Post by Lιттle Ƭree (Cedar Ashland) on Aug 12, 2015 17:27:01 GMT -8
written by Cyn
edited/added to by Lιттle Ƭree (Cedar Ashland)
Hello and welcome to this class on the basic definitions and uses of traits! Today we’ll be going over each trait individually, listing a few important ways in which each may be used on-sim, and defining them accurately so as to hopefully answer any lingering questions you lovely doe-eyed people might have about them! I’ll make sure to leave a small pause after each little book I hurl at you here so you can bandage any head wounds and ask any questions you may have regarding the material I just went over.
For reference, I’m going to include this link here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/character-traits.html. That page will have your flavor and functionality descriptions if you need the additional reference once this class is complete, and of course your mentor team is always open to answer any questions you may have. To business!
Fighting: This is going to be your character’s general physical violence stat, reflecting everything from martial prowess in deadly combat to swatting your obnoxious younger brother across the back of the head. Want to throw the first punch in a bar brawl? Roll your Fighting. Want to throw the first mug at someone’s head in a bar brawl? That’s not Fighting, and I’ll cover that in a later section. Fighting is exclusively a melee trait, and does not apply to any attacks made at range, even those made with a half empty mug.
In addition to being the trait you’ll roll with when attempting melee-based attacks, Fighting also has another very important purpose definition-wise you’ll want to take into account when creating your character, or seeking to progress your character further. Alongside Strength, Fighting is going to be one of two stats used to determine which size armor your character is capable of using effectively in combat. The sizes being Light (+1 Hit Points, no Fighting requirement), Medium (+3 Hit Points, requires Fighting 2), Heavy (+4 Hit Points, requires Fighting 4 and Strength 3), and Full Plate (+6 Hit Points, requires Fighting 6 and Strength 5).
This reflects that while your character might very well be physically strong enough to wear Full Plate armor with ease, they may have next to no actual training or experience with fighting in it. When creating your character, you’ll want to take a look at their background and then ensure that your traits match up to which size armor you think fits them best for their backstory and capabilities.
Magic: Magic as a whole is going to represent a pretty broad variety of things, though as you might be able to guess, they’re going to be related in some way to your character’s magical ability. But! Starting with basics. Magic first and foremost is your ‘attack’ trait when casting a spell on another player. Whether that spell is a fireball to blast them to all hell, a curse to haunt them with ghosts for the next week, or a magically enhanced command to ‘convince’ them to see things your way, you’ll use your Magic trait to roll for its success.
Moving on! Your Magic trait will also determine the amount of spells your character is capable of starting with at character creation. As a rule, your character may begin play with twice their Magic rank in spells. For instance, a character with 7 Magic will start play with 14 total spells. Certain Schools of Magic will change that number a bit, whether it be through giving a character some free spells, or limiting the amount of spells they can begin with at character creation. More information on that can be found on the site here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/schools-of-magic.html.
In addition to representing your likelihood to succeed when casting a spell against another player, Magic also represents your Mana pool. Your Magic trait is the number you’ll use to determine your Mana pool - for instance, a character with 7 Magic will also have 7 Mana. That being said, Magic and Mana are two very different values. Your total Mana value may come from your current Magic trait, but after that number is determined, Mana becomes its own separate value - similar to your Hit Points.
For example, let’s say Wiggles the Mage has a Magic trait of 7, and is wearing no armor (I’ll elaborate on this in a moment). As we just learned, this means Wiggles’ Mana pool is 7 as well - but wait! Wiggles has already cast two spells costing one Mana each today. So Wiggles is now down to a total of 5 Mana, but let’s say he wants to cast a spell again. Thud the Orc has been poking around in Wiggles’ daisies, and that’s unforgivable - so of course, Wiggles wants to cast Flame Bolt to hopefully send Thud running for the hills! When Wiggles casts the spell, he will still roll his Magic trait of 7 vs. Thud’s Reflexes to determine his success. Bottom line of this little story here - Mana is never a value used to roll with. Your current Magic trait rank will be used for that.
