Plain Trait Character Example 3

In Plain Trait Fudge, players are encouraged to define their characters in terms of what makes them extraordinary (in both good ways and bad ways). Anything ordinary about their characters is unnecessary to describe. This makes the character creation process quicker and avoids cluttering character sheets with irrelevant traits.

Example 3

Step One: The GM is running a Victorian era mystery adventure about which she says little. She allots each character 10 trait levels.

Step Two: The GM limits allocation to no more than one Superb trait and one Terrible trait. All other trait levels are unlimited. Player A, given not much context, decides his character will be a globe-trotting big game hunter and immediately chooses Marksmanship, Physical Prowess, Leadership, Geography, and Education. Specifying these traits automatically starts them at Fair, which is a total cost of 5 levels. His character is a retired Sergeant-Major who served in India and Africa, which justifies raising his Leadership and Geography to Good at a cost of 1 level each. Despite his age, he is a fine physical specimen, so Player A spends 2 levels to raise his Physical Prowess to Great. This leaves 1 level left to spend, but Player A thinks his character's Marksmanship ought to be better than Good, so he needs to define an extraordinarily low trait to afford it. He defines two. Having spent most of his life in the military, he has little patience for (or understanding of) modern civilian bureaucracy, so his Bureaucratic Navigation skills are consequently Poor. Having spent most of his military career in technologically primitive places, he has little to no experience with many of the technological marvels of the day, so his Expertise in Operating Contraptions (of a Non-Military Nature) is also Poor. The 2 levels thus freed, in addition to the 1 level unspent, will enable Player A to raise his character's Marksmanship to Superb.

Step Three: The GM sets a minimum requirement of two complications. Player A specifies In Love with a Vegetarian Teetotaller as one complication, and Out of Place in Civilised Society as another.

Step Four: The GM sets a minimum requirement of two motivations. Player A specifies To Hunt on Every Continent as his first stated motivation, and To Sample the Scotch of Every Distillery as his second. (He leaves unstated a third motivation: To Woo the Vegetarian Teetotaller.)

Charles Standish-Reddy, Sergeant-Major (ret.)

Traits

Marksmanship: Superb

Physical Prowess: Great

Leadership: Good

Geography: Good

Education: Fair

Bureaucratic Navigation: Poor

Contraption Operation: Poor

 

Complications

In Love with a Vegetarian Teetotaller

Out of Place in Civilised Society

 

Motivations

To Hunt on Every Continent

To Sample the Scotch of Every Distillery