d100 - Heavenly Hallmarks or Gifts for the God-Touched

Many months ago, I completed a table for Tiefling Traits and Infernal Features in which I promised a Post pertaining to their more Angelic/Aasimaric Counterparts. I plinked away at a smattering of entries and then promptly misplaced the Table, only to serendipitously sumble upon it the other day.

Should you not use those beings of Divine or Celestial Heritage in your games, I suppose some of these Blessed Boons could easily be more akin to some of my Fighter Features for Variegated Veterans for the Cleric Class or even proudly pinned on a Paladin. But I think there’s also some utility in using them as a bit of Foreground Growth/Alternative Advancement though: What sort of holy handouts might one receive for tidying a Timeworn Temple, sprucing up a Sacred Shrine, sipping from a Sanctified Spring, or even inadvertently engaging with a mercurial Godling? Some could even serve as a more auspicious bequest, granted after being Brought Back from the Dead.

d100 - Fighter Features for Variegated Veterans

It is often said in circles that discuss these older presentations, that two Characters that choose the Fighter Class often lack distinction from each other outside of their Scores, Equipment/Gear, and perhaps how generous that Hit Point roll was during Character Generation. In order to set them apart somewhat, I’ve created this table of One Hundred Traits that augment those Warriors ever-so-slightly, creating a little more distinction between them. Some of these might inform a Character’s Background a bit: Speaking of past exploits or professions (q.v. Prior Vocations for more of this nature) whilst others might just be intrinsic knacks or specialized training they’ve picked up prior to Play.

Some of these Abilities could even serve as inspiration for new knowledges or capabilities that could be earned in Play. While I’m not a fervent fan of “Feats” gained through just XP Advancement, I suppose they could serve that purpose as well with a new one being dribbled out every few levels. They seem a bit more interesting to me if they’re acquired as the result of intentional choices, or as Rewards for tasks, trials, or training undertaken at the Table, perhaps like a bit more mundane version of my Benevolent Blessings & Gainful Growth. One could even repurpose those Magical Research Rules or something similar to have this occupy some Downtime.

Fighters do already possess a Super Secret Special Ability in B/X that’s often overlooked: The ability to create Strongholds that influence the Surrounding Lands at any level. While sadly, this seldom shows up in Contemporary Play, it’s a very important Feature when you contrast this with how this is handled by the other Classes. I often find myself bringing this up when I hear other Referees lamenting the lack of Domain Play these days (you don’t have to wait until Name after all!), or when there’s a bit of grousing about how Fighters don’t feel very powerful or interesting. Hopefully a few of these ideas might prove useful or fun for the Fighters at your Tables!

d100 - Infernal Features & Tiefling Traits

The following table contains a Hundred Ideas for unusual features that might be possessed by Tieflings or those of uniquely Fantastic Bloodlines. Though it may be a bit skewed toward those Cambion Characters, if you are a fan of making your Elfs “Weird” or in need of a quick Mutation Table, I suppose this might work in a pinch for those purposes as well. Some are mostly cosmetic, others might be a bit of a drawback or introduce challenges, a few lucky ones are beneficial, but most will probably lend a bit of an uncanny air to these Characters. I’ve always been a little bit bitter about that “false d100” table in Planescape (you know the ones: they use the two d10s...but consolidate the entries and lack a healthy hundred!) so I finally decided to rectify this. Do not fear, for a more Angelic Counterpart has already been added to the pile for a future post at some point.

d100 – My Magic Cannot...

An interesting conversation on Twitter about ways to make Magic weilded by Magic-Users a little less reliable for a more distinctive and wonderous feel (somewhat like the Taboo System I use for Clerics) got me thinking, and before I knew it I had the makings of a Table. I had some semi-similar things (like my recent Flaws & Foibles or perhaps my Magical Mishaps & Calamitous Curses), but nothing that quite fit the bill.

Personifying the Magic made it a little easier to produce some of these entries, feel free to season that bit to taste. I’m not quite sure how I’d use them (Maybe in exchange for more Casting Ability? Perhaps every Magic User specializes or has their own personal connections?) but I’d probably try to make them meaningful in terms of interpretation.

