Suggestion Character creation traits

[Muho]

Yo yo

So yesterday there was a small testing. One of the new things is the character creation, where you can choose traits, which affect your RP as the character and fleshes them out. I don't want to spoil what is there to choose, just add my thoughts on it.

Basically, the only choosable traits are positive in some sort (you have to choose 4). You can't choose stuff like "Depression" in the character creation or similar. My suggestion is that we implement multiple negative traits, which will be choosable in the char creation. Of course we want to prevent 20 new bi-poloar, schizophrenic arsonist to run around and go crazy. So I was thinking of rather "tame" negative traits, as

• Hotheaded
• Arrogant
• Cowardly
• Stubborn
• Reckless
• Greedy
• Lazy
• Impulsive
• Gullible
• Jealous
• Pessimistic
• Overconfident
• Blunt
• Overly Honest
• Manipulative
• Selfish
• Paranoid
  
  These are just some on top of my head. These traits would help newer players to flesh out their character better, help them find the identity of those characters. Besides that only being able to choose positive traits will create 80 new "Main characters", everyone will be HIM type shit. So yeah...
  
  What are you guys thinking about it? Giving the char creation more options.
  
  EDIT: Another option is, not having any at all (I prefer it) Either make them vast or just delete. Deleting should be easier dev wise, I hope at least.

 

[RileyTheRoomba]

I think traits are dumb and saying they ‘help’ people has always been a ridiculous argument in my eyes. It’s a little sticker you give yourself that serves no purpose (nor really should it) and is purely cosmetic: A cosmetic that only you yourself can see that is just text in a menu.

I would rather a new player learn to just write a character rather than pick random traits from an inherently limited list that wastes computional space. If you are above the age of thirteen I can’t imagine how something like this is really going to do much for you.

 

[Tea]

This traits system, in my opinion, shouldn't exist in V3 at all. It’s an opinion that I haven’t hid from staff channels, nor do I intend to publicly. From what we've been told, the system is intended to be a sort of a "character notepad" during character creation as a way for players to establish personality traits and add another layer of individuality to their characters. However, I believe it can easily create more negatives than positives.

My biggest concern is that it shifts roleplay away from naturally portraying one's written character and towards a more mechanically defined one. Roleplay should communicate a character's personality through their dialogue, decisions, and what a player has written for the character beforehand, not through a predefined list of traits that are ripped from an entirely different game, even if it's one from a roleplay genre (for the record, you are forced to pick out 4 starting traits if you want to create a character unless its OTA, synths, other event factions). If a player wants their character to be charismatic or headstrong, they should demonstrate those quirks through interaction rather than selecting them from a menu. Beyond that, the system opens the door for GM's acting in bad faith to shape roleplay in ways that undermine player agency. If traits have any mechanical interaction with encounters (something akin to rolls with perception, strength, etc), there's very little stopping a GM from using those traits to push a scenario in a specific direction (e.g granting knowledge that ordinarily would need investigation by a character having a "street smarts" trait). Even if every GM acts in good faith, the perception that outcomes are being influenced by a system rather than character / player decisions is damaging in itself.

Yes, we have our own guide made by management, and yes, we are set to use the system far differently than EO does, but all it takes is one bad experience to build a breaking point.

If the system is kept to be purely a menu interaction that cannot be touched by GM's in any way possible and is only a reference / building point for a player, then I can support it. Otherwise, there's no genuinely need for it.

 

[Muho]

This traits system, in my opinion, shouldn't exist in V3 at all. It’s an opinion that I haven’t hid from staff channels, nor do I intend to publicly. From what we've been told, the system is intended to be a sort of a "character notepad" during character creation as a way for players to establish personality traits and add another layer of individuality to their characters. However, I believe it can easily create more negatives than positives.

My biggest concern is that it shifts roleplay away from naturally portraying one's written character and towards a more mechanically defined one. Roleplay should communicate a character's personality through their dialogue, decisions, and what a player has written for the character beforehand, not through a predefined list of traits that are ripped from an entirely different game, even if it's one from a roleplay genre (for the record, you are forced to pick out 4 starting traits if you want to create a character unless its OTA, synths, other event factions). If a player wants their character to be charismatic or headstrong, they should demonstrate those quirks through interaction rather than selecting them from a menu. Beyond that, the system opens the door for GM's acting in bad faith to shape roleplay in ways that undermine player agency. If traits have any mechanical interaction with encounters (something akin to rolls with perception, strength, etc), there's very little stopping a GM from using those traits to push a scenario in a specific direction (e.g granting knowledge that ordinarily would need investigation by a character having a "street smarts" trait). Even if every GM acts in good faith, the perception that outcomes are being influenced by a system rather than character / player decisions is damaging in itself.

Yes, we have our own guide made by management, and yes, we are set to use the system far differently than EO does, but all it takes is one bad experience to build a breaking point.

If the system is kept to be purely a menu interaction that cannot be touched by GM's in any way possible and is only a reference / building point for a player, then I can support it. Otherwise, there's no genuinely need for it.

True cuh, actually deleting traits would be better.

Some of the traits have weird desc. which could be used mallicously in a sort of PowerRP even. But yeah. I would suggest no traits at all would be better.

 

[Ricsow]

I've played on a few servers with trait selection (Terranova and Netspark and I think a few others?), they were cool to pick out during the character creation but ngl every time I made a char on these servers I forgot what I even picked half an hour later and never cared about them again, I think it's wasted development
Any development at this point still being dedicated to character creation should be to expand actual customization (more hair colors, or the option to make all character models bald like what was once promised)

 

[RickiShade]

As cool as it sounds its kinda iffy to me, personality or psychological things are best left up to the players instead of game mechanics.