Theory of Character Trait Definition

Caveat: It must be mentioned that understanding the following analysis is absolutely unessential to the enjoyment of the game. For most Players, it is enough to know that the Creators use a fair system to assign values to Traits, and that Players can participate in the process through the Character Concept and through direct feedback.

The basic premise is that it is possible to describe Traits as a series of trade-offs. People who are fast may not be strong; people with brilliant minds may be forgetful. This is a common idea: almost no one is good at everything, and those who are good at one thing may be lacking in another.

If this were always precisely true, then all Gestalts would equal 0, and everyone who excelled would have a compensating disability. But because there is variation in the range of a population's capabilities, because Gestalt can vary, the rules allow some people to be talented with no penalties, and others to be weak in many or all areas. This is a more realistic representation of natural variation.

The idea of compensating plusses and minuses still pervades the rules, however. By adding and subtracting points, the rules ensure that all offspring traits should equal the numeric average of their parent trait. If you add to Strength, you have to take away from Form or Agility. The final values all average out to the Body value.

To make this work, the value of the parent Trait must be the perfect average (with no remainders) of the offsprings' values, and offspring Traits must be whole numbers. When the Creator adds or subtracts, he or she can do so only in whole number increments -- no fractions.

For example, A Character's Gestalt +2 divides into Body +2, Mind +4, and Psyche 0. This is fine because +2, +4, and 0 average to 2, the Gestalt score. Body +3, Mind +4, and Psyche 0 would not be allowed, because the average would be +2.33 -- not a perfect average, since Gestalt is +2, not +2.33. And Body +2.5, Mind +3.5, and Psyche 0 is also not allowed -- this example does average perfectly to Gestalt +2, but only whole numbers are allowed as Traits, without fractions.