I've had a few ideas for special rules that can be given to significant and/or recurring NPCs to make them more interesting in ways that can mirror personality traits or physical atributes, both mechanically and falvour-wise. Until any further interest is shown, I'll refrain from elaborating and just get to the point:

• Magnificent beard : This character's facial hair is astoundingly well-kept and otherwise impressive in length, shape, texture, colour, etc., granting him the admiration of anyone and everyone - with the exception of elves, who do not understand what all the fuzz is about. All (or at least most) social checks made by this character gain 1 fortune die when targetting humans, and 2 against dwarfs.
• Magnificent bust : This character's vulpious, firm, bouncing, and displayed bossoms gather tremendous attention for their owner and charm, disarm, confound and rouse adoration in her beholders. All social checks made by this character gain 1 fortune die against female and 2 against male targets (or possible the reverse, in cases where they are of a homosexual orientation). This bonus does not apply towards elves, who do not understand what all the fuzz is about.
• Magnificent hair : Similar to the above - his or her social checks gain one fortune die. This does not work against elves, whose hair by default is so amazing that they cannot be impressed by that of the lesser races.

• Chronically incompetent : All actions gain 2 misfortune dice. If they roll one or more chaos stars, the action gains a fear rating equal to the number of stars rolled, affecting allies within medium range. If the action also fails, increase party tension by 1.

• Alcohol powered: May use alcoholic drinks as if they were healing potions (with a number of dice rolled equal to the characters Toughness rating - maybe?). When gaining the Intoxicated condition from alchohol, two white dice and one black (in stead of the normal opposite) are added to all checks that are not based on Agility or Intelligence - these gain one black and one white.

• Master of the spoken word: The character is an expert in the art of conversation, and know all sorts of subtle techniques for gaining the upper hand in battles of words and wits. During social encounters he or she may remove one additional recharge token from one of their recharging actions, and all hostile social actions targetting them have their recharge rating increased or decreased by 1 (whichever is the least beneficial).

• Quick as the wind: As the last one, but for combat encounters and actions.

• Gentleman : Gain a number of fortune dice to all social checks targetting females, and subtract the same number from your damage output against "the fairer sex".

• Misogynist/misandrist: As the last one, but opposite. Could work for any group to represent a certain type of bigotry.

I could keep making rules like these for ages - what about the rest of you? Have you got any of your own? Any questions, comments, or suggested ammendments? Go ahead!

I find it to be a bit of a bummer that nobody's responding - oh well, here's yet another one I just came up with:

• Peculiar scent: The character is emitting a rather strong and distict smell, which (like pornography) is hard to define but easy to recognise. This could be a bad thing, but needn't be, and would add one black or white die to all social checks against engaged targets. Or perhaps it is a very polarising odour - if so, add one of both. Depending on the circumstances (distance, familiarity, wind, presence of other smells), the GM may add one or two black or white dice, respectively to stealth checks or observation checks targetting the character. Anyone familiar with the scent may identify their prescence after a successfull 2d (or 3d?) observation check - anyone else may do the same to realise that something smells odd.

Hey, I clicked "like" !

jh

What you could do is integrate it with the Distinguishing Marks rules that were presented in Liber Fanatica 7. Integration with existing stuff may give it some extra umph.

jh

An expansive list of "tailored NPC traits" is a nice idea. Rather than just "a list of NPC quirks" in one word. To be balanced by "don't create what you don't use" (time management)