Monday, November 3, 2014

Character Statistics and Skills

The prior post talked about the expression of the characters' general "level" within the framework of Fate Core. This post will get a bit deeper in to the translation (I prefer to think of it as "translation" instead of "conversion") of a character's properties.

Character Properties

A character is largely defined in the source material by the following properties:

  • Attributes (STR, DEX, CON, etc.)
  • Class (Fighter, Wizard, Thief, Cleric)
  • Race (Human, Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, etc)
  • Abilities (Picking Locks, Turning Undead, Casting Spells, etc)

Those properties can all be expressed within the normal scope of the Fate Core system of Skills, Stunts and Aspects.

  • Skills would be for translating properties that are a matter of learning, experience or achievement.
  • Stunts are for those properties or abilities that represent something special, something is something special that would not be otherwise available or achievable by a character.
  • Aspects represent the expression of a narrative "truth".

Now of course these categories can get a bit blurred in a game world of High Fantasy, but nothing beyond what Fate Core can handle.

Attributes

SoG expresses character attributes as Skills. Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, Dexterity and Charisma are all Skills.

They can hypertrophy with use, and atrophy with age or disuse. So yes: Strength is a skill. Dexterity is a skill. Elite athletes don't get to have elite characteristics without a lot of hard work to develop those skills.

Intelligence and Wisdom are Skills?

Currently there's a design decision in Fate Core that properties of Intelligence and Wisdom shouldn't be skills and I generally agree with that decision.

But on the other hand, the source material's reliance on those attributes for use by the Wizard class and the Cleric class might be best served by adding those attributes as Skills.

I previously talked about what might be done to address those needs without resorting to actual skills of Intelligence and Wisdom over here.

Translating Attribute as Skills - Qualitative Method

When it comes to Attributes that don't really have a measure (...how do you measure Dexterity?), rather than stress too much about it, I'd rather apply something like this...

  • Attributes in the source material have a "normal" value between 3 and 18, with the potential to go as high as 25.
  • The source material's statistic range below 8 represents a "less than average" to "poor" range, whereas Fate Core's depiction of the "average" skill starts at +0.
  • Additionally, Mike Olson's Strange Fate reflected a design decision that +4 was representative of the high end of "normal" human potential before you "level up" into heroic and fantastic power level.

Putting those ideas together, SoG uses the following qualitative translation of Character Attributes...

9-11 = Skill +0
12-13 = Skill +1
14-15 = Skill +2
16-17 = Skill +3
18 = Skill +4

What About Low Attributes?

Rather than spend a lot of time on dealing with translating low attributes of 8 or less, I'd think I'd rather abstract this into two levels:

  • A low attribute (translate as a "-1" FC skill level)
  • An abysmal attribute (a "-1" FC skill level plus an overtly negative Aspect)

Abysmal Attribute Aspect Examples:
(Low Wisdom) "A Sack of Hammers has nothing on Me!"
(Low Intelligence) "Tetched in the Haid"
(Low Constitution) "A life spent studying scrolls"
(Low Strength) "Could you give me a hand with this two-handed sword?"
(Low Charisma) "Obnoxious"
(Low Dexterity) "Painfully klutzy"

Translating Attribute as Skill - Quantitative Method

I use this method wherever possible in SoG, based upon the conceit that the game world represents it's own reality--the rules just help quantify and define the boundaries of that reality. When you have a skill that relates to some quantifiable measure, then it's just a matter of figuring out where the levels "line up" and go from there.

A notable example of this process would be Strength. Compare the following two passages:

DMG, p. 15:

Exceptional Strength: Assume further that a strength of 18 indicates that the creature can lift weight equal to its own body weight, or 180 pounds, whichever is the greater, above its head.

A human with an 18 strength and an additional percentile dice roll is able to lift 1 additional pound for every percentage point up to and including 50%, 4 pounds for every percentage point from 51% to 90%, and 8 pounds for each percentage point from 91 % to 00%.

Spirit of the Century, "Lifting Things", p. 258:

Characters have a default amount of weight they can lift and still do something with that weight (like moving slowly, or trying to place it carefully), shown on this page in pounds. If purely lifting without moving – like, say, a heavy portcullis so others can scurry through – they can roughly double that capacity.

