Traits are modifiers to your character in Space Station 13. Inspired by similar mechanics from many games (especially roguelikes, ala Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead), they impact the way you play the game in small (or sometimes large) ways by adding passive mechanical bonuses and drawbacks.
Getting Traits
Traits are modified through the game preferences menu by clicking on Configure Traits. Doing so will open your trait setup.
Traits are organized alphabetically and by quality, in descending order: positive, negative, and neutral. You can see their names, and next to those, a short gameplay descriptor on what they do. To the right of that is a button to either take the trait or lose it. Whenever you spawn in, either through latejoining or when the round starts, your trait setup will be locked in - your character will have those traits until the round ends, and changes you make to the setup during the round will not apply.
Traits use a point system, called trait balance, which defaults to 0. This is used to balance the traits you take, and designed in such a way that every positive trait requires some drawbacks. Positive traits take from this balance, negative traits add to it, and neutral traits don't affect it at all.
You cannot buy a positive trait unless you have the balance for it, but you can take any amount of negative traits. For instance, if you take the Poor Aim trait, you now have a trait balance of 1 and can purchase any one trait that has a balance cost of -1, like Night Vision. If you were to also take Nearsighted, you would have a trait balance of 2, and could take a trait with a cost of -2, like Skittish or Self-Aware. In this case, you could also take two traits that cost -1. Simple stuff!
Regardless of balance points, you can only have six total traits at a time. Unspent balance is left unused.
Example trait setup, using the right image as a reference:
- Starting points: 0
- You want to take Self-Aware and Night Vision, meaning you'll need 3 points.
- You take Nearsighted to gain 1 point.
- You take Poor Aim to gain 1 point.
- You now have 2 points, so you take Self-Aware for 2.
- You decide not to take Night Vision, and instead you want Skittish.
- You remove Self-Aware to regain the spent points, and remove Nearsighted. You now have 1 point.
- You take Pacifism to gain 2 points.
- You take Prosopagnosia to gain 1 point.
- You take Self-Aware again and then take Skittish. You now have 0 points.
This setup coincides with the point costs (0 - 1 - 2 - 1 + 2 + 2 = 0) as well as the trait limit (5/6). If you wanted, you could also take an additional negative trait or a neutral trait to get your maximum traits.
Keep in mind that there's nothing forcing you to take the maximum amount of traits, spend all your points, or even use traits at all. You are able to enter the game and play even with no traits, so don't let it concern you too badly!
List of Traits
Below is a list of all positive, negative, and neutral traits in the game, including their balance costs and actual gameplay effects. If you don't see a trait on here, that means it's missing - please update the list to include it! Conversely, any traits on this list that are not in-game have likely been removed, so you are free to remove them. from this list to avoid misinformation.
Positive Traits
Positive traits take from trait balance and have useful or beneficial effects.
| Trait Name | Balance | Entry Description | Gameplay Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alcohol Tolerance | -1 | "You become drunk more slowly and suffer fewer drawbacks from alcohol." | You only take 70% of the drunkenness from alcohol, and some negative effects (i.e. jittering) won't affect you. |
| Apathetic | -1 | "You just don't care as much as other people, that's nice to have in a place like this, I guess." | All mood modifiers (positive and negative) are 20% less effective on you. |
| Drunken Resilience | -1 | "Nothing like a good drink to make you feel on top of the world. Whenever you're drunk, you slowly recover from injuries." | |
| Freerunning | -2 | "You're great at quick moves! You can climb tables more quickly." | You climb tables 20% faster. |
| Jolly | -1 | "You sometimes just feel happy, for no reason at all." | You will occasionally gain a boost to your mood. |
| Light Step | -1 | "You walk with a gentle step, making stepping on sharp objects quieter and less painful." | Stepping on sharp things, like glass shards and d4s, is 20% quieter than normal. Additionally, stepping on them without shoes will deal 25% less damage than normal. |
| Musician | -1 | "You can tune handheld musical instruments to play melodies that clear certain negative effects and soothe the soul." | |
| NEET | -1 | "For some reason you qualified for social welfare and you don't really care about your own personal hygiene." | |
| Night Vision | -1 | "You can see slightly more clearly in full darkness than most people." | Your vision in darkness is very slightly brighter, and you can see the 3x3 area around you without a blur. |
| Photographer | -1 | "You know how to handle a camera, shortening the delay between each shot." | |
| Self-Aware | -2 | "You know your body well, and can accurately assess the extent of your wounds." | When checking yourself for injuries, you can see the exact amount of brute and burn damage. You can also tell if you have toxin or oxygen damage. |
| Skittish | -2 | "You can conceal yourself in danger. Ctrl-shift-click a closed locker to jump into it, as long as you have access." | Ctrl-shift-clicking on a locker will, if you can open it, cause you to jump in and lock the door behind you. |
| Spiritual | -1 | "You're in tune with the gods, and your prayers may be more likely to be heard by the gods. Or not." | When you pray, administrators online will see a special notice next to your name. This doesn't mean they have to respond, though. |
| Tagger | -1 | "You're an experienced artist. While drawing graffiti, you can get twice as many uses out of drawing supplies." | |
| Voracious | -1 | "Nothing gets between you and your food. You eat twice as fast everyone else!" | The click delay when eating food and drinking drinks is halved. |
Negative Traits
Negative traits add to the trait balance, and have detrimental effects.
