start with.

The educational traits cost 0, 2, 4 or 6 points depending on the level.
1st level: misguided warrior, naive wirepuller, amateurish wirepuller, hole in the pocket You may choose *two* additional other traits if he takes a 1st level educational trait
2nd level: martial cleric, flamboyant schemer, tough soldier, proven dealbreaker, proven accountant
3rd level: scholarly theologian, intricate webweaver, knowledged tactician, charismatic dealbreaker, fortune builder
4th level: mastermind theologian, illusive shadow, brilliant strategist, grey eminence, midas touched

This is all fine, though I might lower the additional trait bonus for picking a level 1 education to 1.

The other traits either costs points or give back points. Note that the point-values below are not calculated according to any formula, but are based on how good they feel/appear to me and some general hand-waving...

The following traits cost 0 points:
chaste, forgiving, vengeful, generous, selfish, deceitful, arbitrary, modest, proud, reckless, trusting, coward

add cruel and merciful to this section, as they don't seem to be listed anywhere. move indulgent, honest, temperate, and suspicious here as well. Move coward to the 'gives you 1 point' section

The following traits cost 1 point:
lustful, energetic, honest, just, zealous, temperate, suspicious, valorous

move honest, temperate, and suspicious to the 'costs 0' section

The following traits cost 2 points:
wise

The following traits give you 1 additional point:
lazy, sceptical, indulgent, stress, hunchback, clubfooted, lisp, stutter, harelip

move indulgent to the 0-point section, and move stress to the 2-point section. Move bastard to this section, as well as coward.

The following traits give you 2 additional points:
illness, kinslayer, heretic, intestinal worms, bastard

move bastard to the 1-point section, move stressed to this section, and drop intestinal worms.

The following traits give you 3 additional points *and* you may choose 1 more trait than usual:
pneumonia, schizofrenia, maniac, inbred

The following traits give you 5 additional points *and* you may choose 1 more trait than usual:
plague infested, leper, depression

I think we should drop these as available choices to begin with. Nobody ever picks them, and you should probably not begin the game on your deathbed anyways...

Anyways, after building several characters with this system, those are the suggestions I would make

 

[unmerged(21937)]

Nice ideas, though some things I would adjust differently:

Indulgent is only a negative trait and most importantly gives -1 to health, besides most people don't like Indulgent people. So Indulgent should give you 1 additional point.

Temperate is only positive trait and as an antithesis of Indulgent, it gives +1 to health. If it costs 0 traitpoints, all my chars will be Temperate in the future.

I would move Selfish from 0 point area to 1 point area. It gives Stewardship boost and no mentionable penalty, except being somewhat disliked, though not too much.

Suspicious gives more bonus than penalty traitwise, but Suspicious is generally disliked by all, even the Suspicious ones, so it's a tricky one.

Honest goes even with trait changes, though Honest folk are generally liked. So moving it to 0-points would be good.

I'd move Reckless into gives 1 point category, as it gives -1 to martial without any beneficial effects.

 

[unmerged(27106)]

Your suggestions seem reasonable to me, Byak.

 

[Swuul]

This is all fine, though I might lower the additional trait bonus for picking a level 1 education to 1.

If going with 4 points to start with, then yes maybe. Then again, all such characters would be wise + two one point traits...

Move coward to the 'gives you 1 point' section

Coward supposedly improves life-expectancy. However, of course if it gave one point somebody might actually take it

move honest, temperate, and suspicious to the 'costs 0' section

Honest and suspicious maybe, Temperate is too good IMO for 0 poinys!

move indulgent to the 0-point section, and move stress to the 2-point section. Move bastard to this section, as well as coward.

Indulgent gives -1 to health, so it certainly should give you 1 point Stress appears to be in my experience quite often curable, so giving 2 points for something that likely disappears soon is IMO over the top.

move bastard to the 1-point section, move stressed to this section, and drop intestinal worms.

Do you mean drop Intestinal worm altogether from the list?

I think we should drop these as available choices to begin with. Nobody ever picks them, and you should probably not begin the game on your deathbed anyways...

IMO they do add some flavor to a RPG system (not that I would likely ever choose them), and I've seen even crazed ones been cured (in the Irish campaign my dukes current wife was crazy when she was a child). Not to mention the fact that if some of these are given to an inpendent King and crusade begins -> chances are the charcter is cured.


EDIT: Doh, Byak had already addressed many of these points...

 

[Swuul]

Rules and lists updated in the first post. Biggest change is that characters only have 4 traitpoints to use, not five as it used to be.

 

[unmerged(27106)]

Just bumping it back up

 

[Swuul]

Edited the first post to correct some spelling-errors.

 

[Sterkarm]

Too bad we can't get this stickied.

 

[Martinus]

I think you should give Inbred and Pneumonia -5, since they give you -5 to all stats, which effectively makes a char unplayable (alternatively you can just remove them altogether). You should also reduce the point bonus for taking Depressed, since it only gives you -1 to all stats and may cause suicide/mental illness in the same way as Illness may develop into something worse (so they should be both -2).

Other than that, it is a cool idea.

 

[unmerged(21937)]

I think Depressed is so high in bonus points and Inbred / Pneumonic lower because Fertility is drastically hit with Depression, while Inbred and Pneumonic people still can get kids.

 

[Sterkarm]

I think Depressed is so high in bonus points and Inbred / Pneumonic lower because Fertility is drastically hit with Depression, while Inbred and Pneumonic people still can get kids.

-10 to fertility to be exact... there are some traits that we should just remove from the list, because if somebody actually chose some of those, they would be screwed.

 

[Swuul]

Like I've said before, it is time to upgrade the rules when somebody does find a way to take advantage of the system. If such exploits are not available, then I don't see any reason to change anything. "Don't fix something that ain't broke" as the saying goes.

Some of the negative traits are real bad. But as the character making rules can be used for other characters too (not just your character) I do think they have their place. Having a frieking mad older brother for example would certainly give a lot of place for role-play

 

[unmerged(21937)]

Could this be stickied?

 

[Swuul]

Could this be stickied?

You can add a link to your sig As a matter of fact, I'll do that right away

 

[kurtbrian]

Could this be stickied?

It could if you asked nicely....

 

[Solmyr]

It could if you asked nicely....

Pretty please?