Virtues
From ThreadsOfTime
Contents |
Overview of Virtues
The Virtue Traits define a character's outlook on life - they shape a character's ethical code and describe his commitment to his chosen morality. Virtues exist to help give a character a sense of being, not to force players to portray their characters in a given way. However, most characters are passionate creatures, and sometimes an act or situation may force a character to consider exactly how she should react to a given stimulus. Virtues come into play when a character faces an impending difficulty, does something ethically questionable (according to the character's morality), or confronts something that terrifies or disturbs her.
There are three Virtues. Conscience governs a character's sense of right and wrong, while Self-Control determines how readily she maintains her composure and contains herself. Courage measures the character's gumption and ability to withstand the unthinkable.
Every character starts out with one dot in each Virtue, and the player may then distribute seven additional dots among the Virtues as she sees fit. These Virtues play instrumental roles in determining a character's starting Humanity and Willpower levels, so be careful how you spend the points.
Conscience
Conscience is a Trait that allows characters to evaluate their conduct with relation to what is 'right' and 'wrong'. A character's moral judgment with Conscience stems from her attitude and outlook. Conscience factors into the difficulty of many rolls to avoid committing a transgression. Additionally, Conscience determines whether or not a character loses Humanity by committing acts that do not uphold her moral code A character with a high Conscience score feels remorse for transgressions, while a character with a lower Conscience may be a bit more callous or ethically lax.
Self Control
Self-Control defines a character's discipline and mastery over themselves. Characters with high Self-Control rarely succumb to emotional urges, and are thus able to restrain their darker sides more readily than characters with low Self-Control. Self-Control allows the character to resist urges.
Courage
Courage is the quality that allows characters to stand in the face of fear or daunting adversity. It is bravery, mettle and stoicism combined. A character with high Courage meets her fears head-on, while a character of lesser Courage may flee in terror.
Humanity
A character's starting Humanity score equals the sum other Conscience + Self-Control Traits, yielding a score between 5 and 10. Players are also encouraged to increase their Humanity scores with freebie points, as too low a score indicates that the Beast lies in close proximity.
Willpower
Willpower quantifies how much self-control the player has. Willpower is essential for controlling the actions of your character, especially in times of stress when judgment is critical. A PC regains Willpower points with a night of good sleep. Buying permanent Willpower comes with greater confidence in the self. In play, the most common use for Willpower is to spend one temporary point to gain an automatic success on a roll, but this must be declared before the roll actually happens.
A character's beginning Willpower score equals her Courage rating, and thus ranges from 1 to 5. Players are encouraged to raise their starting Willpower scores with freebie points, as the Trait is critical to dealing with dangerous emotional situations. Willpower is also used to undertake especially daunting tasks
