Personality Proficiencies

## Personality Scores

Personality Scores are a tool for players to use when they are uncertain about what action their character should take. It allows them to decide with a d20 roll plus a modifier based on their character's personality traits.

The personality scores are Bravery, Reasoning, Discipline, Stoicism, Stability, and Optimism.

### Assigning Personality Scores

There are 6 basic personality scores, as well as several traits under each of them. These are analogous to ability scores and skills respectively. Generally, a low number represents a flaw, while a higher number represents a strength.

When creating your character, you assign yourself personality scores in the same way that you assign ability scores. You can use the standard array, point buy, roll for them, or just give them whichever scores make sense for the character. Because personality scores have no mechanical consequence, you can use whatever numbers you want.

Unlike ability scores, personality scores have a maximum of 30 and a minimum of -10. This means that the maximum modiifer is +10, and the minimum is -10. Avoid having many scores that go below 1 or above 20. Extreme scores should be reserved for their greatest strength or fatal flaw.

#### Traits

Traits are to personality scores what skills are to ability scores. They are more specific subsets of personality traits that a character might be better or worse in than the main score. By default, traits have the same modifier as the personality score they are listed under. For example, if you have +3 in Bravery, you will start with +3 in Risktaking and +3 in Social Bravery.

##### Personality Scores
|        Score         | Description |
|:---:|:-----------|
|  Bravery  | How well you handle fear and danger. |
|  Reasoning  | Your ability to think your actions through and acknowledge bad ideas |
|  Discipline  | How well you can fight through pain and discomfort, physical or mental |
|  Stoicism  | Your ability to keep your emotions to yourself |
|  Stability  | How emotionally volatile you are |
|  Optimism  | Your tendency to keep a positive attitude |

You may choose to give your character additional strength or weakness in any of these areas. There is no limit to how many you can do this with. By default, being strong in something lets you add 2 to the modifier and being weak makes you subtract 2, although you can change it by less or more depending on whatever fits your character.

### Using Personality Scores

Whenever you come across a moment in the game when you aren't sure how your character would act or react, you may make a personality check using whatever personality score is trait is relevant. You can give yourself advantage and disadvantage whenever you feel it's appropriate.

**You do not have to follow the result of a personality check if you don't like it.** Sometimes rolling a die and being faced with an outcome can help you make a decision, even if that's opposite to the die, and that's okay.

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##### Personality Score Value Meanings

If the meaning section is blank, that value means something in between the value above and below it.

|      Score       | Modifier | Meaning |
|:---:|:------:|:-----------|
|  -10 or -9  | -10 | You have an overpowering, obvious, debilitating weakness in this area. It's a wonder that you're still functioning with such a flaw. |
|  -8 or -7  | -9 | |
|  -6 or -5  | -8 | You are so unbelievably weak in this area that you have garnered a far-reaching reputation for it. |
|  -4 or -3  | -7 | |
|  -2 or -1  | -6 | The severity of your flaw surpasses the flaws of most ordinary people. |
|  0 or 1  | -5 | You have a serious flaw in this area that is obvious to anyone who knows you. |
|  2 or 3  | -4 | |
|  4 or 5  | -3 | You are noticably bad in this area. |
|  6 or 7  | -2 | |
|  8 or 9  | -1 | You are slightly weak in this, but others may not notice. |
|  10 or 11  | 0 | You are average in this area. |
|  12 or 13  | +1 | You are slightly strong in this area, but others may not notice. |
|  14 or 15  | +2 | |
|  16 or 17  | +3 | You're noticably good in this area. |
|  18 or 19  | +4 | |
|  20 or 21  | +5 | Anyone would agree that this is one of your biggest strengths. |
|  22 or 23  | +6 | Your strength in this area is heroic in degree and surpasses most ordinary people. |
|  24 or 25  | +7 |  |
|  26 or 27  | +8 | You are beyond exceptional in this area, and likely have a far-reaching reputation for this strength. |
|  28 or 29  | +9 | |
|  30  | +10 | You are supernaturally perfect and unfailing in this trait. |

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### How NOT To Use Personality Scores

Personality scores should not be used as an actual game mechanic. While the DM can request that you make checks with your personality scores, you can always decline, or refuse to act on the results if they make no sense for your character. With personality scores, you should *always* be allowed to ignore the dice and make your own decision. Otherwise, it takes away player agency.

