Personality Traits

Personality Traits are largely a descriptive statistic in Ars Magica Fifth Edition, used as a guide to roleplaying a character, rather than actually deciding what they do. However, grogs often have less well-developed personalities due to their role in the game, and they will undoubtedly act differently under the control of different players. As a consequence, the troupe may decide to make greater use of Personality Trait rolls when determining the actions of grogs.

Each character begins with at least three Personality Traits that range from –3 to +3 (ArM5, page 33). Most grogs should have a Brave and a Loyal Personality Trait. The Loyal Trait is assumed to represent their loyalty to the covenant, although they may develop different loyalties to different organizations or individuals. The Loyal Trait is also used as a measure of the impact of The Gift on non-magi (see Growing Used to The Gift, later). If a character has a Personality Flaw, then she could be given an additional Personality Trait that matches that Flaw. This trait should have a value of +3 (for a Minor Flaw) or +6 (for a Major Flaw).

Several resources for Ars Magica

Fifth Edition have provided lists of possible Personality Traits. Realms of Power: The Divine Revised Edition, page 40, has an insert relating Personality Traits to religious virtues and vices, and discusses which traits oppose which others. Art & Academe, page 40, discusses the relationship between complexion and Personality traits, and provides further lists of possible traits linked to the preponderance of the humors.

To decide on a character's actions using Personality Trait rolls, add the Personality Trait to the result of a stress die, and compare the result to the table on page 19 of Ars Magica Fifth Edition. Pay special attention to the trait rolled and its sign. For example, a character with a Cowardly +2 Trait who is asked to make a Brave roll effectively has a Brave –2 Trait. If a character fails a Personality Trait roll, then he must temporarily act in a manner determined by the circumstances (that is, the storyguide). A character who lacks a Personality Trait is considered to have a score of zero. Usually, a single Personality Trait is applied to any given roll; use the most appropriate, or the highest. A grog with an applicable Personality Flaw does not usually need to roll; a Major Personality Flaw takes virtually all control from the player under applicable circumstances, whereas a Minor Personality Flaw should determine his actions in lieu of a Personality Trait Roll, but not to the exclusion of reason.

A common experience for grogs is to be under the influence of conflicting emotions. A sentry on watch might be tempted by his Lazy Trait to just go to sleep, but this is opposed by his Need to Please. A normally Brave soldier might be challenged by his Fear of Fire. A grog might be torn between his Loyal to Covenant and his Loyal to Friends Traits. When this happens, make the Personality Trait roll as usual, but modify the Ease Factor by the score in the opposing Trait. This modification might make the Ease Factor harder or easier, depending on the situation.

Exempli gratia: A grog is confronted by a fire-breathing dragon, which requires a Brave roll. If a magus orders him to engage the dragon, the character's Loyal trait is subtracted from the Ease Factor, since the more loyal the grog is, the easier this roll is. If the character has a Fear of Fire, this Trait should be added to the Ease Factor for the Brave roll, since this fear discourages his natural bravery.

As previously explained in ArM5, people do not get used to The Gift. They can get used to a Gifted individual, however, and regular positive interactions eventually allow a person to ignore the negative social consequences generated by that character's Gift. Covenants implies that it takes 15 years for an average resident of a coven to ignore the social penalty of the Gift (see Familiarity, page 40), although altruism and rewards might shorten this substantially, and providing the grogs with better than average living conditions and pay can shorten it further still. The social penalty of a magus' Gift is usually applied to any sort of situation roll that involves loyalty, but Covenants introduces the concept of Prevailing Loyalty, which is added to any Loyal Personality Trait rolls instead of the magus' social penalty. Prevailing Loyalty begins as the average social penalty of a covenant's magi, but can increase (or decrease) according to factors such as the length of time that magi and grogs have associated with one another, and the attitude of the magi toward the grogs during that time. An individual grog begins with a Loyal Personality Trait that is up to 3 points different from the turb's Prevailing Loyalty.

For a more complex, but perhaps richer, system, each grog could have a separate Loyalty score for each magus in the covenant — or at least for those magi with whom he has regular contact. These Loyalty scores fluctuate in a similar manner to Prevailing Loyalty. Thus, if Ignatio the Shield Grog has regular, friendly contact with Tillitus of Bonisagus, his initial Loyal +2 might develop into two Personality Traits, Loyal to Covenant +2 and Loyal to Tillitus +3. Consequently, Ignatio has an effective Loyal 0 when dealing with Tillitus (taking into account his –3 penalty for the Gift), compared to Loyal –1 with the other magi of the covenant.