Traits - General Information

During a character’s life, they will pick up certain characteristics that define who they are. These can range from being a smooth talker who’s not good with physical confrontation to a brawler who only knows how to talk with their fists. These traits help to make up who the character is and provide some depth into why and how they tick.

How Traits Work

Each player has five points to spend on traits and each trait has a value. Simple traits that offer a small bonus are worth one point. Traits that give more are worth two points. Traits that offer special perks are worth three points. Finally, there are unique traits that fall under their own rules and are typically worth four points. Read the descriptions of the unique traits before taking them as some have special changes normal traits don’t have.

You can purchase as many traits as you want but cannot buy over five points worth.

Remember that when selecting traits to keep in mind the design of your character. Have them make sense of who your character will be, as it will make roleplaying out the traits much easier. It will also make your character more meaningful and enjoyable to play.

Trait Break Down

Each trait will have a perk, flaw, penance, and sometimes a bonus. A perk is a positive aspect of a trait that offers benefits. The flaw is the negative aspect of the trait and gives penalties. The bonus is a mixture of a perk and flaw, as it can grant either, depending on the specific trait. Finally, the penance is the cost at which you must pay to have the flaw and if you like the bonus removed.

Perks & Flaws

Each trait has a positive and a negative. The negative being flaws like the fear of fire from the Fearfully Resistant to Fire trait. Overtime and with talents, some flaws can be overcome, leaving only the positive aspect of the trait. Overcoming a flaw is no easy task, as most of the time it involves having the character face their fears in some manner. The cost of overcoming a flaw requires experience points, coins, or even specific events to unfold. It is possible that if a character excels in role-playing their character out extremely well, they don’t have to pay the talents to overcome the flaw. This is done through lucky coins. See Paying your Penance later in this chapter.

The positive is a perk such as having resistance to fire from the Fearfully Resistant to Fire trait, mentioned before. Perks grant bonuses based on what the trait focuses on, such as the previously mentioned trait.

Untrained Skills with Flaws

Some traits will give negatives to skills. If this causes your skill total to become less than zero, the negative number is used when rolling. For example, if a trait gives you a -2 to all persona skills and your influence total is currently one, it would change to -1. Any influence checks from then on would be at a -1 to the roll.

Paying Your Penance

When paying your penance, you are spending experience points to remove the flaw and possibly the bonus. Unless otherwise specified, you will never lose your perk for paying the penance. If the penance doesn’t specify that the bonus is removed, you can choose to remove the bonus when the penance is paid. Some bonuses are required to be removed with the flaw when the penance is paid, the individual traits will specify this.

Another way to pay penance is by gaining lucky coins from immersive role-playing. Each lucky coin is worth five talents toward a penance.

There are some trait penances that cannot be paid using talents or coins. They have to be paid using story components and confronting the flaw. While others require you to be a specific level in order to remove the flaw.

Purchasing Traits

It is possible to gain more traits after character creation by purchasing them with reputation. To purchase one, you must pay double the trait cost and once purchased, you gain all aspects of the trait. They are treated as normal for paying any penance. Traits can only be taken once.

Rewarding Traits

Throughout the game, your character will be put through many emotional, physical, and mental strains. As the game master, you can give out traits based on how the players react to the situation. Giving out traits should be more thought out and justified, as it affects the character’s development and mechanics.

Traumatic events can change a person's character. If a person survives a fire that killed their family, they may develop a fear of fire but also resistance to it. That is just one example of the many possibilities traits can help mold and shape characters within the game.