### Personality Scores and NPCS

For DMs, personality scores can also be useful to assign to NPCs, to determine their behavior and their reactions to the players. They work the same way for NPCs and they do for player characters. 
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##### Traits
|      Trait       | Score | Description |
|:---:|:-:|:-----------|
|  Risktaking  | BRV | How willing you are to take risks. |
|  Social Bravery  | BRV | Your resistance to social anxiety. |
|  Introspection  | RSN | How well you can reevaluate your behavior and grow as a person. |
|  Open-Mindedness  | RSN | Your ability to accept when you are wrong and change your mind. |
|  Social Awareness  | RSN | How aware you are of social norms. |
|  Self-Control  | DIS | Your ability to resist temptation. |
|  Patience  | DIS | How well you can handle boredom. |
|  Eloquence  | STC | Staying calm and logical during emotionally charged conversations and debates. |
|  Anger Management  | STC | Your ability to resist resorting to violence when you're angry. |
|  Grieving | SBL | How affected you are when reminded of a loss. |
|  Desire  | SBL | How easily you are distracted by or infatuated with attractive people. |
|  Trauma | SBL | How much a disturbing moment will traumatize you. |
|  Mental Health  | SBL | The state of your mental health at the moment. |
|  Trust  | OPT | How willing you are to trust people. |
|  Confidence  | OPT | How confident you are in yourself. |

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### Bravery (BRV)

Bravery represents how well the character is able to stand up against frightening circumstances. Make a bravery check when your character is facing something they have reason to be afraid of, such as the focus of a phobia they have or an enemy they know they can't defeat.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You cower and snivel at the source of your fear, likely making a fool of yourself. There is no way you can face it. |
|  2-5  | You freeze up at the source of your fear. You back out of facing it unless you have absolutely no other choice. |
|  6-10  | You may be able to face and interact with the source of your fear in a limited way, but you are clearly scared. You will back out if the situation escalates. |
|  11-15  | It is hard to hide your trepidation, but you do what must be done. |
|  16-19  | You hold your ground against the source of your fear, hiding your anxiousness, and act decisively. |
|  20+  | You feel no fear at all.  |

#### Trait: Risktaking

The risktaking trait represents how willing a character is to take risks. Make a risktaking check when you are struggling with a risky proposition and need your character to make a choice.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | This sounds like a terrible idea. You refuse to take the risk no matter what. |
|  2-5  | The idea makes you very nervous. You won't take the risk unless you are forced into it. |
|  6-10  | You fear it won't be worth it. You don't take the risk right away, but it may still be on the table and you can be convinced otherwise. |
|  11-15  | You believe it might be worth it. You take the risk. |
|  16-19  | You acknowledge the risk, but you do it anyway with confidence. |
|  20+  | You jump all in, no questions asked. |

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#### Social Bravery

The social bravery trait represents how easily your character can face situations that might trigger social anxiety. Make a social bravery check when your character is working up the courage to talk to someone new, ask out their crush, have a difficult conversation, etc.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You're so nervous you can barely speak. You won't be able to do it. |
|  2-5  | You are feeling too anxious to do it. It will only happen if the other person does most of the work. |
|  6-10  | You'll do it if you have to but you are very nervous about it. The other person will be able to sense your apprehension. |
|  11-15  | It's tough, but you work up the courage to do it. You may come across as a bit awkward, but not scared. |
|  16-19  | You are feeling confident and are able to do it without a problem. |
|  20+  | You feel no social anxiety whatsoever, and approach the conversation without inhibition. |

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### Reasoning (RSN)

