EPTThis time Im going to introduce the Star Tale Attributes system.
There are 8 primary Attributes that Ill cover first.
Strength: Power or Physical Offense. How hard you can punch. How much you can lift/push. This stat is used to help calculate damage when a unit swings a melee weapon. Also, weapons have a Strength requirement in order for a user to wield them.
Toughness: Power or Physical Defense. How good you are at taking a punch to the face. The higher your Toughness the better you are at shrugging off attacks.
Endurance: How long you can run for.
Pace: How fast you can run.
Initiative: Finesse Offense. How fast your reflexes are. This stat is used to see how quickly a unit can attack.
Agility: Finesse Defense. Dodging, jumping, acrobatic ability. The higher your Agility stat, the better you are at evading attacks.
Craft: Magic or Mental Offense. This stat is sort of the equivalent of Intelligence in other systems. It represents an individuals wild creativity.
Focus: Magic or Mental Defense. This is sort of the equivalent of Willpower or similar in other systems. It represents a persons ability to concentrate and study. It represents discipline.
I looked for an acronym for these 8 Attributes and there are a few available. The one I liked the most is FATSPICE. It sounds like a new Spice Girl or something. But anyway..
Another important Attribute is
Armour: Many soldiers can be given armour equipment, and this equipment will determine their Armour stat. There are also Bubble shields and Mag shields available. I will talk about Armour and shields more in a later post.
Other important Attributes are
Size: How big of a target you are overall.
Height: How tall you are and therefore what cover you can hide behind.
Weight: How heavy a unit is.
If you were to be playing a role playing game where social interaction is an important aspect of gameplay then you can also add Charisma.
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Dexterity (as in hand to eye coordination) is not an Attribute in the Star Tale system. Initiative does not cover it either. Accuracy with weapons is instead covered within Skills which I will talk about in a later post.
Similarly Perception is not a thing here. It is separated out in further detail in other parts of the rules.
Also notice that Pace is not called Speed. This is because it is not a generic Speed stat like in some systems where Speed would cover how fast you can attack as well as how fast you can run. In the Star Tale system, these are distinct stats, with Initiative controlling reaction time for a character. Having the Attribute named Pace instead of Speed is also useful because each of the Attributes have their own starting letter this way.
The Toughness attribute is sometimes combined together with another attribute in other systems. In this system though, we have separate Toughness, Endurance and Armour stats. This gives characters greater depth and it also gives game designers more knobs to twiddle with, so they can alter how strong or weak a character is in different ways.
Also, Id like to highlight how Intelligence and also things like Wisdom/Spirit are not attributes in Star Tale but instead we have attributes named Craft and Focus. This is an indicator of the kind of attitudes that underpin the Star Tale world. A person is not simply Intelligent or not. Instead they have creativity but they must also put the time and effort into disciplined study. This echoes throughout the Star Tale world, that anyone can improve their skills with dedication. It also suggests that while magic is very powerful and seemingly unpredictable at times, it is ultimately built on rules and follows logic.
Similarly, you will notice there is no Luck stat.
Another thing, in the game Path of Exile and others, they use a system of just 3 primary attributes; Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence. And many other games also use a single attribute to represent both the Offense and Defense for a character.
The Star Tale Attribute system has the equivalents of these 3; namely Strength, Initiative, and Craft. But it also has 3 corresponding Attributes; Toughness, Agility and Focus. These enable a character to have differing Offense and Defense in the 3 areas of Power, Finesse, and Magic. Its so simple but it provides much greater depth. Obviously Path of Exile is a game with a lot of depth overall and is a fantastic game. I feel the Star Tale Attribute system is also good in its own way. I hope you like it too.
And the best thing about it, its public domain as with everything in the Star Tale universe. yay you now have an Attribute system that you are free to use however you wish.
