From: leet@acsu.buffalo.edu (Brian D. Leet)
Newsgroups: rec.games.design
Subject: Re: net.rpg: Character Stats (LONG)
Date: 19 Nov 92 17:20:17 GMT
Article-I.D.: acsu.Bxz45u.EMB
Organization: UB

In article <1992Nov18.221344.3370@alf.uib.no> magnus@ii.uib.no writes:
>>>>>> On 17 Nov 92 23:13:55 GMT, leet@acsu.buffalo.edu (Brian D. Leet)
>>>>>> said:
>
>	Brian> Well there is some basic interest I guess so here is an
>	Brian> excerpt from a system I've been toying with: (I'll try
>
>It looks very elegant. As soon as we have agreed on on something like
>this we will be able to start working at different ends. We have to
>look carefully at this part, though. If we make mistakes here, and
>have to correct them at a later stage, that could have nasty
>consequences. Now let's see..

Agreed!  In fact I'd really like to see a bit more criticism of specific 
parts of the listing from people on the net.  I have seen a couple already
and they have been very helpful...

>	Brian> will fluctuate through life.  No score may be greater
>	Brian> than 1 1/2 * a subscore +1.  Nor may a subscore be more
>	Brian> than 1 1/2 times +1 over a score.  Always round down on
>	Brian> the 1/2.
>
>Isn't this a bit clumsy? I don't know - I just think it should be
>simpler. Also, there should be some connection between the sum of the
>subscores for a score and the score. If you have a high physical,
>there should be some high physical below to explain that. 

I just extracted this from another project where it works a little better.
Someone mentioned that each score should be the average of it's subscores,
this sounds very good to me and is adequately simple.

<Section on character generation deleted>
I'd rather keep this thread to the stat system itself.  There are plenty of
threads on character gen. out there already :-).

>	Brian> to be broken :-).  Special campaigns may add new stats
>	Brian> etc. and maybe someone will have a score that isn't so
>	Brian> close to the one higher on the tree from it, but these
>	Brian> are exceptions not the rule.
>
>Hmm.. the tree would be pretty modifiable, you could just push in new
>stats and let them inherit values from above. Same goes for skills.
>Then of course you could add to those, perhaps you would also have to
>adjust upwards to maintain balance - remember to write those stats
>with a pencil.. :-)

Yeah it is pretty modifiable but I think in general that should be 
discouraged.  If every module is adding and subtracting from the stat tree
then we end up back where we started.  If something is that generic and 
useful it can be put in there to begin with.  (Also I made great pains to
keep the tree "balanced", ie each node having three subnodes, I feel this is
very important to maintain the integrity of the system.)

>Ok - I haven't commented the tree itself, but I'm sure others will.
>We'll have to tune it so it's natural and has a good flow both ways.
>I noticed that some of the parts are obviously not applicable for
>"real-life" games like Twilight.

I've heard a couple of comments along these lines so let me respond.  First 
of all this tree is obviously generic, so it needs to have a section that is 
applicable to high-fantasy or super-normals situations.  This section is not
going to help a lot for "real-life" games.  I don't think this extra mass harms
it at all so long as it is handled properly.  As far as someone's (I can't rem-
ember who at the moment) comment on warriors minning their energy stats so 
they could max the physical ones in low magic campaigns I have to reactions 
to this.  First its one of the reasons I am not big on point allocation 
systems, but second and more importantly, character generation will probably
have to be set up somewhat according to the campaign.  If I were to run a 
campaign on gladiatorial combat only then I would just make the energy and 
cognitive stats worth fewer points.  Another option is to just use Energy, 
Cognitive and all nine physical stats, voila, only two to minimize and they 
may have *some* effect on the game at some point....

							Brian
Newsgroups: rec.games.design