Chargen: Traits
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                         CHARGEN: Traits -- OOC World                         
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Now that you are familiar with +char, you will use it to set the rest 
of your traits: skills, resources and flaws.

                                    SKILLS                                    
                     +char/set skills=<skill name>|<info>                     
Here you will want to list things your character is good at, including 
fighting styles, weaponry, languages and specialized espionage skills.

                                   RESOURCES                                  
                  +char/set resources=<resource name>|<info>                  
These are things at your character's disposal, and can include money, 
vehicles, weapons, contacts, allies and equipment.

                                     FLAWS                                    
                      +char/set flaws=<flaw name>|<info>                      
These are your character's failings. As a general rule of thumb, the 
more you list in skills and resources, the more you should list here. 
These can be weaknesses, phobias, blind-spots, allergies, medical 
conditions, lack of resources, personality flaws or anything else that 
might impede your character's ability to succeed.

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Now it is time to get into the nitty-gritty of what your character can and can't do.

Skills

Your character's skills should be backed up by their history. If they speak several languages, that would have taken up a considerable chunk of their training and should have been a significant event in their life, or perhaps they were born in another country and had to learn English when they came to America.

Some skills can be lumped together, but anything your character excels at should be written as a separate point. For example, you might have 'espionage skills' as a general section, but if they are especially good at undercover work, that would warrant its own trait.

You should also detail their level of proficiency. There's a big difference from knowing a few phrases of tourist French and being able to pass as a francophone. Similarly, there's a huge gap between beginning karate and being a black belt.

Finally, try to resist the urge to excel in everything and keep in mind how long they have been training. It can take years to master a fighting style, and they will have less time for combat training if they are also studying several languages and computer systems.

We recommend picking one or two areas to excel. While your spy character will have been trained in all necessary areas, she will have spent less time on hand-to-hand and weaponry if she's a computer expert. On the flip side, he may have learned a few tricks on the computer, but your combatant character would not have spent a great deal of time learning how to program and hack.

Resources

Similar to skills, resources must be backed up in your character history. You do not need to include standard resources that are given to you by your faction, like having access to their weapons, tech and personnel.

What we want to see here is anything exceptional that your character can access. For example, if the King of Spain owes them a personal favour, that's a resource that should be outlined here. Any weapons, hideouts, vehicles and contacts that your character has acquired him or herself are to be described in this section.

You don't need to go into great detail but should give us some idea of the limitations. We don't need to know the make and model of every weapon, for instance, but give us an idea of whether we're talking handguns or rocket launchers here.

In terms of contacts, you should give us some idea of the relationship you have. Would this person die for you or do they grudgingly owe you something? What sort of things will they agree to do and how likely are they to reneg? Are they loyal even when tortured or are they likely to sell you out for a few pieces of silver?

Flaws

Flaws is perhaps the most important section of your application, and also one of the most flexible. Here you should detail any weakness your character has, whether physical, psychological or environmental.

As a general rule of thumb, the more things you have listed in skills and resources, the more items you should have here in order to balance it out.

Think about what phobias they might have, or buttons that people can push. Since we don't allow robots, even the best trained soldier is going to have something that can set him off.

There should also be some parts of spy life that they simply aren't good at. Maybe he's an excellent fighter but has trouble maintaining cover or can't help losing his temper. Maybe he's an emotionless killing machine but he's no good at espionage.

Also think about enemies or anyone who might benefit from seeing your character fail. Note that these should be specific to your character - just because you work for Division doesn't mean Nikita is gunning for you in particular.

We will never consider kindness and being a general good person as a flaw. Being naive or too trusting are perfectly applicable, however.

You don't need to include flaws that are weaknesses for everyone. Being burned by fire or bleeding when shot aren't considered flaws because they're true for everyone.

If you're in need of ideas for flaws, please visit this website for a few ideas.