Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 johniemi Sep 29, 2008 6:50:54	I'm playing a character that has the D20* equivalents mental stats of: INT 22 WIS 16 CHA 4 How in the h*ll should I play him - especially the charisma? He's been living in an underground vault with his peers (who tolerate him because they know he's "special") and has just stepped out to the real world. He has a mentor that teaches him the tricks of living with new people. I have been playing the low CHA like this: he spits around, might cough and spit when important people are talking, seems arrogant and interrupts when someone is speaking, refers to other people by their looks (Hey, fatso! Come here foureyes!) and with some other irritating habits. Problem is, HE HAS A HIGH INT and thus MUST begin to realize that he has to drop these habits or he might drop dead and/or get injured if he does not clean up his act soon. And besides, he has the mentor by his side 24/7 so I just can't ignore the habits he is teaching as my character is not an idiot. So, basically he is learning... so now I need something to roleplay him that DOES NOT go away with training, something that the character has no control of over, and makes him repulsive (which is what I think low CHA means). Any ideas what that could be? Drooling? Flatulence? Explosive diarrhea? Stuttering? Remember the CHA is 4* so I want to make it a penalty (as I received a bonus to other scores for it). * = note, we are playing Fallout PnP (open rpg) that has stats from 1 to 10 but as I consider this forum the best source of info for any RP-matters, I roughly converted the stats to d20 format and posted my question in this forum. Sorry if I offended someone ;) Thanks!
#2 quizzit_dup Sep 29, 2008 7:12:53	There is a sidebar in the 3.5 PHB under character creation somewhere that talks about role playing Int/Wis/Cha, might be helpful to you. Basically, INT is measure of Book-Smarts Wis is a measure of street smarts. So your Int would tell you it was raining where your wisdom would tell you to go outside. As far as your charisma, he would be a social reject on an epic scale. You know the guy who tries to be your friend, but every time you see him you want to tear his tounge out so he'll stop talking? Or the guy who tries to use sarcasm but always comes across as just being plain rude? I think you have most of it right already. It would be very difficult to make "friends" with anyone, and NPC enounters would be hard pressed to work with your group with you around.
#3 eldiran Sep 29, 2008 7:13:37	I would say that odds are he is really, really ugly and awkward/shy/socially inept/shameless.
#4 Fireclave Sep 29, 2008 7:36:26	Charisma, or lack there of, need not require any effort on the character's part. Charisma is your force of personality, a measure of how willing the world is to bend to your whims. A low charisma person doesn't need to be rude, awkward, shy, ugly, ect (though these are common ways to protray low charisma). You could simply have people not react strongly to your character. Your casual presence goes unnoticed and your words, though full of wit, intelligence, and logic, are unheeded even when the people you are speaking to are looking at you dead in the eye, as if you weren't even in the room. In other words, you could play your low cha as the world failing to react or acting poorly towards you instead of you acting poorly upon the world. Kinda like an inverse Brian.
#5 korgoththeprist Sep 29, 2008 7:49:33	Low Cha and such? Well not realy a big deal but if you are role playing him and need an example character with low Cha, Bingo Your looking at him Hi
#6 kouk Sep 29, 2008 7:59:53	Not meant to offend anyone: I read somewhere once that a low charisma could be related to real life conditions such as Asperger's syndrome, or some kinds of autism. If you look those up, you can find how people can be very intelligent but still unable to relate to other people "normally."
#7 johniemi Sep 29, 2008 8:49:10	Yep, I actually work with autists and aspergers (study their linguistic competence). I tried that but it didn't feel right for me. But a good idea nevertheless.
#8 battleaxefield Sep 29, 2008 8:50:44	I've never considered low charisma to mean ugly, repulsive, or the like. It is simply an inability to get others to go along with what you want to do. An extremely good-looking, smooth-talking teenager might have a high charisma among his peers but a low charisma among adults, because they don't fall for the same lines, are more suspicious of a smooth-talking young person, or simply don't have respect for one so young. A highly intelligent person with low charisma will come up with brilliant ideas that no one else wants to do. Generally this is because others don't have the foresight to see what is blindingly obvious to him, because he has studied the problem to a much greater extent and has more background knowledge to draw from. He can make flawless logical arguments, but this doesn't help because others make decisions based largely on emotion, which he has little to no ability to inspire or manipulate. When he states a fact that he knows without a doubt to be true, others remain unconvinced, because they remember differently and it doesn't "feel" right, even though he has proven himself correct in such circumstances time and time again, and has been praised for his intelligence by the very same people who tend to only believe him in retrospect. Generally only his longest, closest friends will listen with any regularity. No one understands his best jokes, because they are only funny to others with his intelligence and background. He is not annoying, only misunderstood. In other words, roleplay him as a highly intelligent person, and his poor CHA-related rolls will produce the proper effects.