Something additional to note about Mana - a character who has used their entire Mana pool for the day will no longer be able to cast spells of any kind, even if there is no actual Mana cost to them. Your Mana pool will replenish itself at 6 am SLT each day.
As found on the Magic page on the website, your Magic trait will also determine the amount of Hit Points given by your Shielding spell. The amounts are as follows: Magic 1-3, 2 Hit Points. Magic 4-6, 4 Hit Points. Magic 7-9, 6 Hit Points. Magic 10, 8 Hit Points.
Conversely, the size Armor worn by your character will reduce your Magic trait incrementally based on the class of Armor worn. Firstly, this will reduce your Magic trait for the purpose of making any rolls which would normally use the trait. This reduced total is then what you’d look at to determine your character’s current mana, and the amount of Hit Points your Shielding spell would provide. The amounts are as follows: Light Armor, -1 Magic. Medium Armor, -2 Magic. Heavy Armor, -4 Magic. Full Plate, -6 Magic. Certain Schools of Magic reduce this penalty to your Magic score. Information on which can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/combat-in-valesk.html. Information on each separate School of Magic in more detail can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/schools-of-magic.html.
Last but not least, Magic has a direct correlation to a character’s possible level of skill in both Alchemy and Enchanting. Apprentice Alchemy has no Magic trait requirement, but ranks above it require the forfeiting of spells and certain trait qualifications to meet. Each rank of Enchanting skill has a Magic trait and spell forfeiting requirement. When creating a character or seeking to learn these skills IC, be sure to take those numbers into account! More information on Magic Skills such as Enchanting and Alchemy can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/magic-skills.html.
Huntsman: Remember that flying mug you threw in the barfight? Well, we are coming back to that now! Huntsmen is the trait for all ranged attacks, ranging from throwing daggers to arrow shots, and even throwing a mug at a declared target during a barfight. If you seek to shoot said arrow, you will roll huntsmen rather than fighting to see if you land a hit. Additionally, Huntsmen is a knowledge-like skill specifically for when it comes to flora and fauna, trails and tracking, and setting up traps.
In the wild, Huntsmen can be used as a way for locating a creature hiding in the wild. Is something camouflaged and neatly hiding in the woods? Maybe there are some clues around the area, such as imprints in the dirt, a scent on the wind, or evidence from the bushes that you can use to find them. Additionally, certain skills such as "The Fox" rely on Huntsmen as a trait, and allow people to sneak perfectly so long as they are outside of the city limits. Huntsmen can be regarded as the go-to trait for everything natural related, and embodies its name well!
Finally, Huntsmen is a requirement for producing and perfecting certain materials into their usable form on the Island of Valesk, adding to its knowledge quality. Have you just slain a Greater Wyvern? Want to use its bone for something? You can use your Huntsmen level of 8 to know how to prepare the bone properly and preserve its ability!
Shadows: Shadows here in Valesk is essentially the trait we use to determine character skill and experience regarding cloak and dagger type activities. Things such as attempts to pickpocket, lockpicking, and general stealthy abilities will be covered by the shadow trait - and if one needs to determine success, Shadows is the trait which will be used for the roll! Shadows can also represent a limited amount of knowledge regarding the creation of non-magical potions, and has a few very cool Trait-Based skills to quantify your actual level of stealth and attacks made from the shadows.
So! Stealth rolls, I’ll give an example. Say you’d like to sneak up on Robert Manstrong the justice-loving Numinous Blade, to see what justice-loving coin he may have hidden on his person. If you do not possess the trait-based skill ‘The Mouse’ (more information on which can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/universal-skills.html), you’ll need to detail in your post that you’re attempting to sneak up on him and if he wants to try and notice, he’ll have to make a roll against your Shadows! Now, Sir Manstrong the Just probably hasn’t picked a lock or snuck around in his entire life, which is fortunate for you - the general trait which is used to discover someone sneaking is Shadows as well. Thus, he has the options to roll his piddly Shadows vs. yours to determine whether or not he notices you. Fortunately for the side of justice, there is another option which can be used to notice your fantastically sneaky self. Sir Manstrong can choose to use his Huntsman trait to try and discern your whereabouts by means of a roll against your Shadows as well.
