NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8486912" data-attributes="member: 82106">I put it more strongly, the ONLY PURPOSE of these sorts of items on the character sheet is to assist in RP. They are there so that the player has a consistent structure to work with. If none of these attributes existed, then it would be hard indeed to form a very definite idea of your character. I mean, you COULD write down a bunch of free form notes, but why not just have an easy mnemonic device, STR, CON, DEX, INT, WIS, CHA to go by? In this light things like alignment and personality traits fall into the same category. Heck, even things like class could be seen in the same light. Now, one might ask why or how in that view things relate to the mechanics, but IMHO those are ALSO a tool with which we facilitate the building of the overall fictional milieu. So it naturally makes sense, your STR score characterizes your PC in respect to basic raw physical might, and when he bashes something with his fist, by gosh his extraordinary strength produces results in keeping with the rest of the fiction! What is interesting is that OD&D seems to have seen it the same way. As much as it was described as a 'test of the player and not the character', it also seems like the intent was for the things on your sheet to be SUGGESTIVE and generally explain the character in a succinct and basic way. You're a strong fighter, you wear heavy armor, carry a shield and bash things with a sword. I think the addition of ability modifiers during the evolution into AD&D was just intended to extend that. It wasn't really meant as a set of 'build mechanics' by which players would create optimized characters, or to rigidly define exactly every nuance of the PC either (there are still notes for that if you want).</blockquote>

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