Persona Production Step 6
Traits, Categories, and Attributes (at long last)
Finally, after all that work, we get to determine our HP’s characteristics. The previous steps were taken because their results could affect a persona’s scores, especially age.
A character in Infinite Adventures, a persona, has a Mental, a Physical, and a Spiritual trait.
Mental Trait is a measure of how smart a persona is, and his mental health
Physical Trait is a measure of how strong and healthy a persona is. Also of a persona’s agility.
Spiritual Trait is a measure of a persona’s understanding and insight. Also of his connection with the universe. Spiritual trait is also a measure of a persona’s will, a high Spiritual Trait indicating someone who knows what he wants.
Each Trait has two Categories which further define the Trait.
For Mental the Categories are Mnemonic and Reasoning. Mnemonic is a measure of how well a persona remembers and recalls; while Reasoning shows how well that same persona figures things out.
With Physical the Categories are Muscular and Neural; the former having to do with the skeleto-muscular system — the persona’s strength, and agility, while the latter deals with a persona’s neural system — his reactions and dexterity.
The Spiritual Categories are Metaphysical and Psychic. Metaphysical being a measure of a persona’s understanding of the universe, while Psychic shows how well a persona is connected and in tune with reality.
The last layer of characteristics are the Attibutes. Each Category has three Attributes; Capacity, Power, and Speed.
Capacity shows just how good a persona could be in a Category, if he just applied himself.
Power is the measure of just how strong a persona is in the Category. A high Physical Neural Power for instance indicates someone who is sure in his movements and rarely makes a misstep.
Speed shows how fast a persona put a Category to use. A persona with a high Mental Reasoning Power but a low Mental Reasoning Speed can figure out some gnarly problems, it’s just going to take him longer.
To determine Trait, Category, and Attribute start by determining your HP’s Attributes. You do this by rolling 2d6 and adding 8 to the roll, giving a number range of 10-20 a total of 18 times. You then assign each result to one, and only one, Attribute.
With the following limit; Power and Speed can not be higher than Capacity. In other words, if Mental Mnemonic Capacity is, oh unfortunate soul, given a 12, then Mental Mnemonic Power and Mental Mnemonic Speed can be no higher than 12 at the very best.
There are two possible exceptions under Physical Trait. Age may bring Physical Power and/or Physical Speed above Physical Capacity. In this case the persona’s effective Power and/or Speed is limited to Capacity, but should the persona’s Capacity improve for any reason, then his Power and/or Speed will automatically increase to the same degree
In any case, once the Attributes have been determined the three Attributes under a Category are added together to give the Category’s rating. Then add together the two Trait Categories to determine the Trait’s rating. For example, a persona with a 16 in all six Physical Attributes would have a Muscular and a Neural Category of 48 each, and so a Physical Trait of 96
Alternate Method: If you prefer to not roll a bunch of times you can just roll a whole bunch of dice once. Roll a total of 20d10 and add 160 to the result. This will give you a range of 180 to 360, with an average of 270. You then allocate the points between your HP’s Attributes, with 10 being the least number of points that can be allocated, and 20 the most.
Now that you’ve done all these steps you’re ready to go on to choosing a Vocation.
