Confusion regarding Out Of Shape/Unfit traits

[sadpickle]

Apologies if this has been addressed before, I know i made several posts on the topic of weight traits several years ago.

 

THE PROBLEM:

Let's say I start a character with Underweight, this gives you -1 Fitness. Once you're in the game you'll notice that your character also has the Out Of Shape trait, which is -2 Fitness when rolling a character. However, as far as I can tell, starting Fitness is still where it needs to be, at 4 (5 - 1). I'm pretty sure I know what's going on here: if your Fitness is between 2 and 4, the game will show the Out Of Shape trait. Below Fitness level 2, it shows Unfit. To test this I rolled a character with Very Underweight and Out Of Shape, which when combined lower starting Fitness to 1 (5 - 4). When you get into the game, the Out Of Shape trait is replaced by Unfit.

 

This can be terribly confusing, as a new player might not understand why this is happening. Just for fun I also tried rolling a character with Very Underweight and Unfit, which when combined give -6 (!!) fitness, as well as a stunning 20 trait points. In game the character has no fitness.

 

I have two suggestions. One is to remove Out Of Shape/Unfit from character gen. These can be "acquired" traits that result from your current Fitness. This also prevents the player from rolling a 0 Fitness character. The various weight traits can still be purchased and impact Fitness accordingly.

 

However, I think the better solution would be to decouple Fitness from the Out Of Shape/Unfit traits and make them permanent maluses. If I'm taking negative traits for points, then I should have to live with the consequences. For example, one cannot become un-Deaf, or quit smoking to lose the Smoker trait. With this option, Out Of Shape and Unfit are ONLY purchasable, and they do not show up if starting Fitness is below 5 (from purchasing a weight trait or otherwise).

 

This is all moot if the current Strength/Fitness skill system and/or traits are being replaced. However, I'm pretty sure it's been this way for YEARS.

 

Hopefully this post isn't too confusing. Thanks for your time.

Edited July 2, 2020 by sadpickle