Sure seems like several of the recent tables have been a bit Caster-centric. I really need to polish up a few more of my Fighter-friendly tables at some point 😊.

d100 - Connections & Coincidences for Character Convergence

There is usually a part of Character Generation where it might be useful to determine how the Player Characters know each other. Some tables are completely comfortable with hand-waving or abstracting this or letting those Relationships bloom during play but when that time comes, it can be helpful to have some ideas.

I like to focus on the Teamwork aspects of these games quite a bit, so forging a few bonds between the members of the Party can really go a long way to help emphasize this. A bit of Shared History, in the form of an amusing or intriguing anecdote about how they met is a delightful place to begin.

I’m certainly not the first to attempt a table approach for this, and I managed to resist the urge to peek at another table that I’ve used occasionally in the past: the excellent 100 Reasons by JB from B/X Blackrazor. These are indeed especially useful to address these questions, and I’m certain that despite my best intentions, there might be some subliminal overlap.

I decided to zoom into a very particular part of my version though: Those lovely, serendipitous circumstances surrounding how people Meet for the first time. What common thread was enigmatically twisted to have those fates intertwine? I also champion a clockwise approach for this: each generates one to particularize these happenstances between themselves and the player to their Right, and so on until things circle around. This usually provides that sticky dollop of glue to get things started.

As with other tables, this one features a bevy of dreaded Capitalization to draw attention to the places that might need further specificity. The goal is here is to get the players asking and answering questions about these results to elaborate on them a bit to reach consensus. Another potential use for this is to flesh out Contacts, NPCs, or even Rivals the party might possess. Any acquaintance of a Character might benefit from a bit of background like this.

Everyone who has ever met has a story surrounding that meeting and sometimes they end up being quite memorable indeed. Here are only One Hundred of these, that might be useful in your games:

Table Talk: I had started this table a few months ago, and in its embryonic stages it seemed to be trending a little more toward these “Chance Meetings.” The inspiration for it came from a humorous place: A song that happened to play randomly while my playlist was on shuffle. The song in question is a lovely Medley by They Might Be Giants called “Fingertips.” It consists of twenty-one mostly very short, snippet like songs, stitched together. I have fond memories of using parts of this song to fill up the any trailing silent spaces on the sides of Mix Tapes back in the day.

Specifically, the segment in question that inspired this was the eighth one: “Aren’t You The Guy Who Hit Me In The Eye?” It got me thinking that perhaps I could do a Table corresponding to each of these little ditties at some point, and this one might mark the first in that little silly series.

As I mentioned in my post about how I make tables: Inspiration can come from the strangest places once you have opened yourself to it 😊.

d100 - Mercurial Mentors & Weird Wizards

There is a rather lovely bit of implied world building secreted away in the Spell Acquisition process for Magic Users in B/X and OSE. Whilst I also permit transcription from Scrolls and captured Spell Books as an alternative arcane augmentation avenue, by default the only two options for expanding a Medium’s occult repertoire are Research (touched on previous posts here and here) and a mention of Mentors.

Sadly, these Thaumatological Tutors do not really receive any substantial detail, so this table aims to address this oversight. The Sorcerous Instructor can be determined alongside the Starting Spell the Magic-User begins play with, or one can simply combine results to mint new Mentors. Starting with a Name and a distinguishing Trait provides a little bit of background, may raise interesting questions, and depending on how you treat this relationship in your games might even result in an interesting NPC, Patron, Ally, or Rival through play.

If one is to rigidly interpret the Rules, I suppose each of these Spellcasters has earned the rank and title of Wizard and is at least 11th Level (the point at which Magic-Users can build Strongholds/Towers and attract 1d3 Apprentices: Another potential opportunity for NPCs if the player wasn't alone in their education and toil). I always found it amusing that unlike those earned by Thieves, these poor students are replaceable.

These individuals are responsible for imparting that single, initial Spell to their protégé, prior to the start of play. Many Referees insist on defaulting to Read Magic for this initial outlay, others roll randomly, and still others permit the player to select. My common House Rule for ages has been to grant Read Magic gratis and let them roll a d12 on the conveniently dozenal list for their second First Level spell. Should the result land on Read Magic, they may choose a Spell. It has always been my preference to make Memorization feature a choice out of the gate.

