# RPGaDay 2026 - 04 - Charm tags: #thoughts #thoughts/RPGaDay/2026 ![[RPG a Day 2026 (illo).jpg]] It's funny; when you talk about most TRPGs that involve the classic selection of character stats and any kind of ability to choose where points or levels or whatever get assigned,[^1] there is a consistent theme. Charisma is a dump stat, unless you're deliberately playing a bard, which means that you want to be Face from the A-Team. You just don't care about charisma. Persuading people and connecting to people on that kind of emotional level is not what you're interested in. This, however, is a terrible shame because it is charm — and the social implications it implies — that sets the TRPG apart from the wargame. In a wargame, you very much don't give a crap how charming someone is, outside of, theoretically, a charming leader who manages to keep their squad together through force of personality. Even that is the bare minimum. In an RPG, a stat like charm, or charisma, or skills thereof, things that represent an emotional and personal connection with other people, become one of the primary ways of potentially engaging with the world. Yet, it's left aside so much. In a real sense, the presence of charm in a mechanical way represents the transition from wargame to RPG, and it's a shame that more people don't recognize that. I maintain that death is the most boring thing that can happen to a character, and that the threat of death, while momentarily exciting, isn't the worst thing that you can do to them. But that's only true if they have emotional attachments, both at the character and at the player level: if they care about their world, if they care about their families or their friends, if they will change their behavior because those things matter to them. If you're playing a bunch of murder hobos running from town to town, killing and pillaging and enjoying yourself to the nth, then charm is the last thing on your mind, except maybe as an effective social combat skill to talk the barmaid into bed. (*Are there any girls there? I want to doooooo them!*)  But let's look at a couple of adventure wargames, things hanging out on the edge of the TRPG space. Surely they don't have much going on in the way of charm being important to the system, right? ## 5150: Total War Let's start right at the top with [[5150 - Total War (wargame line)|5150: Total War]]. We'll even cheat and not use the **[[5150 - New Beginnings|5150: New Beginnings]]** book, but **Total War: Star Army**. This is, of course, even still almost like cheating because there are so few stats involved in 5150. This is part of what makes it fast and easy to play, but it also generalizes things almost too broadly. There is, of course, the fact that a character's reputation is how leaders rally soldiers who have fallen out of the fight due to a morale check. That's relevant to our concerns. But down on page 46, you'll notice the skills section. Right there next to the non-combat rules. Fairly unusual for something that is mostly a wargame. There are only two skills, of course. There's People and there's Savvy. They are exactly for what you think they are. People is how well a character gets on with other characters, and Savvy is how well they do their job and figure things out. After that is a section that talks about NPC challenges, how they can get broken out by what kind of profession they have, and a series of mechanics on how to do lightweight interactions, which involves charming them in order to try and get them to do something you would like them to. Is this a massive section? No, but there is a series of short scenario plugins that are all about social interaction. In a game that is almost entirely about shooting men and commanding forces, a section at the end talks about how there can be entirely non-combat interactions and shows you how to do it — which firmly puts **5150: Star Army** in the realm of the adventure wargame. ## Five Parsecs from Home **[[Five Parsecs from Home]]** throws its guts on the table right there on page 12 at the beginning of character creation. One of the ability scores is savvy, which, unlike 5150, covers technical aptitude, wits, and a bit of charm. It's interesting that they folded those concepts together. Mind you, there are only a few other stats on a character. Reactions determine when they act in a battle round, Speed is how far they can move, Combat Skill is a straight bonus to attack dice, and Toughness is the score enemies have to beat to damage the character. So, of all the stats, Savvy really is the one intended to represent how good you are at associating and dealing with other people. It starts really coming into its own in the appendixes, where **Five Parsecs** begins to open up about things that aren't just shooting guys and dealing with the aftermath. Sure, you used Savvy before then to find a patron and hook up with contracts, but it's only in the appendices where you start seeing really solid examples of how you can use interpersonal connections in the course of the game. Page 152 has Appendix 4, Problem Solving, which essentially just starts setting up a basic idea of *"hey, here is how you can resolve things that are not a fighting check."