Let's talk about Traits!

These are words or phrases that describe who or what a Rockstar is. At creation, the Player is prompted to roll, choose or invent phrases that describe the Rockstar’s Personality, Motivation, Trouble, Background, Appearance, Wealth, and Fame.

In game terms, Traits can add Advantages or Disadvantages in certain situations. Let me explain this in more details

TRAITS

On your Rockstar’s Backstage Pass (read Character Sheet), among all the Aspects, are the Traits. They describe who and/or what your Rockstar is. A Rockstar’s general knowledge, including the languages they speak and the people they’ve met, can be deduced by their Traits. 

Traits can also be used by the Tour Manager to determine Advantages and Disadvantages before rolling for an Action check.

Example: If you are Charismatic as F★ck, the Tour Manager might declare an Advantage whenever you roll a Social Action check. On the downside, you might get a Disadvantage when trying to pick a lock without being caught if you are Nervous.

For more informations about Advantages/Disadvantages, I suggest you take a look at last week DevLog: HERE

STARTING TRAITS

Traits should be keywords or small phrases that describe the Rockstar. They begin their career with 5 Traits. For these first 5 Traits, choose or write a word or a short sentence that describes each of the following:

PERSONALITY: Is the Rockstar active, gloomy, lazy, social, or a goofball? This is where you indicate the Rockstar’s disposition, morals, or social quirks.

MOTIVATION: Do the Rockstar want to achieve spiritual enlightenment? Attain God of Rock status? Amend for a past crime? Whatever the Rockstar wants, regrets, or desires can be written down as a motivation.

BACKGROUND: Where do they come from? How did they grow up? What was their previous job? A Rockstar’s background is their heritage, vocation, or archetype.

COMPLICATION: Some Rockstars are choleric, some are agents of chaos, some are gullible, while some have bad drinking habits. A Trouble is a Rockstar’s greatest flaw, vulnerability, or problem.

APPEARANCE: Ugly as sin? Tall and slender? Short and cute as a bunny? The Rockstar’s Appearance is their physical appearance, morphology and/or countenance.

The book provides plenty of suggestions for each Starting Trait but Players are highly encouraged to come up with their own to create unique and quirky Rockstars!

HOW DO THEY WORK IN GAME?

Traits can influence dice rolls in many ways.

For example, if a Player decides that his Rockstar has Very Strong as a Trait, they might get Advantage when making a strength-related check but, to the Tour Manager's (read Gamemaster's) discretion he might get a Disadvantage when making agility-related checks. The rules enforce communication between the Tour Manager and the Players to come up with a solution that suits borth the Player and TM.

Complications are mainly narrative but can also provide Disadvantage in certain situations. For example, a Rockstar with a drinking habit might get a Disadvantage on Mental Checks with facing someone who is proposing a drink or get intoxicated before a show and get Disadvantage on all rolls during the show.

Here is a touchy subject I admit but there are rules regarding Lines and Veils in the rules too so when determining what can be used at the table or not, Players (and TMs) can choose to opt out on whatever they want to be off-limit in the narrative.

It's all about having fun and respecting our friends and gaming partners!

CAN I GET MORE TRAITS?

Yes of course! When reaching a new Milestone* a Player can choose to remove, modify, or add a new Trait to they Rockstar. Of course it has to be explained in the narrative if a character suddenly gets from Ugly As Sin to Godly Beauty! Surgery? Patron Intervention? The possibilities are endless and limited ONLY by the Player's (TM's) imagination.

* Milestones are narrative moments that justify a significant change to a Rockstar. Milestones may occur at the conclusion of an adventure or during the natural evolution of a Rockstar’s Trait through emergent narrative. It is the equivalent of an experience system.

That pretty sums it up for Traits! I hope you enjoyed and if you have comments, questions, ideas, feel free to drop them below in the comments! Have a great day!


Cover Picture by Juan Manuel Sanchez on Unsplash