#9 Senevri Sep 29, 2008 9:30:12	grep cha skills.html Low CHA = introverted, shy, bad liar, blushes inadvertedly, cannot sing or talk in public very well, appears unsure when presenting ideas, are naturally disliked by animals, cannot act. That's it. Sorcerers cast spells by saying things so convincingly to reality that it believes them. Bards charm reality to going their way.
#10 gullas Sep 29, 2008 9:48:22	I have been playing the low CHA like this: he spits around, might cough and spit when important people are talking, seems arrogant and interrupts when someone is speaking, refers to other people by their looks (Hey, fatso! Come here foureyes!) and with some other irritating habits. Problem is, HE HAS A HIGH INT and thus MUST begin to realize that he has to drop these habits or he might drop dead and/or get injured if he does not clean up his act soon. And besides, he has the mentor by his side 24/7 so I just can't ignore the habits he is teaching as my character is not an idiot. So, basically he is learning... so now I need something to roleplay him that DOES NOT go away with training, something that the character has no control of over, and makes him repulsive (which is what I think low CHA means). Any ideas what that could be? Have your with some kind autism. Like for example Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain man
#11 voidraithe Sep 29, 2008 13:30:46	I would just have the character extremely arrogant. Constantly remind everyone that they are Intellectually inferior but don't do it in a blunt way. "Well that a good plan if you have the I.Q. of a melon. A better, more thought out plan would be... (blah blah blah)". I played a charcter like that once. I was kinda fun. This exchange was the best. Set up: we needed to get to an Island not on any map that could only be found by a compass we had that pointed to the island (yes I know that sounds familiar). On the island was a font of power driving everyone in a large City State insane and we had to stop it. So we needed a boat: Captain: What's the destination? Joe: An island indicated by this compass. Captain: That's not pointing North. Me: Brilliant. I know your a true sailor now I mean after all a four year old child could figure that out. Captain: {Angrily} You arrogant prick. Well I guess you don't need my boat after all. Joe: We need this ship, apologize. Me: (all stated in a normal voice as fact) Fine. I'm sorry your incapable of thinking for two seconds before opening your mouth and making yourelf look like your mentally retarded. I'm sorry the lives of 50,000 people are less important to you that your pride... Joe: (cutting me off) ... IGNORE HIM ... Joe who had a decent Charisma saved the day managing to get the Captain on side again but I wasn't allowed anywhere near the Captain during the voyage.
#12 dankster1221 Sep 29, 2008 14:18:56	To expand upon Voidrathe's point... Play him as either very shy (low CHA does not necessarily equal ugliness, that's why there's the COMELINESS option, at least in 3,5 it is...) or very arrogant who basically says what's on his mind.
#13 aethergrey Sep 29, 2008 15:28:34	I'd probably go for the know-it-all who doesn't realise when he's being selfish or snobbish and much prefers his own company and that of his books to actual real people. 'That doesn't even make sense! Bandits are essentially cowardly people, we approach loudly, make our intentions clear and they'll capitulate without a problem. If you had any knowledge of psychological profiling you'd see how right I am, as you plainly do not I cannot could your opinion as valid.' (don't you just love making intentionally bad plans)
#14 stealthmarmot Oct 01, 2008 16:31:18	House. Vaarsuvius. The nerd. Low charisma means that you have no force. No presence, OR the presence you do have causes a reaction you don't want. Your character can appear whiney, or pathetic when he wants to be cool and charismatic, or he can appear boorish and mean when they are trying to be friendly. Figure out how your character wants to be treated, and unless that is being left alone, people will react in the opposite way. High Int low charisma means you have a brilliant idea, but no one will listen to you.
#15 minja_dup Oct 01, 2008 18:33:23	I agree with the idea of giving him all kinds of odd personal habits that are just not socially appealing. He talkes too much, maybe he picks his nose, lacks a little on the personal hygiene. Maybe he hears clothes that are comfortable but just a little out of fashion, or just not in keeping with the times or his station. :P
#16 kady_small Oct 01, 2008 19:34:07	Suggestion: Make him autistic. You'd have to do research so it doesn't end up a predictable, awkward stereotype; but charisma means people skills, and autism is basically a problem with communication (verbal and non-verbal). Add to that very high intelligence, and unusual sensitivity to surroundings, and you have someone who doesn't know a thing about people, constantly says the wrong thing, gets overwhelmed by social contact and tends to withdraw, doesn't know a thing about social norms (the things you are "supposed to" do... he might, for example, innocently comment that the Queen is really quite fat... Basically, he's just socially oblivious. He'll pick up concrete rules--"Don't spit in public"; but abstract stuff may be a bit harder, especially stuff that's intuitive to most people, like body posture and the rhythm and pitch of speech... try a monotone voice, spock-speak, stuttering, mid-sentence pauses, single words... He may actually seem slow despite his high intelligence because he's horrible at communicating.) However, he's very intelligent--probably has some specialty that he's very good at (you gonna make him a wizard? Totally looks like wizard stats to me), probably knows everything about, probably can't stop lecturing about... And when it comes to noticing things, he doesn't miss much--he sees the little details when everybody else just sees vague generalities. I wouldn't give him a photographic memory--not at WIS only 16--but it gets pretty close to it. Einstein might be a good example of a character like this; only yours would be a bit more extreme.
