Ability Scores and game playability.

[Staffan]

On the other end, you have Diane Warrior Princess with 11. It’s attribute-based, having only attributes and no skills or classes. Has there been a game with more?

Dangerous Journeys had between 18 and 27, depending on how you looked at it, arranged in a hierarchical system.

At the top of the system you had three stats: Physical, Mental, and Spiritual.
Next step down, you had two stats under each of these. Physical Muscular, Physical Neural, Mental Mnemonic, Mental Reasoning, Spiritual Metaphysical, and Spiritual Psychic.
And at the bottom of the hierarchy, you had (under each of the six) Power, Speed, and Cap. Cap wasn't used much on its own once the PC was in play, but acted as a ceiling for how high you could increase the others.

When making your character, you rolled for the 18 bottom-level stats. These were then summed upwards, so Physical Muscular was equal to PMPow+PMSpd+PMCap, and Physical was equal to Muscle+Neural.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Metagaming's Melee reduced it to two abilities, Strength and Dexterity, and the Wizard expansion upped it to three, adding IQ.
This later became The Fantasy Trip, and when the developer Steve Jackson left Metagaming to found his own company it became GURPS (and added a fourth ability, Health).

Ah, yes- that was a great, great game.

And on the fipside, my favorite game HERO has 10 basic ones + a few derived stats.

So, IMHO, the # of stats doesn't affect playability.

 

[The Little Raven]

D'oh! You're absolutely correct (I haven't played a WW game since 2003 or so).

During the oWoD, when they put out Quickstart rules, they had only three stats, like you said. That might be where your brain is pulling that from.

My personal favourite is the Storytelling System's 9.

Same here. The Physical/Social/Mental split paired with the Power/Finesse/Resistance split works really well in my opinion. Whenever I run something other than D&D, I run it using the Storytelling System.

 

[justanobody]

This ST system is losing me. 9 abilities? Like 9 D&D alignemnts? 2 axis with 3 each or something?

 

[The Little Raven]

2 axis with 3 each or something?

Yup.

Mental
- Intelligence (Power)
- Wits (Finesse)
- Resolve (Resistance)

Physical
- Strength (Power)
- Dexterity (Finesse)
- Stamina (Resistance)

Social
- Presence (Power)
- Manipulation (Finesse)
- Composure (Resistance)

 

[justanobody]

Yup.

Mental
- Intelligence (Power)
- Wits (Finesse)
- Resolve (Resistance)

Physical
- Strength (Power)
- Dexterity (Finesse)
- Stamina (Resistance)

Social
- Presence (Power)
- Manipulation (Finesse)
- Composure (Resistance)

Well that is 9 actual scores just grouped funny. The power/fitness/etc means little it seems, so do the other group headers. Looks like a case of over-labeling.

 

[Umbran]

Well that is 9 actual scores just grouped funny. The power/fitness/etc means little it seems, so do the other group headers. Looks like a case of over-labeling.

The extra labeling is there to make the pattern and structure clear. Each facet of the character (mental, physical, and social) has a stat that is about how adroit the character is - mentally adroit, physically adroit, and socially adroit.

 

[justanobody]

Even more making me think the less scores the better.

 

[Remathilis]

My personal favorite is Palladium's scores...

I.Q. Intelligence Quotient (Intelligence)
M.E. Mental Endurance (Wisdom)
M.A. Mental Affinity (Charisma)
P.S. Physical Strength (Strength)
P.P. Physical Prowess (Dexterity)
P.E. Physical Endurance (Constitution)
P.B. Physical Beauty (Comeliness)
Spd Speed (N/A)

You roll up each. And everything seems to effect them (esp. physical skills like boxing or acrobatics).

 

[RFisher]

Physical Muscular, Physical Neural, Mental Mnemonic, Mental Reasoning, Spiritual Metaphysical, and Spiritual Psychic.

You know, I’d been thinking about picking up the PDF, but after that little jog of my memory...maybe not. (^_^)