trait ideas

[ronnieB]

1.Fatal Flaw -character trait:
the character has a potentially lethal habit like:
getting into tight situations via overconfidence in your abilities "i'll let those cannibals take me prisoner- i can always turn invisible and escape"
or aways mistreating powerful people

2.karma police -character trait:
whenever the character does something which he considers 'wrong' he is punished by some sort of divine retribution like getting mugged if he does not donate for charity

just to be clear- the 'karma police' trait doesn't work like the 'real life' karma: the character is punished by his own moral scale, not the universe' (but he probably thinks otherwise)

3. King for a day
win or lose, you always do it big whether by strange case of luck or from always being at the center of important background events.
while you lose and win in the same frequency everyone else does, you are always either at the top or at the bottom.
although this trait does have a good side, the character is always on edge for 'the other shoe to drop'
(i have a good friend who seems to posses this trait)

4. divine pawn
for some reason, divine powers have taken notice of you and are subtly guiding you toward some mysterious fate.
unlike the "joan of arc trait" more then one deity or even conflicting deities are guiding the character in different directions- see my notes at the end of this post.

5. golden boy (left vague to avoid munchkinism)
you are perfect, you are light, you have the seed of greatness in you- at least that's what people keep telling you.
the character gains a bonus to social checks and excels in one stat.
some people however take notice of the character and become jealous, want to convert the character to their view of the world, or just want to get close to him and will not take 'no' as an answer

notes:
3. the "win or lose" situations this trait is referring to are mostly role-playing ones, this trait has no effect on skill tests

4. most deities have strict rules of engagement and will not risk triggering a pantheon war, therefor whenever two or more deities (or demons) struggle for control of the pawn, thay will do it very subtly and not as occasionally as most mortals would have thoght- the situation might even get to a cold war!

5. this is a very hard trait to roleplay and even harder to balance
5a. this trait is lost if the character is broken (by servitude for example)

more traits soon...
edited on 5/6/03

[ronnieB]

i just noticed that the forum doesn't register the new date on my (updated) previous post on this thread , so this post is just to let you know :roll:

[luke]

hi ronnie,

these sound great! But what do you think the point costs would be? And why kind of Burning Wheel traits are they? Character, Call-On or Die? They're your babies, you have to let me know what you are thinking with a little mechanical background.

also, just start a new post rather than editing your last one. that way everyone knows the thread has been updated.

thanks!
abzu

[ronnieB]

by the wheel, your right abzu!

1.Fatal Flaw -character trait 1points?
2.karma police -character trait 2points (punishment does make you feel better eventually)
3. King for a day -character trait 3-2 points
4. divine pawn -character trait 3points
5. golden boy- call-on trait 4points

by the way, it's not recommanded that more than one of the PC's will have the same trait from this list.

[luke]

looks good. why should only one pc per group have these traits? they are no more powerful than many of the other traits available. Oh wait, you are saying that only one trait from this list per pc. Again, why? They aren't powerful, so long as the GM doesn't allow them to hijack the plot.

1.Fatal Flaw -character trait, 0 points?

So Fatal Flaw is worthless? In this capitalist system, something that costs nothing is valueless to the owner. Pricing Fatal Flaw at 0 points means that anyone can take it anytime, and that it came at no sacrifice however small. 0 point traits are too easily ignored by players.

-abzu

[Kublai]

1.Fatal Flaw -character trait 0points?


Nothing is free in BW. Even bad traits make your character more interesting. Make it 1 pt.

[ronnieB]

just to make the traits even clearer

1.Fatal Flaw
trob the magnificent is a high level summoner that simply can't resist the urge to prove his worth to anyone who belittles him:
scene- trob walks into a crowded pub where a local man challenges him to "show his stuff".
after the man is unimpressed with some small conjurations and prestidigitation trob feels compelled to summon the most powerful being he can, with no regard to his or the crowd's safety!
at this point, unless the other PC's intervene and/or the GM allows a WILL check, trob will go on with the summoning (and will probably emerge from the ashes of the pub half dead and surrounded by bodies- if he is lucky).
this is an exteremly hard to play trait and requirers some experienced roleplayers in order that the campaign won't end two hours after starting.

