Reading the Decrease Attribute spell it says that if a mental attribute is reduced to 0 then the victim stands about mindlessly confused. This makes sense with most mental attributes.

Intuition- I can't figure out what's going on, so I will just stand here.

Willpower- I know what's going on, but I just don't give a frag.

Logic- Nothing is making sense right now, so I will stand here figuring it out.

Charisma- I'm just so ugly and unpopular that I don't want to move?

The charisma one just don't strike me as logical. Anyone want to clear it up for me?

Charisma is like Strength. It's the force of personality.

Low Charisma means lack of confidence, indecisiveness, or a lack of ability to assert oneself.
As DireRadiant said, it's like the mental Strength.

It doesn't really mean you are ugly , though that (<- appearance) could be a source of confidence or the lack thereof, thus there is some correlation between the two.

Taken to extremes (Cha = 0) this can easily lead to complete standstill.

Bye
Thanee

Okay that makes more sense. I just couldn't see stopping because I was ugly.

Your ego has taken so much damage, you can no longer assert yourself enough to do anything worthwhile (like, say, not get shot ).

Just think of it this way. You try to say something witty like "Waste the mother!", before you attack, but you start to stutter and stammer and can't get the words out. Then you start to cry.

"I'm ugly and stupid and utterly worthless! Everyone hates me! I can't do anything right!"

I can't remember where I saw this but this was a good breakdown of the meaning of the mental stats. Obviously it is open to debate if you see it differently (I have some doubts about the interpretations).

Charisma = I exist

Charisma is the attribute of self aware and strength of personality. A being with any kind of Charisma score is self aware. At higher levels your sense of self awareness commands respect, admiration, affection etc.. from other people. Anything without a Charisma score is not aware of it's own existence.

Intuition = Other things exist

Intuition is your awareness of the rest of existence. If you have any Intuition score your are aware that other things exist. Higher levels of Intuition mean you have an incredible sense of the rest of existence. Anything without a Intuition score is not aware of the existence of everything else.

Willpower = I control me.

Willpower is the awareness that you control yourself. Higher levels of willpower reflect your ability to control yourself to an even higher degree. Anything with no willpower is unable to control itself and is complete subject to whims of other forces.

Logic = I can figure it out.

Logic reflects the ability to make sense of the patterns of the universe. Higher levels of logic reflect an increasing ability to understand patterns. Anything with no logic cannot understand existence.


It is interesting that even with this description charisma is still the most nebulous of attributes. The concept of self-awareness does not always track exactly with the ability to influence, charm, interact with other people. For example, what if you have a robot that is programed with behaviors and traits that make it appealing to people (i.e. everyone likes this robot and considers it a friend) but the robot is not aware of its own existence. Does the robot have charisma?

Anyways, I better stop before I digress into discussions of the meaning of everything. Even if I have issue with the definitions above they are what I use in my game to understand characters and their stats.

Yo momma so ugly, she can't even move!

Offhand, I don't know if SR makes it clear that Charisma is a mental-only attribute, and has no bearing on your physical appearance. Some RPGs do, some don't. If not, I think there should be the qualities of "pretty" and "ugly" giving a bonus or penalty to appropriate social tests.

Dread Polack

This is a little off topic but a thought that intrigues me, and perhaps others: Would an enlightened being have a charisma of 0 or infinite?

Most like neither. Enlightenment isn't necessarily force of personality.

He's working on a definition, possibly from d20, of charisma as your ability to distinguish yourself from others, and 0 charisma as the failure to do so. Oneness with the universe would be the hang up.

If anyone has seen Fruits Basket, then I would say that Ritsu (the monkey) is a very good example of 1 or 0 charisma. Basically, has such a low self-image that absolutly everything is a horrendous mistake, because you should have done things better.

So, to me, Charisma basically equals confidence. Charisma zero = zero confidence. You second guess your second guesses.

RTFM, p. 61.

Reducing any mental stat to 0 through magic has the same effect as ripping out a large chunk of the ceberal cortex. The character is a vegetable. His involuntary bodily functions still work but he can't think. If it were permenant he would have to be fed through a NG tube and rolled every day so he doesn't get bed sores.