Attributes

There are eight basic attributes for characters that represent their physical and mental capabilities used in this game are: Strength, Dexterity, Quickness, Toughness, Intelligence, Will, Perception, and Charisma. During character creation, the player gets 12 attribute points to divide among each of his character’s 8 physical and mental attributes. No attribute may at this stage have a rank higher than 2 or less than 0. The points may be assigned on a 1 point per rank basis. The average person has 1 rank in each attribute.

The only fair way assign attribute points is to allow the player to assign attribute points to his character as he chooses, within reasonable guideline, among the various attributes. In that way the player can create a character with attributes appropriate the skills he wants the character to have. Each attribute has specific game applications. The player is discouraged from pooling all of his points in a few attributes at the expense of other attributes, but it is still the players choice to do so if he wishes.

Strength: Muscle, basis for melee attack and thrown weapon damage bonus. At a strength of 0 ranks the character can lift and carry a weight of 75# for a short distance. This weight decreases by 25# for each number below 0. A character with a strength of 1 can lift and carry a weight of 100# for a short distance. The amount he can lift and carry for a short distance increased by 50# for each rank above 1. Thus a character with a strength of 4 could pick up and carry something with a weight of 250# for a short distance. The maximum the character can lift in place is 2x this base weight. Normal loads that may be carried without difficulty or encumbrance for any significant distance is 1/2 of this base carrying weight. This is the attribute used when determining general athletic or physical tests.

Dexterity: Dexterity is a measure of a characters nimbleness and ability to use their hands for delicate work. It is a main requisite for thieves and acrobats. Characters with a high dexterity gain bonuses for using tools, melee and missile weapons, and bonuses for dexterity skills. Dexterity skills include pocket picking, trap removal, climbing, stealth, and evade pursuit. Characters with low dexterity are clumsy and suffer penalties in these categories.

Quickness: This is a measure of how quickly a person physically reacts, how well he avoids blows, and how good are his reflexes. It is the basis for initiative bonus, armor bonuses, determining movement rates, and some skills.

Toughness: Toughness is a measure of the health and vitality of the player character. Characters with high toughness are more resistant to diseases and infections than those with low constitutions. Characters with high constitutions heal faster and gain bonuses magical healing when wounded. Resting overnight heals a 1 point for each point of toughness.

Intelligence: Intelligence is a measure of how smart a character is, not how well educated he is. A character of low intelligence will always act that way no matter what his education. An intelligent player will always act intelligently whether he is a barbarian or a scholar. Characters of normal or higher intelligence can learn additional languages beyond their cradle languages. Those learned as a child usually racial, common, and perhaps one or two others. Trade languages do not count against these totals. Thereafter one languages may be learned per rank of the language skill.

Will: Will is the measure of the mental discipline of the character. A character with a high will gains bonuses to fight off magical, alchemical, and other attempts to affect his mind, such as charm, sleep, fear, etc. Will is also a reflection of the determination of the character to see a task through. The higher the will the more relentless the character can be. It is also a measure of bravery. Characters with low wills are cowardly, while those with high wills are brave. Willpower, strength of determination, bravery, stubbornness, will saves, and some spell paths.

Perception: Perception is a measurement of a character's awareness of his surroundings. It is his ability to find hidden objects, hear noises, find traps, tracking, detect ambushes, and tailing.

Charisma: Charisma is a measurement of how well a character interacts with those he meets. It is mostly personality although some aspects of physical appearance also plays a role. A character with high charisma is likable, while characters with low charisma are dislikable. It also is a measure of the force of a character’s personality. A character with a high charisma has a presence about him that others seem to notice. A high charisma is a measure of leadership. It doesn’t mean he will be a good leader, just that people will be willing to follow him in battle. Charisma is the base attribute for artistic or musical talent. Charisma is the attribute linked to skills such as: perform, lie, bluff, diplomacy, leadership, some spell paths.

General comments: Some game systems use fewer attributes, others have more. One game system includes twelve distinct attributes if you count their sub-attribute scores. The games that list fewer specific attributes lump too many unrelated abilities into one attribute score. Others have so many attributes that several of them are all but meaningless in game play. If you are allowed to assign attribute points as you choose, in a system with many attributes, then there is a tendency to steal points from the less "game useful" skills and jack up the points in more useful skills. The greater number of skills, the greater the discrepancy between the high values and low values. (In any case that is what I would do.) I have picked what I thought were the minimum number of distinctive game useful skills for the characters. I also have striven to make each attribute be of value to each character, so that all the attributes are used during the course of play.

Why include attributes in the game at all? When players envision a character, they see someone with certain physical and mental characteristics. It may be a muscular fighter, an athletic cat-burglar, or a brilliant but shy magician. In games with set character classes some of these attributes are inherent in the conceptual archetypes of the game. In a skill based system, these archetypes are not defined. The character used in the game should embody the attributes the player envisions him to have, and these characteristics, I believe, should be expressed in the mechanics of the game itself. Including physical and mental attributes for the characters helps achieve this goal. A character can be muscular, intelligent, or charming depending on how the attribute points are distributed during character creation.

A secondary goal relates to how attributes affect skill tests. For example, there are several skills that require physical strength to accomplish effectively. By having a strength attribute, a single bonus can be applied to all skills dependant on strength. Broad groups of skills which are related to an individual physical or mental attribute can all be given a uniform bonus to reflect the characteristics the player envisions him to have. By including attributes in the character creation mix, a different characters who have spent the same number of points on the same skills, will still not have the same chance of success on a skill test role if they have different ratings in their linked attributes. A goal of the skill based structure used in this game is to allow each character created to be a unique individual, this additional layer of customizability facilitates that ideal.

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