Freelance Traveller

Bwap Psyche Profiles

by Timothy Collinson

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2025 issue.

Psyche Profiles are an interesting way of giving some character to characters. The seven numbers in the referenced article, aimed at human NPCs, represent Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Pride, Wrath, and Jealousy – i.e., the human “7 deadly sins”. Low numbers represent positives of these attributes.

However, these don’t really apply to Bwaps.

Lust would be unlikely to exist in the human sense as the race have completely divorced reproduction from concepts such as love, pair-bonding or desire. There is no marriage and mating is a pragmatic process where elders decide on breeding pairs to achieve the best genetic outcomes. The father has little or nothing to do with the process of raising young.

Greed also seems unlikely as their philosophical and social structure is communal and hierarchical, prioritising the needs of the whole over the individual.  Individuals have their specific place in the clan or pawab and their primary motivation is to maintain this universal order. Bwaps are taught from young that crèche and clan are far more important than any individual or family relationships. Even in a wapawab, assets and debts are accrued as a group and divided on the departure of an individual. Bwap merchants may once have returned wealth to their homeworld, Marhaban (or Lentuli as it was known in the Ziru Sirka), but that appears to be (p.238) part of their place in the cosmic order of things rather than personal avarice.

Gluttony seems very unlikely as their relationship with food appears to be more practical and traditional than indulgent. Alcohol and recreational drugs are almost non-existent in their culture which suggests intake for sustenance and ritual, not overconsumption. There might be some pride in their rather hazardous delicacies and sauces (see below), but it seems more likely that this is about the experience of eating rather than indulgence.

Sloth is the complete antithesis of Bwap nature as they are industrious and single-minded. “Bwap entrepreneurs throw themselves whole-heartedly – some would say obsessively – into their business ventures” and they are “driven and single-minded” (p.235).  A holiday is an alien concept!

Pride (or vanity) could exist but is redirected from the individual to the collective. There could reasonably be a sense of cultural pride and superiority. They see themselves as a “beacon of order” (p.240) and doing things the proper way.

Wrath and jealousy seem unlikely as they focus on ‘order’. Bwap psychology appears to be geared toward co-operation and negotiation rather than conflict. They want to avoid kabkowekabkade-akasteb (chaos). They seem to prefer logic over emotion (see, for example, the Grand Council denying the request to use orbital bombardment against human cities).

Having ruled those out, does that make the Bwap rather boring or ‘perfect’ and of little use for role-playing? I don’t think so. I think it gives an opportunity to make them a little more alien and find vices in the negative expression of their core virtues. I propose the following five vices:

Bureaucratism (or Bureaucratic Obsession): this goes beyond inflexibility or a love of order and becomes the active, compulsive need to create and enforce complex administrative systems for their own sake. Signs of it include a love of paperwork, paralysis by process and order as the end goal (i.e., the process of order is more important than achieving the desired outcome).

Aloofness: not arrogance, as might be seen in humans, but a coldness towards individuals, even those who might in human circles be considered friends or colleagues, that stems from the absence of romantic love, pair-bonding and strong family ties. They will be polite enough but there’s a lack of warmth and personal investment that humans might expect.

Ruthless Pragmatism: a cold, calculating logic that prioritizes the collective good over the individual, often to a cruel extent. Rather than a wrathful or emotional response they make decisions that sacrifice individuals or smaller groups for the ‘greater good’ without hesitation or remorse.

Inflexibility: a lack of adaptability and overly obsessive adherence to established ritual and protocol. It goes beyond ‘doing things the proper way’ and makes them inherently resistant to deviation, giving an inability to adapt to unforeseen circumstances or an infuriating stubbornness when dealing with other more ‘chaotic’ races.

Conservatism: a deep-seated resistance to innovation, intuition, and cultural change. As noted, this may be genetic (p.233), explains their lack of technological innovation, and explains the fact that their culture and language experienced virtually no drift over the centuries of the Long Night.

Given those negative virtues, with the mnemonic BARIC, and given the standard human-centric relationship table in ‘Generating NPC Psychology’ (with its focus on hate, love and strong bonds) being a poor fit for Bwaps, I propose an alternative table using the concepts of order/utility and disruption/chaos. A Bwap doesn’t love/hate someone but recognizes the other as a valuable and useful component of their pawab or the greater cosmic order, or as a source of chaos; a disruption to the proper way of doing things that must be corrected, managed or excised.

Note that unlike the original article, the ‘difference’ between two characters’ psyche profile should be calculated as negative or positive. 

The ‘Determining Relationships’ section of the original article seems to have values that can’t be obtained by the generation systemThe values in question can be reached, but only with Referee-determined DMs for factors outside the pure psych profile, as suggested in the original article. Between that and the time it takes to calculate, it may be better just to use the table as a straight 2d6 roll. It’s probably questionable as to how applicable it is to Bwaps in any case as they seem, to me at least, to be more collegiate. Hence this revision.

A Worked Example

Etebkas Ebaab (Pilot)

93928

Saabsa Tap (Astrogator)

89A3B

To see how Etebkas views Saabsa, sum the differences of each vice: 9-8 = -1, 3+9 = +6, 9+A = +1, 2+3 = +1, 8+B = +3.  TOTAL = 10.  Divide by 5 = DM+2 and roll on the table.

To see how Saabsa views Etebkas, reverse the sign of the DM and roll on the table: DM-2.