As I mentioned earlier - Shadows can be used along with Knowledge to determine a character’s alchemical knowledge, if in a slightly more limited fashion than that of a magical alchemist. Shadows combined with Knowledge can bring a character up to the rank of Master Alchemist with the stipulation that they are not allowed to create magical toxins or potions without meeting the Magic requirements as well. More information on the exact traits required to meet each rank of Alchemical knowledge can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/alchemy.html.
Knowledge: Knowledge as a trait will cover your character’s understanding of a broad variety of subjects here. The big thing to consider with knowledge is that it does not necessarily determine ‘book smarts’ if you will, nor does having the skill at a very high point force your character to be the bookworm intellectual sort. Much of what your knowledge trait represents should be determined by your character’s background and personality. A character with a high Knowledge trait may have a whole lot of Knowledge in a very specific subject, or your character may have a decent bit of information regarding a wide variety of subjects. Even things as simple as literacy and how to cook could be represented by this trait.
Practically, a character’s Knowledge trait may be used by a Storyweaver during a sim-wide event when said character examines some archaic runes on a mysterious ring, or it may be rolled when inspecting someone’s symptoms to determine whether their ailment is a sickness, poison, or magical infliction. The applications are many!
Knowledge has some pretty big ramifications within the current profession system as well. Whether you wish to be an Infirmary worker, a Blacksmith, or an Alchemist Knowledge is going to be one of the traits required to advance your rank in the trade!
Strength: Strength is one of our most misunderstood traits here at Valesk, but it’s also one of the coolest in terms of interpretation, in my opinion! Strength in part certainly represents the physical force your character can bring to bear, but only in part. What it primarily represents is how well your character can use the physical strength they possess to accomplish a variety of tasks. Racial physiology differences still apply, but while an Orc with 5 Strength may always be stronger than a Human with 5 Strength, that doesn’t mean they can’t accomplish the same tasks in very different ways. Just as a Human might wield a broadsword very differently than an Orc. Be creative!
Strength rolls could be any application of your character’s precision when applying their physical strength outside of combat (with one exception I’ll cover in a moment). As an example, let’s say a person-sized log has fallen on our friend Sir Robert Manstrong the justice-loving Numinous blade, and severely broken three of his justice-loving ribs. Standard Human Model no. 001 with 5 Strength must save his friend, but there’s no way he could lift that log! Or is there? Standard Human Model no. 001 knows how to apply his strength well by using the concept of leverage, and quickly has his good friend Sir Manstrong free from beneath the log because he applied the Strength he has well. Thud the Orc however, knows nothing of this silly leverage! Thud the Orc grab log, Thud the orc lift and move log. Sir Robert Peeweakling free! A silly example, but hopefully it clears a few things up.
Strength is also going to be key in determining the size weapon and armor your character is capable of using in combat, as well as how much damage your weapon deals when used by your character. As an example, a character with 1 or 2 Strength wielding a Light weapon will do 1 Hit Point of damage per normal attack. A character with 6 Strength wielding a Light weapon would have the strength to up that Light weapon’s damage up to Medium, and would do 2 Hit Points of damage upon each successful attack. More information on how much Strength is required for each size weapon or armor can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/combat-in-valesk.html.
Another big thing with Strength to cover is grappling, which is of course the exception I mentioned earlier! The moment has come. During the course of combat, when your character lands a melee attack on someone, you can choose to Grapple them instead of dealing the damage of your attack. This should be detailed in your post, of course - and should you successfully hit with your attack, you’d roll your Strength vs. their Strength. If you win, you’ve successfully grappled them! Now...what next? Well if you want further information, you can read about Grappling here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/combat-in-valesk.html
Reflexes: Reflexes here will represent the primary trait you’ll use for most of your defensive rolls, among other things. Your Reflex trait may contribute to your character’s ability to turn just so to make an attack skim harmlessly off their armor, or it may be as direct as your character’s ability to gracefully sidestep great sweeping strikes from broadswords rather than parrying. Heck, it can even represent parrying. Reflexes will be rolled when direct damage spells are cast against you, melee attacks are made against you, or you’re attacked by a range weapon. How you RP your successful Reflex rolls is up to you!
