Traits

Traits are the special skills, training, and reputations your character is renowned for. They are the part of the character that helps a team with two Aries feel like they have two different styles of Aries. There is no preset list of Traits. The intention is for you to create and define Traits within the scope of your game. There are a couple of things that all Traits, regardless of the scope, have in common. First, Traits are always rooted in one specific Area. This doesn’t mean you can’t use a Trait outside of its specific Area, it just means its harder to. When operating within a Trait’s given Area it does not cost an Agent Point to roll the extra Trait dice. Conversely, when using a Trait outside of its Area it does cost an Agent Point.

Rank	Cost
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	5

The other thing all Traits share is that they are ranked from 1-5. Their Rank determines the number of bonus dice on any roll they are used with. You use Traits when your character is about to take a risk. You may only use one Trait per risk. You are also the only person who can use your own Trait. You can’t use it for someone else and someone else can’t use it for their own benefit, either. The closest you can get is by Cooperation, covered in the Risks section.

There are a number of ways Traits could be implemented, check with Operations to determine what the standard operating procedure is for your game. The most traditional use of Traits is in the same way other games use Skills. Your characters have Firearms, Research, Driving, or Lockpicking Traits that give bonus dice whenever attempting the appropriate actions.

Another option is to use Traits as specialized Training. You would have Traits like, CIA Case Officer, US Army Ranger, SAS Reserve, or KGB Spetsnaz. These types of Traits would give bonus dice whenever Operations agrees that your training would come in handy during this situation. These tend to be broader than the Skill style but can lead to very interesting situations.

A third option is to use Traits as Reputations. Traits become things people know about the Agent like, Smooth Talker, Deadly Sniper, Mr. Fix-it, or Leader of Men. These Traits are ways to describe your character and would come into play whenever Operations agrees that your Reputation would give you a bonus. These tend to be someplace between the Training Traits and the Skill Traits as far are broadness.

There are a dozen other ways you can implement Traits in your games, whatever you feel is the most interesting. Feel free to mix-and-match styles too but remember that all Traits are bought at the same price. A player who has “Firearms 3” might feel trumped by a player who has “Army Ranger Training 3” since the Ranger has a wider range of skills at his disposal for the same cost. One solution could be to increase the cost of Traits depending on broadness, but I’ll leave that to the judgment of Operations.

If you want a default method, we suggest using a combination of all three types. At character creation everyone can have 1 Training Trait, 2 Reputation Traits, and 3 Skill Traits before they can pick up any more. With this method Traits are always done in blocks of six. 1 Training, 2 Reputation, and 3 Skills before moving on to the next group. This should ensure that characters will generally have more specific Traits than broad Traits.

To help track when you’re allowed a new Trait Type we suggest grouping all Traits in sets of six denoted by T, R, and S like follows:

Type	Name	Area	Rank
(T)	Delta Force Operator	Aries	3
(R)	Renown Duelist	Aries	2
(R)	Night Stalker	Scorpio	4
(S)	Computers	Virgo	1
(S)	Survival	Capricorn	4
(S)	Bluff	Gemini	2
(T)	Mossad Metsada	Scorpio	1

To make things easier, here is a chart that will tell you the total cost of going from one Rank to another.

–	To 1	To 2	To 3	To 4	To 5
From 0	1	3	6	10	15
From 1	–	2	5	9	14
From 2	–	–	3	7	12
From 3	–	–	–	4	9
From 4	–	–	–	–	5

Sample Traits

Training: CIA Case Officer, CIA Director, CIA Executive, CIA Field Agent, Delta Force Communication, Delta Force Operational Research , Delta Force Operators, Delta Force Support Troop, KGB Directorate, KGB Finance Department, KGB Irregular, KGB Spetsnaz, Mossad Metsada, Mossad Katsas, Mossad Research, SAS Operative, SAS Reserve, SAS Support Staff, US Army Ranger, US Army Green Beret, & US Army Night Stalker

Reputations:Artful Dodger, Battlefield Saint, Born Leader, Cult of Personality, Deadly Sniper, Demolition Man, Doctor On Call, El Bandolero, Electronic Eye, Esteemed Academic, Explorer, Firewalker, Fists of Fury, Flower Child, Innocent Bystander, Junk Merchant, Leader of Men, Mr. Fix-it, Night Stalker , Night Vision, Pathfinder, Pharmacist, Renown Duelist, Sharpshooter, Silent Death, Silent Running, Smooth Talker, Suicide King, Swift Learner, Team Player, & Unbreakable

Skills: Acrobatics, Analysis, Athletics, Blend, Bluff, Bureaucracy, Computers, Cultures, Drive, Electronics, Falsify, Impress, Intimidate, Investigation, Manipulate, Mechanics, Medicine, Networking, Notice, Profession, Resolve, Science, Search, Security, Sense Motive, Slight of Hand, Sneak, Streetwise, Survival, & Tactics.