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Appearance HOWTO

This is an attempt to explain how to use the Appearance stat in your games.

In the real world, we judge people by their appearance, often without realizing it. How many fan sites are there out there for beautiful actresses, compared to fan sites for average-looking, but skillful and experienced ones? How many men find themselves thinking about a woman they've met solely based on her looks? How many women find themselves talking about "that hunktastic man" or "that cute guy"?

Using Appearance in the game requires that we understand that these sorts of feelings are probably close to universal, and roleplaying our characters accordingly.

Canonical Mentions of Appearance

• Appearance + Presence is mentioned as a roll (Exalted p. 93, "Examples of Rolls")
• The Appearance trait is described (Exalted p. 129, "Appearance")

Characters and Appearance

This section discusses how Appearance affects your character.

What Does Appearance Represent?

In general, "Appearance" begins with your physical attractiveness as judged by common human standards. To some people, it may include one or more of the following qualities:

• specific deformities, such as a missing eye (these may also fall under Flaws)
• pleasant or unpleasant disposition
• hygiene habits
• innate fashion sense or "sense of style"

Decide for yourself if any or all of these additional factors apply in your games.

Merits and Flaws

In general, your Appearance attribute works much like any other attribute. It provides specific benefits in the form of higher dice pools (see below), and by itself should have no greater or worse impact on your character than any other attribute.

If you want to create a character whose looks have specific game effects (for example, inspiring lust or love in all who see her), then your character has either a Merit or a Flaw, depending on whether the effect is generally beneficial or not.

For example, consider a character who is missing an eye. He may have a low Appearance (he has an empty eyesocket) or a high one (he's a pirate whose eyepatch makes him look romantic). He may have a Flaw that penalizes him in certain tasks that require depth perception. But these things are separate from each other.

Some specific Merits and Flaws from the Player's Guide that bear on Appearance:

• Legendary Attribute can apply to Appearance
• Enchanting Feature can represent a mechanical benefit of high Appearance
• Innocuous interacts specifically with Appearance
• Unusual Appearance is a good way to model really outlandish looks
• One Eye isn't tied to either a high or low Appearance, but it's a good example of how to tie low Appearance to a specific mechanical effect
• Amputee can similarly interact with low Appearance
• Small might work with a high Appearance to represent "cute" characters
• Disfigured specifically mandates a zero Appearance

Improving Appearance

Appearance is an odd duck because not everyone can think of ways to justify spending XP to raise it. Nevertheless, the setting offers all kinds of opportunities to do so: alchemical potions of beauty, shapechanging magic, pacts with spirits, Lunar Charms, and even fashion/diet/hygiene lessons at finishing school that leave you looking fabulous. Most of the mundane means will probably not let you bump Appearance up by more than a dot. Fortunately, though, Exalted is a world with pervasive magic. Don't stop at the mundane means.

What Can I Use My Appearance For?

Here are some sample uses for Appearance, and the rolls that they correspond to.

• Appearance + Investigation can let you talk to a reticent witness with a weakness for handsome boys or pretty girls, such as a self-important aristocrat.
• Appearance + Larceny might function as an important part of a confidence game, by letting the mark feel self-important that such a good-looking individual of the appropriate sex is interested in him/her.
• Appearance + Occult can help convince a spirit that you have god's blood in your own veins, if it lacks respect for mortals.
• Appearance + Performance allows you to perform as a seductive or attractive dancer, thus drawing the attention of the potentate while your allies loot him and his entourage.
• Appearance + Presence can let you overwhelm someone with your good looks, in situations where you need a willing and eager accomplice.
• Appearance + Socialize to comport yourself well at parties and social functions where elegance and grace are useful but attractiveness is required.

How Noticeable Is My Appearance?

As noticeable as you want it to be. Consider for a moment how your appearance in the real world would change if you took a week off from shaving, showering, using clean clothes, and so forth. Now consider how it would change if you bought a more expensive perfume or cologne, went to a salon for a new hair-style, bought some clothes that flattered your figure, or simply went to the gym more often.

Knowing how to properly conceal yourself is a function for Presence, Socialize, or Larceny, depending on intent and method. But any character is assumed to understand the principles of grooming, and can either conceal or emphasize her Appearance to some degree. While Appearance will never go above its effective rating, assume that stunning good looks or casual ugliness can be concealed with off-camera effort and that a character can move casually through villages and towns without inciting the populace. Obvious, unconcealable good or bad looks are a function of Merits and Flaws.

Keep in mind that in the real world, the people with Appearance in the 4-5 range are supermodels, actors and actresses, or other celebrities. While many people profess great attraction for such people, it is commonly agreed that only mentally-disturbed people would go to extreme lengths for their objects of affection (such as committing suicide unless the celebrity agreed to marry them). This is a "conventional" high Appearance. Supernatural beauty, or looks that compel such radical action from otherwise-normal people, are conventions of a fantasy setting, and are best represented with specific game mechanics such as Merits or Charms. Alternately, such levels of inhuman, mind-altering beauty might be modeled as Appearance statistics of 6 or higher and give a correspondingly high dice pool. With Appearance 6 and Presence 6, it is easy to see how a little god could overwhelm mortals.

