Suggestion of expanding description with attributes

[bncrn]

It's not metagaming to share a stat that by its description is about how other people perceive you. Showing stats is done on other servers and I have good experiences with it, so I don't share the concern.

[JustAnotherGuy]

It's not metagaming to share a stat that by its description is about how other people perceive you. Showing stats is done on other servers and I have good experiences with it, so I don't share the concern.

Under the Metagaming heading of the rules section here:

Out-of-character information can be helpful to gain context as a player, but by no means should it be used to dictate any aspect of in-character behavior.

This is literally what is being advocated for. In your previous post:

All it would do is let me know that your character is a bit below average charisma, for the sake of my own character's immediate impression of yours. That's all.

(Emphasis mine)

Ability scores are OOC numbers used to represent in game mechanics. Again, if you were to walk up to my toon, you may get the impression that he is a highly charismatic person if the situation is right. But if you see him another time, you would get the impression that he has no charisma at all. So the use of the number to determine your toon's response to mine is by definition metagaming, and it takes away so much possible RP.

But to reiterate, if I or anyone else want our stats know, we can simply put them in the examine; problem solved.

[MuninN]

When it comes to charisma, wisdom, and intelligence, what you don't have in real life you can't truly RP in-game. Charisma is particularly difficult.
Showing stats allows other players to react in role-play according to how the D&D rule book describes charisma.
Not everyone writes in their examines and not everything people write is truthful to their stats.

On BG stats such as wisdom and charisma are often used as dump stats, which is understandable as it's a medium RP server where optimized builds often pay out more than RP builds. This has mainly to do with the MMO balance mentality BG has while there isn't all that much pve content to balance for.
Let's be fair, a lot of other skills are often ignored and it's not like charisma is giving you much besides in some DM events.
I understand people that run around with 8 charisma or wisdom for mechanic's sake don't want to be forced to RP low charisma. It's hardly in line with how I interpret the server's philosophy, which is live and let live.

On the other hand, if your character has high or low charisma I would like to see it since it allows me to respond to your character in the way I interpret these stats.


I honestly don't get the defensiveness or why this has to go on about individual characters, it derails the topic.

[Aspect of Sorrow]

The worst element of this suggestion to me is something else is doing the writing for the character than the player behind it, and would have to be worn like a public badge. There's things that can be mechanically gleaned from this as well, metagamed as others mentioned, but with fewer steps to determine how they function in PvP. We removed the Challenge Rating examine a long time ago, this doesn't offer anything particularly favorable by balance of what shortcomings it inherently introduces.

[bncrn]

I don't think it should be up to me as a player to be able to completely hide everything about my character without any kind of effort to do so, particularly when there can be checks in place that make sure that information is shared reasonably. Examples of that can be line of sight and proximity, perhaps even a combat timer (so and so long in line of sight & within X feet in combat) for physical stats to show, and most of all disguise. You could have disguise allow you to set your own fake stats, hiding yourself completely as long as you've invested in it.

I am happy if other people get hints about my stats and I would like to see more information about others. A lot of descriptions are completely blank and that to me doesn't contribute to an interesting, immersive experience. Showing charisma stats wouldn't write your character for you, just give others a little more to go with on first impressions. I think this suggestion would be a good improvement and I'd be happy to see it in game.

-2 mod and below - Low
-1 mod - Below Average
0 mod - Average
+1 mod - Above Average
+2 to +3 mod - Fairly High
+4 mod and more - High

[Aspect of Sorrow]

You're welcome to do that now for your character with the conditional examine. Consider this simply an opt-in feature and you've opted in by your contribution to your character's conditional examine. If others want to follow suit they can do so without making this a default mandate which has too many issues to outweigh the benefits, some historically demonstrated by behaviors due to the appraisal system on just how race and disguise work - I can only predict this worsening with the more minutiae of mechanical stat advertisement.

Please see this guide to get started.

[bncrn]

I'm already using conditional examine, thank you.

[Eliasz_Kowalski]

Charisma concerned, I'm with JustAnotherGuy on that. There're already enough individuals with questionable social intelligence that use low charisma on other chars purely as an excuse for being an arsehole to them and their own high charisma as an explanation why everyone must lick their radiant toes like they're made out of honey. No need to encourage them any further.

Apart from that, nothing stops you from investing some time and effort into a stat-based conditional examine subjected to your own interpretation. It kind of breaks immersion to just put numbers in it, so I see people going with hints like "You can probably easily overpower this one" when you examine them with high strength or description that shows them as not particularly dexterous despite some grace to their movements and so on. It's a good way to expand your character's image in an immersive way. But roleplay-wise, numbers on your char's sheet don't really get you anywhere on this server. It's your devotion to romantic, socialite and semi-erotic RP that do, hah.