Stats seem to be at the center of most rpgs, but do we need them ? Are they important to how a character is " seen " or is it something we keep carrying on from other roleplaying systems because that is what we have always done. Can they be better ? I'm not looking at any one system to change but wondering what your feelings on stats are.
Do you think we could do better than standard 6 stat setup ? If so what would add or take away ? For example a friend of mine hates how wisdom and intelligence are not just one stat.
I have played systems that use ability scores, but not the D&D ones (eg Traveller: STR, DEX, END(urance), INT, EDUC(ation), Social Standing; Runequest and other BPR games: STR, CON, SIZ(e), DEX, INT, POW(er = magical ability), APP(earance); Rolemaster: STR, CON, AG(ility), QU(ickness), RE(asoning), ME(mory), Self Discipline, PR(esence), EM(pathy), IN(tuition); Burning Wheel: Power (= STR), Forte (= CON), Speed (= the init/defence/stealth parts of DEX), Agility (= the attack/sleight of hand parts of DEX); Will; Perception (also includes INT); maybe others I'm forgetting).
In these games, ability scores do different things: in RM mostly they generate bonuses that add to skill checks (rarely does the ability score, or its associated bonus, come into play on its own); in Traveller they sometimes grant bonuses or penalties to skill checks and sometimes are relevant on their own, and the physical stats also serve as hit points; in RQ they generate bonuses for skills but also come into play in other ways; in BW they can be used to make checks, and they also determine starting scores for skills, but they don't themselves affect skill checks. In BW they also determine ability to withstand damage, as each wound imposes a penalty to all checks, and if the penalty would reduce an ability score to zero then the character is out of action.
I think stats are quite useful, but some RPGs can do without.
E.g. I recall that the 'Over the Edge' only uses descriptive traits, which is perfectly fine and fitting for the kind of open, everything-goes setting it represents.
I think Over the Edge may have been one of the first "free desriptor" RPGs. (How did Toon work?)
HeroWars/Quest is similar. So is Marvel Heroic RP - although the descriptors aren't completley open-ended, there is no default set of ability scores (eg a characer only has STR or Stamina listed if it is a noteworthy super power).
In these games, there is a default rule for making checks if no relevant descriptor is relevant to the action declaration but the check is still possible for an untrained person to attempt. (Eg in MHRP there will be other contributors to the dice pool; in OtE the default, from memory, is 2 dice.)
I think it is because it is natural for people to unconsciously (or consciously) rate other people in personal characteristics. We are aware of how physical, brainy, charming, etc people are, and it informs how we feel about them, how we interact with them, what we expect of them, etc.
While mechanical implementation can be done in a variety of ways, if it isn't there, the system seems hollow in some ways. Let's say you have a system where you only define your character in terms of specific words you ascribe to them, with no standard attributes. Okay, it seems cool as far as it goes. It highlights what you feel is important about that character. But if you like to really get into character and project yourself into the fiction in a first person sort of way and want to have your character "look around" so to speak, you are going to want to know what certain other characters are like in standard ways. Does the system just assume that everyone without a particular descriptor such as "Strong as an ox" or "atheletic and graceful" is unremarkable?
Yes and no.
If some particualr trait is not called out via descriptor, then it does not affect the character's action resolution.
An example relevant to MHRP would be Batroc the Leaper's moustache. The game has no "facial hair" stat (of the top of my head I don't know of any RPG that does) - but that doesn't mean that Batroc's moustache is unremarkable. It is just called out in the picture or description, much like Prof X's baldness and wheelchair.
In D&D pre-5e there is no stat for telling you whether a person is down-to-earth or cultivated in demeanour, but that hasn't stopped such properties of people being parts of PC and NPC descriptions and being relevant to the play of the game.
Or to give another example: RM has stats for hand and foot size, but D&D doesn't; that doesn't mean all D&D PCs have the same-sized feet.
I don't think the idea that
if it's not called out in numbers, it isn't salient in the fiction has ever been true in RPGing. If it's not called out in numbers, it is more likely to be merely colour rather than a component in action resolution, but that's a different thing.