Reasoning is how well the character is able to make good, sound decisions based on the information they have. Make a reasoning check when you know something is a bad idea, but you aren't sure if your character would realize that in the moment.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You don't see what could possibly go wrong! You might even do something even stupider than you would have before. |
|  2-5  | It doesn't occur to you that what you're doing might not be a good idea. |
|  6-10  | You have a suspicion that maybe you're wrong, and you will stop if an ally advises against it, but otherwise you'll give your idea a try. |
|  11-15  | You second guess yourself. You'll do some more thinking and ask others for input, but may still make the stupid decision if no good arguments against it are raised. |
|  16-19  | You see the flaw in your plan, and definitively decide against it. |
|  20+  | You know that plan is absolutely idiotic, and you may even be certain of a better solution. |

#### Introspection

Introspection represents your character's ability to look back on their behavior and realize things about themselves, allowing them to grow and improve as a person. Make an introspection check if something might have taught your character a lesson, but you're not sure if they internalized it.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You look back on how you've been behaving, and draw a completely wrong conclusion that only makes you worse. |
|  2-5  | You look back on how you've been behaving, and you see nothing wrong with it. |
|  6-10  | You don't take the time to reflect on yourself. |
|  11-15  | You reflect on your behavior, but it makes you uncomfortable and you stop early. You might make small improvements to yourself. |
|  16-19  | You reflect on your behavior, and realize you've been in the wrong. You will take large steps to improve yourself. |
|  20+  | You have a major, life changing epiphany about your behavior, motivating you to change in a significant way. |

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#### Open-Mindedness

Open-mindedness is how willing you are to change your views when presented with evidence of the contrary. Make an open-mindedness check when your character is forced to confront and question a preexisting belief, whether it be a religious conviction or a prejudice against a type of people.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You stubbornly and aggressively refuse to change your views, only becoming more entrenched in them. |
|  2-5  | You hold strong to you beliefs in the face of any evidence you see to the contrary. |
|  6-10  | You aren't ready to let go of your beliefs, although you may keep them to yourself is expressing them is causing problems. |
|  11-15  | This evidence has made you start to question you beliefs. You might entertain new perspectives. |
|  16-19  | You put your biases aside and try to be open minded. |
|  20+  | You happily accept the most logical answer without your ego getting in the way. |

#### Social Awareness

Social awareness is how much your character is aware of social norms and able to follow them. Make a social awareness check when your character is tempted to do something socially awkward.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You do something even more awkward than you would have before, and are blissfully unaware of your transgression. |
|  2-5  | You fail to realize that what you are doing is socially awkward. |
|  6-10  | You recognize that your behavior is a little weird, but you do it anyway. |
|  11-15  | You suspect that what you plan to do is a social faux pas. You might still do it if you decide it's worth the risk. |
|  16-19  | You know for certain that the actions you're considering wouldn't be received well. |
|  20+  | You know exactly how you should be behaving right now given the circumstances and people around you. |

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### Discipline (DIS)

Discipline is how easily your character is able to deal with discomfort. Make a discipline check to see if your character can continue doing a task that is painful or exhausting, physically or mentally. For example, hiking long distances on an empty stomach, getting up early to practice meditating every day, or resisting torture.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You can't go on any longer. You give up, even if it puts you in danger. |
|  2-5  | Unless your life depends on it, you'll quickly succumb to discomfort and stop. |
|  6-10  | You can stay strong for a short while, but you will surrender before any real progress can be made. If you have to do it, you will take frequent breaks. |
|  11-15  | You put in a valiant effort, although it might not be enough. You will give up eventually. |
|  16-19  | You stay strong and fight through the pain for as long as you have to. |
|  20+  | You're barely tempted to give in, and will stay strong without a problem.  |

#### Self-Control

Self-control is how well your character can resist temptations. Make a self-control roll when your character is being tempted into doing something wrong or stupid by money, food, sex, or something else they want.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You give in to temptation immediately, without a second thought. |
|  2-5  | Resistance is futile. You give in quickly. |
|  6-10  | You try to resist, but you ultimately fail. |
|  11-15  | You resist, but you'd be lying if you said you didn't consider it. |
|  16-19  | You easily resist the temptation. |
|  20+  | You don't feel tempted at all. |

