====== Virtues (Personality Traits) ======

**Virtues** is the new term for what were Personality Traits (and prior to that, Passions).

//Personality traits// are a way to mechanise a character's personality. Ultimately, this should be roleplayed, but there are situations where it is useful to check whether a character can resist their base impulses. Providing a personality trait for characters means that players who want to play a character in a particular way can get more control over how their character behaves.

For this reason, personality traits are used as 'saving throws' against conditions, and they are always a measure of how well a character resists certain behaviours. Success in a trait check means that the character may behave as the player desires, failure means they behave as the GM rules. For example, the //Bravery// virtue allows a character to resist fear, and stand their ground in the face of danger.

Traits aren't common in all genres and settings for **YAGS**, and their number and details may well vary between settings that they appear in.

===== Defining Virtues =====

All virtues default to a value of **4**, and are used with **Will**. A typical trait check will therefore be //Will x 4 + d20// against a target difficulty number. A target of 20 is considered to be something reasonably exceptional, which has a good chance of causing a normal person to act irrationally.

Virtues will normally be open to modification at character generation, allowing +1/-1 changes to any virtue from 2 to 6, i.e. increasing one trait by +1 means lowering another by -1.

Advantages/disadvantages may allow traits to be increased/decreased outside of these bounds. Normally, a +1 advantage will add +2 to a trait (maximum 8); a -1 disadvantage will drop a trait by -2 (minimum 2).

==== Typical Traits ====

Typical traits may be as follows:

  * **Bravery** - How brave a character is, how good they are at resisting fear and horror checks.
  * **Chastity** - How good a character is at resisting sexual temptation.
  * **Temperance** - How good a character is at staying sober and not over indulging in food and drink.
  * **Discipline** - How likely a character is to ignore insults or hold back on violence.
  * **Sanity** - How well grounded the character is in the real world. Most likely to be used in horror or fantasy settings where loss of sanity is common.

=== Example Levels ===

== Bravery ==

^ Level ^ Examples ^
| 2     | Coward. Will rarely take risks. |
| 3     | Will tend to hang back if danger is present. Will only take risks if really important. |
| 4     | Typical person. Will try to avoid danger, though will take risks if it is important. |
| 5     | |
| 6     | Heroic. |

==== Animal Traits ====

Animals tend to have the following traits:

  * **Bravery** - As for characters.
  * **Cunning** - How likely to plot and plan
  * **Orneriness** - How likely to ignore instructions

===== Using Traits =====

Target difficulties. Generally, the idea is that a character will succeed unless it is an unusual situation or they have a low trait. Die rolls shouldn't dictate character actions except in extreme circumstances.

**10** - Very easy.

**15** - Easy.

**20** - Moderate. A situation likely to kill the character. A party where all your friends are getting drunk and there's no reason for you not to join in.

**25** - Difficult.

**30** - Very difficult.