Has anyone found a way to reward having low attribute scores in certain situations?

In a different game system I had ruled that characters with low intelligence scores were more difficult to frighten/intimidate/unnerve because they lacked the imagination to get creeped out or think the negative possibilities through.

I'm not sure such a rule would work well in Rogue Trader but I do like the idea of players that choose to keep an attribute low for in character reasons (rather than min/maxing) getting some sort of situational benefit from it.

Any ideas?

It's an interesting idea - though for your Int example, I would only apply it for specific situations, given that it'd otherwise make Willpower seem redundant. Blood and gore or bullets whizzing through the air would unnerve someone with low Intelligence as well, but only someone with high Int scores might get nervous about creepy symbols or the results of a Forbidden Lore test, simply because they are able to make the connection.

As for other characteristics -- someone with low Toughness and Strength might find it easier to get ignored by security personnel and blend into the crowds, as they look more like the downtrodden locals rather than a well-fed foreigner. Likewise, characters with high Fellowship might get swarmed by nobles and courtiers during a meet, whereas their less impressive comrades might be able to sneak away without having to endure the drivel.

Blessed is the mind too small for doubt!

Huh.. cool idea, I like it.

In the old game system which was based on World of Darkness the way I ran it was that the willpower test to resist fear and losing your nerve had a difficulty equal to your intelligence attribute. That way the smarter you were the harder it was to keep your nerve.

I guess to adapt it to Rogue Trader you'd make the willpower test required have a modifier equal to +50-(characters intelligence score). So a character with intelligence 20 would take the willpower test at + 30 and a character with intelligence 60 would take the test with a -10 modifier.

Not sure how well it translates though.

To dumb to realize you're about to get daemon-raped? Perfect. I love it.

That is a nice parallel to Call of Cthulhu, where the best thing you can do when confronted by the unknown is fail an inteilligence test so you don't understand how the world is being rent asunder.

Low Strength & Toughness (along with not being heavily armed) would be good for giving a bonus in social situations since you're not physically intimidating.

In CoC, missing that Int test means you get to run away while the others get out their Thompsons and shotguns thinking they stand a chance.

I saw a game review about a FF game they did about Apocalypse Stuff (see there old rpgs), anyways they had this game mechanic that I thought was cool mathematically...

It went something like this

Stress (the game mechanic metric) - the more Stress you lose the more likely "little" things wont affect you anymore - thus making you immune to said effects.

"the more of X you lost the more likely you are resistant to lower forms of X - granting you higher immunity as you suffer more loss of X"

Back to Characteristics aka Attributes

The Gist:

If I have a low STR say 20 (somehow) then 80% of things that whittle away or affect STR don't affect me any longer, since I'm "pre" whittled away to begin off with...

How could we apply that - maybe (since stats are by default 25 + 2D10) for every 5-points under 30 you gain an Immunity relative to said stat - as a Talent purchase...

Example

Back to my 20 STR - that would give me the opportunity to buy an Immunity Talent of 10% to say "strength draining effects - like heat, special powers, whatever you think can cause STR damage or Characteristic Damage I think the game calls it...

That way -m once declared specially what kind of immunity - said PC can opt to wither make it better (when their stat goes down further) or develop new Immunities from other low stats - this helps with replay-ability in that you can make a slew of characters and they could all be different per say (make x10 arch-militants, how long till they start to repeat aka combinations or play).

How would that roll be applied?

As an automatic mechanic that occurs whenever the effect is instigated against the character - instantaneous / so that would be on a per attack basis for the 10% example roll above vs a single type of STR debilitating effect - to finish the example herein.

Thoughts, Advise, Heresy?

Let me kno

Stay GAMING

Morbid

If they were to use a stat like that I'd say start that stat out low and watch it go up during the game, like insanity or corruption or what have you. Tier the beasties and give them a corresponding number. If their scare number was smaller than yours, then they have no effect, or a lesser effect. Of course, after you get to a certain number you still hand your character sheet to the GM and roll another.

Perhaps an algorithm is the best solution. Take your number, subtract the beastie number and add the result to a random roll.

Theres a current rule that sorta does that but it goes off Insanity, the more you have at certain thresholds grants you immunity to fear 1,2,3 etc, exception of warp fear though.

AFAIK *thumbs*

=D

If I were to do that I would do it by asking for skill tests at times where it may not be beneficial (I have done this with Infamy in Black Crusade where I ask people to test it at times just to see if a servant of the Imperium notices them).

For example:

-Take a forbidden lore (Heresy) test. If it was succeeded I ask for a fear test due to you understanding what the strange markings are.

-Take a charm test. If it is succeeded you get the attention of some creep in the bar that just won't leave you alone.

-Take a scholastic lore (Abhumans) test. If it was succeeded you didn't react strangely to the Afriel Strain squad passing by which caused the commissar to take some time to question you. Nothing dangerous but took 20 well needed minutes of your time.

-Take a survival test. If it was succeeded you stop the group from eating the strange mushrooms (that actually would be great food) since you have the common sense not to eat unknown mushrooms you just found.

-Take a carouse test. If it was succeeded you do not get drunk enough to enter the round of russian roulette in the corner thus failing to win it and walk away with a split of the losers money.

-Take a psyniscience test. If succeeded you collapse into a coma due to a very powerful daemonic presence.