D&D 5: Personality Characteristics

D&D 5 introduces a system of personality characteristics, of which you start with five:

2 Personality Traits
1 Ideal
1 Bond
1 Flaw

Before we get into talking about them, let's discuss them. Traits are quirks or unique Trivial Pursuit facts about your character. Ideals are core beliefs, while flaws are shortcomings in your personality. Bonds link you to the world in some way. I'm not seeing the system as optional, so it is needed to play and has mechanical considerations.

What do you do with these? Well, during roleplaying, if you act true to your personality, you get a one-use Inspiration point (non stacking, only one at a time) you can use to get "advantage" to any roll you choose. It's like a "reroll fate point" sort of thing, a reward for staying true to your character's personality.

My group found this system heavy and a bit distracting in the Starter Set. If felt like it focused on the character a bit much, and put a "does my trait apply?" layer between our characters and the story. I am not sold on the system because I really don't need it - this is what good roleplayers do (and more), and we don't need it so spelled out for us.

I suppose it would be helpful to teach new players how to play Game of Thrones style characters, okay, but my group found it limiting. There is a lot of mental characteristics to consider, and it felt like creating an extra statistic for something players naturally do, and puts what feels like an extra rules system between a player and their character.

Seriously, if a player just wants to play "drunken dwarf" they don't need this system, just let them play and let them have fun without having to check five mental characteristics in every roleplaying situation.

Yes, a character's mental state should probably affect how they relate to the story, but is such a codified and structured system needed for that? It feels like it takes the focus away from the shared story with a series of per-character quirks. They aren't "character story" traits either, just how you react to events. It reminds me of older roleplaying games that put mental characteristics as actual ability scores, with scores such as Bravery or Determination forcing the player to make rolls for what should be player-determined roleplaying traits.

I suppose they are taking the question of "how do you reward good roleplaying" out of the game with this system. Certain players, just by the nature of their personality type, can get all sorts of bonuses from a receptive dungeon master by acting in character, having fun, telling jokes, and being the life of the party. More passive players don't get these rewards because they hold back. With this system, everyone gets rewarded for "good roleplaying" equally with a single Inspiration point. Once you have roleplayed "good" you cannot earn extra roleplaying bonuses until you have spent that point.

Okay, I have problems with this. I want everyone to ham it up, have fun, try and outdo each other, and act crazy at my table. I shall reward them time and time again if they make us laugh and everyone gets a kick out of a player's antics. I want the passive players to step up and act just as silly as the outgoing ones. I shall reward your in-character-ness, silliness, stupidity, bad jokes, or heroic feats of derring-do as much as I want and as many times as my players keep the party going.

It's called having fun.

We really don't need a system that tells us how to roleplay or reward us for doing it "right". I don't want a system that limits rewards and possibly keeps my outgoing players from trying something else silly once they have earned their Inspiration point. As the dungeon master, I am the one who knocks, and I am the one who says, "You get advantage on that roll" because a player did something cool, acted within character, or made us all laugh. I know, you want a system in place that gives players guidelines for rewards, but I don't feel it is really needed, and it is a throwback to the old systems that told you how to roleplay your character.

Besides, I award good roleplaying with extra experience points, not Inspiration points. If a player did something the hard way, played something true to character which made it harder on them, or otherwise played things "true to character" that is worth an experience point award, not a temporary die roll bennie. You took the hard road, so that is worth real bonus XP.

I can't see us using this system much, and I am replacing it with the tried-and-true "I give advantage or disadvantage" bonus system that I decide at the table during play. Players can write all this stuff down, sure if it helps them, but I find the "fate point" style Inspiration point thing limiting, and a bit silly since it does not reward the action directly - it only gives you a freebie to be used later. Okay, so your drunken dwarf drank a lot at the inn and you got an Inspiration point which you use...the next day when you are smashing an orc's face? And you have no reason to play in character further because you have your point stored and you're waiting to use it?

Hmm. If it were me, I'd reward the roleplaying with a small xp reward and skip the Inspiration mechanic. That way, there is no limit to the bonuses I can award you, and you can keep making us laugh with your drunken dwarf antics all the way to the dungeon. If you manage to smack that orc in his face with your ale-filled tankard, I may just award you advantage on that roll.

The inspiration? It comes from everybody at the table, and we really don't need points to track it.