Gens and traits importance

[Atilius]

In my recent games I found out that I usually expect for a general with appropriate gens to prepare one to be my main general. To what point does gens influence the aquisition of traits? For instance, is it possiblie for someone with gens fabian to become a great general? Is it much more difficult? How?

A character's gens does influence how likely he is to acquire certain traits, but no gens has much of an advantage over any other where overall military effectiveness is concerned. Members of some gens are more likely to be good recruiters, members of another to be good tacticians, and members of still another to be poor besiegers.

And the second question refers to the Sharp/Charismatic/Vigorous. How much do these influence in the aquisition of certain traits? Are they more important than gens? How likely is someone with a Sharp father to be Sharp too? Or is it just random?

These are quite important. For instance, Intelligence helps a character learn from experience and advance through levels of (mostly) favorable traits more quickly. These are more important than gens, and a character with an intelligent (energetic, charismatic) father is more likely to be intelligent (energetic, charismatic) himself.