Character Types

AKA: Primary Attribute

Table of Contents

Every character has a Type. As stated above, this is fairly synonymous with "primary attribute" but there is just a bit more to it than that. There are twelve Types in all, corresponding to passive, neutral and aggressive forms of the four Stats. Type is, therefore, painting with broad strokes: a one- or two-word character portrait. Armed with the knowledge that a particular individual is, say, a Brute, one would know that he or she is typically an actions-speak-louder-than-words sort whoe likely prefers a "straight fight" to "all this sneaking around". Of course, no character should be one-sided, but sometimes it can be nice to neatly pidgeon-hole characters for the sake of simplicity and expediency.

Now that we know what Type is, we should probably figure out what that means for characters. The first, and probably easiest thing to determine is a character's primary attribute. Simply put, all Skills aside, what does your character do best? Is he big and strong? Does she take notice of everything around her? Is he quick and light on his feet? Does she place great value on her ability to think her way out of any problem? If you answered "yes", or even "yes, but", to any of the preceding questions, your physical Type is decided. All that remains is to figure out if your character is, shall we say, average, cautious, or aggressive and your Type is set.

Type Table
	Passive	Neutral	Aggressive
Strong	Gentle Giant	Bruiser	Brute
Aware	Observer	Investigator	Hunter
Dextrous	Shadow	Acrobat	Daredevil
Smart	Bookworm	Brain	Mastermind

Physical Types

This corresponds to a character's Primary Attribute. While a character may be both smart and quick or both strong and aware, one Stat will be a defining characteristic. The Primary Attribute of a character not only determines Base Attack, but also gives a special bonus to rolls based upon it. All rolls made with the Primary Attribute have their difficulty lowered by one level. In other words, when a Strong character attempts to utilize his or her Strength in a way that should be Difficult, it is only Challenging, instead.

But wait, there's more! Not only does playing to one's strengths make life a bit easier, every character Type also gains a special ability that may be used once per session!

Those characters whose Primary Attribute is Strength are capable of performing a Feat of Strength once per game session. For the duration of a single Action, a character may effectively increase his or her Strength by one level.
Dextrous characters may perform a similar Feat of Agility once per game session. Again, this works for the duration of a single Action.
Smart characters may, once per session, focus all the brute computing power of their brains towards a single goal. As long as it is within the realm of possibility, Narrator being the final arbiter, a Smart character may use his or her Intellectual Superiority to succeed at any, single Intelligence-related task without rolling, once per session.
Characters whose Primary Attribute is Awareness have a special ability that is simultaneously perhaps unfairly potent and totally unpredictable. When the party gets stuck, stranded, confused, lost, or is certainly doomed, an Aware character has a chance to notice a detail that could potentially save the day. This, of course, will only work once per session, no matter how much trouble the party may be in, and it is almost completely outside player control. When an Aware character wants to use this ability, the Narrator makes a hidden roll. Based upon the result, the Narrator will share a previously unnoticed, and even unsought, detail with the Aware character. Whether or not the information gained is useful will not be known to the player, nor will any futher information be given, such as how best to make use of this new knowledge.

Personality Types

There are three, basic Personality Types that, when combined with a character's Physical Type, determine a character's Type. That isn't confusing at all, eh? Anyway, the three Personalities are: Passive, Neutral, and Aggressive.

Personality and Stance

Certain Personality Types are more suited to intense combat than others. This is reflected in Combat Stance. Rather than the way one stands when preparing for trouble, Stance is a method of approaching Combat. There are three Stances that roughly correspond to the three Personality Types: Defensive, Normal, and Aggressive. A Neutral character may adopt any Stance, but the others are both limited. Passive characters may never adopt an Aggressive Stance and Aggressive characters may, similarly, never adopt a Defensive one. They both, however, do gain additional benefit by adopting their "natural" Stance.

Combat Stance is declared at the start of Combat and may only be changed during the Initiative Phase of the Round.

Defensive Stance - In this stance, three(3) is added to all rolls for Active Defense, and subtracted from all other rolls. Additionally, Passive characters adopting a Defensive Stance may Active Defend against all attacks. One Active Defense roll is made and acts as the Defense for the character for the remainder of the round.
Normal Stance - All rolls are made as per the standard Combat rules.
Aggressive Stance - While in this stance, three(3) is added to all Attack rolls, and is subtracted from all other rolls. Additionally, Aggressive characters adopting their "natural" Stance may perform Normal Attacks whenever they would usually be forced to perform a Quick Attack.