2.karma police
greff is a lonesome orc who's major belief is that he is superior to other people and therefor will only lose from helping others.
scene- greff has been starving and is offered a large supply of food in exchange for a free passage thru his mountain.
just to make the traits even clearer

1.Fatal Flaw
trob the magnificent is a high level summoner that simply can't resist the urge to prove his worth to anyone who belittles him:
scene- trob walks into a crowded pub where a local man challenges him to "show his stuff".
after the man is unimpressed with some small conjurations and prestidigitation trob feels compelled to summon the most powerful being he can, with no regard to his or the crowd's safety!
at this point, unless the other PC's intervene and/or the GM allows a WILL check, trob will go on with the summoning (and will probably emerge from the ashes of the pub half dead and surrounded by bodies- if he is lucky).
this is an exteremly hard to play trait and requirers some experienced roleplayers in order that the campaign won't end two hours after starting.

2.karma police
greff is a lonesome orc who's major belief is that he is superior to other people and therefor will only lose from helping others.
scene- greff has been starving and is offered a large supply of food in exchange for a free passage thru his mountain.
he reluctantly accepts, as he cannot hope to overpower the negotiator in his state.
after consuming the food, greff feels guilty for aiding a "lesser creature" and retches most of it back.
blaming the man who fed him in poisoning the food, greff now stands with his faith in xenophobia restored, and will undoubtedly kill the the man should he see him again.

3. King for a day
staton enjoys a good period: he has successfully rose to the high society, he lives in a large house and dines with politicians and princes -not bad for a lowly ex-stable boy!.
suddenly, however within only one week he finds himself ruined: his house has been destroyed by an out-of-the-blue mage duel, the 'friends' he acquired shun him and even his secret "rainy day" stash of money has been found and plundered by thieves. that was the 3 point version, the 2 point version of this trait is far less extreme.

4. divine pawn
khaji wakes with a splitting headache- on the first half of the night he dreamed of distant palm trees and a feeling of peace should he choose the one true way to ascendence.
on the other half he was haunted by spirits of dead relatives and hints of another "one true way".
khaji loads his arquebus and shoots at his own head.

5. golden boy
no example, but think of it as an aura of leadership, martyrdom and determination rolled into one, and than try to guess how vain you get from having this trait :?

[ronnieB]

>Nothing is free in BW. Even bad traits make your character more interesting. Make it 1 pt.

edited.

[ronnieB]

i'm flaming today!

Terrible secret - character trait 3-5points
you have a really terrible thing in your past that you really, really don't want people to know about.
EX: you are an ex-pirate, or you murderd a man once etc..
the 5 point version is so horrifing that attampts to blackmail you on the secret might motivate you to kill the blackmailer.
EX: you are fated to destroy the world, you have been killing babies for fun...
whatever the secret and how terrible it is, you keep telling yourself that you have reformed and that you are beyond it, but only the GM knows for sure...

should the secret be made public the PC will have to make an extreamly good plead in his defance to avoid hursh punishment

[ronnieB]

i think we should collect all those new traits that has been suggested in the forum and in other parts of the site to create a netbook.
i volanteer to be the editor 8)
but we need more people suggesting traits....

[luke]

Nice one.

But I think it is too expensive. 1 pt for the Terrible Secret trait, and 2 pts for the Horrific Secret trait. Trait points are precious, can't price up something you could buy with resource points too high.

-abzu

[ronnieB]

damn, i'm not as good with numbers as i am with words...

which is precisly why i'm humbly asking if you would like to be on the review board for checking the netbook before launch.

would you?

[ronnieB]

when i first thoght about this trait i ment it to be a 'divine retrebution' type trait, but later revised it to a 'self punishment'.
it could be used in both ways, thogh the latter makes more sense.

just trying to make things clear (and confusing you more in the process)