Regency: Tropes, Personality, and Skills

Welcome back to the world of Regency! Or hello if this is your first time here! Thank you so much for your interest in this RPG and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Now, let’s jump in.

Instead of having classes, Regency instead has the Trope system. There are certain types of characters that continually show up in Regency related media and those tropes are the ones I pulled from for the Regency game.

I spoke a little bit about them last week (and introduced you to the Black Sheep Trope) but I wanted to dig in a bit more about what my hopes for these tropes are.

(DISCLAIMER: This project is in Alpha and still changing, some elements may come and go as we discover what works best for the game).

The Tropes:

• The Heir
• The Spare
• The Black Sheep
• The Darling
• The Gossip
• The Meddler
• The Newcomer

You will get the specific details about each of those tropes as I continue posting over the next few weeks, but I wanted to make sure I went over the core aspects of what all these tropes have in common and how to understand the sheets as they come out.

“It isn’t what we say or think that defines us, but what we do.”

Jane Austen

First, the Skills.

There are a number of skills that players can choose to develop themselves in. There are Physical, Mental, and Social Skills. At a later point in time, I will dive into the system and explain “dots” and successes, but right now, I just wanted to focus on what each of the skills are.

Physical Skills:

Fighting – This will be gun play, fistacuffs, or anything that involves physically harming another. Fighting is not a huge part of the game, but it does come up, so a single skill that encapsulates physical threats seemed right.

Grace – This skill could be dancing, it could how quietly you slip away, but it is meant to refer to more delicate and refined physical actions. It takes grace to not your drink on someone when they bump into you.

Athletics – Horse-riding, a long walk in the hot sun, or being able to move something heavy. If it is something that involves your physical being, but doesn’t fall under Fighting or Grace, Athletics is how you would do it.

Social Skills:

Expression – This is how well-spoken a Character might be or they might carry themselves. Eloquence, demeanor, or even writing could fall under this skill.

Etiquette – This is a society of rules. How should someone be addressed, who dances with whom first, or even how to hold yourself at a dinner.

Charm – Persuasion, manipulation, and flattery are examples of Charm. Its well-placed laughter and sweet smiles. How well a Character interacts with other people for their benefit.

Mental Skills:

Education – How much does the Character know? This is when you need information, are trying to finish a book, or even knowing how you might handle a drought.

Common Knowledge – What you know about the world around. This is knowing where a location is in town, when a Ranked official may be coming, or the general to-do of the town.

Talent – How skilled a Character is. Not everyone can dance, sing, or paint. This refers to a Character’s ability to perform and shine in situations.

The next step is Personality.

In Regency, you pick a skill first and then you choose the Personality Trait that you want to use in conjunction with your Skill. Once again, I will break down system a bit later, but for now, I’m just going to outline each of the Personality Traits.

Physical Traits:

Poise – This is a certain Steadiness of character. The Characters with high Poise would have great balance, control, and elegance.

Constitution – This is the healthiness of a character. There ability to manage stressful situations, hold themselves together, or deal with strenuous activities.

Social Traits:

Presence – How alluring a character is. How attractive they are to others, their allure, their ability to converse and be enticing.

Composure – How they hold themselves together. Self-control, staying cool, calm, and collected.

Physical Traits:

Wits – This encapsulates thinking on their feet, being clever, and doing things outside of the box.

Intellect – This is base level Intelligence. A Character’s ability to reason, think things through, and think things out in depth.

Continuing are the Accomplishments!

These are various, specific abilities that the Character can choose to simply be great at. There are certain Accomplishments that are specific to each Trope, while others are general. Some general accomplishments that one may take are:

• Dancing
• Humor
• Instrument
• Artform
• Grooming
• Sport/Hunt
• School Lessons (Specific subject)
• Flattery
• Religion
• Flirtation
• Fashion

When performing an action that you are Accomplished in, the Character will gain an automatic success.

Finally, the last part of each Trope is a Finesse and a Foible.

The Finesses are benefits that only that Trope has access to. They could be major actions that can only be done once per Novel, or smaller beneficial actions that may be done multiple times.

Foibles are the negatives that come with your Trope. Everyone has failings and faults; as such, every Trope has something that provides a detriment to themselves.

That is the basic breakdown of the Trope pages! Speaking of Trope pages, I am including “The Heir” and “The Darling” for you all to take a look at! Please let me know what you guys think as I keep moving forward with this project and thank you for coming along!

The Heir

The Darling