There are twelve sections of eight in this list (so I suppose one could even just roll a d12 and a d8), leaving a remainder to round out the hundred. These come with a little lagniappe should one of these fortuitous four rolls occur.

d100 - Starting Equipment: Backstories & Seeds

Musing the other day about Randomizing the Players’ Starting Equipment (why would this Magic User have a suit of Chainmail Armor?) got me thinking: What if some of a Character’s Initial Gear could serve as a bit of double duty somehow? It would be fun if one of the items they began play with had a little History, or even maybe an Adventure Hook/Rumor/bit of Mystery to pursue right out of the gate. As a big proponent of a more Sandbox-style of play, one can never have enough seeds to broadcast into those initially fallow fields in hopes that something sprouts, so naturally I felt another table was in order 😊.

At first, I had contemplated dividing this up into categories like Weapons/Armor/Tools and such, but gradually started leaning toward attempting to make the entries at least somewhat applicable to all (as you never know what the players will decide to spend that 3d6 x 100 on or select from my Quick Equipment & Encumbrance Sheet). Some Referees perform this Shopping portion of Character Generation in play, and not all of these may be appropriate with that method, but there could be some inspiration found below for roleplaying cues I suppose.

Gut-feeling tells me that these would likely work best with the more durable pieces of gear on the Adventure Equipment list of your choice but it might lead to interesting situations to attach something like this to a consumable like a single Torch or Arrow. Could lead to a tough choice down the road eventually.

I do have an additional d100 for Equipment here, but this list doesn’t include the “bread and butter” of Arms and Armor. Updated: with Perchance generator below.

Updated Quick Equipment & Encumbrance Sheet

Here’s a bit of a blast from the past. I decided to give a little refresh to my old Quick Equipment & Encumbrance Sheet because it’s still turning out to be useful for various games I’m running.

As before, the chief purpose is to cut down on the time-consuming “Shopping Trip” portion of Character Generation, but still preserve some player choice in how they outfit their characters that goes a bit beyond the more comprehensive “kits.” There are some tricky choices baked in, but I if you wanted to speed things up even more, you can always just have the players roll 6d12 (but I’ve found this tends to lead to a lot of table time spent “swapping” sometimes). With a few quick checkmarks/highlighters the adventurers are ready to go, with all of their Equipment on a single handy sheet.

Tex-Crawl/Gorgon Trail Backgrounds & Vocations

One of the first things I like to do these days when I’m contemplating Settings is to start with player facing materials.

For the Tex-Crawl project, Gorgon Trail (a Mystara-sytle Gazetteer for fantasy Texas) I went ahead and created an updated “Backgrounds & Vocations” list that tries to do some of the heavy lifting to communicate setting during Character Generation:

Ideally, as with the previous Backgrounds, these should create more questions than they answer and telegraph more of the entire world more quickly than a huge setting dump. It is also interesting to see which Backgrounds/Vocations are broadly applicable despite the setting, and how a simple tweak can completely change the tone.

The actual Gazetteer is going on 36 pages so far, and the sections on some of the really intriguing things (like how Clerics are handled, Rune-Branding, Barbed-Wire Wizards, and Hooch Magic) have been completed in their draft forms. It’s all very tongue and cheek, and the authorial voice/heavy use of idiomatic expressions is having the strange side-effect of my latent accent creep out in conversation :). I’m having to resist the urge to just go full on TROIKA! with these Backgrounds instead of something broadly compatible with B/X.

Character Backgrounds & Prior Vocations

Some recent discussion on Reddit got me blathering on about Backgrounds. One of the things that draws me to skill-less systems is the freedom they provide to the players. A set-in-stone Skill List informs play and can narrow the scope of player actions as they look in askance at the Character Sheet for options and tactics, and a tendency develops to view Skills as “this is everything you can do.” They also discourage attempts by telegraphing odds directly (a Player whose sheet constantly informs them that they are terrible at Sneaking About will probably never try).

I really enjoy systems like WHITEHACK that bundle these potential activities into Vocations (or Backgrounds). All of the “Skills/Competencies/Familiarities” that come attached to a single Vocation will usually encompass more individual abilities that can fit on a character's sheet anyway, and best of all: it encourages the player to think of creative ways that their character could potentially interact with a situation based on their imagined history. The only challenge with more free-form systems like this tends to be the occasionally creative paralysis when a player is lightly pressed with “You can be anything, tell me about your character” without any kind of concept in mind. Mind you, I’m not a big proponent of preconceived character concepts and would much rather let the oracular dice do this work for me, but every tablemate is different.