Outside of combat, your Reflexes may be used to determine a great number of different things, mostly representing your character’s agility and athletic ability. Keep in mind that you don’t always need to make a Reflex roll if say, your annoyingly graceful elf is leaping from one place to another - that much is reflected well by how high your Reflex stat is. Just don’t be surprised if you’re asked to make a roll for that same athletic trick in a Storyweaver scene!
Resolve: Resolve in Valesk represents your character’s resistance and tenacity in the face of things such as magics which do not deal direct damage, poisons, and their ability to shake off wounds so as to stay in a fight just a bit longer. Your character’s Resolve is also a good measure of their endurance and will to keep going when others might flop over and give up like little pansies.
Some examples of spells you would roll your Resolve to resist: Call the Wound, Implant Memory, Blood Control, Eyes of Thoth, and Banishment. As you might notice, these spells are not direct attacks - reading the descriptions, you may very well note that potentially resisting those wouldn’t be a matter of dodging, per se. It’d be a matter of your character’s willpower, or their ability to grit their teeth and ignore the effects (in the case of Call the Wound).
As I mentioned, your Resolve also represents your ability to resist the effects of poisons both magical and mundane. More information on the values you’ll have to roll if you want your character to resist a poison can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/poisons-venoms--toxins.html.
Last but not least, Resolve is the trait you’ll look to should a fight be going poorly for your character. Should your Hit Points ever reach 0, that does not necessarily mean your character is dead or incapacitated. What it does mean is that you have a choice.
Option 1: Your character is incapacitated, likely rendered unconscious. Work out with the other player in IMs what happens from there, and be sure to respect the limits of others!
Option 2: You may spend 2 Resolve and escape capture with a grievous wound that you RP. This isn’t a bad cut, a grievous wound should be loss of a limb, loss of an eye, or a permanent reduction in either your Fighting, Strength, Reflexes, or Resolve.
Option 3: You may keep fighting. You have the choice to spend 1 Resolve so as to have your character grit their teeth and bear the pain. Each round you wish to continue fighting, you must spend 1 Resolve. The danger here is that if the opposing player scores a critical hit at this point, your character dies. No exceptions.
Option 4: You spend 4 Resolve and barely manage to escape. You must have 4 Resolve to spend to make use of this option, and using this option does not mean your character is healed. It simply means that your character was able to drag themselves out of harms way. You will still need to be healed, or heal at a normal rate.
For reference, more information on these options can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/combat-in-valesk.html.
Social Standing: Now this is a fun trait. Social Standing can represent your character’s personal wealth, power, influence, or connections - but not necessarily all of the aforementioned. Having a high Social Standing does not in any way determine how characters will react to you, but there are some very cool Trait-Based skills that may help those reactions along! It also doesn’t necessarily mean your connections and power are positive ones! You may have one hell of a reputation, but a reputation built on fear can often generate just as many opportunities as one built on personal wealth or kindness.
A player might roll their character’s Social Standing when attempting to convince a guardsman to arrest another character for offenses real or imagined, when assuring a barmaid that there’s no need for your character to pay for their drinks, or even when attempting to haggle a shopkeeper down on the price of sweetrolls.
One of the cool practical uses of Social Standing is the ability to ‘import’ or otherwise acquire rare metals that others may never be able to even see due to not quite having the necessary connections. While others may have to go on epic quests to retrieve a single bar towards the fancy new blade they’re interested in acquiring, someone with the necessary Social Standing may very well be able to simply import it through the Harbor Master. More information on Metals in Valesk and the Social Standing ranks required to get your grubby little hands on them can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/metals-alloys--minerals.html.
In conclusion, I’d like to offer a very important point that I think many people overlook when entering into a setting that has quantified Traits such as this laid out to choose from at character creation. Your Traits are here to reflect your character’s backstory and personality, and to enhance RP - not to replace it. Keep your creative edge!