#### Patience

Patience is how well your character can deal with waiting and boredom. Make a patience check when your character is bored or frustrated for extended periods, like if they have to keep watch for hours or listen to someone drone on for a long time.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You completely lose your patience and snap, causing you to give up on the endeavor entirely. |
|  2-5  | Your boredom is torturous, frustrating you and driving you to take some action that isn't waiting. |
|  6-10  | You are too bored to focus well on the task at hand, but you stick to it. |
|  11-15  | You power through the boredom, although it doesn't leave you in a great mood. |
|  16-19  | You fight off the boredom and stay on task well. |
|  20+  | You could wait forever and stay perfectly calm and focused. |

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### Stoicism (STC)

Stoicism is how well you are able to control the expression of your emotions. Make a stoicism roll when your character is trying to resist crying, laughing, screaming in pain, throwing a fit of anger, or expressing any other intense emotion.

Stoicism and its related traits are specifically used to help the player figure out how they will roleplay. When they are hiding information in a way that impacts the game, relevent skills (like deception and performance) should be used instead.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | Your emotions explode out of you in an overdramatic fashion. You cry, scream, laugh uncontrollably, or whatever else reflects what you feel. |
|  2-5  | Try as you might, you can't hold back your emotions, and how you feel is obvious to onlookers. |
|  6-10  | Your expressions are subtle, but still easily readable to anyone who pays attention. |
|  11-15  | You can't help a few slight twitches in your facial expression, but those are easily missed. You otherwise remain stoic. |
|  16-19  | You successfully hide your emotions, well enough that no one will notice. |
|  20+  | Your emotions are so well buried, not even you are fully aware of them. |

#### Eloquence

Eloquence is how well your character can stay calm, reasonable and eloquent when discussing emotionally loaded topics. Make an eloquence roll when your character is growing upset or frustrated with a conversation or debate.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | Your speech devolves into uncontrollable shouting or crying. It is impossible for you to form a logical argument when you're this emotional. |
|  2-5  | There is much more emotion than logic in your voice and argument. Your obvious volatility will make others question your judgment. |
|  6-10  | You try to stay calm, but your emotions break through several times.  |
|  11-15  | You speak passionately, but without breaking down in any way that looks foolish. |
|  16-19  | You stay calm and collected as you speak. |
|  20+  | You remain almost supernaturally calm, no matter how heated the discussion grows. |

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#### Anger Management

Anger management is how well your character can prevent their anger from turning into violence. Make an anger management check when they are mad enough to possibly hurt someone, but might also try to resist.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You are ready to kill someone. |
|  2-5  | You attack unless it's obvious that doing so would get you killed. |
|  6-10  | You will not hesitate to attack if they set you off any more than they already have. You probably threaten them. |
|  11-15  | As much as you want to punch their lights out, you hold back until they give you a real reason to fight. |
|  16-19  | You keep yourself from fighting unless you have to or they attack first. |
|  20+  | You feel no urge to fight them. |

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### Stability (SBL)

Stability is a measure of how reactive your character's emotions are. A high score means that it's difficult to make them feel intense joy, sadness, fear or anger, while a low score means that the littlest things could set off powerful emotions.

Whether or not they express the emotions that they feel is up to their stoicism trait. A character with low stability who wants to hide their emotions will have to make a lot more stoicism rolls than one with high stability.

If you roll low on a stability check regarding fear, you may want to make bravery checks to see if you can take action. A low roll on a stability check for anger might require an anger management check (under stoicism).

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | The emotion you feel is so overpowering that you can't focus on anything else. |
|  2-5  | You have a very strong emotional reaction that most likely will overpower your logic. |
|  6-10  | You have a strong emotional reaction that may impact your decision making. |
|  11-15  | You have an emotional reaction, but it won't drive you to make illogical decisions. |
|  16-19  | Your emotions are under control. |
|  20+  | You don't feel anything. |

#### Grieving

Grieving is how affected your character by loss. Make a grieving check when your character is reminded of a loss to see how emotionally distraught that makes them.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You are overwhelmed by grief, to the point where you aren't functioning. |
|  2-5  | You succumb to sadness, weeping or falling into a depressed state. |
|  6-10  | You feel deep sadness and have trouble thinking about anything but your loss. |
|  11-15  | You feel sad for a while, but it doesn't severely impact you. |
|  16-19  | You feel a pang of sadness, but you can shrug it off. |
|  20+  | As much as you may miss what you lost, you stay strong. |

