Stating Mediocrity

I have mentioned that Mediocre is the default trait level in plain traits and Elementary Fudge, and that any Mediocre trait need not be specified on a character sheet, but I failed to mention that there may be cases in which it might be advisable to list Mediocre traits. There are, in fact, those who are Mediocre at their professions, and although anyone could conceivably fill their positions at the same level of inadequacy if pressed, it is nonetheless a defining aspect of their character by virtue of the time they invest in it. Jane Doe is a Great Martial Artist and a Good Amateur Detective, and it may seem irrelevant that she is a Mediocre Pizza Chef, but if her primary occupation is working at a pizzeria (that may or may not serve as a headquarters for her fellow sleuths), then "Pizza Chef: Mediocre" would be an important fact to record. It's how she pays her bills and it's one of her motivations to take risks in her search for a more rewarding life. She may not be good at it, but it partially defines her.

The Baseline Is Mediocrity

In standard Fudge, the default trait levels for attributes and skills are Fair and Poor respectively, but I ask you: Are most people really of Fair intelligence, physical fitness, or charm? Or are they, in fact, Mediocre? Fair can generally be assumed to mean "good enough," but in my observations of the world, I think it's more accurate to say that the general pattern of human behavior is Mediocre, or "needs improvement." "Good enough" is rarely achieved without effort or luck. Mediocrity, in reality, is the baseline.

If the baseline of attributes truly is Mediocre, can the same be said of skills? Skills are a more complex matter as their difficulty varies, and I doubt there is any system that can accurately reflect all the factors involved in measuring them, so I think it is more useful to frame the question not in terms of what is most realistic, but rather what is more consistent with the genre or medium of inspiration. The baseline of skills in a fictional work tends to be Mediocre or Nonexistent. Either a character has no chance of practising a skill, or the character can just muddle through with a possibility of doing well enough to pass for success. A trait level of Poor or Terrible is reserved for those who have a notable deficiency beyond the human average.

If both attributes and skills have the same default trait level of Mediocre, what is the point of differentiating them? In my opinion, there is none. I fold them both into plain traits or descriptors. Others, however, may prefer to distinguish between the two in terms of how they are acquired and the method by which they can be improved. At any rate, I think Mediocre is the proper baseline. It reduces unnecessary complexity and facilitates more interesting play. And it does so without altering the standard trait ladder. Just drop the average by one rung. Problem solved.

Plain Trait Character Example 4

How well does Plain Trait Fudge handle a game with highly competent characters such as spies? We shall see...

Example 4

Step One: The GM is running an espionage thriller game inspired by the novels of Ian Fleming and the television show Honey West. He allots each character 20 trait levels.

Step Two: The GM limits allocation to no more than two Superb traits and two Terrible traits. All other trait levels are unlimited. Player A decides to play an agent who is a reformed cat burglar, choosing Stealth and Lockpicking/Safecracking. Specifying these traits automatically starts them at Fair, which is a total cost of 2 levels. Her character is an expert at these criminal activities (now used in the service of her country), so she spends 2 levels to raise Stealth to Great and 3 levels to raise Lockpicking/Safecracking to Superb. As an agent, she was trained in Self Defense, Marksmanship, and First Aid, which means she has these traits at Fair (at a cost of 1 level each). She spends 2 levels to raise Self Defense to Great and 1 level to raise Marksmanship to Good. Related to her criminal past, she gained knowledge of Mineralogy, Metallurgy, and Chemistry, so she spends 3 levels to acquire each at Fair. Looking to her outside interests, Player A decides her character has a passion for Dance and Acrobatics, both of which may assist her in covert missions. Specifying these traits, she has both at Fair (at a cost of 1 level each). She spends 2 levels and raises them to Good. Player A has now reached her limit of 20 levels, but she wants her character to be highly skilled in Acrobatics, so she must specify an extraordinarily low trait to balance it. She chooses Brawling at Poor. Although she can defend herself and is skilled with firearms, wading into a mêlée is not her style. She prefers to select her target, strike silently, and disappear before being noticed. (This is a valid trait to designate as extraordinarily low, since it is one that would otherwise conceivably be useful to her.) She spends the 1 level thus freed to raise Acrobatics to Great. Realizing that she forgot to specify an extraordinarily high ability at Driving, which would be desirable for a character who likes fast cars and performs well in high speed chases, she decides it would be appropriate to her old school field agent sensibilities to be Terrible at Computer Programming (Hacking). She can rely on other agents for that talent. This frees 2 levels to enable her to specify Driving at Good.