Storytelling and Appearance

As mentioned in the introduction, many people in the real world put a lot of stock in what you look like. To realistically portray NPCs, remember that they too will probably do so unless their Nature or Virtues dictate otherwise.

In Exalted, Appearance can often suggest noble birth, or even some sort of inheritance from a spirit or other supernatural source. "Rural folk mistake you for an incarnate diety" should not be treated as meaningless flavor text. However, even if those commoners have heard cautionary tales about "inhumanly beautiful spirits", this doesn't grant them automatic immunity to attractive looks possessed by Exalts and other magical beings - a rose with thorns is still a rose, and resistance to temptation is a function of Temperance and Willpower.

Different things appeal to different people, and many people will either be suspicious of the attractive, or simply jaded to beauty. In general, an Appearance equal to the higher of the Influence, Resources, or Temperance of the victim will attract the victim's attention, while Appearance higher than any of these values will significantly affect social interactions. Willpower, additional Backgrounds, or other traits may come into play.

Specific social classes and Natures will be affected by Appearance in different ways.

Common Folk

Most folk in Creation will be Appearance 2. People who aren't in a major metropolis will probably consider Appearance 3 to be the most attractive person they'll see in their lives - the local satrap will have already "appropriated" the Appearance 4 boys or girls who got born into the village, and Appearance 5 is unheard-of. City folk may have seen the Appearance 3-5 people being carted around in their palanquins on the backs of slaves, but that's about it.

Noble Folk

Aristocrats with self-indulgent and sybaritic natures will make much of high Appearance, and try to surround themselves with such people if at all possible. They will draw their concubines from the local stock, accept or reject delegations based on the looks of the messengers, and so forth.

The Dragon-Blooded

Needs expansion.

Spirits

Needs expansion.

Natures and Appearance

Some Natures specifically lend themselves to interactions with Appearance.

• The Bravo will probably be as proud of his Appearance (if he has three dots or better) as he is everything else, and will be critical of others if they aren't quite as handsome.
• The Conniver will readily use her beauty to have her way with the people around her, whether charming her allies or seducing and abandoning her enemies.
• The Follower eagerly latches onto anyone with a pretty face or handsome visage.
• If the Gallant isn't the most attractive fellow in the room, he'll find another room where he is. High Appearance is vital to this Nature, and he'll pursue a variety of magical solutions to gaining it if he lacks it. Rivalries between a Gallant and another character can start simply based on Appearance.
• The Hedonist surrounds himself with beauty wherever and whenever he can.

Suggested Reading

Fictional sources dealing with or centered around appearance:

• The Ramayana, or Tale of Rama, an Indian epic. Much is made of the looks of both male and female characters.
• The Greek legend of Psyche Wikipedia.
• The Iliad gave us Helen, with "the face that launched a thousand ships".

External links:

• Isn't She Lovely? Humans tend to be attracted to symmetric beauty - studies find that evaluating attractiveness may be an inborn ability

Comments

Good suggestions. Thanks. --MF

Good for you for noting the Ramayana. I would say, however, that there are more examples in literature of Appearance being a bad thing; e.g., Psyche. Even in the Ramayana, Sita's beauty causes all sorts of trouble. How do you suggest that the drawbacks of Appearance be balanced? I don't see the other Attributes having similar problems. In general, however, I like this, and find that you agree with a lot of things I've said myself. I'm a little puzzled by some of your rolls (Appearance + Performance to sneak?), but that's all minor nits.
~ Shataina

I suggest that the drawbacks of high Appearance are balanced like the drawbacks of high Strength are balanced- you know, like in Hercules, where Atlas gets Hercules to hold up the sky?

...Through roleplaying. No stat should have an inherent mechanical disadvantage- not because it's unrealistic, but because stats serve primarily for dice pools. An App 5 char might inspire wild lust, it's true; but on the other hand, they might simply look noble and imposing. One might create a flaw, "Inspires wild lust," to reflect a character with the propensity to be hit on at bars by seedy old guys and whatnot (there's a flaw in Changeling that does something like that).

