Attributes Redux

[Dog Pants]

What does redux mean anyway?

I had a shower inspiration moment last week as a very distant throwback from Joose's discussions on attributes/stats/whatever you want to call them. We've been stuck in a D&D rut for a long time, as with many things in RPGs, for no other reason than that's how everyone else does it. So with no real idea of the effects it will have on the game mechanics of my system under construction I've completely changed them. I now have this:

Outward
The three outward attributes represent the capacities of the character’s body. I've followed Joose's lead and ditched the Constitution equivalent. This is particularly appropriate for this system because I also don't use hit points.

Agility: The character’s Agility attribute represents their control over their movements. A high agility character will be precise and fast both in small gestures and grand.
Attractiveness: The character’s looks are represented by their Attractiveness attribute. This will obviously be subjective, but there are always constants between races and tastes. As well as being facially beautiful, a high Attractiveness character will move with grace and confidence which will impress those who see them.
Strength: The character’s Strength attribute defines their physical power, the amount of horse their body can bring to bear. A high Strength character will be able to lift more, carry more, and hit harder than those with a lower score.

Inward
The three inward attributes represent the inherent capacities of a character’s mind. This has gone through the most changes because traditional RPGs are so combat focussed, which is a result of D&D being based on a wargame. Intelligence has been ditched and replaced by Diagnosis and Creativity. Wisdom has been renamed and moved to another category, and Willpower (which was never in D&D anyway) has been moved too. These attributes are meant to be the ones you're born with rather than stuff you develop as you grow.

Creativity: A character’s creativity defines their ability to think outside the box, to take inspiration from the world or generate it from within. Extremely creative characters are often artists, but the attribute is much more important than simply having a vivid imagination. Creativity is also the inspiration required to think outside the normal boundaries, to perform mental leaps which others may not have ever considered, and to piece information together in the mind.
Diagnosis: Diagnosis is the character’s ability to process information and understand that which is presented to them. Characters with high Diagnosis are analytical and calculating, searching for reason and cause.
Reaction: A character’s Reaction attribute represents their mental reflexes, how quick they are to react to a sudden situation. Characters with high Reaction are faster to notice things, more alert, sharper than average.

Subjective
The three subjective attributes represent the character’s personality, the qualities they have gained through their experience of the world and how they have responded to it. Not defined by either mental or physical capacity, they are a product of decision, conscious or unconscious, over the character’s lifetime. I moved Willpower in here because it seems more appropriate, and then lumped Charisma, Wisdom and common sense into the Wit attribute. That's the one I'm least happy with - someone can still be charming but have no common sense - but in that instance they're probably more endearing, which isn't really a deliberate choice. Empathy you may remember from my suggestions in Joose's Charisma thread, and is something I've had in for a long time.

Willpower: A character’s Willpower attribute defines how able they are to resist their mind and body’s natural urges and reactions. A character with high Willpower is better equipped to overcome fear or pain, to ignore injury and push themselves to their limits.
Wit: A character’s wit is the sum of their social experience. It represents savvy, common sense, and charisma. Characters with high Wit attributes are sharp of tongue and shrewd.
Empathy: Empathy defines a character’s capacity for realising the situation of another person and seeing it from their point of view. Often high Empathy characters are kind and caring, but not always. Occasionally a high Empathy character will use their capacity for understanding others to inflict acute psychological torture on them.

I like how there are three attributes per heading, and how they fit very conveniently into those categories. It's taking a bit to figure out how it applies, but that's mainly because I've had 20 years of the D&D way drummed into me. I do keep finding that things fit very well into the game mechanics though when I do go and poke them, and skills seem to fall into categories better. The acid test, though, is if you can sum up different types of people with the stats and have them remain accurate. It demonstrates well with extremes - high Creativity and low Diagnose is your batshit artist who nobody understands, while high Diagnose and low Creativity is pretty much a Vulcan. You need both to be considered highly intelligent.

I've pencilled in some derived attributes from these. Currently the plan is to use these as a basis for tests which don't have a particular skill. I like the way attributes combine, but I'm very aware of the fact averages make characters increasingly mediocre, so I'm currently going with sums. Since they would be used like skills I don't think that's a big problem. I haven't managed to find a symmetry to it yet either like I did with the primary attributes.

Physique (Agility + Strength): A character’s Physique represents their body’s condition and fitness. I might use this to determine action points or equivalent.
Intelligence (Creativity + Diagnosis): Intelligence is a character’s ability for understanding, a result of both analysis of the facts available and being able to extrapolate that and apply it to new and unknown theories. I might tie this in with skill increases.
Presence (Wit + Empathy): A character’s Presence represents their ability to interact with other people to achieve a particular response. Not entirely sure what to do with this one as skills will cover most social interactions, but I'm thinking it will determine the resource pool for whatever magic analogue the system has.
Endurance (Strength + Willpower): A character’s Endurance is used to resist shock and pain. Easy one that, it's used in combat which uses shock and bleeding rather than hit points (it's a pretty grim combat system).
Initiative (Agility + Reaction): A character’s Initiative is used to establish when they act in relation to others. Pretty self explanatory.

The symmetry is a little off like I said. Attractiveness isn't used at all. It would work nicely with Wit for a Sexy stat combining Outward and Subjective, but I already have that combination with Endurance. The other two Outward attributes are used twice each, while all the Inward and Subjective attributes are only combined once. That gives the game an emphasis on the physical, although since it's invariably based on physical danger I suppose that's inevitable. If it was a dating game it would probably be different. I also don't have a derived attribute which combines Inward and Subjective, and if I did then there would be an attribute used twice in each. None of this is a problem necessarily, I just like the idea of it all being nicely arranged.

[deject]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/redux

[Dog Pants]

Hm, wrong use then. Reinvented or revamped would have been better. Anyway it sounded good in my head.

[FatherJack]

I've always been confused by the proliferation in the mid-to-late noughties of the use of redux, as it's pronounced re-ducks and means something slightly different to what the people who keep using it seem to think it means.

I'd put it down to American film companies, who that because it looked a bit French what with the X and everything, thought it was pronounced re-do (as in to do again) and I've heard US trailers pronounce it this way - which makes a lot more sense given the usual context of its use.