Happy Birthday Rhymo!!

Happy birthday!!

@DarkSecrets:

Dudes just gotta get nude sometimes, bro.

Agreed!

My views on charisma are by no means the norm nor do I think there should be any benchmarks for roleplaying. Once you start placing benchmarks it inevitably leads to expectations. You'll start expecting other players to live up to those benchmarks and this is quite restricting. It takes away from your enjoyment of the game because lets face it, players are going to find different and new ways to portray their personalities and these might, most of the time, not agree with your views of the stat.

@TheJaggedSoul:

Also, people with 6-8 Charisma shouldn't be making sendings and successfully leading large parties of people on dangerous excursions
…
10 Charisma should define a very non-descriptant person.

What players should or should not be doing is not for any of us to decide. However, those are your views and no one would stop you from playing your character that way (I hope).

What I was trying to do there was to simply state how I portrayed the personalities of my character and how the stat reflected that personality. It is not a perfect system, nor are there any rules governing these stats.

@yeahchris:

People dont need a game mechanic justification of every trait their character has.

This is how it should be. The character sheet and stats are there for mechanics and shouldn't dictate personalities. When players abuse this system, like playing an extremely personable character with 6 CHA or something like that, it's bound to be noticed sooner or later by a DM and they'd make sure the players know of this.

I try to play my characters, not their character sheets but also make sure that the character sheet reflects the personality to some extent (this is wholly based on my own views of the stats and therefore would be reflected differently for different players based on their own views)

The purpose of this thread, and correct me if I'm wrong lillesmurfen, was to put together different perspectives on how the various range of values for this stat are viewed and played thereby giving new(and old) players a variety of opinions. Most seasoned RPers would not find anything new here(but then again, they just might). It is not a thread meant to establish a baseline on roleplaying said stat, I believe.

@Khamal:

How do you play "Average" charisma? Neither high or low, just normal. That would be harder to play than someone with either extreme high and low.

This is how I used to play my characters (and I've had a range of CHA values for the chars I've played).

6 CHA dwarf fighter - Stubborn, rude, grumpy, a typical dwarf. Easily angered and so on.

10 CHA human ranger/rogue - Shy, socially inept, easily scared/bullied

10 CHA human archer - One word, obnoxious

12 CHA human cleric - Approachable, a very slight sense of humour, not the guy you'd expect to be the life and soul of a party but not unfriendly as well, very rigid and inflexible views which he'd state bluntly.

18 CHA human bard - Flirty at the start, turned diplomat later on, able to keep calm under rather stressful situations, had a sense of humour, was very friendly and so on.

I prefer not to use physical ugliness/deformities to portray a lack of charisma but that's just my opinion and how I prefer to play the stat. Average charisma is very difficult to play, much like one of the neutral alignments (again, this is just my opinion and I find it very difficult to portray non-extremities)

In short, I view CHA as the ability to perform under pressure. Diplomats need high CHA IMO because they're always under pressure and losing their cool could cause disastrous results.

This is where I'd respectfully disagree with you smurfen. Now this is just my take on charisma and by no means an accepted standard. I would, in the same example, view charisma as a helper stat. Here's how:

1. High CHA, High INT - Char would calmly survey his surroundings, devise a plan for defense, deploy available troops at defensible positions etc. In general, prepare a plan for defense.

2. High CHA, High WIS - He'd probably look at his options, possibly call for backup and gauge their chances of taking on the horde themselves.

3. Low CHA, High INT/WIS - At best, he'd be able to come up with a simple defense plan but nothing elaborate as the pressure would get to him, nor would he have the presence of mind to evaluate his options.

4. High CHA - Without the other RP stats to help him, he'd take on the role of a good leader and start delegating tasks i.e. Someone to form a strategy, someone to evaluate their strengths etc.

This is just my take on the stat and how I'd play it. It is, of course, not the only way to play the stat.

@CoA_Ultramagnus:

… BECAUSE THEY SHOULD ALL LISTEN TO ME!

… I'm sorry, what?

Roleplaying charisma (like most RP skills) is tough since you can't really measure force of personality or ability to lead. You can't say that since you have 18 CHA, 10 people will follow your lead or since you have 10 CHA, only that one person will follow your lead. There is no norm.

Generally, I follow the definition lizard-man gave i.e. High CHA = extroverted, Low CHA = introverted. This stat really comes to life when you're faced with decisions. For example, a horde of orcs is fast approaching your position and you need to act fast. Characters with low charisma would not be able to keep the same calm as one with a higher charisma, and no, I don't think being a veteran of a hundred campaigns gives you the right to make calm calculated decisions if you don't have the points in this stat, but it all comes down to the players' willingness to RP it that way and enforcing such behaviour is upto the DMs. I say this because there was a time when our group was facing a gibberling horde and my character was calmly passing comments and the DM in charge kindly reminded me that the character was facing a horde of disgusting unstoppable creatures hell bent on eating his flesh, he shouldn't be that calm :wink:

Bottom line, you can't really use those numbers (stat points) to measure force of personality and ability to lead. I'd say don't worry too much about it and RP it as you see fit i.e. play your char, you know the characters' personality, play it, leave the ability modifiers and their implications to the DMs.

@Khamal:

@O'louth:

More focus on story telling and less about Adventure and Intrigue.

Tell me a story while we're adventuring to find stuff to make intrigue. Don't send for me to sit for an hour in the Guildhall to tell me your life story. 8)

Find me a way to emote, tell a story, fight monsters, all the while trying to keep up with the group. Yeah, not all of us can manage to do that simultaneously. I've tried this approach when I used to take groups of people down into the ruins and tell them whatever history I knew about the place IC. Often times I found myself typing out something only to look up and find myself alone in a dark room searching for that secret door while the group fought off spawns on the other side.

You need players willing and interested in encouraging story-telling rather than just the action. Backstories are important because they give you a feel of the character, why they make the decisions they do, what decisions they might make in the future and so on. It also gives you a chance to participate in that characters story and enjoy it rather than just tagging along for a plot.