| Trait Name | Balance | Entry Description | Gameplay Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acute Blood Deficiency | +2 | "Your body can't produce enough blood to sustain itself."" | You lose blood over time, and you will die if you neglect to get treatment. Without treatment: (15 minutes: low blood symptoms, 30 minutes: oxygen damage builds up, 32 minutes: fainting, 34 minutes: dead) |
| Blind | +4 | "You are completely blind, nothing can counteract this."" | |
| Brain Tumor | +3 | "You have a little friend in your brain that is slowly destroying it. Better bring some mannitol!" | You occasionally get some ticks of brain damage, which, if left untreated, will cause various ailments. |
| Deaf | +2 | "You are incurably deaf."" | |
| Depression | +1 | "You sometimes just hate life." | You occasionally become sad, in a similar way to how Jolly occasionally makes you happy. |
| Family Heirloom | +1 | "You are the current owner of an heirloom. passed down for generations. You have to keep it safe!" | You start the shift with a special item, which varies based on your job. Examples include a golden bike horn for the Clown or a special hammer for the Lawyer. If you are not in possession of your family heirloom, you gain a significant negative mood modifier. |
| Heavy Sleeper | +1 | "You sleep like a rock! Whenever you're put to sleep, you sleep for a little bit longer." | All unconsciousness effects are increased in duration by an amount between 25% and 30%. |
| Nearsighted | +1 | "You are nearsighted without prescription glasses, but spawn with a pair." | Anything far away from you is difficult to see. Unlike genetic mutation nearsightedness or nearsightedness caused by eye damage, this variety cannot be cured. without admin intervention. Any new bodies created through cloning will suffer the same issue, so you can't circumvent it that way. |
| Nyctophobia | +1 | "As far as you can remember, you've always been afraid of the dark. While in the dark without a light source, you instinctually act careful, and constantly feel a sense of dread." | You cannot run in darkness, you can only walk. When shrouded in darkness, you get a negative moodlet modifier. |
| Pacifist | +2 | "The thought of violence makes you sick. So much so, in fact, that you can't hurt anyone." | You are incapable of directly hurting any other creatures. You cannot fire guns, use harm intent, or swing weapons. Stun batons can still stun, but that's the extent of it. Note: If you spawn as an antagonist, Pacifist is automatically disabled. |
| Paraplegic | +3 | "Your legs do not function. Nothing will ever fix this. But hey, free wheelchair!"" | |
| Physically Obstructive | +1 | "You somehow manage to always be in the way. You can't swap places with other people."" | |
| Poor Aim | +1 | "You're terrible with guns and can't line up a straight shot to save your life. Dual wielding is right out." | Any shots you fire with projectile weapons are shifted randomly by up to 25 degrees. |
| Prosopagnosia | +1 | "You have a mental disorder that prevents you from being able to recognize faces at all." | Examining someone will always show them as Unknown, regardless of appearance, ID, etc. |
| Prosthetic Limb | +1 | "An accident caused you to lose a limb. Because of this, you now have a random prosthetic!" | One of your arms or legs is replaced with a surplus prosthetic, which are very fragile and need tools to repair. |
| Reality Dissociation Syndrome | +2 | "You suffer from a severe disorder that causes very vivid hallucinations. Mindbreaker toxin can suppress its effects, and you are immune to mindbreaker's hallucinogenic properties." | You suffer from intense, constant hallucinations. These include normal hallucinations but can also be strange, unique effects that can't be induced by anything else. Having this does not give you a license to act in an antagonistic manner. |
| Smoker | +1 | "Sometimes you just really want a smoke. Probably not great for your lungs."" | |
| Social Anxiety | +1 | "Talking to people is difficult for you, and you often stutter or even lock up." | You periodically stutter, and there is a very low chance every second for you to become incapable of speech for a time. |
| Unstable | + 2 | "Due to past troubles, you are unable to recover your sanity if you lose it. Be very careful managing your mood!"" |
Neutral Traits
Neutral traits cost no points and do not impactfully alter the way the game plays.
| Trait Name | Balance | Entry Description | Gameplay Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ananas Affinity | 0 | "You find yourself greatly enjoying fruits of the ananas genus. You can't seem to ever get enough of their sweet goodness!" | Pineapple is added to your loved foods list. |
| Ananas Aversion | 0 | "You find yourself greatly detesting fruits of the ananas genus. Serious, how the hell can anyone say these things are good? And what kind of madman would even dare putting it on a pizza!?" | Pineapple is added to your detested foods list. |
| Ageusia | 0 | "You can't taste anything! Toxic food will still poison you." | Food, drinks, and reagents have no taste to you. However, toxic food will still incur nausea. |
| Deviant Tastes | 0 | "You dislike food that most people enjoy, and find delicious what they don't." | Your liked and disliked foods are swapped. This means that for humans you will suddenly like raw and gross foods, but disliked fried and junk food. This differs between species, so being a lizard or moth will cause you to like and dislike different things. |
| Monochromacy | 0 | "You suffer from full colorblindness, and perceive nearly the entire world in blacks and whites." | You can no longer view colors. Play as a Detective for the full authentic noir view. |