The App+Performance roll is to allow your circlemates to sneak, if I read correctly ("while your allies loot him and his entourage, negotiate a questionable deal, or simply just sneak around unobserved.")- not for the performer to be sneaking. I actually think that most Performance rolls should be done with Appearance- it should cover all the aspects of a character, including scent, voice, etc. An ugly character with a good feature (a decaying Abyssal with a beautiful voice) would use Enchanting Feature and describe their actions with Manipulation, and a beautiful character with a bad feature (high-pitched squeaky voice!) would take a similar Flaw in reverse, or use Enchanting Feature (face) or (body) or whatnot with a lower Appearance score overall. - Arafelis

Ah, I see. I'm too accustomed to crap grammar ... it's scarily affecting my reading skills. That's ... unnerving. I very much disagree that the drawbacks of high Appearance and high other stuff are balanced; I suspect that if we sat down and made a list, we'd end up with a lot more for Appearance; not the mention the fact that Appearance is generally immediately obvious and thus the drawbacks are a lot more immediate and more difficult to avoid. As for your notes about Appearance and how it looks / Appearance and Performance, I've always agreed with both, assuming you meant "all the shallow instantly-noticed aspects of the character" (which, in my opinion, is just another reason to replace Appearance entirely like I did, since the other stats aren't vulnerable to totally different interpretations / effects in the same way, or at least not as much).
~ Shataina

I think we should make the list. I think it would be a useful exercise. I would think Charisma and Manipulation are not terribly far behind Appearance with regards to different interpretations. ~ Andrew02

No, they're not, but that's a separate point. For the "interpretations" bit, I more meant different interpretations within the system than without it. That is, people have different takes on what constitutes Charisma and what constitutes Manipulation, but different "kinds" of Charisma or Manipulation don't tend to be as far apart as different "kinds" of Appearance. In other news, I'll start a page for that listing. (edit: check out Attributes/Drawbacks.)
~ Shataina

I don't know if I'd use the word "shallow" to describe someone who spends a lot of time working on Appearance any more than I would someone who spends it on any other single stat- a lot of beauty is very subtle and requires pretty elaborate effort to develop and even appriciate properly. Appearance is the ability to make oneself into a work of living art. I do agree that Appearance was a poorly-considered stat, but I've seen as many interpretations of, say, Wits as I have of Appearance... it's just that people rarely or never think to roll Appearance because it's so passive. - Arafelis

I didn't use the word shallow to describe someone who spends a lot of time working on Appearance, I used the word shallow to describe a certain manifestation of personal qualities, that is, instantly-noticed ones. I think that someone's scent is a slightly "shallower" quality, if you will, than their intelligence.
~ Shataina

The appriciation of beauty is a quality that requires just as much development as the appriciation of intellect; the same goes for improving either. In a physical setting, one can instantly notice another's obvious qualities of attractiveness. In a mental setting (say, online), one instantly percieves the obvious qualities of another's intellect. - Arafelis is App 5 IRL! Didn't you notice?

Personally, I never think to roll it because I have never been asked to, and nothing I know of actually demands Appearance be used. Seduction rules say that Appearance can be a factor . . . but gets fuzzy on how it is a factor. Flaws like Disfigured cost you a success or two . . . and that is about it. Can you provide some material that supports your "work of living art" assertion? -Andrew02

• heaves Fair Folk book onto table* - Arafelis

That's not entirely fair, being that Appearance has a very specific mechanical purpose in Shaping combat. ~ WaiyaddoNoDan

Still funny as hell though! ^_^ - Paladinltd

Shataina, I'm adding a section on "Merits and Flaws" to help demonstrate what I consider the appropriate drawbacks of a high stat that otherwise cost you something :) I also cleaned up the Performance text to help clarify the situation. If you got thrown by it, certainly a less alert reader is likely to be as well. -- BillGarrett

Oh my goodness, I really hope you're not using me as an example of an "alert reader".

It's looking to me like your definition of Appearance is coming slightly apart from the canon one (which in my opinion is right and good; I was a lot more heavyhanded about it when I redefined it, but perhaps that's not necessary). I think it would be useful for this page if you were to provide a new scale with new Appearance definitions; the canon description of Appearance 4 in particular implies a certain kind of beauty that you don't seem to be going for.
~ Shataina the "i" comes before the "n", incidentally.

Hahaha. I'll see about producing a clearer/revised scale, along with some specific terms and definitions. This is what I get for writing with no sleep at work. -- BillGarrett

Incidentally, if you're going to start working outside the canon definition (again, it seems to me you've already done so), I think you should edit the stated mission of this page and stuff, e.g. the description on the Appearance houserule index.
~ Shataina

I'm interested in what factors from the top of the page that people consider part of Appearance. Please add your name below, along with which factors you feel contribute. -- BillGarrett

I think you're being a little unclear. When you define "attractiveness" as measured by one's Appearance, I get the impression you're discussing a different kind of attractiveness than, say, sexual attractiveness. I'm also not convinced that any of the things you've listed couldn't be defined as either attractive or unattractive.
~ Shataina

Perhaps we're including noble or respectable-featured people (the older gentleman with a strong, straight jaw, wrinkles that give the appearance of wisdom rather than decrepitude, nearly no age spots, and snowy white hair that refuses to thin or fall out, for example) without it being specifically a sex-appeal thing. Defining Appearance strictly as a sex-appeal thing is a bit limiting, and even BillGarrett has emphasized this aspect, based on the feel of the page so far. -- JadeSerpent