Thank you very much for attending this (admittedly long) class on Traits, and keep in mind, the Staff is always happy to answer any further questions, or provide any extra clarification you may need regarding the system set up here!
edited/added to by Lιттle Ƭree (Cedar Ashland)
Hello and welcome to this class on the basic definitions and uses of traits! Today we’ll be going over each trait individually, listing a few important ways in which each may be used on-sim, and defining them accurately so as to hopefully answer any lingering questions you lovely doe-eyed people might have about them! I’ll make sure to leave a small pause after each little book I hurl at you here so you can bandage any head wounds and ask any questions you may have regarding the material I just went over.
For reference, I’m going to include this link here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/character-traits.html. That page will have your flavor and functionality descriptions if you need the additional reference once this class is complete, and of course your mentor team is always open to answer any questions you may have. To business!
Fighting: This is going to be your character’s general physical violence stat, reflecting everything from martial prowess in deadly combat to swatting your obnoxious younger brother across the back of the head. Want to throw the first punch in a bar brawl? Roll your Fighting. Want to throw the first mug at someone’s head in a bar brawl? That’s not Fighting, and I’ll cover that in a later section. Fighting is exclusively a melee trait, and does not apply to any attacks made at range, even those made with a half empty mug.
In addition to being the trait you’ll roll with when attempting melee-based attacks, Fighting also has another very important purpose definition-wise you’ll want to take into account when creating your character, or seeking to progress your character further. Alongside Strength, Fighting is going to be one of two stats used to determine which size armor your character is capable of using effectively in combat. The sizes being Light (+1 Hit Points, no Fighting requirement), Medium (+3 Hit Points, requires Fighting 2), Heavy (+4 Hit Points, requires Fighting 4 and Strength 3), and Full Plate (+6 Hit Points, requires Fighting 6 and Strength 5).
This reflects that while your character might very well be physically strong enough to wear Full Plate armor with ease, they may have next to no actual training or experience with fighting in it. When creating your character, you’ll want to take a look at their background and then ensure that your traits match up to which size armor you think fits them best for their backstory and capabilities.
Magic: Magic as a whole is going to represent a pretty broad variety of things, though as you might be able to guess, they’re going to be related in some way to your character’s magical ability. But! Starting with basics. Magic first and foremost is your ‘attack’ trait when casting a spell on another player. Whether that spell is a fireball to blast them to all hell, a curse to haunt them with ghosts for the next week, or a magically enhanced command to ‘convince’ them to see things your way, you’ll use your Magic trait to roll for its success.
Moving on! Your Magic trait will also determine the amount of spells your character is capable of starting with at character creation. As a rule, your character may begin play with twice their Magic rank in spells. For instance, a character with 7 Magic will start play with 14 total spells. Certain Schools of Magic will change that number a bit, whether it be through giving a character some free spells, or limiting the amount of spells they can begin with at character creation. More information on that can be found on the site here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/schools-of-magic.html.
In addition to representing your likelihood to succeed when casting a spell against another player, Magic also represents your Mana pool. Your Magic trait is the number you’ll use to determine your Mana pool - for instance, a character with 7 Magic will also have 7 Mana. That being said, Magic and Mana are two very different values. Your total Mana value may come from your current Magic trait, but after that number is determined, Mana becomes its own separate value - similar to your Hit Points.
For example, let’s say Wiggles the Mage has a Magic trait of 7, and is wearing no armor (I’ll elaborate on this in a moment). As we just learned, this means Wiggles’ Mana pool is 7 as well - but wait! Wiggles has already cast two spells costing one Mana each today. So Wiggles is now down to a total of 5 Mana, but let’s say he wants to cast a spell again. Thud the Orc has been poking around in Wiggles’ daisies, and that’s unforgivable - so of course, Wiggles wants to cast Flame Bolt to hopefully send Thud running for the hills! When Wiggles casts the spell, he will still roll his Magic trait of 7 vs. Thud’s Reflexes to determine his success. Bottom line of this little story here - Mana is never a value used to roll with. Your current Magic trait rank will be used for that.
Something additional to note about Mana - a character who has used their entire Mana pool for the day will no longer be able to cast spells of any kind, even if there is no actual Mana cost to them. Your Mana pool will replenish itself at 6 am SLT each day.
