Core Stats in TTRPGs
Player or character statistics in TTRPGs are an amazing way to make your character your own. They allow us to decide what it most important to how we want to play and set us apart from those with similar play styles. When designing a TTRPG, deciding what stats players will have to choose from can have a significant impact on gameplay. Even in situations where stats are identical mechanically, just changing the name can make a big difference in how players and game masters alike with interpret the meaning of the stat.
In this article, I will discuss some of my thoughts on how the core stats used in a TTRPG system can affect character design, gameplay, and player decisions. As examples throughout this article, I will use the Kids On Bikes, Monster of The Week (Powered by The Apocalypse), Vampire: The Masquerade (Storytelling System) and Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition systems.
Directing Theme and Tone
One of the first things that core stats do, even simply by reading them for the first time, is direct your attention to what the system considers important. For example, in the Monster of The Week (MotW) system, there are five core stats, known as Ratings. These are Cool, Tough, Charm, Sharp and Weird. In Contrast, Dungeons & Dragons uses the six core stats Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. These represent two very different sets of values in terms of what is going to matter mechanically, which typically translates into the types of stories that are best told best using these systems.
Moster of The Week uses broader categories, with core stats specifically associated with your psychological disposition and connection to the supernatural. In contrast, Dungeons & Dragons uses for well-defined categories which bear no direct connection to any theme or genre; this is despite D&D being a very fantasy focused system. If we were to translate between the two, to determine what types of actions (or moves in MotW) would be associated with each stat, Charm would match up nicely with Charisma, both Wisdom and Intelligence would likely fold into Sharp, most of the time, though Cool would probably take some actions under Wisdom in D&D, while Weird would subsume a portion of Intelligence. And all of Strength, Dexterity and Constitution will typically fall under Tough.
A system which puts so much focus on keeping your nerves, and a connection to the supernatural, such that they have dedicated core stats, is a going to lend itself far more to stories which lean hard in those directions as it forces you, directly, to consider how good your character will hold up when those specific test are conducted. Whereas in something more “general purpose” like Dungeons & Dragons, you may end up skilled in those particular abilities simply by consequence. Since the core stats associated with those actions are used for so many other actions. The ability to be cool, calm and collected, disconnected from how intelligent or wise you are, can make for a very different character than if you were to tie those things together. Likewise, having an innate connection to otherworldly forces, without needing to also be smart bears a similar dynamic.
There is nothing that stops you from using either of these systems from running a game which tells any story you like, however both players and game masters alike will often gravitate towards telling stories which align with the core stat that you have selected. It’s important to take this into account when decide what your core stats are going to be–assuming you are using core stats at all–as those implications are something you should take into account when building out every other part of the TTRPG system.
Representation
While I am certain there are probably dozens, if not hundreds, of methods out there for representing stats in different systems, there are four primary ways of doing this that I see as most common. Numerical (D&D), dice association (Kids on Bikes), direct modifier (MotW) and dice pools (Vampire).
Numerical
In numerical stats, you simply have a fixed number associated with each statistic. The number can be used directly, such as in calculating carrying capacity or jump distance in D&D, or transformed into a modifier in order to add or subtract from a die roll.
In some ways, this can be a simpler system for character creation, as all the stats are directly comparable to one another. In others, the disconnect between the stat and how it is most frequently used (as a modifier) can be confusing. It does, however, offer a greater flexibility that the others do, because of these different ways it can be interacted with.
Dice Association
Kids on Bikes uses a method of assigning stat proficiency by associating each of its six stats to one of the six common polyhedral dice. (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d20) This does a few things. One, it forces a distinction between every skill–although nothing is stopping you from allowing repeated dice in a differently designed system–and it removes any need to do calculations of any sort in order to start using your stats to perform tasks.
Direct Modifers
Having your core stats correspond directly to the modifiers, which you will be applying to rolls simplifies the approach numerical stats provide. In more rules-light systems, where the need to calculate things like carrying capacity or a specific jump distance are greatly diminished, it can be far easier to use only keep track of a single value. Using only a single figure like this may reduce flexibility to a small degree, but also makes it easier to approach for new players.
