Basically what the title asks. For my WIP, I currently have three opposed-pair personality traits, which are Ruthless/Merciful, Spiritual/Agnostic, and Obedient/Rebellious. I was just curious if people actually like these personality stats despite them not necessarily impacting gameplay other than certain lines of dialogue from NPCs changing based on what your current traits are? I personally find them to be a cool representation of how you flavor your character, but I could understand if people donāt like having to worry about stats that donāt actually matter. What is the consensus on this, if there is one?
3 Likes
My opinion is that opposed pair personality stats are useful for flavor text like what you describe, but not for personality checks that affect outcomes. To use one of your examples, I like it if a game acknowledges that my character tends to be rebellious rather than obedient, but hate it if it goes on to claim that this makes me physically incapable of following rules. Unfortunately, some games do this kind of thing.
All to say that I do feel that this particular mechanic typically lends itself to small changes in narration or dialogue rather than anything that āmattersā on a larger scaleābut this is not a bad thing by any means. Personally, I always appreciate when a game feels like it recognizes and acknowledges the type of character Iām trying to play.
I do think games can sometimes run into problems where playersā choices change their personality traits in ways they donāt expect or agree with, which results in the game describing their character differently from how they imagine, but this is something that can be adjusted and fine-tuned with feedback. Overall, I think personality stats are helpful for immersion and character-building in games that implement them well.
12 Likes
Like with all stats, itās what you want to do with them that counts. I have some, weāll use the classic Daring-Cautious for examples, and I generally use them for four things:
-
Letting Sidestepās inner monologue reflect those stats. For example, if picking a risky choice while having a cautious personality, that will be in the text. Itās not to stop someone from picking it, just helping with immersion. I found that the opposed stats worked well there, because they are constantly adjusted with fairmath choices through the game, so they can continually adapt to a changing playstyle. With the (most common) 70/30 cutoff for counting as ādaringā vs ācautiousā the player generally donāt have to constantly police their stats and choices for things to feel like their character.
-
As a factor in contests. For example, fighting Ortega at the museum will be easier if your daring-cautious stat lies closer to the middle, since you will be harder to predict, while Lady Argent will be easier with a high daring. These are not deterministic, you still have choices, and you donāt need the stats to win, but it will make certain tactics easier to pull off. This is also true for going against type, in certain situations being cautious while acting daring might surprise people who thought they knew what to expect, and so on.
-
As a factor in interactions. Someone who is extremely ruthless might have a harder time convincing someone that they care, someone arrogant will project confidence, and so on. Though this is mostly inner thoughts.
-
Stat sheets! It will help people picture their character, and make it easier for them to describe them to others. The term āBluestepā and āOrangestepā was coined because I used the blue/teal color for the cautious, anonymous and empathic ends of the slider, while orange was for the arrogant, daring and ruthless side. Stats are there not to bind the player, but to help show them that the game pays attention to their actions.
That being said, most of my stats are NOT opposed pairs, I only have three, the rest are handled with simple on/off flags if I donāt feel the need to have them adjusted continually. For example, all my various ākillā tags, because that is a choice in game that is a yes or no.
16 Likes
Malin has the right of it: itās all about how you utilize opposing traits systemically in your game.
I was going to use Fallen Hero as one of the examples to study, one of the best ones as the games apply your consistency of choices/behavior in different ways and varying from character to character. Itās always a tradeoff. Having high infamy might help in certain moments and with certain people, but it might also cause someone to tackle the both of you through a window in a desperate attempt to save civilians. Likewise being too middle of the road might make you harder to predict in a fight but if you choose a particularly daring or cautious an action, you may fail or have a mixed result because the behavior is not as honed or instinctual.
Itās been a while since Iāve played @adraoās games but I seem to recall that his opposing stat systems are built around rewarding consistency of behavior in actions and choices.
@MultipleChoice has an unique system where your choices attuning to one end of the spectrum or the other will dictate your response in other scenes and moments, as well as the relationship strength with and nature of your spirit animal.
@Anathema in The Golden Rose has a system that is something of a fusion between what Malin and Devon are doing. You see it most reflected in dialogues and dialogue options where what you say, how you relate to people, what you perceive, and choices you can make are affected by where you are in various opposing stats. It likewise has an impact during dramatic moments. A good example is a scene where you have to jump through some flames. If you pray to God as a fairly devout fellow, God sees you through without harm. If youāre a rather heretical type and you pray to God, well then enjoy your flames!
@Cataphrak has an opposing trait system in his Infinite Sea games, but appropriately enough to the setting, it often manifests so damn subtly in the writing that itās hard to pick up on until youāve played through a few times. Iāve really only noticed it recently when trying various character builds where the same scenes and choices can be presented in sometimes radically different ways based on how youāve played the character.
Thereās other examples, too, but those are the ones that most come to mind and Iām sure the mentioned authors can speak to their intent more definitively than I have.
The TL/DR (too late!) is that opposing traits can be good, but they require a fair amount of commitment in the programming/writing and a solid, consistent vision for how theyāre going to work to be fun and engaging for players.
10 Likes
Iāll see myself out.
3 Likes
Thanks for the advice everyone! Iāll probably make the personality traits in my game flavoring for certain decisions/pieces of dialogue.
Also I swear the Epic reference was unintentional lmao
4 Likes