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#### Desire

Desire is how easily your character becomes distracted by or infatuated with attractive people. Roll a desire check when your character encounters someone you think they could find attractive.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You develop a crush on the person. |
|  2-5  | You can't deny it, they're stunning and stirring feelings inside of you. Hopefully they don't see you staring... |
|  6-10  | They are distracting, that's for sure. You may steal glances, but you can resist staring. |
|  11-15  | They're definitely attractive and have caught your attention. If the situation seems right, you may pursue them. |
|  16-19  | You might acknowledge that they're attractive, but you are otherwise unaffected. |
|  20+  | You don't even notice that they're attractive. |

#### Trauma

Trauma is how likely your character is to be permanently traumatized by seeing or experiencing something disturbing or terrifying. Roll a trauma check when your character goes through something harrowing, and you want to see how deeply it affected them.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | This moment has scarred you for life. You may develop a new phobia or PTSD. |
|  2-5  | You are definitely traumatized by this moment. |
|  6-10  | You're going to have nightmares about this for a while. |
|  11-15  | You are disturbed and will have a hard time getting that out of your head, but will recover in a few days. |
|  16-19  | You are disturbed, but the feelings will pass quickly. |
|  20+  | You are not at all shaken by what has happened. |

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#### Mental Health

Mental Health is an optional trait for characters who experience a mental health problem that fluctuates in severity, such as depression, an anxiety disorder, or a psychotic disorder. At the beginning of the day, or when they encounter a mental health trigger, roll a mental health check to see how much their mental health is impacting them.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You are having a severe episode of mental illness. You are barely functional. |
|  2-5  | Today is not a good day for you. Your problem are worse than they usually are, and you may have trouble functioning in some ways. |
|  6-10  | You are feeling slightly worse than usual. You may struggle slightly, but you are functional. |
|  11-15  | Your mental health issues are there, but are manageable at the moment. You are functional. |
|  16-19  | Your mental health is much better than usual. |
|  20+  | Your mental health isn't bothering you whatsoever. |

### Optimism (OPT)

Optimism is how well your character can think positively and keep their hope strong in hopeless situations. Make an optimism check when a situation seems dire and hopeless to your character.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | There is no hope. You might as well give up. |
|  2-5  | You have little faith in things working out. |
|  6-10  | You find it hard to be optimistic, but you're still willing to try. |
|  11-15  | You recognize that the situation is bad, but feel a glimmer of hope and optimism. |
|  16-19  | You have a feeling that things will work out just fine. |
|  20+  | You are completely sure that everything will be okay in the end. |

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#### Trust

Trust is how quick your character is to put their trust and confidence in another, especially someone they don't know well. Make a trust check when deciding how much your character trusts a new person in their life.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You could never trust this person. |
|  2-5  | You don't trust them, and it would be very hard for them to earn your trust. |
|  6-10  | You have a bad feeling about them, and your first instinct is to distrust them. |
|  11-15  | You neither trust nor distrust them, but you will give them a chance. |
|  16-19  | You feel inclined to trust them. |
|  20+  | You trust this person completely. |

#### Confidence

Confidence is how certain your character is that they are a worthwhile, capable person. Make a confidence check when your character needs to do something that requires feeling confident, or has an experience that makes them question their self-worth.

| Roll | Effect |
|:---:|:-----------|
|     1 or less     | You feel utterly worthless. |
|  2-5  | You sincerely doubt yourself and your abilities. |
|  6-10  | You recognize both your strengths and your weaknesses, but it's hard not to focus on the weaknesses. |
|  11-15  | You recognize both your strengths and your weaknesses realistically. |
|  16-19  | You feel confident in yourself. |
|  20+  | Your confidence is bordering on (or has transformed into) cockiness. |

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|  2-5  |  |
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|  11-15  |  |
|  16-19  |  |
|  20+  |  |

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