[Poll] Your Ideal RPG Attribute System

[Jason Liang]

In your ideal RPG system, what are the main character attributes, and how many should there be? Please vote for both
1) the number of main attributes in your system

and

2) which are the main attributes (do not count derived attributes, attribute + skill checks, hp, etc)

 

[Marat]

How are dexterity and agility any different?

 

[Jason Liang]

How are dexterity and agility any different?

Dexterity is hands (i.e. for skills like Steal, Disarm, etc...)
Agility is feet and usually include things like balance, parkour, etc...
Wizardry games separate them.

 

[Beastro]

You may select only up to 11 choices?

Lame.

 

[NecroLord]

Divide attributes into Mental and Physical.
I thought about the inclusion of Faith, a unique attribute which essentially translates to a character's resilience against supernatural attacks, effects and curses and also his ability to shape that Faith into tangible material effects very similar to magic, but actually different from it.
A relatively pious commoner might have a decent Faith attribute, while a prominent religious figure or messiah has a very high Faith attribute.


Physical:
1.Strength (raw muscle power, melee damage, carry weight, used in Intimidation checks).
2.Agility (hand-eye coordination, speed and initiative during a combat turn, ranged weapon accuracy, reflexes).
3. Endurance (physical constitution, resistance to mundane diseases, overall ability to sustain damage and be able to act effectively in a combat turn, the number of wounds one can sustain before taking penalties to actions performed).

Mental:
4. Judgement (wisdom and intuition, the ability to grasp hidden meanings and truths not easily discerned by others, foresight).
5. Intellect (common sense and reasoning, ability to grasp details, ability to learn a variety of languages, mental skills and disciplines, ability to formulate plans and carry them out to fruition).
6.Magic (ability to wield and shape magical power, ability to learn more powerful spells and incantations, this ability is only present in those with magical potential and which carry magic in their blood, those who don't have a Magic score of 0).
7. Faith (general piousness and faith in a deity or ideal, the most "obscure" attribute, resistance to curses and supernatural attacks and abilities, the ability to endure in the face of horror and keep one's sanity).

 

[Marat]

It is difficult and kind of pointless to debate character attributes in separation from gameplay systems, so note I'm writing with the context of my imagined mechanics:

Strength and Endurance for physical potency and fortitude
Intelligence and Willpower for intellectual (possibly magical) potency and fortitude
Agility for all things requiring precision and speed
Perception for good use of one's senses and intuitive (or otherwise) understanding of one's environment
Charisma for social instincts, personal magnetism and ability to read people
Luck because for some people RNG just rolls differently

 

[Jason Liang]

Divide attributes into Mental and Physical.
I thought about the inclusion of Faith, a unique attribute which essentially translates to a character's resilience against supernatural attacks, effects and curses and also his ability to shape that Faith into tangible material effects very similar to magic, but actually different from it.
A relatively pious commoner might have a decent Faith attribute, while a prominent religious figure or messiah has a very high Faith attribute.

Faith and Piety should be the same, no?

 

[Ranselknulf]

The number of attributes isn't the main issue with most games.

The main issue is that most games with these attributes don't incorporate them into the game in meaningful ways.

I'd rather have a system with 3 or 4 attributes where each attribute has a relevant impact on gameplay than 10 attributes where most of the attributes are only used in small ways or side quests.

 

[Jason Liang]

The number of attributes isn't the main issue with most games.

The main issue is that most games with these attributes don't incorporate them into the game in meaningful ways.

I'd rather have a system with 3 or 4 attributes where each attribute has a relevant impact on gameplay than 10 attributes where most of the attributes are only used in small ways or side quests.

This is why I admire the Dark Eye system quite a lot, condensing it down to 5 attributes. CON is so often a dump stat that it makes sense to roll it into STR. In fact in my ideal system there is only 1 "pure" physical stat (Strength) and 1 "pure" mental stat (Intellect), all the other stats have both physical and mental aspects.

The less attributes there are, the less dump stats there are.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

How are dexterity and agility any different?

Agility

Dexterity

 

[Fedora Master]

Where's the KC Option you retarded gook

 

[tomphonse]

A couple of years ago I was developing an Ascii RPG that just ran in the terminal and this was the attribute system I came up with:

(N)ear-sightedness: works like perception does in most other games however we measure it in the opposite (negative values) so -10 near sightedness would be like 10 perception in a normal game

(I)ntelligence: pretty self explanatory

(G)ift-of-the-gab: so like charisma or speech in other games

(G)reatness: like strength in other games

(E)ndurance: like constitution in other games, more health and stuff

(R)unning: like agility or dexterity in other games

I hereby release the N.I.G.G.E.R. system into the public domain if anyone else wants to use it.

 

[NaturallyCarnivorousSheep]

Power thrust from 0 to 600, determined by rolling d 1000 and multiplying the results by 1/6.
Jam density 0-10 you can freely attribute up to 5 points to it.
Kill urself - necessary for character creation

 

[Kabas]

I am a bit conflicted.
Fine with whatever but i do like the simplicity of just 4 attributes, something like Warlords Battlecry 2 is great.

Like something slighly more comlicated too like Wizards & Warriors with it's 8 attributes. It allows you to have more interesting racial differences like Dwarf who have good strength and no penalty to dexterity but terrible speed. Or elephant man who has great strength, endurance and mental skills but abyssmal dex and agility that makes them terrible warriors, etc.
Also like the occasional oddball attribute like Presence from the same W&W which determines the likelihood of you being targeted by monster(or not being targeted if you're monk or ninja).

Not a big fan of having Intelligence or Wisdom as attributes and don't have a problem with replacing them with "Magic", "Power" or "Faith".
Character will only ever be as smart as the player or the writer.

 

[JarlFrank]

Quoting from my personal design document of what I'd consider the perfect RPG:

There are 10 stats in total, 5 physical and 5 mental:

Strength: affects melee damage, heaving up heavy items, forcing doors, wrestling, etc

Agility: affects dodging, evading traps, climbing and other acrobatic skills, dancing, etc

Dexterity: affects manual dexterity, skills related to detailed finger-work, certain artistic skills

Constitution: affects blood loss resistance, ability to use damaged limbs, etc

Beauty: affects physical appearance and the reaction of others to the char’s appearance

Intelligence: affects logic-related skills, as well as every other skill by a small amount

Wits: affects skills based on quick thinking, awareness, etc

Perception: affects the senses and skills such as spotting and searching, ranged combat, etc

Willpower: affects pain resistance, fear resistance, etc

Charisma: affects interpersonal skills, etc