Attributes

 Intro

Being the first part of character generation.

Step 2: Choose Race, Sex, Culture

It's quite possible that the 'Horoscope' method is dependent on the race chosen. Should the GM allow non-humans of course. 

Horoscope may be culture dependent too.

Step 3: Aspect & Horoscope

I'll lump the together. It's possible that there's a method that gives both results at once. The main point is that it should be appropriate to the culture where the character starts. 

I'll hold Aspect in hand for the moment. My magic and religion system is system is still too vague.

Whatever method of determining the birth omens is chosen, I like the provision of two mastery slots. I'll disregard the attribute floor/ceiling introduced in 5th.

Archaeology: In 1st and 2nd the horoscope gave xp modifiers for different types of activities. So a character might get be fated to gain more xp from commerce than combat. My preference is for the newer system.

Step 4: Background:

This is all very setting and campaign dependent.

I believe that there is a case for GM involvement, especially in settings where social rank is more rigid. It's going to be easier to 'get a party together' if they're planned to do so. They don't all have to come from the same social class.

In the 3rd edition GM guide it's hinted that 'historic' High Chivalric is not the most conducive to playing a mixed party. In Dark Ages and Early Feudal we have more flexibility for moving between social classes. In Late Feudal, while nobility stays a closed shop, the importance of knights diminishes, eroded by more militant peasantry and, too a larger extent, the rise in the power and importance of cities. That said, what we might call the Arthurian-High-Chivalric - the world of the Dark Age tales updated to Chivalric ideals remains appealing (in the manner of Pendragon).

Both pre and post High Chivalry are appealing. The former has more room for monsters, a less organized church and the potential for successful warriors to be admitted into the landed classes. The latter provides a less martial backdrop for the traders, the intriguers, the guildsmen, the learned to operate in. 

I'd drop the attribute mods (Peasant = +2 STR &c.) which appear in the tables in the core rules. (Why should a townsman be more agile?). I have considered allowing different classes to buy some attributes at a different rate, e.g. A peasant may buy CON with a schedule ending 16:16, 17:17, 18:19, 20:21, 21:24 but buying INT as 14:14, 15:16, 16:18, 17:20, 18:22, 19:22, 20:24 as a reflection of nurture over nurture but it seems a bit of a faff.

An important detail which is missing is the question of whether the character is married. I've read that commoners tended to marry in their late twenties, so that's not an issue. But as you go up the ranks of landowners and nobility there's a good chance that an arrangement of some type will have been in place, driven by hopes of political alliance and the need for heirs among a warlike class. I have no rules proposals here. 

Step 5: Attributes

The bones of this post and where the merging of editions really begins. I am not at all keen on the use of derived Attributes, feeling that Skillscape removes the need for them. I earlier editions they were used to generate 'factors' (see archaeology, below) and to provide Characteristic Rolls for areas now covered by individual skills (esp. Charisma). 

Surveying the three editions I'm looking at:

Strength, Constitution: Nothing much to say here. I'm pleased that 4th distinguished between STR and ASR. The former is the basic statistic and is considered to be relative to the character's size, the latter is a calculated value showing the character's strength in absolute terms. More on that later. Personally, I think that some non-human races are still a bit muddled.

Agility, Dexterity: In 3rd and earlier, the attribute was called Dexterity. In 4th the main attribute is Agility and DEX is an optional 'semi-derived' attribute (take AG and modify up/down by a die roll or points cost). In 5th DEX is the main attribute and AG is derived ( Ave(STR,CON,DEX) +/- modifier).

When split, DEX covers hand-eye coordination and micro muscle control, AG is grace and macro coordination.

Having AG dependent on CON doesn't ring true with me, it also messes a bit with Build. I'd be happy with just AG, but the skill listings now use both values. 

Intellect, Wisdom: Yes, we're still in D&D attributes. To a degree INT is reductionist, WIS is holistic. 

Discipline: This was new in 3rd edition as a replacement for Ferocity. A measure of drive, determination and the ability to focus on the job in hand.

Bardic Voice: Another stat which has always been there. It covers a wide range of communication ability. Quality of voice, fluency of speech and word choice and all wrapped up in this. It is fundamental to all charismatic and to many performance skills.

Appearance: Another long running attribute. I dislike it as a major attribute. In 1st and 2nd edition it is a component of Charisma. It's only use in Skillscape is as an attribute for the Charm skill. As the assessment of Appearance varies in time and place and as an appearance which improves Intimidation is probably not the same appearance which improves Charm, I'm going to assume that characters are generally non-descript and instead introduce advantages which alter the PSF for specific skills. For non-social characters this is a bit of a points dump.

