Character Traits

The descriptions below are taken from the official game manual.

Traits
In addition to attributes, characters may acquire traits throughout their lives that make them unique. These appear below titles when you open a character’s profile. A character may have 2-5 traits. Traits can confer bonuses and penalties, or change the way a character is viewed by others.

Some traits are on sliding scales, where one trait supersedes a lesser version of itself. Other traits have opposites, so that you cannot have a character who is simultaneously honest and a liar. AI characters’ behavior can be affected by their traits, making them smarter or more ambitious, for example.

Intrigue
These traits concern a character’s skill at scheming and deception. The more success a character has with these activities, the more likely he is to gain Intrigue-related traits. These traits give bonuses to the Intrigue attribute, and can eventually give other bonuses as well.

Diplomacy
Traits related to Diplomacy reflect success in politics and negotiation. As characters acquire these traits, they will gain bonuses to Diplomacy and Intrigue, but may have less credibility as warriors. Advanced versions of these traits even make a character more convincing in matters of love, increasing Fertility.

Martial
This group of traits represents a character’s increasing skill and fame as a military commander. Success on the battlefield brings more advanced versions of these traits, which increase Martial and Intrigue but make them less persuasive peacemakers. These traits also confer a bonus to Health, which represents the bodily vigor that comes with the Way of the Warrior.

Health
Characters in Sengoku may be afflicted with all manner of maladies. Health traits reflect the toll taken by stress, mental illness, disease, and alcoholism. These traits often inflict serious penalties, in some cases forcing characters to retire.

Congenial
These are traits that are inherited from a character’s parents. Intelligence and beauty can be great advantages, while ugliness and mental slowness make life difficult. Characters with physical deformities may find it hard to be taken seriously, and vassals may come to see them as weak.

Lifestyle
These traits come from the leisurely pursuits chosen by the character, such as poetry and painting. In the game, you will be able to choose one such trait per character, which gives a small bonus to one trait, and improves relations with other characters who follow the same lifestyle.

Personality
A character’s personality is shaped during childhood. Special events can endow young characters with personality traits which will affect them throughout life. These traits are virtues and vices, and each has its own advantages and drawbacks. Generally, more virtuous characters have an easier time forging strong relationships with others, which tend to be more important than attribute bonuses.

Others
Several traits do not fit neatly into any of the above categories. These tend to concern aspects of character shaped not by personality during childhood but by actions during adulthood. Like the personality traits, these traits come in opposing pairs, which a character cannot have simultaneously.