So here’s a table of 100 Character Backgrounds & Prior Vocations to help inspire players that might find themselves in this rut, or simply enjoy the challenge of trying something new and breaking out of the classic class stereotypes. I like “Roll or Choose” for tables like these because they provide some agency, but this list should by no means considered exhaustive. I always recommend trying to accommodate any character you can, most settings can cope surprisingly well (it’s fantasy after all, and stories shared are best):

Remember that long-lists of Backgrounds like this can perform double-duty. They can help significantly with the legwork to communicate and develop an Implied Setting (TROIKA!’s Backgrounds are phenomenal at this). Don't simply stop with selection however: Always try to ask a few Leading Questions to flesh things out. In the Backgrounds Above for instance, a glance may pique some curiosity and some questions about the world we're playing in may spring to mind: Why is Magic so apparently dangerous? What’s an Ooze Wrangler or an Ex-Wood-Spouse? It sure seems like some of the Cleric Backgrounds suggest that not all is on the up-and-up, etc. I try to leave these mostly as an exercise to the player (only putting on the DM hat when a drastic misalignment in vision/fiction can’t be resolved through compromise or might not be fun or fair for everyone).

As always, I’d love to hear about how this works out for your group if you give it a spin.

Background Questions for TROIKA!

My beautiful physical copies of the Troika! Numinous Editions arrived the other day and I've really enjoyed reading through them.

I grew up with the Fighting Fantasy series (I still have a particular fondness for the Sorcery! line), so mechanically the system was comfortingly nostalgic, but what struck me most about TROIKA! was the implicit shared world-building of the 36 default backgrounds. They are intriguingly terse and absolutely wonderful in their own right, but they almost taunt the reader/roller (in a good way) with unanswered questions due to the intentionally light touch.

So I had an adjunct idea to append on to the admittedly very quick TROIKA! Character Generation process: Have the player answer a few leading questions based on the Background rolled.

Here's what I came up with:

Special thanks to David Schirduan for saving me some typing by making the full list available on his super awesome Mobile-Friendly Character Generator/Initiative Tracker.

If you haven't had the chance to check out TROIKA! yet, there's a name-your-price artless version available here, but I highly recommend the second edition with all the astounding artwork.

You Are What You Can't

I've been musing a little bit about one of my main issues with Skill Lists that have been inserted into D&D and the various clones over the years. I understand that defining the chances of success at a given task was an important driving factor behind this, but I chafe under the limitations it tends to impose. If a Skill List is provided, players have a tendency to use it as a guide what their character is capable of and this is a little anti-ethical to a certain style of Old School Play. Conversely, extensive skill lists also do tend to inform play by reminding a player of options that might not be readily apparent.

There seem to be many approaches to handle this issue:

One is to keep the skills and capabilities of character's relatively unbound/undefined, at least initially, and explore or flesh them out through play or background. “My father was a blacksmith. Can I shoe this horse?” or “Have I ever encountered the language of Lizard Men before?” This approach relies on a lot of inspiration from Players, and a fair amount of negotiation with the DM. It works over time. There is usually very little interaction with the standardized hidden skill subsystems (like finding Secret Doors, or being surprised), and most rolls can be resolved by a myriad of variations on the venerable Ability Check.

Another quickly devolves into more comprehensive lists of skills and options. Players look in askance at their Character Sheet when confronted with a problem, and dare not attempt things they do not perceive themselves as “good at” for fear of the wrath of the Random Number Generator. They know their strengths, but still fear failure. Usually these systems divorce the chance of success from ability scores to a degree, or become more level dependent.

In each case the character ends up defined and differentiated by what they're good at, but they all have distinct pros and cons.

I'm wrestling with a very different approach.

What if characters were actually defined or differentiated by what they were “bad at” or “incapable of doing” rather than what they are “good at” or “capable of doing.” In a way, flaws are essential for interesting choices and characters, but other than the occasional low ability score (increasingly rare in more modern systems with standard arrays, cracked and subverted bell curves, and point buys) limitations above something broad (“No Edged Weapons”) or vague (“I'm Lawful, I wouldn't do that”) are still conspicuously absent from most D&D games.

