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There seems to be some discussion of Pendragon traits, particularly piety. I apologise to anyone who feels that this should go on the Pendragon Digest rather than here, but these are my ideas on the subject.
It has been suggested that piety reflects how closely you follow a religion's values, with Catholicism used as an example. I think that the teaching of religion is reflected in specific traits. A Catholic might strive to be chaste and temperate etc., which are all covered by their own specific traits rather than lumping it all together in one piety trait. A measure of how 'good' a Catholic you are is then a sum of all the appropriate religious traits, rather than just the one piety trait.
I have always played piety as how 'superstitious' a character is. I use superstitious in the broadest sense of the word, i.e. looking for supernatural rather than natural causes. The beliefs of a character will determine the exact form of their superstitions. For example a Christian might see the hand of God behind every event, and pray fervently to God and for the intercession of saints at every opportunity. Non Christians might believe in Astrology or Tarot cards, the Vikings believing in vast numbers of spirits, etc.
For Orlanthi traits I would mostly use Pendragon traits, but include
the trait 'Violent / Peaceful'. I think (though this is all from
memory) I get rid of the 'Merciful / Cruel' trait, since you can
subsume this in a combination of the 'Violent / Peaceful' and
'Forgiving / Vengeful' traits.
Incidently I would use an 'honour bonus' which works exactly as a
'chivalry bonus', which for the Orlanthi culture might be determined by
Energetic, Generous, Just, Proud, Valorous and Honour. Notice Honour is
a passion not a personality trait. I include it since I feel that
honour is extremely important to Orlanthi culture, and I am not
squeamish about including the odd passion, or even skill or physical
attribute into cultural / religious attributes.
I am afraid it is some time since I have thought about including traits
into RQ. In the end I gave up, since I do not have the time to develop
my ideas to form an integral part of the system, getting beyond that
'bolted on' feeling. Now I run Pendragon, and eagerly await the
publication of a new Gloranthan Role Play game. Is there a patron saint
of lost causes I might offer a prayer to? :)
Stephen Lucek.
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