Charisma is a quality which allows the inspiration of devotion in other people. In terms of game mechanics, charisma may drive the ability to influence others and may act as a source of power for magical abilities. Charisma also influences how others may see us, such as through physical beauty or in terms of power of personality. Because charisma has multiple aspects, role-playing a high or low charisma can take on a combination of options. In this article, we're going to discuss those options and look at some examples.
There are several aspects of Charisma. Physical beauty describe how the character looks. Familiarity describes how well the character reflects the expectations of normalness. Communication reflects how good a person is in portraying a positive light when speaking. Stature describes the nonverbal communication that the character portrays through their body. Combinations of these can result in a high, low, or average charisma.
Physical beauty is difficult to quantify. It can be made up of combinations of facial structure, body structure, and even clothing. However, physical beauty is one of the easiest to portray in game, by directly describing the character as beautiful.
Familiarity is context sensitive and will mean different things to different people. A dwarf who is charismatic in his homeland may be homely in an elven village or to an orc chieftain. Familiarity may also include dressing the same, using the same language, or even having the same ideas. Those outside familiarity may be described as odd, weird, or creepy.
Communication is an ever important aspect of charisma. Speaking well will bring others to your side. Speaking poorly may upset or alienate people.
Stature is a difficult power of Charisma to describe. A model who knows just how to walk on the catwalk had good stature, as does the paladin who rides tall and straight on his mount into battle. The small halfling who lays sprawled across a chair sideways or the old woman who carries her groceries hunched over are weak of stature. Someone with good stature carries with them a force of presence that adds additional charismatic impact to anything he or she does.
For an example, I am going to use Crayla, my female elven archer. Crayla has average charisma. She has very good physical beauty, so much so that she may attract unwanted attentions. However, she has very poor communication skills. She is caustic and unsympathetic when she speaks, often putting people off. She has slightly above average stature that she gains from her use of the longbow, but has slightly below average familiarity because of her elven background of living poorly on the edge of urban areas, rather than in elven villages. When I roleplay Crayla I emphasize her stance as she draws her bow or prepares to do so. When Crayla speaks she often comes across as gruff and says sometimes odd or upsetting things. I often remind my GM of my character's beauty so he can have her beauty become a problem when appropriate. When in higher society, I also make Crayla slightly awkward.
So that's our view of charisma in role-playing characters. Take a little closer look at this next time you play and see what new aspects of Charisma toy can bring to your game.
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