Spirit: I'm going to wait to until religion and magic are more settled in my mind before attempting to define it. In 1st this would have been Alignment, in 2nd and 3rd this was Piety. These days it's a little closer to BRP's POWer. It must intermingle with Aspect but I'm not yet sure how.

Ferocity: This comes back in 4th as an optional derived attribute. Ave(STR, WIS, DISC) +/- modifier. In 5th it becomes non-optional. I think that it deserves to become an attribute in its own right - and anyway, the 5th edition supplements are beginning to take it on in skill descriptions. I will leave its use as a character's morale to NPCs. I see it as a measure of a character's willingness to take short-term physical risk for potential gain and to overcome physical discomfort. 

I would use it to replace DISC in the combat skills and convert skills like Axes, Maces to STR+FER from STR*2 (Weapons where you're getting in close while making big swings with a weapon best used for attacking rather than parrying). Stamina can become FER+CON. A new skill, Fortitude(?) FER+FER to be used in some cases where Willpower is currently used and to resist pain. It could be an attribute associated with training large beasts, and for a skill like Deter Predator where the character is facing down wolves and bears.

Charisma: This was a derived attribute in 1st and 2nd. 3rd did away with it, preferring to break the charismatic skills down to two key attributes. In 4th it became an optional derived stat (WIS, APP, BV) and could be substituted for the second listed attribute in charismatic skills. In 5th this change is non-optional.  So, most charismatic skills are now BV + CHA. I will ditch it and use the attributes as listed for 3rd/4th. Intimidation is now BV + FER. Charismatic skills are good place to apply PSF modifiers from talents, advantages, flaws, curses &c.

Final Decision:

The ten basic attributes are STR, CON, AG, DEX, INT, WIS, FER, DISC, BV, SPR.

The simplest change to the point based generation is to increase the allowance to 140 points. This allows characters to have better than normal starting stats while not being too extreme.

 Most characters will have three or four stats which they wish to increase and this will allow something like { 17, 17, 17, 15, 13, 13, 12, 10, 10, 10 } or { 20, 17, 17, 14, 13, 11, 10, 10, 10, 10}.

It is possible to push two stats to 20 while not going below 10 in any other stat. I would discourage this.

An alternative might be to initially set DEX to the same value as AG (for humans) with the option to raise one a single point at the expense of the other. [Yes, there's a little 1 point advantage if you pick AG:15 and then shift].  I will allow a further 1 point shift for characters with certain backgrounds - sedentary craftsmen might raise DEX at the expense of AG, physically active professions might raise AG at the expense of DEX. It has the potential to become a dump stat as the major combat and magical skills are still AG based and it's the craft skills which use DEX.

When rolling stats, DEX is a stat in its own right.

Stamina : CON + FER

Charismatic Skills : Back to 3rd/4th. Usually X + BV

Intimidation : FER + BV

Fortitude : FER * 2.  May have some use. 

On Older Derived Stats

PMF, PFF, PCF &c. All involved averages and maybe some other mods.

I think that Skillscape has rendered them all redundant. Let's look at 2nd edition PCF.  This is a factor which determines of your combat abilities; number of blows, weapon attacks and damage, shield parries, weapon parries and dodge chances.

In 2nd edition it was (DEX + STR + WIS + IQ + CHA + FER)/12 * class_factor and increased by 1.5 or 1.0 per level depending on one's class. CHA was (DEX + WIS + IQ + BV + APP + FER)/6 with additional modifiers for extreme stats,  e.g. FER below 9 or above 16 would move the number.  How does one's BV make one's axe swing faster?   [1st brings in CCAP to account for ASR, has a slightly different average and a possible extra +1 or +2 for a good DEX].

In 4th the derived Charisma included some modifiers for extreme stats which is good. 5th removed them and so if you wanted to try the classic D&D trope of a "dex fighter" you'd need to average 16 points in STR, CON & DEX and spend some more points to get 20 AG. Without the mods for extreme values, the derived stats will become more middly - which is a shame for combat or charisma based characters. [As a side note the Attribute bonuses to PSF in 5th make it more useful to have a high stat and a mediocre stat than two good-ish stats. If AttA + AttB == 28, in 5th you get the same result for A==B==14 (giving a +4) as in 3rd/4th but the higher one goes the bigger the bonus A=20; B=8 will net a +8. 

The Three (Fans)