Thus Spake Zaranephilpal/MeritsAndFlaws
Nephilpal - 04/07/2004 17:10:51
I like well-thought and polite critiques. You won't offend me with those. Also, I flat out ignore anything I find needlessly rude, so I'm really hard to piss off.
Shoggoth has been really helpful. He pointed out a use of Callous that I hadn't thought up, which would break his games. He has also expressed some overall frustration that Merits and Flaws are so dependent on players and individual adjudication rather than being universally acceptable.
Unfortunately, there isn't a way around that. Merits and Flaws ARE tweaks and they CAN get out of hand. Heck, I'd even go so far as to say they get out of hand very easily. I admitted that in the introduction for them. I also gave the big bold rule so that players couldn't ever argue that they had a right to take them just because the Traits were in print.
Some players could be trusted with freeform chargen. You could say "Make a character. Make the character interesting and fair and fun for a game with this tone and this power level." Such dream players would walk off and come back with concepts that blow you away and practically write stories for you. There are other players who milk every loophole and point, trying to build the most combat capable character they can imagine. They play by the letter of the rules without understanding the spirit. Then you have everyone else between the poles of that broad continuum.
Things like Unskilled, Weak-willed, Callous, Diminished Attributes and the like... those are dangerous in the hands of a minimaxer because they screw with the delicate balances established in standard character creation. Is there a place for that kind of customization? I believe so. I also believe it isn't appropriate for everyone, nor should it be. Every Merit should improve a character's life or capabilities in some way, with a cost appropriate to the benefit. Every Flaw should represent a continuing liability.
Take Callous, for instance. Callous makes you less Virtuous, which marginally decreases your available Essence pool (for many types of Essence users) and lowers your opportunity for channeling Virtues. Those are also minor disadvantages by some definitions, but disadvantages all the same. But in some games, being Callous isn't a thematic liability. So you're crueler and have no self control. You got an extra charm out of that. Is that fair? Well, I don't know. In *my* games, you better damn well act out your Virtues or I'm going to start docking XP. If you have Compassion 1, you're a heartless bastard at the core. You might cover up your cruelty with high Social Attributes, but you really truly don't give a damn about others. Sooner or later, that will catch up with you. You'll screw over someone who takes it personally and has the power or friends with power to make your life miserable. You will reap what you sow. If you have Conviction 1, you're a sniveling worm. You aren't a coward... that's a lack of Valor... but you don't stand for anything. Sooner or later, your refusal to stand by your beliefs will leave your supposed friends high and dry. When life gets tough, you'll take the easy way out. In the big heroic epic, you'll be the bastard who sells out to the other side because you got a better offer. And you'll get your 30 pieces of silver and the enmity of everyone who ever trusted you. With a deficit of Temperance, you act and speak without thinking. Eventually, you'll mouth off to the wrong person or you'll do something so catastrophically reckless that your whole Circle will make a point of beating your head into the wall. You'll eat the faerie food or sleep with the war god's daughter or tell Jacint to go [...] himself. That's when the hurting starts. How about Valor? What happens when the coward bolts and leaves a hole in the formation? How will your loved ones ever forgive you for running away and deserting them in their time of need? In my games, a lack of virtue is a liability, if only because it forfeits the chance to really BE a hero. Callous is worth every point you get from it. Is that more work for me? Probably. But that's why that Flaw works in my games.
Let's look at another bone of contention, though: Unusual Appearance. Look at the real world a moment. Racism is not dead. Things are better, but you still have white supremacy groups and slurs like "nigger" and "chink" and "cracker." You have places where you'll be looked at funny, and even if they don't actually say "You ain't from around these parts!" the accusation and mistrust is clearly written on their faces. In the world of Exalted, you have people with really wild appearances. You've got long-toed, green-haired folk in the east and three-eyed mutants and god-blooded and who KNOWS what else. You have insular, clannish settlements across the world who don't know if any foreigners are actually alien gods or demons or Anathema or Ravagers in disguise. You have rampant xenophobia and suspicion which doesn't die easily in a society considerably more primitive than ours. In my series, the Haltan Eclise was called "Monkey Boy" by a lot of characters. Those who actually knew he was a Haltan sometimes turned that into "Monkey [...]" or "Sloth [...]" at choice moments. And all this wasn't because he was mean, because he wasn't mean. He was a nice enough lad. He got treated like shit because he was different. THAT is what Unusual Appearance is for. If someone takes that Flaw, it's not because they look different. Looking different isn't what makes that a flaw. The Flaw comes from looking different and suffering for it. When a player wants to take that Trait for a character, you as a Storyteller have to decide how bleak you want to make the world. If you want to make Creation a cold hard place where suspicion and hatred and bigotry run rampant, then the Flaw will justify itself. I promise you that. If you want a lighter and happier place where humanity generally gets along or tries to... the Flaw probably isn't appropriate for your game.
A really good thing to do with Merits and Flaws (but especially Flaws) is to realistically inform players how the Traits will affect gameplay. Sometimes this is obvious. If I take X, I get (or lose) so many dice in these situations. In other cases, as with Unusual Appearance or Callous or Dark Fate or Destiny or Past Lives or many others, the ramifications remain very much a matter of Storyteller fiat. By being honest, the players know what they are in for and it gives Storytellers a chance to work out their expectations and plan in advance (which is always handy).
--Neph
