Stat Challenge: Ebenezer Scrooge

[Anders]

It's Christmas, so... Scrooge (pre-night):

Stats:
Probably has IQ 12 or 13. Otherwise unremarkable.

Advantages:
Business Acumen
Single-Minded (?)
Wealth (Very Wealthy? Filthy Rich?)

Disadvantages:
Callous
Greed
Miserly
Stubbornness

I don't think he tips over into Sadism, but he's certainly Callous. Stubbornness... I think so, despite him changing his ways overnight - but that's due to supernatural influence! He'd never change on his own.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Anders

It's Christmas, so... Scrooge (pre-night):

Stats:
Probably has IQ 12 or 13. Otherwise unremarkable.

Advantages:
Business Acumen
Single-Minded (?)
Wealth (Very Wealthy? Filthy Rich?)

Disadvantages:
Callous
Greed
Miserly
Stubbornness

I don't think he tips over into Sadism, but he's certainly Callous. Stubbornness... I think so, despite him changing his ways overnight - but that's due to supernatural influence! He'd never change on his own.

It looked to me more like resentment than sadism. But I do not know the Gurps equiv.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Anders

It's Christmas, so... Scrooge (pre-night):

Stats:
Probably has IQ 12 or 13. Otherwise unremarkable.

Advantages:
Business Acumen
Single-Minded (?)
Wealth (Very Wealthy? Filthy Rich?)

Disadvantages:
Callous
Greed
Miserly
Stubbornness

I don't think he tips over into Sadism, but he's certainly Callous. Stubbornness... I think so, despite him changing his ways overnight - but that's due to supernatural influence! He'd never change on his own.

His miserliness seems to lead to a certain amount of self-deprivation, so I'd consider something like Reduced Consumption. This might also suggest an above average HT. Also, he is old, so some reduced ST and DX might be called for as well. For IQ, 13 seems high, considering his social abilities don't appear strong, so maybe IQ 11 and a higher level of Business Acumen.

[Anders]

All sound points.

Wealth grants a high Status, but requires you to spend money to keep that Status. He obviously doesn't, so he has an artificially low Status. Looking at his house I doubt he has more than Status 1, whereas his Wealth and position would give him Status 3 or 4.

[Rolando]

He was a nasty man, always making degrading remarks of people and coworkers, he should have some odious personal habit too.

He was also mildly paranoid, he thought people hated him and wanted to bring him down.

Add some quirks, worried about death? worried about losing everything? meddling in other peoples business/lives?

[whswhs]

It's not clear to me that Scrooge was Greedy, though I certainly agree that he was Miserly.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by whswhs

It's not clear to me that Scrooge was Greedy, though I certainly agree that he was Miserly.

I was going to say the same thing. He wasn't lured into bad decisions to get wealth; he just hated to part with wealth once earned. Given the description of Miserliness, I have a feeling the author had Scrooge in mind when it was written.

I don't see the case for IQ 12 or 13. He doesn't strike me as especially intellecutally capable. He's successful financially, but that strikes me more as high skill in Finance and possibly Business Acumen (but not necessarily; I don't remember that the story says he was unusually talented at business, but maybe I'm just forgetting).

Callous is probably correct. I'm not sure that Stubbornness is: most of the things Scrooge is stubborn about have to do with his Miserliness and Callousness and come about from those.

His Wealth is hard to say. Looking at the Cost of Living Table, I'd say he qualifies as "business leader," putting him at Status 2, and he probably maintains it with Wealthy. No more than Very Wealthy, but if he's Very Wealthy he's probably living one step below his Status.

I don't see any evidence for Single-Minded. He might be a Loner. Maybe just the quirk Uncongenial.

Speaking of quirks, besides Uncongenial, he obviously has an Expression: "Humbug!" At least, he is known for that expression. I'd probably also call him Staid.

[Varyon]

It's been some time since I've read it, or indeed seen any of the (many, many) adaptations of it, so I may be jumbling things up, but I always thought the Ghost of Christmas Present, the one that showed him the sick and crippled Tiny Tim, actually had a notable impact on him, implying Callous may not be appropriate. Rather, Ebenezer may have Intolerance (or at least Chauvinism) toward the working poor, regarding them as lazy layabouts who wanted to rob him - it's not that he didn't care that the Cratchit family was in such a sorry state because of his miserliness, but rather he didn't realize this was the case (either he didn't realize how sorry of a state they were in, or he assumed this was their just desserts for being lazy and wicked).

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Callous may not be appropriate. Rather, Ebenezer may have Intolerance (or at least Chauvinism) toward the working poor, regarding them as lazy layabouts who wanted to rob him

This is a good point, but I think Intolerance is too strong an effect. It would mean that on a bad reaction, Scrooge would — at minimum — refuse to associate with the poor, and possibly worse. But he associates with the poor all the time, even if he doesn't like it.

Maybe a better reflection would be Delusion (Major: The poor are poor because they're lazy and wicked.) You get the -2 reaction without the need to attack or refuse to associate. The Ghost of Christmas Present would be directly challenging this Delusion.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

This is a good point, but I think Intolerance is too strong an effect. It would mean that on a bad reaction, Scrooge would — at minimum — refuse to associate with the poor, and possibly worse. But he associates with the poor all the time, even if he doesn't like it.

Does he, though? I didn't think we saw much of his associations with other humans during the story, and I believe in most movie adaptations there's a scene of him walking through the street on Christmas Eve, people wishing him a Merry Christmas, and him simply responding with a dismissive "Humbug!" and going on his way. Certainly he interacts regularly with his overworked clerk, Mr. Cratchit... but Reaction Rolls are typically only made when you first meet someone, and he may have had a Neutral (or even Good) reaction when he hired the man (otherwise, he wouldn't have hired him).

That said, Delusion could also work. In both cases, we see his beliefs about the working poor being shown false, and in a manner that could realistically make him question them... which I'd treat as a sufficient reason to allow the character to buy off such a trait, if roleplayed properly.