The Personality System of Kalavian Tales

A group interacting at the table in the Waterwheel Tavern and Inn.

The Personality System of Kalavian Tales

The Kalavian Tales personality system is a simple tool made to help create quick yet sophisticated personalities, and to help players play new characters easily without extra instructions.

The system derives some inspiration from historical categorisations, such as the Dungeons and Dragons alignment system, the Myers-Briggs personality classification and the widely known DICS personality system.

It revolves around four focal axes: attention, approach, social and ambition. Each character picks one of the three categories in each area, and they together blend into a reasonably sophisticated personality archetype.

Attention Focus:

The attention focus is all about what the character thinks most about: others or self.

• A - Altruistic: these characters think most about others, and may from time to time self-sacrifice for the benefit of the larger group.
• N - Neutral: these characters focus much on themselves as well as others, and will sometimes self-sacrifice for a larger group, and sometimes pursue their own interests.
• E - Egocentric: these characters focus mainly on themselves. They may well care greatly for others, but when it comes to day-to-day activities, they mainly end up keeping their own interests in mind.

In some systems, altruism is associated with morally good behavior and egocentrism with morally evil behavior. However, being good or evil are fairly deliberate moral choices, while the attention focus of a character does not need to have a deliberate or moral component. Someone may simply be habitually inclined to think about others more than themselves.

Approach Focus:

The approach focus is all about how characters go about doing things.

• S - Structured: these characters try to plan in advance, tackle problems systematically, keep notes and records, and pay a close attention to detail. They will also appreciate systems that provide them with a clear framework or context, such as well-structured regulations. Structured persons can sometimes be inflexible or value rigor over speed.
• N - Neutral: these characters often adapt a systematic approach, but will revert to more ad-hoc approaches from time to time as well.
• C - Chaotic: these characters tend to favor improvisation, intuition and inspiration over systematically planned approaches. They are often more interested in getting the big picture right, and are much less fussed about details. Chaotic characters can be more prone to forget important things, behave unexpectedly or be politically incorrect.

Social Focus:

The social focus is all about whether characters like to associate with others or go at it alone.

• L - Loner: Prefers to travel and do things alone. Loners can operate within in a group, but they do not find it comfortable and prefer not to share tasks and responsibilities with others.
• N - Neutral: Sometimes prefers to go at it alone, but also needs a group from time to time.
• G - Groupmind: Prefers to socialize and be present with a group, and are uncomfortable being by themselves for long periods of time.

Ambition Focus:

The ambition focus is all about how a character seeks to better their life.

• B - Builder: prefers to develop, build, train and go for gradual, sustained progress. Builders do not like to compete, but to improve gradually.
• N - Neutral: will combine both the Builder and Winner approaches.
• W - Winner: prefers to gain progress quickly and suddenly, e.g. through discovery, exploring, competition, trickery, gambling, negotiation or combat. Winners like big rewards and often lack the patience to build up things gradually.

Closing Thoughts

Although I developed this tool for Kalavian Tales, I think it can be useful for many roleplaying settings. If you think it could be useful for your game, then by all means adopt it!

You can also find several character examples, along with their personality traits, in my previous post here: https://peakd.com/fantasy/@notaboutme/kalavian-tales-tabletop-edition-introducing-the-party

Lastly, if you are interested to have a say in the direction of Kalavian Tales, then please go for it and join the Discord Server here: https://discord.gg/XQXEQMnu

Example of a Winner Character.