I think traits are a good thing and can also help maybe cutting down skills a bit in how they operate/work. But that is a bit of a different topic in itself.
But to keep on-topic with this post in particular, I will say that Traits should not influence one's skills or attributes; they would be treading down the path of a gamey system that maybe further enforces the G in RPG, which if we want to go a more serious route would be good to steer a bit away from. However, the traits themselves are good and how they describe and build your character during your creation.
Most of the time, when we create a character, we have no clue what it will be like and how it will act. Maybe we have not planned the character out, maybe we just winged it and made it from thin air, or maybe we truly have no clue what some of us are doing. Whatever the case, most people I notice only know their character once they actually begin getting into a few days worth of RP.
With that out of the way, traits should each come with a description to explain what the trait is called and how it affects about your character's behaviour/personality. The better each trait explains our character, the easier it is to actually make a character we want fitting into the hl2rp universe. Straight off the bat, you can get all sorts of traits from day-to-day interactions, and while we shouldn't go overboard in trying to cover a large spectrum of traits, we should at least find some of the most common and rare ones to create an idea for who your character is.
Someone mentioned that "Traits feel like a meta issue" in which you can fake your traits, and everyone will know Johnny is not a rebel if seen what trait they possess. But this is not true and easy to fix regardless; first is that some traits are generic and such info is not given away so easily, the second is the traits should be at the will of the player to reveal to another character, just like standard character recognition.
Now I do have a list of traits I think we can have and how they will work, but for now, I will keep those hidden in my deck of cards until the time comes that everyone is actually suggesting traits rather than simply debating the idea of traits existing or not.
