Book of Broken Dreams - Ability Scores.

[Clistenes]

I have taken a peek at the Book of Broken Dreams, and while it gives cues about how to how to roleplay a character, and also specific bonuses and penalties to skills, and it even has a paragraph about how alignment relates to personality traits, it says nothing about basic ability scores...

I find it weird: You can have a high-Charisma character with Avoidant (Severe), Schizoid (Moderate) personality, or a a high-Wisdom character with Paranoid (Severe), Antisocial (Moderate), Obsessive-Compulsive (Moderate)...

I know the skill bonuses and penalties stand for the practical effects of those personality traits, but... what does it even mean having high Charisma for an Avoidant Schizoid character? or having high Wisdom for a Paranoid Antisocial Obsessive-Compulsive character?

You can even have a character with a Moderate personality trait who is better at those skills they are supposed to be bad at than another character who doesn't suffer those penalties but who has dumped the relevant ability...

[noob]

I have taken a peek at the Book of Broken Dreams, and while it gives cues about how to how to roleplay a character, and also specific bonuses and penalties to skills, and it even has a paragraph about how alignment relates to personality traits, it says nothing about basic ability scores...

I find it weird: You can have a high-Charisma character with Avoidant (Severe), Schizoid (Moderate) personality, or a a high-Wisdom character with Paranoid (Severe), Antisocial (Moderate), Obsessive-Compulsive (Moderate)...

I know the skill bonuses and penalties stand for the practical effects of those personality traits, but... what does even mean having high Charisma for an Avoidant Schizoid character? or having high Wisdom for a Paranoid Antisocial Obsessive-Compulsive character?

You can even have a character with a Moderate personality trait who is better at those skills they are supposed to be bad at than another character who doesn't suffer those penalties but who has dumped the relevant ability...

paranoid antisocial obsessive compulsive T1 casters for example are the ones that survive the longest(and so are wise in some sense)
If every single thing in existence is really out to get you then paranoia is a survival quality.
If by forgetting one ritual among a huge list you have to do each hour one billion spellcasters teleports where you are and try to kill you then being obsessive compulsive is a quality.
If by talking to someone you are subject to being found one and killed then avoiding all social contact is great.

[Clistenes]

paranoid antisocial obsessive compulsive T1 casters for example are the ones that survive the longest(and so are wise in some sense)
If every single thing in existence is really out to get you then paranoia is a survival quality.
If by forgetting one ritual among a huge list you have to do each hour one billion spellcasters teleports where you are and try to kill you then being obsessive compulsive is a quality.
If by talking to someone you are subject to being found one and killed then avoiding all social contact is great.

Okay, you got me there...

But what about the other example, the High-Charisma Severe Avoidant Moderate Schizoid? Somebody who is afraid and dislikes and is bad at social contact, but whose Charisma-powered powers are still highly effective? Like, a Sorcerer who "always has a great deal of difficulty dealing with others. They are constantly fearful and nervous in the presence of all but one or two people in the whole world. Some severely avoidant characters may not have any friends at all and will likely flee from any prospective contact with another person..." and "rarely seeks out contact with others and almost never engages in small talk. When they do participate in banter, or even business, they seem rude and cold. These people may even become surly and curt. This is because they lack good interpersonal skills and cannot communicate clearly with others. They often have severe difficulty with one or more areas of interpersonal contact such as listening or speaking clearly and engagingly. They are completely indifferent to the emotions of others. These people have few close relationships. What bonds they do form with others will be dry, mundane and usually centered on some ulterior motive..."

Edit: An Antisocial character doesn't avoid social contact... An Antisocial character basically behaves like your stereotypical murderhobo...

[noob]

Okay, you got me there...

But what about the other example, the High-Charisma Severe Avoidant Moderate Schizoid? Somebody who is afraid and dislikes and is bad at social contact, but whose Charisma-powered powers are still highly effective? Like, a Sorcerer who "always has a great deal of difficulty dealing with others. They are constantly fearful and nervous in the presence of all but one or two people in the whole world. Some severely avoidant characters may not have any friends at all and will likely flee from any prospective contact with another person..." and "rarely seeks out contact with others and almost never engages in small talk. When they do participate in banter, or even business, they seem rude and cold. These people may even become surly and curt. This is because they lack good interpersonal skills and cannot communicate clearly with others. They often have severe difficulty with one or more areas of interpersonal contact such as listening or speaking clearly and engagingly. They are completely indifferent to the emotions of others. These people have few close relationships. What bonds they do form with others will be dry, mundane and usually centered on some ulterior motive..."

Edit: An Antisocial character doesn't avoid social contact... An Antisocial character basically behaves like your stereotypical murderhobo...
Well then okay it is not the perfect survivalist T1 caster then.(just the perfect murderhobo one)

For that thing charisma is periodically about force of personality or ability to convince others.
That character you mention lacks the convincing part(due to avoiding social interaction) but it could have a strong force of personality since it does not have significant meaning other than possibly being a fuel for abilities.

If it was a bard however I would have an hard time understanding how it got to become a bard in the first place(maybe it was forced to?)

Also how is the lack of will to do anything called?(replace schizoid by that and your character lacks any way to be "charismatic" with the problems it have)

By the way the combination of problems you picked for that charisma based character is the kind of thing that would not be allowed in adventures with more than one character.

[Clistenes]

Also how is the lack of will to do anything called?(replace schizoid by that and your character lacks any way to be "charismatic" with the problems it have).

I guess the closer fit would be Anhedonia, which isn't a dsorder on itself, but it is a symptom of a major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, substance related disorder, post traumatic stress disorder or Parkinson's disease...

I think you could roleplay a character with a substance related disorder or post traumatic stress disorder, but the other maladies would make a character mostly unplayable, unless they got better during play thanks to magical shenanigans...


By the way the combination of problems you picked for that charisma based character is the kind of thing that would not be allowed in adventures with more than one character.

Maybe, but I was just pointing that you could roll such character using the Book of Broken Dreams...

I don't think the Sorcerer I described would be unplayable. They would just need a VERY good reason to get out of their cave and join the adventure (like, saving their own soul from a demon, or saving the world from destruction...), and they would spend most of the time hiding in the background until the time to hurl fireballs and lightning bolts comes...

[noob]

I guess the closer fit would be Anhedonia, which isn't a dsorder on itself, but it is a symptom of a major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, substance related disorder, post traumatic stress disorder or Parkinson's disease...

I think you could roleplay a character with a substance related disorder or post traumatic stress disorder, but the other maladies would make a character mostly unplayable, unless they got better during play thanks to magical shenanigans...



Maybe, but I was just pointing that you could roll such character using the Book of Broken Dreams...

I don't think the Sorcerer I described would be unplayable. They would just need a VERY good reason to get out of their cave and join the adventure (like, saving their own soul from a demon, or saving the world from destruction...), and they would spend most of the time hiding in the background until the time to hurl fireballs and lightning bolts comes...

there is a difference between what might be disallowed and what will be disallowed: if you can make the character work in the team it is more likely to be allowed.