Tales from the Rocket House
And so, before we continue, a clarification:
The R Word
I've used the term “realistic” a few times in previous posts, including my explanation of the Tarafore System's combat mechanics and the thought processes behind them. In gaming circles, “realistic” is a very loaded and subjective term. So, for the sake of clarity, let me explain what I mean by it.
“Realistic,” to me, means “the things that can happen in real life can happen in the game, with at least somewhat similar odds.” The process by which we get it won't necessarily be realistic (in the case of combat, that's a good thing – I believe that if I ever saw enough combat to be able to write a perfectly realistic combat system, I'd probably never want to play a violent game again).
In a real gun battle, people can take cover, stand still and hope their own shots keep their opponents occupied, and so on. If hit, they can be grazed for little or no effect, stunned but only mildly hurt, mortally wounded but able to continue fighting, or killed instantly. To me, a combat system is “realistic” if it can deliver these outcomes with a degree of consistency and intuitiveness (for example, hit location should affect the severity of the wound, and head hits should be more lethal and more likely to stop the opponent than arm hits. A system that got those backwards would lose credibility in my eyes – and most people's, I believe).
As for whether the particular roads we take to get there are “realistic” or not, I don't really think that matters. While combat is chaotic for the characters, and things may seem more or less simultaneous, I do not believe that combat should be chaotic for the players. Thus, things like initiative, which don't track perfectly well to how combat happens in the real world, help to maintain the order that is necessary for a functional game system.
The Shape of the Traits
I decided to have each Trait represent a broad set of abilities, with multiple specializations within it. For example, Prowess includes Melee Initiative, Unarmed, Blades, Staff/Pole Weapons, Chains, Thrown Weapons, Footwork, and Crushing Weapons (which includes axes, clubs, maces, etc). That's basically the whole gamut of hand to hand (striking) combat. Strength includes Inflicting Damage, Lifting and Carrying, Wrestling, and Toughness. Rogue includes Fast Talk, Acting, Blending In, Read People (aka Human Perception), and just about anything deceptive that you'd want to do.
Skills are essentially Traits that not everybody has. So “Guns” would include “Gunfighting: Handguns” (close quarters battle, with dodging, moving, and so on), “Marksmanship: Handguns” (holding still and taking an accurate, long-range shot), “Gunfighting: Long Arms” (long arms being rifles and shotguns), and “Marksmanship: Long Arms.”
“Subterfuge” includes “Disguise,” “Picking Pockets,” “Picking Locks,” “Sleight of Hand,” and so on.
It's also possible to have a Specialization outside of is larger skill. For example, there are many people who have some level of “First Aid” training without knowing enough to have the whole “Medicine” skill. This gets a little bit complicated in the optional point-based Template system, but it's trivially easy to do with Subjective Character Creation.
In Subjective Character Creation, you can do all kinds of things with Specializations and Sub-Specializations. You could have a character without the Medicine skill, with Average (9) First Aid, and Good (14) CPR. You could have a character with Very Good (16) Guns, or one with Good (12) Guns, Good (13) Handguns, Good (14) Revolvers, Very Good (15) Cowboy-Style Revolvers, Very Good (16) with Walker Colt Revolvers, and Very Good (17) with his Grandpa's old Walker Colt. It can be as simple or as detailed as you want it to be.
There were a couple of reasons for nesting Specializations within Traits. The first was simplicity: I didn't want the player to be surprised when they took “Survival” and suddenly didn't have “Navigation” or “Foraging” or some other ability that a reasonable person could have thought would fall under “Survival.” The second was definition: each Trait and Skill serves as a sort of Niche – a high Prowess character is a melee fighter. A character with a high Gun Skill is a gunslinger or sniper (or both). A character with Survival is an outdoorsman, etc. In a game without character classes, a little niche-assistance can be helpful.
“Final Traits”
I've tried a lot of “Stat + Skill” systems, but honestly, I've never found one that gave more in benefits than it cost in added complexity. Maybe that's because the various "attributes" and "skills" interact differently.
Attributes and Skills, as they're typically known in RPGs, interact in a myriad of different ways in the real world, and it would be massively complex and require a tremendous amount of research to get right (the interaction between I.Q. And various types of skills is still being debated by scientists, for example, and the degree to which strength and physical conditioning affect martial arts varies greatly between Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu on the one hand and Okinawan Karate or Greco-Roman wrestling on the other).
To truly “get it right” and really be realistic, you'd need a separate interrelation table for each skill and attribute combination. Honestly, that seems ridiculous to me. But “realism runner-up” is immensely simple: just rate each area on its own, and not worry about cross referencing, adding dice, etc.
So a character could have Good(14) Prowess, regardless of how much of his ability came from technical skill or physical conditioning. A character could have Bad(7) Awareness, and that could be a matter of poor vision or absent-mindedness.
Traits? What Traits?
Now that I'd determined how I was going to rate the traits, I had to determine what they would be.
At first, I had Prowess, Athleticism, Strength, Awareness, Rogue, and Willpower. Wealth was represented by a “Wealth Level” which really should have been on the same scale as the Traits (I've since fixed that). I've turned Wealth into a Trait and added Presence as well.
- Prowess – hand to hand fighting ability with or without a weapon
- Athleticism – non-combat physicality – running, jumping, swimming, climbing, endurance
- Strength – brawn, toughness, dealing damage, wrestling, etc
- Awareness – coolness under fire, perception, initiative, dodging, sneaking and hiding
- Rogue – lying, acting, bluffing, and seeing through other people's lies
- Presence – command, charm, intimidation, and general force of personality
- Willpower – resisting torture, intimidation, pain, magic, etc.
- Wealth – income, savings, financial-based contacts, cash-flow, and “money-smarts”
I arrived at these traits mostly by trial and error, but not by accident. My overall goal was to divide all the things that anybody could do, regardless of training, into logical, intuitive groups. In practice, these eight Traits work well enough, though I've never been 100% satisfied with them (and probably never will be).
At one point “Dodge” was under Athleticism, and most of my players think it should still be. I like it better under Awareness, but truthfully, using Subjective Character Creation, the players can stick it wherever they want. Hmm... that last bit sounded rude. I meant “under whatever Trait they want” :)
The Subjective Character Creation Process makes my job much easier when it comes to creating Attributes. Why? They don't have to be balanced. Nobody's paying for them anyway. So I divided things up in the way I thought was best. On several occasions I tried to remove “Athleticism,” since it didn't get used much. The players objected, and I backed down. They preferred keeping Prowess purely combat-oriented and having a separate trait for non-combat athleticism. Looking back, I believe that they were right.
Closing Thoughts
While I have no real objection to rules complexity, I have a massive objection to unnecessary complexity. Anything that makes the game run more slowly or creates a steeper learning curve had best add enough realism, fun, or style to justify its own existence.
Everything I've tried to do with this system has been an attempt to pave the way for good roleplaying (however you choose to define it) by clearing the path of stumbling stones and unnecessary obstacles. My choice of Traits is no exception.
