Post by Adrian Hanlon on Jan 4, 2009 23:02:38 GMT -8
I thought this would be the best place to post a suggestion, so I want everyone's opinion on this.
As we all know, there's one particular attribute our characters have that, as of late (read: always) has felt particularly useless. You know it, I know it, it's Charisma. Currently, it has two uses: getting a gang, and some vague measurement of Chi power. While the first one makes sense, the second one really doesn't, but it's far and away the reason people improve it on those rare, rare occasions when they do. Even so, a vote earlier voted against changing Charisma to simply just a "Chi" stat.
So now, I've got an idea as to why we should keep Charisma around. It's a little far-fetched, and it depends a LOT on the honor system, but if it works correctly, it might be really cool.
Basically: The higher your Charisma, the more a chance you have of being able to puppetteer (in slight ways, of course) another character. Hold on there, cool those angry faces. I know I just said a bad word, that 'p-word', but let's think about it. Charisma is, for lack of a more blunt description, someone's ability to manipulate people, isn't it? If you're charismatic, you're more likely to be listened to, right?
So think about it: Say, in a post, I, as Adrian, wanted Andrew Black to make me a sammich. I'm only using these characters as, since I'm fighting Andrew at the moment, I'm a little more aware of his stats than most others. In a post, I'd do something like this:
"Hey, Andrew," Adrian said, nodding towards his former opponent from across their hospital beds. "How 'bout when we get out of here later, you make me a sammich?" (CHARISMA CHECK)
By marking a Charisma Check, the player whose character you're speaking to would have to consider his Charisma versus your Charisma (technically speaking, it would be intelligence vs. charisma, but I think cha vs. cha would be better), and if the difference is great enough, have his character think that whatever idea the former player's character had is actually a pretty good one. For example, Corey would reply something like this:
Andrew thought a moment about the idea. Finally, he shrugged, "Eh, why the hell not. Least I could do in return for such a hellacious brawl. Mustard or Mayo?"
See, it's not like a Jedi Mind Trick where Andrew just suddenly snapped into sammich-makin' mode. He could have even, for what it's worth, thought it was a good idea, but said "Maybe some other time." This is the part where it goes on the honor system. Meta-gaming and cheating would be tough to moderate, but this forum has, thus far, seemed like a great place, full of awesome, fair RPers, so I didn't see it being an issue.
Anyway, as far as severity goes, let's be honest here, if you wanted to Charisma Check someone into turning on their best friend for you, you'd need some seriously over-powering Charisma... like, I dunno, 100s of points more. The idea should be toned down enough that people aren't just walking around saying "Hey, do what I say" and everyone listens just because they have 50 Charisma.
So, what do the good folks at 259 think? Any questions? Objections? Clarifications? After all, it's only a good idea if it promotes discussion of some sort.
As we all know, there's one particular attribute our characters have that, as of late (read: always) has felt particularly useless. You know it, I know it, it's Charisma. Currently, it has two uses: getting a gang, and some vague measurement of Chi power. While the first one makes sense, the second one really doesn't, but it's far and away the reason people improve it on those rare, rare occasions when they do. Even so, a vote earlier voted against changing Charisma to simply just a "Chi" stat.
So now, I've got an idea as to why we should keep Charisma around. It's a little far-fetched, and it depends a LOT on the honor system, but if it works correctly, it might be really cool.
Basically: The higher your Charisma, the more a chance you have of being able to puppetteer (in slight ways, of course) another character. Hold on there, cool those angry faces. I know I just said a bad word, that 'p-word', but let's think about it. Charisma is, for lack of a more blunt description, someone's ability to manipulate people, isn't it? If you're charismatic, you're more likely to be listened to, right?
So think about it: Say, in a post, I, as Adrian, wanted Andrew Black to make me a sammich. I'm only using these characters as, since I'm fighting Andrew at the moment, I'm a little more aware of his stats than most others. In a post, I'd do something like this:
"Hey, Andrew," Adrian said, nodding towards his former opponent from across their hospital beds. "How 'bout when we get out of here later, you make me a sammich?" (CHARISMA CHECK)
By marking a Charisma Check, the player whose character you're speaking to would have to consider his Charisma versus your Charisma (technically speaking, it would be intelligence vs. charisma, but I think cha vs. cha would be better), and if the difference is great enough, have his character think that whatever idea the former player's character had is actually a pretty good one. For example, Corey would reply something like this:
Andrew thought a moment about the idea. Finally, he shrugged, "Eh, why the hell not. Least I could do in return for such a hellacious brawl. Mustard or Mayo?"
See, it's not like a Jedi Mind Trick where Andrew just suddenly snapped into sammich-makin' mode. He could have even, for what it's worth, thought it was a good idea, but said "Maybe some other time." This is the part where it goes on the honor system. Meta-gaming and cheating would be tough to moderate, but this forum has, thus far, seemed like a great place, full of awesome, fair RPers, so I didn't see it being an issue.
Anyway, as far as severity goes, let's be honest here, if you wanted to Charisma Check someone into turning on their best friend for you, you'd need some seriously over-powering Charisma... like, I dunno, 100s of points more. The idea should be toned down enough that people aren't just walking around saying "Hey, do what I say" and everyone listens just because they have 50 Charisma.
So, what do the good folks at 259 think? Any questions? Objections? Clarifications? After all, it's only a good idea if it promotes discussion of some sort.