From: jbridson@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Subject: Re: net.rpg: Character Stats [based on skills]
Organization: Memorial University. St.John's Nfld, Canada
Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 22:14:27 GMT

In article <1992Nov19.085038.12265@midway.uchicago.edu>, fks1@ellis.uchicago.edu (Scaramouche) writes:
> In article <1992Nov18.221344.3370@alf.uib.no> magnus@ii.uib.no writes:
>>
>>Or maybe.. (thought) you could start with the skills, choosing which
>>skills you wanted. Then those would give their points to connected
>>stats, which would keep pushing the points upward till they hit the
>>main stats. I think this is a more user-friendly (!!) approach - as
>>the player chooses what the character is good at, what he can do, what
>>he has done - and then you determine his stats, instead of determining
>>stats and then getting skills, maybe some you didn't want, some you
>>wanted you can't get enough of etc.
> 
> This sounds pretty interesting (certainly original, i think) but if
> you work this backwards by having a character pick skills which then
> effect the related stats, i don't think you model life to well.  I 
> mean that means that the more skill you have the more you are better
> at it.  i.e.  say Joe takes fencing.  If he takes it at a low level
> he has a low Agility (or whatever), but if he takes it high he has
> a high agility.  This doesn't make too much sense.  Why can't Joe
> have a high AGI but be a poor fencer?  

Actually, I already proposed something like this way back in the beginning, 
and I believe there was a rather old RPG that used this idea.  I am fully 
in favour of this:  it does result in better defined characters.  However, 
I think one probalem is that you need a nice and big list of skills, some 
of which may not be used very frequently.  Perhaps have a "side one" to the 
character sheet with all the important information that you often need in 
play, and is nice to have at hand.  "Side two" would have things like 
Personality, Character History (*), odd notes about the char, and the 
skills that aren't used a lot:  ie. things that while important, aren't 
constantly being referred to.

As for you statement that Joe shoudl be able to have low fencing, but high 
Agility, it's perfectly easy to do this with this method of character 
generation.  Easier than a lot of other systems, I might add.  A stat is a 
representaion of a talent, or general level of ability in one direction.  
If you're not good at anything involving this talent, obviously your 
general level of ability won't be high.  In Joe's case, he gets a low 
Fencing skill, but high in other Agility skills (eg. throwing, catching, 
dodging, running, jumping...).  No-one can have high Agility, but be lousy 
at all agility-related actions.  This high agility must be manifested 
somewhere.

(*) Character History:  I'm surprised that more RPG's don't have this 
simple, effective method of character definition.  My revised version of
D&D (yes, it's fully skill based, with a unifrom mechanic, etc.!) certainyl 
has it.  There's a section on your character sheet for writing important 
personal events - basically a time-line of major events in a character's 
life (eg. being born, being accepted into the inner circle of jugglers, 
becoming king), except that its vertical.

>>-Magnus
>>
>>PS Good work! DS
> 
> -- 
>>>>-----------------------------------------------------------------------<<<
> "It is human nature, I suppose to be futile and ridiculous"
> "If the windmill should prove to formidable, I may see what can be done
>            with the wind."            -Scaramouche (fks1@midway.uchicago.edu)

Robert Bridson (using the account of jbridson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design