Those are sufficient to create the following convenient metrics of strength:

Max overhead lift (STR Attribute)SotC Weight Capacity (Might Skill)
9 = 90 lbs
10 = 100 lbsPoor (-1) = 100 lbs
15 = 150 lbsMediocre (+0) = 150 lbs
18 = 180 lbs
18/20 = 200 lbsAverage (+1) = 200 lbs
18/50 = 230 lbs
18/60 = 270 lbsFair (+2) = 250 lbs
18/70 = 310 lbsGood (+3) = 300 lbs
18/80 = 350 lbsGreat (+4) = 350 lbs
18/90 = 390 lbsSuperb (+5) = 400 lbs
Fantastic (+6) = 450 lbs
18/00 = 470 lbs
Epic (+7) = 500 lbs

Attributes Could Be One of Multiple Skills

With the existing skill list, there's some source material statistics that could be translated to one of a few skills...

The source material attribute that could have the most interpretations against the current skill list would be Charisma. Applications of that attribute could be any one of the following: Contacting, Deceit, Empathy, Leadership, Rapport.

For purposes of translating a character from the source material, pick the single application that is the best definition of how the character most directly uses that skill.

  • A Paladin might easily choose to have a good Leadership skill, and use that distinction to help define the character for the player as being different from a Paladin who might choose Empathy as the skill that represents her Charisma stat.
  • A thief with a high Charisma might choose to translate to a good Deceit and define his class as a Con Man. Or a thief would be distinguished as a Fixer if he chose Contacting.

This also fits with one of my guidelines of being on the right path--does the decision help the player portray his character more clearly? If yes: you're doing it right.

The Actual Skill List

The following is the current skill list for Spirit of Greyhawk. The following table shows the entire skill list, then each character class has access to a subset of the total skills from which to define their skill pyramid.

SoG SkillClericFighterWizardThief
Agility (DEX)YesApexYesApex
Alertness (INT)YesApexYesApex
ArtYesYesApexApex
BurglaryNoNoNoApex
Contacting (CHA)YesYesYesApex
CraftYesYesApexApex
Deceit (CHA)ApexYesYesApex
Empathy (CHA)ApexYesYesYes
GamblingYesYesYesApex
IntimidationApexApexYesApex
Investigation (INT)YesYesApexApex
Leadership (CHA)ApexApexYesYes
LoreApexYesApexYes
MeleeApexApexYesYes
Might (STR)YesApexYesYes
MissileYesApexYesYes
PhysikApexYesApexNo
Rapport (CHA)ApexYesYesApex
Resolve (WIS)ApexYesApexYes
ResourcesYesYesYesYes
RideYesApexYesYes
SeamanshipYesApexYesYes
Sleight of Hand (DEX)YesYesApexApex
StatusApexApexApexApex
StealthYesYesYesApex
SurvivalYesYesYesYes
Toughness (CON)YesApexYesYes
WizardryNoNoApexNo

For every skill, there's the following "states"...

No means that a character has had no access to any special training in this skill. Again, this was meant to represent a culture that has evolved an educational system based upon guilds.

Yes means that a character can elect one of these skills to go into their skill pyramid in any position in the pyramid EXCEPT for the pyramid's single top slot--known as the "Apex" skill.

Apex means that a character can elect this skill to be in the top position in the pyramid. Considered the skill that most clearly defines the character as being a member of a particular class. In other words, the Apex skill defines the "level" of the character. A fighter with an Apex skill of "Missile" at +3 would be considered to be a 6th level character in terms of the source material.

Once sub-classes like Rangers, Bards and Paladins are ready for sharing, there's also an idea that certain skills would have a numeric value assigned to them to represent that the minimum value that a character's Apex skill must have in order to add this skill.

For example, the "Wizardry" skill is currently only available to the "Wizard" class. Once the Ranger class is added, a ranger could elect to add the Wizardry skill once the character's Apex skill has reached at least +4 (i.e., 8th level Ranger).

In a similar vein, it's likely that certain skills might also have limitations for certain classes, races, based upon other skills (attributes).

Attributes Could Be One of Multiple Skills

With the existing skill list, there's some source material attributes that could be translated to one of a few skills...

The source material attribute that could have the most interpretations against the current skill list would be Charisma. Applications of that attribute could be any one of the following: Contacting, Deceit, Empathy, Leadership, Rapport.

For purposes of translating a character from the source material, pick the single application that is the best definition of how the character most directly uses that skill.

  • A Paladin might easily choose to have an apex skill of Leadership (or even have it as one of the higher skill levels), and use that distinction to help define the character for the player as being different from a Paladin who might choose Empathy as the skill that represents her Charisma stat.
  • A Thief with a high Charisma might choose to translate that to an apex skill of Deceit and play his Thief class as more of a con man. Or a thief would be distinguished as a Fixer if he chose Contacting.

This also fits with one of my guidelines of being on the right path--does the decision help the player portray his character more clearly? If yes: then I say you're doing it right.