I'm wondering if there could be some way to get an idea of someone's charisma?

Maybe it could go in the status line:

Someone, a repulsive human, is in perfect health.

Or maybe it's something that isn't instantly obvious, but which you find out after being with the person a while.

Anyways, unless I'm overlooking something obvious, right now there's no way to even recognize beauty in CF -- it's not even skin deep.

I don't see this happening, nor would I want it to. You equate charisma to physical appearances, which I simply do not agree with. There's plenty of good looking people that are complete pricks, can you tell that from a glance? Or what about the elephant men out there that have the personality of a saint? As it stands, I think that having a number for charisma is kind of wrong, it can't possibly take into account a person's personality, which should have at least as much to do with how people react to them as how they look. Personality is reflected by RP alone, which I sincerly hope will never just be given a number to be seen by everyone. I'd definately be more in favor of changing over charisma to appearance, and even then I can't see any real reason to have it displayed under a status line or even a consider.

If I understand you correctly, the Charisma stat might be better named "Natural Leadership Ability", except that that's too long a name for a stat.

And, thinking of how it works for conjurers and bards, I guess that kinda makes sense.

But maybe it would be a good idea to change the words which show up in score to describe it? I know I've felt bad playing a persuasive character with low charisma -- so much so that I've had times where I've changed my role play to be more in line with the stat description.

I don't have any good ideas for what the names should be, but maybe this could be a "Valguarnera's Monthly Contest" at some point?

From http://www.dictionary.com

cha·ris·ma
1a. A rare personal quality attributed to leaders who arouse fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm.
b. Personal magnetism or charm: a television news program famed for the charisma of its anchors.
2. (Christianity.) An extraordinary power, such as the ability to perform miracles, granted by the Holy Spirit.

This sounds like the definition we're using to me. I agree with Gherian that appearance isn't charisma, and that you can already assess appearance with "look".

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

The two parts of definition 1 cover most of how I've seen it used, with definition 2 perhaps explaining something about bard songs.

There's a couple of things that aren't addressed in the definition. One is that charisma (afaik) affects the prices shopkeepers give you when you're haggling. Another is that the charisma of a group leader seems to affect the morale of the group members.

Both of those are personality based, not appearance based, but at the same time can't be easily reflected simply by how someone roleplays their character. This sort of thing is why most dice and paper RPGs keep at least one personality based trait. You may act like an ass yet people like you anyway, or you may be the nicest and most hated person around. Both happen in the real world quite often.

Personally, my RP eventually reflects the charisma stat to a degree, but it also reflects the rest of the stats as well. But without a true appearance stat that aspect ends up however I feel fits the characterization of the character.