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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Is it possible to balance the six abilities?
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<blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 9660040" data-attributes="member: 2629"><p>They're not baseline abilities you need to have in every game, but - gosh tootin - they have a place in certain games - but I do not use typical ability score approaches (skill rolls) with them often. </p><p></p><p>I used Comeliness for nearly 20 years. However, I gave the players the option to pick it. It had utility, but not in the way the other abilities did. It gave me and the player a numeric score that communicated how attractive their PC was in their eyes. It gave them a reminder of what it was so that when a 'first impression' scenario I had an NPC respond to how attractive or unattractive the PC was, the response was expected. In many ways it was no different than the PC describing their character as attractive or unattractive to me during session 0. Most players elected to roll their attractiveness or set it at 10 to 12. I stopped using it in 2020 when I moved to a new region - but that was mostly because I was working with all new players in a new region and was overly cautious about offending people.</p><p></p><p>Honor was also used as an optional ability score until then. If honor was important to your PC, you also selected where it began - and then I raised it or lowered it based upon your RP. You had to have a personal code to have honor, so it elicited some good Session 0 discussion. It only had impact for 2 homebrew classes that were acceptable at the time in the eyes of my group, but venture too far into stereotyping. I would use it again, but mostly to help players feel accountable for their personal code.</p><p></p><p>Sanity is 100% in use in my games. However, players are not even told about it. I set a starting sanity based upon their Session 0. Then I raise it or lower it based upon the horrors they experience and the RP decisions they make. Most specifically, when they deal with Aberrations and other influences from the Far Realm and suffer a consequence, such as failing a fear save, it has a chance to push them more mad. The sanity score mostly impacts how I describe a situation to them. The more sane they are, the less terrifying the description. The less sanity they have, the less terror is woven into the description. There are a few mechanical differences for homebrew monsters - (PC rolls a Wisdom Save. If failed, roll on table 1 for Sanity less than 6, table 2 for Sanity 7 to 13, and table 3 for Sanity above 13. Like Comeliness, this is mostly about playing into the decisions the player sets in Session 0 and then using this as shorthand to track how the adventures push them more towards madness. I tend to have a discussion with players that see their sanity dip too much and ask them if they feel their PC would have a reaction to all the horrible things that has taken place to them ... but it is a player decision.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="jgsugden, post: 9660040, member: 2629"] They're not baseline abilities you need to have in every game, but - gosh tootin - they have a place in certain games - but I do not use typical ability score approaches (skill rolls) with them often. I used Comeliness for nearly 20 years. However, I gave the players the option to pick it. It had utility, but not in the way the other abilities did. It gave me and the player a numeric score that communicated how attractive their PC was in their eyes. It gave them a reminder of what it was so that when a 'first impression' scenario I had an NPC respond to how attractive or unattractive the PC was, the response was expected. In many ways it was no different than the PC describing their character as attractive or unattractive to me during session 0. Most players elected to roll their attractiveness or set it at 10 to 12. I stopped using it in 2020 when I moved to a new region - but that was mostly because I was working with all new players in a new region and was overly cautious about offending people. Honor was also used as an optional ability score until then. If honor was important to your PC, you also selected where it began - and then I raised it or lowered it based upon your RP. You had to have a personal code to have honor, so it elicited some good Session 0 discussion. It only had impact for 2 homebrew classes that were acceptable at the time in the eyes of my group, but venture too far into stereotyping. I would use it again, but mostly to help players feel accountable for their personal code. Sanity is 100% in use in my games. However, players are not even told about it. I set a starting sanity based upon their Session 0. Then I raise it or lower it based upon the horrors they experience and the RP decisions they make. Most specifically, when they deal with Aberrations and other influences from the Far Realm and suffer a consequence, such as failing a fear save, it has a chance to push them more mad. The sanity score mostly impacts how I describe a situation to them. The more sane they are, the less terrifying the description. The less sanity they have, the less terror is woven into the description. There are a few mechanical differences for homebrew monsters - (PC rolls a Wisdom Save. If failed, roll on table 1 for Sanity less than 6, table 2 for Sanity 7 to 13, and table 3 for Sanity above 13. Like Comeliness, this is mostly about playing into the decisions the player sets in Session 0 and then using this as shorthand to track how the adventures push them more towards madness. I tend to have a discussion with players that see their sanity dip too much and ask them if they feel their PC would have a reaction to all the horrible things that has taken place to them ... but it is a player decision. [/QUOTE]
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Is it possible to balance the six abilities?
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