Step Three: The GM sets a minimum requirement of one complication. Player A specifies Born into a Family of Thieves.

Step Four: The GM sets a minimum requirement of one motivation. Player A specifies three: To Redeem Herself, To Reform Her Family, and To Serve Her Country.

Aurelia Brixton

Traits

Stealth: Great

Lockpicking/Safecracking: Superb

Self Defense: Great

Marksmanship: Good

First Aid: Fair

Mineralogy: Fair

Metallurgy: Fair

Chemistry: Fair

Dance: Good

Acrobatics: Great

Driving: Good

Brawling: Poor

Computer Programming: Terrible

 

Complications

Born into a Family of Thieves

 

Motivations

To Redeem Herself

To Reform Her Family

To Serve Her Country

Plain Trait Character Example 3

In Plain Trait Fudge, players are encouraged to define their characters in terms of what makes them extraordinary (in both good ways and bad ways). Anything ordinary about their characters is unnecessary to describe. This makes the character creation process quicker and avoids cluttering character sheets with irrelevant traits.

Example 3

Step One: The GM is running a Victorian era mystery adventure about which she says little. She allots each character 10 trait levels.

Step Two: The GM limits allocation to no more than one Superb trait and one Terrible trait. All other trait levels are unlimited. Player A, given not much context, decides his character will be a globe-trotting big game hunter and immediately chooses Marksmanship, Physical Prowess, Leadership, Geography, and Education. Specifying these traits automatically starts them at Fair, which is a total cost of 5 levels. His character is a retired Sergeant-Major who served in India and Africa, which justifies raising his Leadership and Geography to Good at a cost of 1 level each. Despite his age, he is a fine physical specimen, so Player A spends 2 levels to raise his Physical Prowess to Great. This leaves 1 level left to spend, but Player A thinks his character's Marksmanship ought to be better than Good, so he needs to define an extraordinarily low trait to afford it. He defines two. Having spent most of his life in the military, he has little patience for (or understanding of) modern civilian bureaucracy, so his Bureaucratic Navigation skills are consequently Poor. Having spent most of his military career in technologically primitive places, he has little to no experience with many of the technological marvels of the day, so his Expertise in Operating Contraptions (of a Non-Military Nature) is also Poor. The 2 levels thus freed, in addition to the 1 level unspent, will enable Player A to raise his character's Marksmanship to Superb.

Step Three: The GM sets a minimum requirement of two complications. Player A specifies In Love with a Vegetarian Teetotaller as one complication, and Out of Place in Civilised Society as another.

Step Four: The GM sets a minimum requirement of two motivations. Player A specifies To Hunt on Every Continent as his first stated motivation, and To Sample the Scotch of Every Distillery as his second. (He leaves unstated a third motivation: To Woo the Vegetarian Teetotaller.)

Charles Standish-Reddy, Sergeant-Major (ret.)

Traits

Marksmanship: Superb

Physical Prowess: Great

Leadership: Good

Geography: Good

Education: Fair

Bureaucratic Navigation: Poor

Contraption Operation: Poor

 

Complications

In Love with a Vegetarian Teetotaller

Out of Place in Civilised Society

 

Motivations

To Hunt on Every Continent

To Sample the Scotch of Every Distillery

Plain Trait Character Example 2

Plain Trait Fudge is a variant that emphasizes quick and easy character creation. Aside from the character creation rules, the only difference between it and standard Fudge is that all traits default to Mediocre (unless, of course, their natural default is Nonexistent).

Example 2

Step One: The GM is running a Wild West campaign that will span a great deal of territory (not unlike the television show Rawhide). There will be action and adventure, but the characters will be realistic. She allots each character 10 trait levels.