They may develop through play or be informed a little by Alignment choice, and the classics always crop up: “My Dwarf is Greedy,” “My Fighter cannot tell a lie” “My Thief is a Kleptomaniac” but there's nothing up front to encourage or direct players to behave in this fashion, other than this wonderful spontaneous development during play or occasionally a seed of an idea on the Player's part (informed by fiction or the prior imagining of something that “seems like it would be fun or interesting to try to play,”) or maybe even as a rationalization of low Ability Scores (I've messed with this a bit before with my previous post on Ability Score Tags).

So instead of a comprehensive skill list, or waiting for skills to develop through play and negotiation, what if part of character generation spelled out some of the character's flaws and deficiencies with a specific eye toward “You can't do this?”

I smell a table, Roll or Choose Three. Optionally, you can roll or choose one less (minimum of 1) for each ability score penalty you possess (these already go a long way to informing play):

I am fairly capable at most things I dare to attempt, but...
Roll Or Choose	ἁμαρτία
1	I Always Cheat or Favor Short Cuts
2	I Always Donate 10% Of My Wealth to The Church or Charity
3	I Always Overestimate My Capabilities
4	I Always Manage To Disappoint My Family and Friends
5	I Am A Buzz-Kill
6	I Am A Compulsive Gambler
7	I Am A Coward
8	I Am A Glutton
9	I Am A Vegetarian
10	I Am A Very Heavy Sleeper
11	I Am Addicted to A Drug or Other Unhealthy Substance
12	I Am Always Right
13	I Am Inconveniently Bad With Names
14	I Am Bloodthirsty
15	I Am Bowlegged
16	I Am Exceptionally Callous
17	I Am Color Blind
18	I Am Completely Tone Deaf
19	I Am Cursed
20	I Am Distrustful of Magic
21	I Am Dyslexic
22	I Am Easily Distracted
23	I Am Easily Startled
24	I Am Excessively Impatient
25	I Am Greedy
26	I Am Hated by The Gods
27	I Am Honest To A Fault
28	I Am Inconveniently Careful
29	I Am Inconveniently Old
30	I Am Inconveniently Overweight
31	I Am Inconveniently Short
32	I Am Inconveniently Tall
33	I Am Inconveniently Thin
34	I Am Inconveniently Young
35	I Am Miserly
36	I Am Nosy
37	I Am Slow To React
38	I Am Startled By Loud Noises
39	I Am Terrible At Math
40	I Am Terrible At Riding
41	I Am Ugly/Unattractive
42	I Am Untrustworthy
43	I Am Very Bad With Money
44	I Am Very Gullible/I Was Born Yesterday
45	I Am Very Quick To Anger
46	I Am Very Shy
47	I Am Very Superstitious
48	I Am Very Unlucky
49	I Bully The Weak
50	I Can't Lift Heavy Things
51	I Can't Read
52	I Can't Remember My Past
53	I Can't Swim
54	I Cannot Appreciate Art or Beauty
55	I Cannot Be Stealthy, or am Very Noisy
56	I Cannot Climb
57	I Cannot Handle Strong Drink
58	I Cannot Not Tolerate Torture or Cruelty
59	I Cannot Operate Under Pressure
60	I Drop Things
61	I Experience Flashbacks
62	I Frighten Animals
63	I Get Lost Easily
64	I Get Winded if I Run
65	I Had A Very Poor Education
66	I Have A Bad Back
67	I Have A Bad Reputation
68	I Have A Sensitive Stomach
69	I Have A Terrible Temper
70	I Have A Very Distinctive Appearance
71	I Have A Weak Grip
72	I Have A Weak Heart
73	I Have a Weak Immune System
74	I Have Difficulty Finding Clothes That Fit Properly
75	I Have Difficulty Telling Right From Wrong
76	I Have Horrible Hangovers
77	I Have Missing Fingers
78	I Have No Sense Of Humor
79	I Have Severe Allergies
80	I Have Shaky Hands
81	I Have Trouble With Learning Languages
82	I Have Troubling Nightmares
83	I Lack Faith
84	I Never Bathe
85	I Never Forgive A Slight
86	I Never Retreat or Surrender
87	I Often Misread The Intentions Of Others
88	I Require A Lot Of Sleep
89	I Smell Bad
90	I Stutter
91	I Suffer From A Crippling Phobia
92	I Suffer from Arthritis
93	I Suffer From Delusions
94	I Suffer from Migraines
95	I Suffer from Motion Sickness/Vertigo/Seasickness
96	I Swear A Lot
97	I Walk With A Limp
98	I Will Never Turn Down A Drink
99	My Eyesight Is Very Poor
100	My Hearing Is Very Poor

The object here initially was to highlight “anti-skills” or “incapability” more so than “flaws” or GURPS-style “Disadvantages” but that's what it morphed into as I started trying to brainstorm and fill out d100 table.