Dice Pools
Dice pools come in all shapes and sizes, but at their core they play with altering the number of price you roll, and how you interpret those values, as opposed to having the primary variable be how you modify those rolls. The Storytelling System, which Vampire: The Masquerade is built upon, used a d10 dice pool. While modifiers do also exist in this system, the number of dice you roll has a far greater effect. Core stats are represented by the number of dice you roll when attempting actions associated with that specific skill.
What Limitations Can They Set? And How Can Those Limitations Be Bypassed?
There are a variety of different limitations which your choice of core stats will put upon your system. For example, as discussed in the first section of this article, Dungeons & Dragons, in its core stats cannot differentiate between come actions, for which it might make sense to set apart. An intelligent character is just as good at searching a room for clues as they are solving the arcane mysteries of the cosmos. To solve this, D&D, and other similar systems utilize for a more focused set of skills, each associated with one of the core stats, but provides an additional modifier through the use of proficiency. (and in some cases expertise)
Interpretation vs. Specialization
This gets at a major different between how many rules-light and more rules-heavy systems approach assigning a roll to an associated core stat. Some systems, generally more rules-light systems like Kids on Bikes, rely on game master interpretation, while other systems, often more rules-heavy systems like D&D provide options for player specialization. The Kids on Bikes rulebook simply provides a brief description of what each stat is (between 34 and 82 words each) and otherwise relies upon the game master to sort out the specifics.
Alternatively, Dungeons & Dragons uses a proficiency system to provide mechanical guidelines, allowing players to differentiate themselves from other players who may have the same or similar core stats. Not everyone who is smart is a master detective, and not everyone who is nimble can leap a fence without issue.
The Decisions I Made
As someone who is currently in the process of of designing a TTRPG system, all the considerations discussed in this article are ones which I have quite recently had to grapple with. I landed on eight core stats, described below.
- Intellect: The character's ability to intuit and understand the mechanics and complexities of a given situation, system or concept.
- Knowledge: The level of factual understanding the character has about the world within which they inhabit.
- Insight: The character's ability to view the world and others within it with scrutiny.
- Charisma: The ability for a character to affect others on an interpersonal level. The power to persuade, convince or deceive a character.
- Strength: The character's ability to move their body with force. This determines how much they can lift and how hard they can hit.
- Dexterity: The character's ability to be both nimble and precise in their actions physical actions.
- Willpower: The character's ability to hold control of their mental faculties. Whether it be protecting aganst the intrusions or others, or forcing their own will upon another.
- Fortitude: The physical ability to with stand force, harm and ailment.
I see these as four distinct pairs of ability scores. Intellect and Knowledge make up the mental faculties of the character. Insight and Charisma represent the character’s ability to interact with the world and those in it. Strength and Dexterity represent the character’s physical prowess and capabilities, and then Willpower and Fortitude represent the physical and mental components of a character’s ability to resist duress.
To get to these, I started with the six abilities score found in the likes of Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder. Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma. First, Intellect and Knowledge replace Intelligence and Wisdom. This draws a far clearer distinction, in my opinion, as to the exact function of the two stats. Intellect and Knowledge are not simply one-to-one replacement for Intelligence and Wisdom, but collectively do serve as a good alternative set of attributes.
Next, Willpower and Fortitude replace Constitution. Additionally, Willpower removes the need for Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma saving throws, with one purpose-built core stat to represent mental resistance. Insight emerges as a new statistic, representing
Strength, Dexterity and Charisma remain largely unchanged. Strength and Dexterity, I believe, represent a good dichotomy of power vs. agility. Charisma, while sometimes going by other names (Charm in both Kids on Bikes and MotW) is a core stat which seems to permeate a wide variety of systems, mostly unscathed. There are some exceptions to this, however, such as Storytelling System, which separates out social stats into three variants: Presence, Manipulation and Composure. For my purposes, however, a single Charisma stat would suffice.
In addition to the selection of the stats themselves, I also chose to go down the path of specialization over interpretation. However, instead of relying on a finite list of skills, as in the case of Dungeons & Dragons, I instead developed a set of terminology to narrow the scope of situations in which bonuses and the like might apply. For example, Charisma checks can be either hostile or amicable. Knowledge is composed of a variety of domains, which a character might be familiar with.