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Aspects
Aspects
Aspects are the three mechanical factors that, in addition to connections and narrative backstory, make up the core of who your character is in Yours, Etc. and their place in Society (or lack thereof). These Aspects are: Facets, Shadows, and Circumstances.
Facets
Facets are qualities your character possesses personally that give some indication of their personality but, more importantly, how the Ton sees, values, and reacts to them as an individual. These qualities are separated into Virtues, and Vices. Each character enters Yours, Etc. with two virtues (or double up on a single virtue for added bonus) and one vice.
Virtues
These positive qualities flavor how the game responds to your character. Select two virtues for your character, or double up on one (take both descriptive flavors listed like resourceful and perceptive). Taking a virtue twice grants you an additional bonus effect.
Your Virtue choices are: Alluring, Charming, and Clever.
Vices
These less desirable qualities do not negatively impact your gameplay, but rather, will flavor it in ways that would be viewed as negative in-character. Just as virtues help tailor positive mentions of your character to their intended concept, vices help to influence the inevitable critical mentions your character will receive in ways that help develop your story. You will select one vice for your character.
Your Starting Vice choices are: Plain, Graceless, Unwitting, or of your own making...
PLAIN
You have a tendency to fade into the background, whether due to a lack of confidence or because you are terribly unfashionable or a frump, and this is more apt to be commented upon and scrutinized.
GRACELESS
You are simply too surly, too awkward, or your jokes just always fall flat, and you just find it rather difficult to engage charmingly in social activities (especially with people you don’t know and who don’t know you).
UNWITTING
Whether you’re gullible or just don’t especially care for gossip, you’re not as discerning with the secrets you acquire -- thus, a greater percentage of your monthly secrets are liable to be dubious or unreliable over time.
YOUR OWN
You are a creature unique to your peers, and the Vices of others simply do not appeal or apply to you.
Propose your own Vice and see how the world responds to your inevitable social transgressions.
Shadows
Shadows are substantial facts about your character that have the potential to be life changing (either to their benefit or detriment) if they become common knowledge. Generally, these should be matters that your character does not want to get out, but you as a player wish to eventually have revealed.
Note: you may include secrets about your character they are not privy to in the game.
Decide two secrets to start, which may at times be distributed to other players as gossip.
Choose wisely...
Example: The Shadows of Lord Andrew Muffin
1. Lord Muffin has been paying to have illicit pastry recipes smuggled into England past the French blockade.
2. When he was fifteen, Lord Muffin once kissed Duke Scone when they were both summering in the country.
3. Unbeknownst to Lord Muffin, he is really the half-brother of the Earl of Sourdough.
Circumstances
Circumstances consist of Income and Standing, and are a scale for measuring your character’s situation at a given time, as their circumstances may shift depending on your choices in-world...
Income
Income gives a range of how much money your character acquires in a year. This does not include other assets your character might possess, such as properties. Major choices you make in play, as well as additional opportunities that may be offered to you from time to time, may at points shift your income up or down a level or two, such as buying or selling a property, making or breaking trade deals & relationships, paying restitution for illicit behavior, or a change in marital status.
Income levels are based on what the Ton would find 'destitute' or 'comfortable', not what your average London citizen earns; in fact, for a common person in 1813, an income of around 50 pounds a year would be considered fairly respectable, but wealth, by the standards of the Ton, it is a different matter entirely.
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Opulent -- 10,000+ pounds per year
Prosperous -- 6,000+ pounds per year
Well-Off -- 3,000+ pounds per year
Comfortable -- 1,500+ pounds per year
Indigent -- 200-1500 pounds per year
Destitute -- less than 200 pounds per year
Levels of Income
Standing
Standing is a reflection of the weight and reputation your character’s family name carries within the Ton. It is the overall impression of a whole family by the particular standards of Society: wealth, propriety, and lineage. A commoner family could never achieve the highest standing, no matter how virtuous and reputable they might be, because they lack the other qualities the Ton values, like estates and titles.
Choose your Standing from a range of High, Average, or Low.
Very high or very low Standings come with slight benefits and risks:
Characters from very reputable families (high standing) will be held to a slightly higher standard to avoid tarnishing the family’s name, but with the benefit of a slightly improved view in the eyes of the Ton based on name alone, rather than personal merit.
Inversely, individuals from less reputable families (low standing) may be able to get away with a bit more personally - “What else could you expect from a Pastry,” - but with the downside being that the family name is hardly a draw on the Marriage Mart or for business relationships.
Average Standing receives no particular effect either way -- their family name is thoroughly acceptable.
Note: when characters marry, their current standing is averaged with the standing of their spouse, and that becomes the new shared standing of that family.
Interests