Entries like “I Can't Swim” are much more in tune with the original intention, this limits a Player's options very succinctly and concretely and could lead to interesting situations, back-story expansion, and tough choices. Binary characteristics like this have a more obvious impact, but naturally it's difficult to come up with a negation for every potential skill.

I can't shake the feeling that beginning play with a few examples of INCOMPETENCE or INEPTITUDE would immediately and directly inform play in a pretty different way. Instead of “I Can't Sneak Around because I'm Not A Thief” this option remains open or on the table (unless you choose or roll “I Cannot Be Stealthy, or am Very Noisy” of course).

A careful reading or additional exposition about the nature of the flaw itself in some (or most) cases leads to the deficiency skill-wise if it's not otherwise obvious: Why would the vegetarian know how to cook this steak or butcher this doe? How does this dietary restriction impact reactions from the chiefly carnivorous Barbarians of the Frozen Wastes? Some are definitely more obvious than others, but looking at things side-ways or thinking on what the converse of the limitation represents can help here.

Need to resolve or determine if a character can do something that isn't clearly contravened by their limitations? In the spirit of fun and freedom, I suggest “Say Yes, but...” or “Tell me how...” to close the gap. If all else fails, state consequences and chances and have them decide if the risk is worth it and roll something. The intent here isn't to model what the character is capable of, or how to determine success of an action, but to automatically determine a few points of failure and try to highlight that anything not precluded is possible.

Some results or choices create interesting collisions with Ability Scores (“Why can't my Strength 18 Fighter Lift Heavy things?”) and Alignment (“Why is my Lawful Character Untrustworthy?”). I feel this is a feature. Generous DMs could supply commensurate/commiserative Ability Score adjustments or other bonuses to compensate for spectacularly limiting flaws. I don't think I'd do this, if the flaw is too far against type or doesn't seem fun, just pick another one.

I'm sure a system could be worked out to allow the character to overcome their flaws through play, but I've always had a soft spot for the hapless hero and protagonists with this kind of dimension. A tiny subsystem like this might go a long way to insure that each and every character has an interesting (or exploitable) weakness of some sort from the start, and at the very least inform role-play a little more broadly than your standard skill list.

I'm interested in hearing thoughts about this, or if anything similar has been attempted elsewhere for inspiration. I know it sort of flies in the face of “fun” to a degree (heroes are capable, not "bad at things"), but we all have different definitions of what is “fun.”

Ability Score Tags

Ability Scores that are high or low enough to engender a bonus or penalty can also be assigned Tags. Tags are six-letter words used to emphasize a specific facet of an Ability Score. 

These tags can be chosen/determined initially or developed during play. The original intention was solely to help mitigate the effects of a low ability score, or accentuate certain qualities of a high score by providing some exposition/justification.

Ability Score Tags provide explanations for Ability Scores outside the normal assumptions (for example: Low Strength doesn't necessarily mean one is Weak, they could just suffer from ASTHMA). Negative Tags can also sometimes be used in a positive fashion with a little ingenuity and creativity. The converse is also true. 

Roll or Choose	Low Strength Tags	Roll or Choose	High Strength Tags
1	SVELTE	1	BIGGER
2	PAUNCH	2	BRAWNY
3	ASTHMA	3	VEINED
4	FEEBLE	4	BICEPS
5	ANGINA	5	MUSCLY
6	PETITE	6	LIMBER
7	DAINTY	7	STURDY
8	SPRAIN	8	VIRILE
9	HERNIA	9	METTLE
10	ANEMIC	10	ACTIVE

Roll or Choose	Low Dexterity Tags	Roll or Choose	High Dexterity Tags
1	OAFISH	1	NIMBLE
2	CLUMSY	2	ADROIT
3	THUMBS	3	SPRYLY
4	KLUTZY	4	REACTS
5	JINXED	5	POISED
6	BUMBLE	6	LIVELY
7	FIDGET	7	SUBTLE
8	BUM-LEG	8	FASTER
9	RUSHED	9	TIPTOE
10	MAIMED	10	SPEEDY