As found on the Magic page on the website, your Magic trait will also determine the amount of Hit Points given by your Shielding spell. The amounts are as follows: Magic 1-3, 2 Hit Points. Magic 4-6, 4 Hit Points. Magic 7-9, 6 Hit Points. Magic 10, 8 Hit Points.
Conversely, the size Armor worn by your character will reduce your Magic trait incrementally based on the class of Armor worn. Firstly, this will reduce your Magic trait for the purpose of making any rolls which would normally use the trait. This reduced total is then what you’d look at to determine your character’s current mana, and the amount of Hit Points your Shielding spell would provide. The amounts are as follows: Light Armor, -1 Magic. Medium Armor, -2 Magic. Heavy Armor, -4 Magic. Full Plate, -6 Magic. Certain Schools of Magic reduce this penalty to your Magic score. Information on which can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/combat-in-valesk.html. Information on each separate School of Magic in more detail can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/schools-of-magic.html.
Last but not least, Magic has a direct correlation to a character’s possible level of skill in both Alchemy and Enchanting. Apprentice Alchemy has no Magic trait requirement, but ranks above it require the forfeiting of spells and certain trait qualifications to meet. Each rank of Enchanting skill has a Magic trait and spell forfeiting requirement. When creating a character or seeking to learn these skills IC, be sure to take those numbers into account! More information on Magic Skills such as Enchanting and Alchemy can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/magic-skills.html.
Huntsman: Remember that flying mug you threw in the barfight? Well, we are coming back to that now! Huntsmen is the trait for all ranged attacks, ranging from throwing daggers to arrow shots, and even throwing a mug at a declared target during a barfight. If you seek to shoot said arrow, you will roll huntsmen rather than fighting to see if you land a hit. Additionally, Huntsmen is a knowledge-like skill specifically for when it comes to flora and fauna, trails and tracking, and setting up traps.
In the wild, Huntsmen can be used as a way for locating a creature hiding in the wild. Is something camouflaged and neatly hiding in the woods? Maybe there are some clues around the area, such as imprints in the dirt, a scent on the wind, or evidence from the bushes that you can use to find them. Additionally, certain skills such as "The Fox" rely on Huntsmen as a trait, and allow people to sneak perfectly so long as they are outside of the city limits. Huntsmen can be regarded as the go-to trait for everything natural related, and embodies its name well!
Finally, Huntsmen is a requirement for producing and perfecting certain materials into their usable form on the Island of Valesk, adding to its knowledge quality. Have you just slain a Greater Wyvern? Want to use its bone for something? You can use your Huntsmen level of 8 to know how to prepare the bone properly and preserve its ability!
Shadows: Shadows here in Valesk is essentially the trait we use to determine character skill and experience regarding cloak and dagger type activities. Things such as attempts to pickpocket, lockpicking, and general stealthy abilities will be covered by the shadow trait - and if one needs to determine success, Shadows is the trait which will be used for the roll! Shadows can also represent a limited amount of knowledge regarding the creation of non-magical potions, and has a few very cool Trait-Based skills to quantify your actual level of stealth and attacks made from the shadows.
So! Stealth rolls, I’ll give an example. Say you’d like to sneak up on Robert Manstrong the justice-loving Numinous Blade, to see what justice-loving coin he may have hidden on his person. If you do not possess the trait-based skill ‘The Mouse’ (more information on which can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/universal-skills.html), you’ll need to detail in your post that you’re attempting to sneak up on him and if he wants to try and notice, he’ll have to make a roll against your Shadows! Now, Sir Manstrong the Just probably hasn’t picked a lock or snuck around in his entire life, which is fortunate for you - the general trait which is used to discover someone sneaking is Shadows as well. Thus, he has the options to roll his piddly Shadows vs. yours to determine whether or not he notices you. Fortunately for the side of justice, there is another option which can be used to notice your fantastically sneaky self. Sir Manstrong can choose to use his Huntsman trait to try and discern your whereabouts by means of a roll against your Shadows as well.
