Core Rules deep dive: character's stats

After long time I am back to complete the ‘deep dive’ posts with a new topic to be analyzed: the stats of a character. The overall concept of stats is not far from the one used in the most famous FRPG: a character is described by scores according to certain definitions. In VI·VIII·X any character is defined through 3 levels (or layers) of stats: the first level has a broad definition, the second level shows a more detailed definition up to the third level where a precise activity is defined. The 3-level framework is built by means of relationships between the stats of each level: a 1st level stat is linked with two 2nd level stats and every 2nd level stat is tied to several 3rd level stats. This framework helps to explain that the level of granularity of the definitions for each level goes from a general one (for 1st level) up to a detailed one (for 3rd level).

This explanation helps to outline the framework where the 1st level stats are called ‘Known stats’ or KS (because they are known to the player), the 2nd level stats are called ‘Unknown stats’ or US (because they are not known to the player but only to the GM), the 3rd level stats are called ‘Exclusive skills’ or ES (because the access to each of them is somehow exclusive according to the career and the background of the character). The score of any stat is a value between 1 and 10 (zero for KS and US means that the character is close to death if not dead, whereas for ES means no knowledge for that skill).

Here below the visual graph representing the 3-level framework of the stats:

Looking in detail, let us focus on every level of stats.

The first level has 4 attributes only: two are physical stats, two are mental ones. Compared to other FRPGs, this is a limited amount (usually there are 6/8 attributes, some games have more than 10! It’d interesting to find what game has the highest number of attributes for a character…): the two physical stats represent the approx overall concepts of strength+constitution and dexterity+quickness respectively, while the two mental stats represent approx the concepts of intelligence and wisdom+charisma.

The second level has 8 attributes: every KS is declined into two US, hence the relationship 1:2 also present in the graph between KS and US. The KS Build is declined into 2 different US according to the definitions present in the rulebook. The same for Control, Intellect and Empathy.

This relationship has two meanings: the first one is a mere matter of granularity; from a ‘high-level’ definition of the KS, the character has a more detailed definition with the US. This means that, for instance, Control includes both Accuracy and Agility which are two different scopes of definition within the same KS. Translated into game mechanics, a character has therefore a first score in Control, known to the player, and also two scores in Accuracy and Agility (unknown… to the player). The second meaning is focusing on how a character is defined in the game: as a matter of fact, the US shows how the character is able to develop (from the scratch) the gift he got from Mother Nature (which is represented by the KS).

Quantitatively speaking, while the 1st level of stat has a stable score (it is defined during character’s creation and it rarely changes) the score in the US is an evolving parameter. The US score is not known by the player: the rationale is double, being the first reason to explain that the character (like its player in real life) doesn’t know exactly what are his limits and he can both understand and improve them by using that stat. The more he uses that stat, the more acquainted he will be and, at the same time, the higher probability he will increase the score (this, in my eyes, is a virtuous circle). The second reason, needless to say, is to serve the KUP model…

The third level of stat is represented by the effective application of character’s attributes into a specific field. The logic of relationship and connection to the 2nd level stats is similar to what I have already outlined for the KS-US here above. It is worth to mention that ES are attributes strictly related to the character’s career and background. The access to a specific ES is granted based on career and background with no penalties (otherwise the possibility to have access to an ES is subject to the GM’s approval and at double cost).

With the full picture of the character’s attributes the last (but not less important) detail to highlight is related to two US: Reasoning and Presence. These two US are disabled within the game mechanics: this implies that there are no rules or formulas where these two US are recalled. The explanation is based on the concept that there is no need to use them if role-play is fostered: anytime a player needs to leverage on the use of logic or social relationships, he will be asked to role-play instead of invoking a simple check to bypass the situation. I can understand that this aspect can be seen maybe cruel, giving no options to the player than the one of using his own capabilities, but I feel that this consideration has to be meant in a positive sense. The push towards role-play in such a circumstance has been built for the sake of fun and the most possible immersive situation. I don’t know whether or not such a solution has ever been applied so far… I am confident that this will bring a lot of interesting outcome and moreover a more engaged group of players.

…I have already been addressed with a comment on this solution: why only these 2 US and not any physical US? Well, as long as an RPG is played around a table and it is based on talks and ideas, these are the only two stats that could easily be replaced by the player’s capabilities… should a new wave of RPGs include physical actions such as jumping and fighting, then I will resize the scope of this rule...