Step Two: The GM limits allocation to no more than two Superb traits and two Terrible traits. All other trait levels are unlimited. Player A decides his character will be a cowboy with the following extraordinary traits: Ridin', Shootin', Wranglin', Wrestlin', and Guessin' the Weather. Specifying these traits automatically starts them at Fair, which is a total cost of 5 levels. Player A imagines his character to be the "born in the saddle" type, so he spends 2 levels each on Ridin' and Wranglin' to raise them to Great. He wants to be able to protect the herd in his care (and himself), so he spends the remaining level to raise Shootin' to Good. His character ought to be able to handle himself in a hand-to-hand fight, but he has no levels available, so he defines some extraordinarily low traits — Book Learnin' and Gamblin' — at Poor, which makes 2 levels available. He spends both on Wrestlin' to raise it to Great. Looking at his traits, Player A decides that his Ridin' should be higher to match his character concept, so he drops Gamblin' to Terrible and spends the level on Ridin', raising it to Superb.

Step Three: The GM sets a minimum requirement of one complication. Player A specifies Claustrophobic.

Step Four: The GM sets a minimum requirement of one motivation. Player A specifies To Become a Trail Boss. In the course of play, he may add others, but this is enough for now.

Stan Tucker, Cowboy

Traits

Ridin': Superb

Shootin': Good

Wranglin': Great

Wrestlin': Great

Guessin' the Weather: Fair

Book Learnin': Poor

Gamblin': Terrible

 

Complications

Claustrophobic

 

Motivations

To Become a Trail Boss

Plain Traits for Fudge

Plain Trait Fudge is a variant of Fudge that utilizes neither attributes nor skills, just plain traits. It is a system that emphasizes exceptions to the rule, and this is reflected by the absence of predetermined trait lists. Everyone has an equal possibility of accomplishing anything unless he or she is exceptionally well-suited or ill-suited to the task.

In addition to plain traits, Plain Trait Fudge advocates the use of two other elements used to describe a character: complications and motivations. These have no effect on the cost of traits, but their inclusion encourages the player to consider his character's background and psychology both when the character is created and during play.

It is presumed that the standard trait ladder and dice-rolling conventions of Fudge are being used, but these are, of course, optional. Action resolution, supernormal powers, combat, wounding, and healing are conducted as per standard Fudge or any variant desired. The two areas in which Plain Trait Fudge differs from standard Fudge (and could even be interpreted as Alternate Rules) are Chapter 1, Character Creation and Chapter 5, Character Development.

Plain Trait Terms

Plain Trait: Any trait. All traits, including attributes, skills, gifts, and faults are subsumed into plain traits and rated according to the trait ladder.

Ordinary Trait: An unspecified plain trait; any trait not listed as being possessed by the character. All ordinary traits are Mediocre and represent the default level of all plain traits.

Extraordinary Trait: A specified plain trait; any trait listed as being possessed by the character. An extraordinary trait is either extraordinarily high (Fair or better) or extraordinarily low (Poor or worse).

Complication: A specified disadvantage or combined advantage/disadvantage; a plot hook.

Motivation: A specified drive or goal.

In other words, all characters have unspecified ordinary traits that are Mediocre and specified extraordinary traits that are anything but Mediocre.

Plain Trait Character Creation

The following steps describe the standard method of plain trait character creation:

Step One: Trait Level Allotment

The GM allots a certain number of trait levels to be spent on each character by each player. This may require a bit of adjusting for the genre and the preferred playing style, but it is not necessary to make the number too high. An allotment of 10 levels is a good starting point.

Step Two: Trait Specification and Level Allocation

The player decides what aspects make his character different, or extraordinary, by specifying the character's defining traits. Each trait specified is allocated 1 level, thus raising it from an ordinary Mediocre trait to an extraordinary Fair trait. Extraordinary traits may be further increased by allocating additional levels. Needless to say, one must balance breadth of abilities with the depth of each ability, with the extremes being jack-of-all-trades, master of none at one extreme and idiot savant at the other. If the player feels that there are not enough available levels to describe his character's traits accurately (or if his vision of his character requires certain traits to be deficient), then he may specify one or more extraordinarily low traits, thereby gaining 1 additional level for each Poor trait and 2 additional levels for each Terrible trait.