As I mentioned earlier - Shadows can be used along with Knowledge to determine a character’s alchemical knowledge, if in a slightly more limited fashion than that of a magical alchemist. Shadows combined with Knowledge can bring a character up to the rank of Master Alchemist with the stipulation that they are not allowed to create magical toxins or potions without meeting the Magic requirements as well. More information on the exact traits required to meet each rank of Alchemical knowledge can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/alchemy.html.
Knowledge: Knowledge as a trait will cover your character’s understanding of a broad variety of subjects here. The big thing to consider with knowledge is that it does not necessarily determine ‘book smarts’ if you will, nor does having the skill at a very high point force your character to be the bookworm intellectual sort. Much of what your knowledge trait represents should be determined by your character’s background and personality. A character with a high Knowledge trait may have a whole lot of Knowledge in a very specific subject, or your character may have a decent bit of information regarding a wide variety of subjects. Even things as simple as literacy and how to cook could be represented by this trait.
Practically, a character’s Knowledge trait may be used by a Storyweaver during a sim-wide event when said character examines some archaic runes on a mysterious ring, or it may be rolled when inspecting someone’s symptoms to determine whether their ailment is a sickness, poison, or magical infliction. The applications are many!
Knowledge has some pretty big ramifications within the current profession system as well. Whether you wish to be an Infirmary worker, a Blacksmith, or an Alchemist Knowledge is going to be one of the traits required to advance your rank in the trade!
Strength: Strength is one of our most misunderstood traits here at Valesk, but it’s also one of the coolest in terms of interpretation, in my opinion! Strength in part certainly represents the physical force your character can bring to bear, but only in part. What it primarily represents is how well your character can use the physical strength they possess to accomplish a variety of tasks. Racial physiology differences still apply, but while an Orc with 5 Strength may always be stronger than a Human with 5 Strength, that doesn’t mean they can’t accomplish the same tasks in very different ways. Just as a Human might wield a broadsword very differently than an Orc. Be creative!
Strength rolls could be any application of your character’s precision when applying their physical strength outside of combat (with one exception I’ll cover in a moment). As an example, let’s say a person-sized log has fallen on our friend Sir Robert Manstrong the justice-loving Numinous blade, and severely broken three of his justice-loving ribs. Standard Human Model no. 001 with 5 Strength must save his friend, but there’s no way he could lift that log! Or is there? Standard Human Model no. 001 knows how to apply his strength well by using the concept of leverage, and quickly has his good friend Sir Manstrong free from beneath the log because he applied the Strength he has well. Thud the Orc however, knows nothing of this silly leverage! Thud the Orc grab log, Thud the orc lift and move log. Sir Robert Peeweakling free! A silly example, but hopefully it clears a few things up.
Strength is also going to be key in determining the size weapon and armor your character is capable of using in combat, as well as how much damage your weapon deals when used by your character. As an example, a character with 1 or 2 Strength wielding a Light weapon will do 1 Hit Point of damage per normal attack. A character with 6 Strength wielding a Light weapon would have the strength to up that Light weapon’s damage up to Medium, and would do 2 Hit Points of damage upon each successful attack. More information on how much Strength is required for each size weapon or armor can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/combat-in-valesk.html.
Another big thing with Strength to cover is grappling, which is of course the exception I mentioned earlier! The moment has come. During the course of combat, when your character lands a melee attack on someone, you can choose to Grapple them instead of dealing the damage of your attack. This should be detailed in your post, of course - and should you successfully hit with your attack, you’d roll your Strength vs. their Strength. If you win, you’ve successfully grappled them! Now...what next? Well if you want further information, you can read about Grappling here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/combat-in-valesk.html
Reflexes: Reflexes here will represent the primary trait you’ll use for most of your defensive rolls, among other things. Your Reflex trait may contribute to your character’s ability to turn just so to make an attack skim harmlessly off their armor, or it may be as direct as your character’s ability to gracefully sidestep great sweeping strikes from broadswords rather than parrying. Heck, it can even represent parrying. Reflexes will be rolled when direct damage spells are cast against you, melee attacks are made against you, or you’re attacked by a range weapon. How you RP your successful Reflex rolls is up to you!
