possible crater characteristics

[reverancepavane]

Whilst once again caught in the dilemma of having far too many excellent game systems to make a decision as to what I want to use to run The Crater (an old school style megadungeon partially inspired by Jay Lake's Wall series. Current front runners are my heavily modified D&D [which actually comes closest to True 20 with either 3 or 5 classes, depending upon how you count these things], modified Runequest/BRP/Swordbearer,** and possibly Savage Worlds (although I suspoect this is simply because I've never run it and want to see how it works). Although things like BESM and The Fantasy Trip keep popping up (and there is always Ironclaw**), and now that the second set of Dragon Age is out, this is always a strong possibility. It needs to be something quick to create a character where the actual character is brought to the table by the player, as plot immunity is definitely a no go. If you poke something bigger than you are don't be surprised if you get eaten with no remorse on my part. After all, there is always the next character.] Anyway here is a look at the possible characteristics I might use if I did use my version of "D&D." Over the years I've come to like describing the natural aptitude of a character in old school style games with eight characteristics. These are Strength, Vigour, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Willpower, and Charisma. I also like arranging these characteristics in a wheel, as shown here. Originally this was because I was experimenting with a binomial tree for generating characters. Players would roll 2d6 and decide which of these dice they would assign to the physical and which they would assign to the spiritual/mental. They would repeat this process and throw 2d6 and decide which die they would assign to the character's body and which to the character's coordination. Then they would throw 2d6 and assign one to strength and one to vigour. The actual attribute was the sum of all the dice rolled, so Strength was the sum of the physical, body, and strength dice. Although this was interesting because it revealed a lot about how a player thought about his or her character, it was relatively time consuming, and the relative weight of the dice varied too much (consider the effects of a good first roll compared to a bad one on the overall character). So it was abandoned, but the idea of the relationship between the characteristics remained. Before I continue, I should say that these all represent active attributes. That is, they are the ratings that are used when the character attempts to do something. They don't provide a resistance value or other measure. This is the reason why I've used Vigour instead of the old D&D standby of Constitution. Anyway the symmetries remained. For example, treating it as a compass rose, N indicates physicality whilst S represents mental/spiritual, and E represents the application of finesse and W represents the application of force. There is a mirror symmetry between the characteristics that helps explain them. By pairing the characteristics one can get a measure of the character's innate abilities. Whilst the red measures are fairly obvious* (although the names I've chosen for them may not be). It's interesting that the green measures also have use. For example a strong charismatic individual will have a considerable presence, whilst a character that can move efficiently and is healthy will be able to perform physical activity for longer. Since Intelligence is often used by gamers attempting to spot things, whilst Dexterity has a large measure of hand-eye coordination the combination of the two must have something to do with perception (or even "luck," which I hold is the ability to perceive good opportunities and fail to see bad ones). On the other hand Willpower (inner strength) and Wisdom (which I tend to use as knowledge as opposed to Intelligence's reason), seems to call on gnosis (self-knowledge), or even "faith" or "belief". And each characteristic seems to be suited to it's adjacent characteristics. For example Intelligence can be seen as the dexterous application of knowledge, and someone who is strong and can move well will be considered vigorous. [* I should also point out that I'm using the older definition of Charisma, which is the outward strength of the character's personality and spirit, whilst Willpower is the inner strength of the character's personality and spirit. It mirrors the physical, so Charisma is generally used to force people mentally, just as Strength is used to force people physically, and Willpower is most often used to keep going on, just as Vigour is used physically.] [** Although my actual pseudo-Glorantha game uses Ironclaw, which is a bit of a disincentive to use it again, even if I do like the first edition rules.]