Samsara:Modifiers
Modifiers and the Character[edit]
A good character might have a lot of indefinable qualities, subtle touches of personality and nuance. But mechanically, he is just a collection of modifiers. That’s it. The modifiers exist to implement the character in play. They might also help solidify those characteristics.
Modifiers are +/- numbers that affect the Contest Roll. A 0 is a perfectly reasonable score for a modifier. Most people have a 0 in all areas, making them average. A positive modifier means that one is better than average and a negative modifier means than one is worse than average. The default limits for human beings are +/- 6 in any modifier. This limit might be changed depending upon the nature of the game being played: the adventures of the Hellenic gods might well have modifiers in excess of +10, while a mobile hunk of protoplasm might have an intelligence of -10.
Variation: Scaling[edit]
The suggested range of human modifiers assumes that the game you are playing is centered on human beings. Extraordinary human beings, perhaps, maybe action movie superstars, but still basically human. If, however, that is not the case and your game revolves around hyperanthropes (“beyond humans”) of some kind: incarnated gods, superheroes, or high-level wuxia stars, then you might rescale the limits of modifiers, to prevent the numbers from getting too high for all involved. This would be a sort of reverse-mook rule.
For the most extreme actors, you might decide that the entire range of feasible human characteristics is -1 to +1. That is, all regular humans can be lumped into a range of “bad-average-good”. The best Olympic weight-lighter would have a Strength of +1. Anything beyond +/- 1 then falls into the ultra-mundane category. You might have each point double the previous one, so that +2 is twice is good as +1 and +3 is four times as good as +1. This would let you deal with extremely powerful actors. More modestly, each point might represent a set increase; this would keep things a little more down to earth. Contest ratings will have to be rescaled as well, since any action feasibly performed by a normal human would only have a Contest rating of +2 at the most.
Varieties of Modifiers[edit]
The various modifiers used to describe characters come in two varieties: variable and invariable. Variable modifiers change during the course of play. Checks received are a form of variable modifier. Invariable modifiers do not change, except in unusual circumstances.
Invariable modifiers can be further broken down into attributes (personal qualities like strength and intelligence), abilities (which modify attributes and are such things as skills, talents, and personal influence), and motives (which are the inner forces driving the character). As usual, do not get overwhelmed by terminology. All of these are modifiers, just +/- numbers which affect your contest roll. That’s all.
- Invariable Modifiers
- Attributes
- Abilities
- Motives
- Variable Modifiers
- Situational
- Temporary Checks
- Severe Checks
The number of these various modifiers possessed by a character depends upon the character and his narrative importance. The player characters are the stars of the story and tend to have the full complement of modifiers. The third guard on the left, however, will be knocked out approximately .3 seconds after the fighting begins and will never be heard from again. He has very few modifiers.
As a general rule, the number and kind of attributes are fixed; everybody has the same attributes but in vary degrees (some folks are smarter than others, but everyone has some intelligence score). The number and kind of abilities is not fixed (some people have no abilities to speak of, whereas others are polymaths). Most conscious folk have at least 1 motive, though they may have more.
The next section discusses the attributes.
2.Contests
6.Motives
7.Checks