* After that, you get a story track, which is the very essence of the beginnings of emergent storytelling. It's essentially the clock idea from *[[Powered by the Apocalypse]]* with an appropriate polishing for the current context. Appendix seven is where you get the game mastering five parsecs chapter, and everything comes together here. Is it heavy-duty game mastering? No, it's very much a case of setting up plot clocks, talking about paying attention to what the opponents are interested in accomplishing, making use of bystanders and connections. All these things leverage character charm in a mechanical way. ## Five Leagues from the Borderlands We'd be remiss if we didn't pick another of the 5X games, **[[Five Leagues from the Borderlands]]**. As a fantasy exploration and adventure game, it has a long history of media to lean on, which involves characters getting into social shenanigans all the time. While Five Leagues is still an adventure wargame, it's worth noting that rather than give everyone a single skill (Savvy) like **Five Parsecs** does, you can pick up specific skills that add to various kinds of tests, including speech. Yes, speech tests come up fairly often while traveling across the fantastic wasteland fighting for good (or coin). Again, while much of the book is concerned with killing, slashing, and poking, the procedurally scenario-driven nature of it actually provides plenty of opportunities for encounters of a non-combat sort. I would argue that **Five Leagues** actually does what most people would ask of **Dungeons and Dragons** far better than **D&D** does. Sure, it's designed to be run solo, but it can easily be run guided as well, with pre-created maps and the like, and the entire architecture of randomly generating stuff that's not in the write-up and yet will fit in with the world. But this isn't a discussion of adventure wargames. It's a discussion of charm. ## Best Friends How about a game that's all about charm? Also, one that you could probably not get away with publishing and have it received with open arms in the modern culture. That just makes it all the more interesting and amusing to me. I'm talking about Gregor Hutton's **[[Best Friends]]**, which is a role-playing game about being a girl. > So, what’s this book all about? > > Well, it’s a role-playing game about being a girl. > Yeah, everyone plays a girl. If you’re not down with that > then, y’know, just put Best Friends back wherever you > found it and walk away. No hard feelings, eh? > > So, still here? Great! > > OK, it’s a game about being Best Friends and all the little > hatreds that Best Friends have for each other. > > Oh, I know. You’re gonna say that y’all get along just > peachy. Well, that’s fine too. No one said any of this was > true… > > But, between you and me: it really is. > > Anyway, you and some friends all play girlfriends and try > to do stuff together, while secretly hating each other. And > getting little frissons of excitement out of getting one up > on your Best Friends. And it’s going to be fun. This is definitely not politically correct. But it is absolutely all about charm. Combat is not really what you do here. No, this is about petty undercutting and backstabbing while you're smiling in someone's face, while probably convincing them to help you stab someone else. It's that kind of game. It's literally entirely constructed of charm. Character creation starts with putting down your name and making sure everybody knows what your name is because you're all best friends. Then the next step is to come up with all the reasons that you hate the other players' characters. > I hate \_\_\_\_\_\_ because she's **prettier** than me. I hate \_\_\_\_\_\_ because she's **cooler** than me. When all the hates have been figured out, whoever is hated for a certain thing gets one point of that thing as their trait. Yes, this game is all about charm in its cruel, petty, twisted, dark way. If you've never seen this game, this is a great opportunity. You should go find a copy and enjoy it. That is an example of charm at its most exaggerated. It's also an example of what is a very pure role-playing game with almost no trace of wargame DNA remaining. ## All in the Charm Does charm itself differentiate the wargame from the RPG? I think so. I believe that the moment that someone playing Chainmail looked at their sheet and said to themselves, *"Man, I really wish I had a way to talk to the guy in town while we're resupplying,"* and the guy who was refereeing the game said, *"You can."* That's when the RPG started. It's all in the charm, baby. All in the charm. [^1]: I'm talking about you, **[[Dungeons and Dragons]]**, and all of your neighbors who haven't decided to differentiate themselves in anything but the change of a couple of words. My gaze is upon you.