From: [r--dd--n] at [ttidca.TTI.COM] (John Redden)
Subject: Other Suns # 4
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This is being posted to the net by myself for Niall Shapero.
Others Suns is copyright by Niall Shapero. This gaming material is
distributed on a shareware basis. If you do not use the material you
owe the author nothing. If you do use it please pay him what you
think it is worth at a fair price becasue it took a damn lot of work
to develop and playtest. The USmail address is:
Niall Shapero
2536 Short Ave
Los Angeles CA 90066
USA
Those of you with modems can dial into his BBS using this phone number:
(213)822-6729
Please email any comments to my electronic mailing address and I will
pass them on to Niall.
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PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILES
The physical characteristics for a new character have been
rolled, and all computed characteristics and bonuses have been
determined. But the player doesn't yet have a "real" character;
until he knows something of how that character would think and
act, the character created remains a (4) Forgiving <-> Vengeful
(5) Generous <-> Miserly
(6) Hedonistic <-> Stoic
(7) Honorable <-> Treacherous
(8) Humble <-> Proud (Arrogant)
(9) Merciful <-> Cruel
(10) Optimistic <-> Pessimistic
(11) Passive <-> Active
(12) Peaceable <-> Combative
(13) Trusting <-> Suspicious
(14) Xenophilic <-> Xenophobic
For each of these scales, percentage probabilities are assigned
to each extreme response and to a "neutral" response. A typical
human from Novaya Amerika, for example, would have the following
psychological profile:
Brave Neutral Cowardly
01-30 (30%) 31-70 (40%) 71-100 (30%)
Cautious Neutral Reckless
01-30 (30%) 31-70 (40%) 71-100 (30%)
Energetic Neutral Lazy
01-30 (30%) 31-80 (50%) 81-100 (20%)
Forgiving Neutral Vengeful
01-10 (10%) 11-90 (80%) 91-100 (10%)
Generous Neutral Miserly
01-30 (30%) 31-70 (40%) 71-100 (30%)
Hedonistic Neutral Stoic
01-30 (30%) 31-70 (40%) 71-100 (30%)
Honorable Neutral Treacherous
01-10 (10%) 11-90 (80%) 91-100 (10%)
Humble Neutral Arrogant
01-30 (30%) 31-70 (40%) 71-100 (30%)
Merciful Neutral Cruel
01-10 (10%) 11-90 (80%) 91-100 (10%)
Optimistic Neutral Pessimistic
01-40 (40%) 41-80 (40%) 81-100 (20%)
Passive Neutral Active
01-30 (30%) 31-70 (40%) 71-100 (30%)
Peacable Neutral Combative
01-30 (30%) 31-70 (40%) 71-100 (30%)
Trusting Neutral Suspicious
01-30 (30%) 31-70 (40%) 71-100 (30%)
Xenophilic Neutral Xenophobic
01-15 (15%) 16-85 (70%) 86-100 (15%)
PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILES IN OTHER SUNS
(continued)
The character's base line values are determined by species cul-
tural characteristics. Humans and Auuri, unlike most of the
other Hegemonic races, are not particularly homogeneous. The two
races are split into many different cultural groups. The baseline
values provided in the previous posting were only for Humans from
Novaya Amerika.
Given the base line values, the player may adjust the probability
ranges of each response either up or down by up to half it's
original value. For example, the initial Brave/Neutral/Cowardly
scale read 30/40/30. Then the player may change Brave or Coward-
ly down to as low as 15 or as high as 45. The total of all the
percentages must add up to 100, however, and no response can be
decreased by more than half, so the degree of variability is
limited. The player could not, for example, increase both Brave
and Cowardly from 30 to 45, as this would require Neutral to be
reduced from 40 to 10 (the sum of all probabilities add up to
100).
Let us say that our player wishes to run a character that is
quite brave. The "Brave" response can be increased up to 45 (30
+ 1/2 x 30). The maximum decrease allowed of the "Cowardly"
response is 15, to 15. Then this particular psychological scale
for the character would be as follows:
Brave Neutral Cowardly
01-45 (45%) 46-85 (40%) 86-100%
But what does all this mean? Does it mean that a character's
actions must always be decided by a 1D100 roll? No. The scale
is given as an indicator of the character's initial disposition.
If the player, at a later date, decides that the character is
going to do something considered cowardly by the referee, the
action will be carried out; the psychological profile may well
change as a result, but that is another matter.
What the profile provides is a deterministic "rule of thumb" for
role playing non-player characters of different species, and role
playing player characters where the player "doesn't know what his
character would do in the current situation". Only where a
particular range of behavior has through experience or psycholog-
ical conditioning been reduced to zero will a particular action
be barred. By the standards of Hegemonic mental hygiene, when a
character has reached this point he is insane by definition, and
is a fit candidate for psychological treatment.
Standard non-player characters (the equivalent of T.C. Mits) will
behave as per the dictates of the psychological profiles for
their species. Important non-player characters may be "modified"
just like player characters, and should have their psychological
profiles tracked just like player characters; they can change
their minds just like player characters.