Quasi-Standard Descriptive Traits for Sherpa

This article is intended for use with Sherpa, a role-playing game by Steffan O'Sullivan published by Two Tigers Games. Access to Sherpa is necessary to utilize these rules.

Quasi-Standard Descriptive Traits is a supplement to Descriptive Traits (q.v.), which replaces Attributes, p. 3 in the Sherpa rules.

Descriptive traits provide an organic way of creating characters in Sherpa that can be liberating to one's creativity, but there are several shortcomings, most of which are rooted in the fact that there is no prescribed structure in the character creation process. For some this absence of structure is a benefit, but to others it presents a difficulty in conceptualizing their characters and/or balancing their full range of capabilities or lack thereof. To this end, quasi-standard descriptive traits may be used as an intermediate step in character creation, or they may even be used as attributes for those players more comfortable with traditional rules or for GMs who need to create non-player characters rapidly.

Quasi-standard descriptive traits use generic terms (or quasi-attributes) as a framework on which to build a character's descriptive traits. There are six:

Vocation
Avocation
Mind
Body
Spirit
Reflexes

Vocation represents a character's professional occupation, or, at any rate, the occupation by which he is primarily identified. It is the same as the Profession attribute in Sherpa, and like that attribute, it is specified.

Avocation represents a character's nonprofessional occupation or interests. It is the same as the Experience attribute in Sherpa, but unlike that attribute, it is specified.

Mind represents a character's mental capacity or intellect. It is the same as the Reasoning attribute in Sherpa.

Body represents a character's physical capacity or physique. It corresponds to the Strength and Health attributes in Sherpa.

Spirit represents a character's spiritual capacity or willpower. It has no corresponding attribute in Sherpa.

Reflexes represent a character's motor capacity or coordination. It is the same as the Agility attribute in Sherpa.

If it fits the character concept, the character may be assigned more than one Vocation or Avocation in the same manner as Dual Professions, p. 8, or they may be raised independently (see p. 24).

Once a character's Vocation and Avocation have been specified, the player allocates points in the manner described in Character Creation, p. 5. Once this is done, he then interprets the quasi-attributes in his own words, thus rendering them into descriptive traits.

The advantage is that the integrity of the character description is preserved, yet the traits, regardless of how specific they may be, can all be reduced to the quasi-attributes on which they were built, leaving no area ignored. (This avoids the potential problem of default level proliferation caused by players overlooking certain aspects of a character.)

Note: It is useful to list these traits in the same order, unless one wishes to add the quasi-attributes parenthetically.

Example: The GM is running a hard-boiled crime scenario, so she allots 10 points to each player. Player B prefers a more structured approach and opts to use quasi-standard descriptive traits. The character Player B has in mind is a crusading reporter by profession and an amateur aviatrix, which immediately translates into Vocation (Reporter) and Avocation (Aviatrix). The character is defined almost more by her extracurricular activities than her career (being an irrepressible adventuress), so 2 points are allocated to Vocation (Reporter), raising it to 6, and 3 points are allocated to Avocation (Aviatrix), raising it to 7. In keeping with her concept as an adventuress, Player B decides she is also a Crack Shot, having participated in marksmanship competitions all her life, and allocates 2 points to a second Avocation (Crack Shot), which makes it 6. The next thing to consider is the character's Mind. Player B decides she is Sharp as a Tack and allocates 1 point to Mind, raising it to 5. The character is a Tough Cookie, so 1 point is allocated to Body, raising it to 5. As far as her Spirit is concerned, she has plenty of Sass (and as mentioned earlier, she's Irrepressible), so 1 point is allocated to Spirit, raising it to 5. Player B has now allocated all 10 points before reaching the final quasi-attribute, Reflexes. As a pilot, her flying reflexes would be reflected by her Avocation (Aviatrix): 7, and as a markswoman, her hand-eye coordination as it pertains to firearms would be reflected by her Avocation (Crack Shot): 6, but in terms of all other activities involving Reflexes, her ability would be the default level of 4. Player B could reason that this is not acceptable for the character concept of an able adventuress and reduce another quasi-attribute in order to raise it, or it could be seen as an interesting handicap for the character to overcome. She may be Sassy, Sharp as a Tack, and one Tough Cookie who has an exciting career and a daredevil hobby, but in spite of all that, she just might be a bit of a Klutz. In fact, it might be more entertaining to make her a little Sassier and raise her Spirit to 6 by making her a little Klutzier and reducing her Reflexes to 3. For her Gift, Player B chooses Patron: Editor of a Big Metropolitan Newspaper (who, despite his gruffness, often bails her out of trouble and allows her keep her job when she disobeys him). For her Faults, Player B chooses Obsessed with Dance (which can be quite an embarrassment for someone who has two left feet, but is unaware of it whenever the music plays) and Recklessly Brave (which protects her from intimidation, but does nothing to protect her from her own foolhardy stunts).

Her intermediate stage of character creation, then, looks like this:

Charlotte Chevalier

Vocation (Reporter): 6

Avocation (Aviatrix): 7

Avocation (Crack Shot): 6

Mind: 5

Body: 5

Spirit: 6

Reflexes: 3

 

Gifts: Patron: Editor of a Big Metropolitan Newspaper

Faults: Obsessed with Dance (and Has Two Left Feet), Recklessly Brave

The character could be be played like this, for these are the underlying quasi-attributes, or the descriptive traits that are at the core of her concept could be substituted like this:

Charlotte Chevalier

Ambitious Reporter: 6

Daredevil Aviatrix: 7

Crack Shot: 6

Sharp as a Tack: 5

Tough Cookie: 5

Sassy and Irrepressible: 6

Klutzy: 3

 

Gifts: Patron: Editor of a Big Metropolitan Newspaper

Faults: Obsessed with Dance (and Has Two Left Feet), Recklessly Brave

[Originally posted in Fudgery.net.]