NB: Beyond the allocation of GM-allotted trait levels, the value of any trait level gained is only equal to the value of the trait level sacrificed. That is to say, accepting a Poor Marksmanship trait may be equal to an extra level of Acrobatics, Physical Strength, or Coroner, but accepting a Poor Sports Trivia trait will probably only merit an extra level of Science Fiction Trivia, Celebrity Gossip, or Coupon Clipper.

The GM may set limits on the number of traits that may be specified at certain levels. For instance, she may require that there be a maximum of one Superb trait, two Great traits, two Poor traits, and one Terrible trait, whereas the number of Fair and Good traits a character may have at character creation is limited only by the available amount of levels.

Players may also save levels to buy traits during play that might have been overlooked.

Step Three

Once the character's traits have been determined, the GM may require that the players list personal complications or plot hooks for their characters. Complications may be entirely negative, or they may have both positive and negative elements, but in any event they must serve to complicate the character's life and lend themselves to potential use as plot devices by the GM. The GM may set a minimum required number of complications.

Step Four

The GM may also require that the players list their characters' motivations. This gives both the GM and the player a better understanding of the character, and enables the player to indicate to the GM what he might want for his character in the way of goals or challenges. The GM may set a minimum required number of motivations.

Other Steps

Other steps that may occur during character creation, during play, or between sessions include details of the character's description, background, and equipment or other belongings. Non-player characters important to the character (such as dependents or patrons) may be described briefly or created fully by the GM, the player (with GM approval), or both in cooperation.

Plain Trait Character Development

Plain traits, being neither attributes nor skills, have different costs for improvement. Since characters with plain traits generally have fewer traits than those with attributes and skills, and since plain traits have a higher default level than most skills, improvement should be more gradual. This can be done very easily by means of the subjective character development system in Section 5.1 and the development through training system in Section 5.3. If the objective character development system in Section 5.2 is preferred, the cost of raising a plain trait is double the cost for skills of the same level. In other words:

RAISING A PLAIN TRAIT:
FROM:	TO:	COSTS:
Terrible	Poor	2 EP
Poor	Mediocre	2 EP
Mediocre	Fair	2 EP
Fair	Good	4 EP
Good	Great	8 EP
Great	Superb	16 EP
Superb	Legendary	32 EP + GM permission

Example

Step One: The GM is running a Wild West scenario, so she allots each character 7 trait levels.

Step Two: The GM limits allocation to no more than one Superb trait and one Terrible trait. All other trait levels are unlimited. Player A decides his character will be a gambler with the following extraordinary traits: Cardsharp, Quick Draw, Aim, Charmer, Walking Encyclopaedia. Specifying these traits automatically starts them at Fair, which is a total cost of 5 levels. Player A wants some of the traits to be a bit higher, so he spends the remaining 2 levels on Charmer to raise it to Great. He envisions Cardsharp as his best trait and Quick Draw one of his better ones, so he defines some extraordinarily low traits in order to gain some more trait levels. He chooses Poor Ability to Refuse a Drink (+1 level), Terrible Ability to Resist Flirting with Ladies (+2 levels), and Poor Judgment Regarding Money (+1 level). This enables him to raise Cardsharp to Superb and Quick Draw to Good.

Step Three: The GM sets a minimum requirement of two complications. Player A specifies Wanted for a Crime He Didn't Commit as one complication and Shunned by His Kinfolk as the other.

Step Four: The GM sets a minimum requirement of two motivations. Player A specifies three: To Clear His Name, To Strike It Rich, and To Enjoy the Finer Things in Life.

Sam Turnstile, Gambler

Traits

Cardsharp: Superb

Quick Draw: Good

Aim: Fair

Charmer: Great

Walking Encyclopaedia: Fair

Ability to Refuse a Drink: Poor

Ability to Resist Flirting with Ladies: Terrible

Judgment Regarding Money: Poor

 

Complications

Wanted for a Crime He Didn't Commit

Shunned by His Kinfolk

 

Motivations

To Clear His Name

To Strike It Rich

To Enjoy the Finer Things in Life

[Originally posted in Fudgery.net.]