Roll or Choose	Low Constitution Tags	Roll or Choose	High Constitution Tags
1	PAINED	1	RUGGED
2	FEVERS	2	STURDY
3	SICKLY	3	HEARTY
4	SMOKES	4	IMMUNE
5	PALLID	5	LOPING
6	NAUSEA	6	ROBUST
7	ADDICT	7	INURED
8	COUGHS	8	GRITTY
9	EFFETE	9	HUNGRY
10	FAINTS	10	STOCKY

Roll or Choose	Low Intelligence Tags	Roll or Choose	High Intelligence Tags
1	SAVAGE	1	PEDANT
2	OBTUSE	2	GIFTED
3	MISLED	3	SAVANT
4	NITWIT	4	CLEVER
5	VACANT	5	GENIUS
6	MYOPIC	6	SHREWD
7	BORING	7	MATURE
8	DROWSY	8	DEBATE
9	QUIRKY	9	DIRECT
10	ARGUES	10	MENTOR

Roll or Choose	Low Wisdom Tags	Roll or Choose	High Wisdom Tags
1	PANICS	1	MUSING
2	RUEFUL	2	CALMED
3	PRISSY	3	POLITE
4	PHOBIA	4	MELLOW
5	CHOLER	5	SOLEMN
6	SHAKEN	6	STABLE
7	STINGY	7	STEADY
8	STOLID	8	DARING
9	VOICES	9	FRUGAL
10	TEMPER	10	HUMANE

Roll or Choose	Low Charisma Tags	Roll or Choose	High Charisma Tags
1	DEMURE	1	CHUMMY
2	CHILLY	2	HONEST
3	ORNERY	3	FLIRTY
4	BIASED	4	EXOTIC
5	MOROSE	5	URBANE
6	SHIFTY	6	BLITHE
7	SHRILL	7	BEAUTY
8	SLEAZY	8	CHATTY
9	VULGAR	9	CHEERY
10	COARSE	10	EYEFUL
11	CRABBY	11	FORMAL
12	DOWNER	12	HAIRDO
13	HOMELY	13	COMELY
14	EGOIST	14	IMPISH
15	LECHER	15	JOCOSE
16	IRKING	16	KINDLY
17	KOWTOW	17	JOVIAL
18	LAPDOG	18	LEADER
19	ABRUPT	19	LOOKER
20	SCOWLS	20	FRIEND

I usually stick with a single Tag per Ability Score, but you could just as easily allow a Tag for each +1/-1, or even a Tag for each point above or below 10 for really colorful characters.

Note: Ability Score Tags also come in handy when generating Henchmen, Hirelings and other non-player characters. 

Ability Score Tags Subsystem: 

The fact that all Tags are six-letter words allows for a simple Tag Improvement/Replacement/Removal subsystem that utilizes a d6. 

For example: Say an individual with the PHOBIA Wisdom tag would like to overcome their fear. At certain intervals (each time the object of the PHOBIA is encountered, the Tag comes up in play, each session, or what-have-you) the player can roll 1d6. If a six is rolled, then the player can mark through a letter and next time the interval arises, they will be able to mark on a 5-6, and so on. Once all the letters are marked out, the PHOBIA has been overcome. Invert this for low-rolling = good d6 resolution. 

This accommodates character improvement that is not necessarily level-dependent. I suppose it would also be possible to tie this improvement to ability score advancement (if applicable, ability score inflation is not everyone's cup of tea), to divorce that from level-based increases as well. 

I tend to prefer the frequency this generates, tying it to a random roll makes improvement considerably less predictable, and more special, as well as encouraging the player to put the character in situations where their Tags are applicable. But it could also be tinkered with by adding or subtracting level to the roll to insure more consistent improvement.

I wouldn't suggest that the Tags themselves amount to additional bonuses or penalties to accomplish specific tasks (as the Tags come from a bonus or penalty), but they could. For instance: an individual with the STURDY Strength Tag might receive a bonus to prevent them from being knocked down. Fair Warning: using the Tags in this fashion could lead to bonus inflation and optimization.  

I tend to lean toward using Tags to provide a little more customized rationalization for a character's high and low ability scores, and potentially using them for Ad Hoc role-playing rewards (although with the Subsystem, using them becomes it's own reward). Let me know if you find a use for this subsystem or the Ability Score Tag tables in your game.