#17 stealthmarmot Oct 02, 2008 8:54:55	Maybe he hears clothes Cause they are so LOUD? HIYOOOOOOOOO!!!
#18 iserith Oct 02, 2008 9:52:45	I'm playing a character that has the D20* equivalents mental stats of: INT 22 WIS 16 CHA 4 How in the h*ll should I play him - especially the charisma? Hang out in a gaming store for about 30 minutes. Mystery solved!
#19 white_whale Oct 04, 2008 5:36:08	I'm thinking Steven Hawking, but without the wittiness.
#20 delgarthedark Oct 04, 2008 10:25:08	watch some old episodes of Bones and base him on Zac.
#21 minja_dup Oct 04, 2008 20:30:27	Cause they are so LOUD? HIYOOOOOOOOO!!! Well you caught my spelling error, that was supposed to be 'wear'. Although, it does kind of make my point. :D @Iserith Yeah, no kidding, are you sure we don't hang out at the same store? ;)
#22 dirtyfrank Oct 04, 2008 20:52:24	Your character is incredibly intelligent and thus must know tons of seemingly useless facts. Your character also has a good wisdom and must be quite perceptive (at least more so than the average person). Have your character chime in at the wrong moments such as in the middle of others sentences. Your character has a high enough wisdom that he should quickly realized that he has interrupted the speaker. Your character could try to make witty intellectual jokes that are absolutely horrible. Your character should have, because of the high wisdom, a bit of common sense and with that your character should know when to shut up. Your character would tend to be more of an adviser rather than a leader. Your character has enough wisdom to remain quite when he needs to be. He likely also knows that he is a horrible speaker and therefor prefers to speak with people one-on-one. Also because of your characters high intelligence your character should use lots of big words that nobody knows the meaning of. If asked to explain then your character should do so quite poorly or accidentally belittle the other person before catching himself and apologizing. Your character, when he speaks, should go off on intellectual tangents. He may subconsciously be trying to prove how great he is by showing everyone his wealth of knowledge. He could be clueless to the fact that few people seem to care about his knowledge. When he does stick on topic he should have some big story to go along with what he is saying, not to entirely aware that everyone is getting bored. Also have him be a bit blunt at times, especially with witty intellectual type comments that he finds funny.
#23 ciaran Oct 04, 2008 21:06:17	I've played lots of different charismas. I've only done the low-cha = rude once. Usually I make them withdrawn or unable to express themselves. Your character sounds like one who lives inside his head, since things and ideas are more fascinating than people. All consumed with not only knowledge but the invisible connection between all things. And while he knows that other people probably have thoughts and feelings of their own... its not really part of his reality, perhaps more of a distraction or something better contemplated than explored. A contradictory mixture of realist and idealist.
#24 minja_dup Oct 04, 2008 21:09:12	Also because of your characters high intelligence your character should use lots of big words that nobody knows the meaning of. If asked to explain then your character should do so quite poorly or accidentally belittle the other person before catching himself and apologizing. And keep apologizing, and apologizing until the point that he is annoying, and make him ask questions constantly about whether or not people like him, or think he is holding up his end of the bargain. Hey, do you think Sam is still mad at me for cutting him off and correcting him in front of the king. I mean I know that happened 3 months ago, but you don't think he is holding a grudge do you? It just seems like I always get picked last at everything. Do you think my robes are too wild? I mean I know I went all out for this crushed red velour flower print, but I think it brings out the red in my cheeks. Do you think so? I hope Sam isn't still mad, maybe if I bought him a pair of socks he would forgive me... ...and on and on and on.....
#25 dirtyfrank Oct 04, 2008 21:31:55	Maybe your character wants to know as much as he can see he asks tons of questions about some of the most bland of things. He could be trying to chronicle the daily lives of people that have different professions. Just imagine him pestering a farmer who is out trying to plow his field. The farmer would think him an annoying fool.