Outside of combat, your Reflexes may be used to determine a great number of different things, mostly representing your character’s agility and athletic ability. Keep in mind that you don’t always need to make a Reflex roll if say, your annoyingly graceful elf is leaping from one place to another - that much is reflected well by how high your Reflex stat is. Just don’t be surprised if you’re asked to make a roll for that same athletic trick in a Storyweaver scene!
Resolve: Resolve in Valesk represents your character’s resistance and tenacity in the face of things such as magics which do not deal direct damage, poisons, and their ability to shake off wounds so as to stay in a fight just a bit longer. Your character’s Resolve is also a good measure of their endurance and will to keep going when others might flop over and give up like little pansies.
Some examples of spells you would roll your Resolve to resist: Call the Wound, Implant Memory, Blood Control, Eyes of Thoth, and Banishment. As you might notice, these spells are not direct attacks - reading the descriptions, you may very well note that potentially resisting those wouldn’t be a matter of dodging, per se. It’d be a matter of your character’s willpower, or their ability to grit their teeth and ignore the effects (in the case of Call the Wound).
As I mentioned, your Resolve also represents your ability to resist the effects of poisons both magical and mundane. More information on the values you’ll have to roll if you want your character to resist a poison can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/poisons-venoms--toxins.html.
Last but not least, Resolve is the trait you’ll look to should a fight be going poorly for your character. Should your Hit Points ever reach 0, that does not necessarily mean your character is dead or incapacitated. What it does mean is that you have a choice.
Option 1: Your character is incapacitated, likely rendered unconscious. Work out with the other player in IMs what happens from there, and be sure to respect the limits of others!
Option 2: You may spend 2 Resolve and escape capture with a grievous wound that you RP. This isn’t a bad cut, a grievous wound should be loss of a limb, loss of an eye, or a permanent reduction in either your Fighting, Strength, Reflexes, or Resolve.
Option 3: You may keep fighting. You have the choice to spend 1 Resolve so as to have your character grit their teeth and bear the pain. Each round you wish to continue fighting, you must spend 1 Resolve. The danger here is that if the opposing player scores a critical hit at this point, your character dies. No exceptions.
Option 4: You spend 4 Resolve and barely manage to escape. You must have 4 Resolve to spend to make use of this option, and using this option does not mean your character is healed. It simply means that your character was able to drag themselves out of harms way. You will still need to be healed, or heal at a normal rate.
For reference, more information on these options can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/combat-in-valesk.html.
Social Standing: Now this is a fun trait. Social Standing can represent your character’s personal wealth, power, influence, or connections - but not necessarily all of the aforementioned. Having a high Social Standing does not in any way determine how characters will react to you, but there are some very cool Trait-Based skills that may help those reactions along! It also doesn’t necessarily mean your connections and power are positive ones! You may have one hell of a reputation, but a reputation built on fear can often generate just as many opportunities as one built on personal wealth or kindness.
A player might roll their character’s Social Standing when attempting to convince a guardsman to arrest another character for offenses real or imagined, when assuring a barmaid that there’s no need for your character to pay for their drinks, or even when attempting to haggle a shopkeeper down on the price of sweetrolls.
One of the cool practical uses of Social Standing is the ability to ‘import’ or otherwise acquire rare metals that others may never be able to even see due to not quite having the necessary connections. While others may have to go on epic quests to retrieve a single bar towards the fancy new blade they’re interested in acquiring, someone with the necessary Social Standing may very well be able to simply import it through the Harbor Master. More information on Metals in Valesk and the Social Standing ranks required to get your grubby little hands on them can be found here: isleofvalesk.weebly.com/metals-alloys--minerals.html.
In conclusion, I’d like to offer a very important point that I think many people overlook when entering into a setting that has quantified Traits such as this laid out to choose from at character creation. Your Traits are here to reflect your character’s backstory and personality, and to enhance RP - not to replace it. Keep your creative edge!
Thank you very much for attending this (admittedly long) class on Traits, and keep in mind, the Staff is always happy to answer any further questions, or provide any extra clarification you may need regarding the system set up here!