Library of Babel

Attributes

Librarians have five Attributes: Knowledge, Wits, Will, Confidence, and Athletics.  Each automatically starts at one rank, and then are increased as the player likes with 8 ranks.  Attributes are capped at half the Librarian’s Status plus three rounded up (see below re:Status), so a starting Librarian can have a highest rank of four in any one Attribute.

Knowledge covers feats of raw intellect: recalling facts, academics, crafts, etcetera.  Book smarts, in other words.  A character with high Knowledge is an avid learner and is very book-smart; a character with low Knowledge might be somewhat un-worldly, although he or she might still be quite street-smart if they have high Wits.

Wits covers quick thinking activities; the tactics to Knowledge’s strategy: noticing details, thinking up creative solutions, getting out of deathtraps, mental math.  A character with high Wits would be a quick thinker and highly intuitive; a character with low Wits might not be the fastest to get to a solution and might tend to be one of the last people to finish a test given in class.

Will is the ability to see things through and resist being pressured by others.  A character with high Will is probably independent and somewhat stubborn; a character with low Will tends to follow the crowd and breaks easily under pressure.

Confidence is how sure a character is of themselves around others.  A character with high Confidence is likely very sociable (at least in their own circle, whatever it might be) and a natural leader, whereas a character with low Confidence would probably be a shy wallflower.

Athletics is a measure of a character’s fitness and is used for tasks like performing martial arts, fighting hand-to-hand or with weapons, running and jumping.  Low Athletics indicates someone who got straight Cs or below in gym class; high Athletics would be the star of the track team or a third-degree black belt.

For example: a new Librarian, Alex, is a sixteen-year-old girl who is particularly sociable and athletic, but also fairly learned.  However, she’s prone to overlook small details in her exuberance.  She would start with one point in each category, and then uses her free points to increase the rest of her scores to Knowledge 3, Wits 1, Will 2, Confidence 4, Athletics 3.

Talent

All Librarians have a Talent.  This is something that he or she is really good at, and it can be pretty much anything, although it should be fairly specific.  Basically, it’s whatever they seriously nerd out about.  They’re good at it, they know a lot about it, and they want to tell you about it.  The effect of their talent is that in situations that use their Talent, they gain three extra dice for the challenge: thus when Alex, from above, whose Talent is “Setting things on fire” happens to find herself outnumbered but in the possession of a bottle of oil and a box of matches, she gets three bonus dice to burninate her enemies.

A Librarian’s talent will likely be (but doesn’t have to be) related to one of their higher Attributes—for example, a Librarian whose highest Attribute is Athletics might have a talent for Kendo or hurdling, while a Librarian with the highest attribute Knowledge might have a talent for American Civil War trivia or mechanical engineering.  A Confident Librarian could have a talent for lying, social engineering, or using her cleavage to get what she wants.  Librarians with a lot of Wits might find their talents lie in investigation, mental computation, or composing poetry.  Willful Librarians, idk what their talents would be, ask me later.

This is, of course, an incomplete list.  You can come up with pretty much anything that would fit your character.  Be creative.

Qualities

Qualities are additional special characteristics that a character may have, and come in two flavors: Positive and Negative.  Positive Qualities are beneficial traits that may aid the character sometimes; Negative Qualities are traits that may hinder them.  Starting characters have six points with which to buy Positive Qualities; additional points may be gained by taking Negative Qualities.  Qualities are generally defining traits of the character: for example, Alex, from above, might have the following Qualities:

• Can make fire anywhere (+3)
• Knows about magic (+2)
• Sharp dresser (+1)
• Ridiculously cute (+2)
• Devious (+1)
• Overconfident (-2)
• Has made enemies (-1)

She would therefore be able to have extra dice on challenges involving making fire, knowing things about magic, convincing people to help her, and thinking up cunning traps.  However, she would occasionally suffer a penalty against opponents around her own level and infrequently run into enemies that she’s made and takes a -1 penalty against them.

• A sample list of qualities.

Status

Librarians additionally have Status, which indicates their standing among the ranks of the Library’s staff.  Most new Librarians start with Status 1; most are promoted to Status 2 after their first six months, assuming they survive.  Additional ranks are conferred based on merit or exceptional service.  The higher ranks are harder to achieve, particularly because they just expect more of you; the highest rank is 11, which has only one holder: the Head Librarian, who is known to most Librarians only in rumor.

Status confers a number of benefits; when acting to influence Librarians of lower Status (perhaps to convince them to join a cause or render you aid), the difference between your Status and theirs is added to your dice pool.  When attempting to influence a Librarian of higher Status, you gain a benefit of +1 if you are within 2 ranks of their Status.  Status also has an effect on the number of ranks in an Attribute you can hold; your highest Attribute can be 3 + half your Status, rounded up.  This means that the Head Librarian is probably a mega-badass.

You can be demoted as well, if you screw up particularly badly or betray the Library in some way.  (Or if Library politics really go the wrong way for you, should you attempt to play that field.)  In this case, you retain your old Attributes should any be above your new Attribute maximum, although you can’t increase any Attributes beyond what your new Attribute max is.  You also take a -1 to your Status when it’s being used (e.g. if a Librarian is knocked down to Status 2, their Status bonus to influence Status 1 librarians is 0.)

Bibliomancy

Bibliomancy is the special perk of working for the Library, and all Librarians start with one level of it.  It’s written up in detail on its own page.