Attributes, revised

[Whill]

Parts of these house rules/tweaks come up in various discussions and it often brings up more questions, so it makes sense to compile like topics...




Introduction

Every character in the game has attributes and skills, represented by die code values.

Attributes are basic qualities of a character. Characters may have up to seven attributes, but most have six, and some archaic or primitive characters may only have five. The six normal attributes are Dexterity, Knowledge, Mechanical Aptitude, Perception, Strength, and Technical Aptitude. The one extranormal attribute is The Force. Attributes may not normally be improved after character creation.

Each attribute governs a list of skills. For attributes with a die code of 1D or higher, skills default in value to the attribute. Skills may be improved above their attribute value during and after character creation. Unimproved skill attempts are made by rolling the attribute die code. When making unskilled skill attempts outside a character's experience, the GM may rule that there is a temporary unfamiliarity penalty to the attribute roll(s). The GM may call for a Perception roll to end the unfamiliarity penalty or determine how soon it will end. If the unfamiliar character has a chance to observe the skill being used, the GM may also call for Perception roll to eliminate the unfamiliarity penalty to an unskilled skill roll.




Attribute Descriptions

Dexterity is a measure of a character's eye-hand coordination, agility, balance, and reflexes. Characters with a high Dexterity are good at using hand-held weapons, dodging blaster bolts, throwing things, and even picking pockets. Characters with a low Dexterity are clumsy. Base Dexterity includes the character's contortion ability. Dexterity is also a main factor of the character's Initiative statistic.

Knowledge represents a character's knowledge of facts and data gained from practical experiences and academic learning. It is also a measure of a character's memory, learning ability, and ability to gather information. Characters with a high Knowledge have learned a lot about different planets and aliens. They're good at applying first aid. They often have a flair for languages and know how to get things done in bureaucracies. Characters with a low Knowledge are ignorant.

Mechanical Aptitude represents how well a character can operate vehicles and machinery. It represents the character's ability to pilot starships and operate the various systems on board. It is also a measure of a character's spatial awareness and sense of direction. A character with a high Mechanical attribute is going to take naturally to driving landspeeders, flying cloud cars, and piloting X-wings and ships like the Millennium Falcon. A character with a low Mechanical may have a lot of minor accidents and get lost a lot.

Perception is a measure of a character's physical and social awareness, force of personality, and mettle. It also reflects animal empathy and how well the character handles live mounts, like banthas and tauntauns. Those with a high Perception are good at noticing details, hiding and sneaking, and spotting concealed objects or people hiding behind a corner. They're good at character interaction, such as convincing people to do favors for them, tricking or conning others, bargaining to get a good price for goods or services, and training others. A character with a low Perception may have difficulty figuring out when his friends are teasing him. Base Perception includes the character's passive awareness ability (active awareness has two skills). Perception is also a main factor in Initiative.

Strength represents a character’s physical strength, endurance, and health. It is also a measure of a character's ability to climb, jump, and swim. Characters with a high Strength can lift heavy objects, push themselves for hours without rest, and are good at resisting injury and disease. A character with a low Strength gets winded easily.

Technical Aptitude represents a character's innate knowledge of how to take apart, repair, and modify electronic technologies. A character with a high Technical attribute can take apart a droid to repair a malfunction, fix a busted drive system on a landspeeder, and modify a blaster to have a longer range. Technical also reflects a character's ability to program computers, set explosives, and defeat electronic security systems. Characters with a low Technical may have trouble changing a power pack in a blaster.

The Force is an energy field created by all living things. The Force attribute is the measure of a character's ability to sense and control the Force. Most characters do not have this attribute. The characters that have it are considered to be "Force-sensitive."


0D Range Attributes

A character having a 1D or higher in Knowledge, Mechanical or Technical means they have some familiarity with galactic civilization and standard technologies. Some primitive or archaic gamemaster characters may have less than 1D in any of these three attributes. Below are the rules for each possibility.

0D - An attribute value of 0D means the character cannot have or use any skills of that attribute. Technical is usually the only normal attribute a sentient character would have a 0D in.

0D+1 - An attribute value of 0D+1 means that the character may have select skills at 1D or higher but they do not normally have access to unimproved skills of these attributes (no attribute defaults).

0D+2 - An attribute value of 0D+2 mean that the character may have select skills at 1D or higher and may occasionally perform very simple tasks of unimproved skills of these attributes, the circumstances of which as determined by the GM.

Note: Most characters will have 0D in The Force attribute, but The Force never has values of 0D+1 or 0D+2. If a character is Force-sensitive, they have 1D or higher in The Force.


Species Attribute Statistics

Attribute Dice: This is the number of total attribute dice for an "average" (usually adult) member of the species. Most gamemaster characters of the species will have this total number of attribute dice, but they can have any number of attribute dice as restricted below.

Attribute Die Code Ranges: Each species has a separate listing for each attribute. Except for rare gamemaster characters who are exceptions, members of the species may not have an attribute die code lower than the first number (the minimum) or higher than the second number (the maximum).


Galactic Average Sentient Species Statistics

The game system is based on the following premise:

Average Total ATTRIBUTE DICE: 12D

[Whill]

Humans

Adult Female Plural: women
Adult Male Plural: men
Gender-Neutral Singular: Human
Adult Female Singular: woman
Adult Male Singular: men
Adjective: human
Language: Galactic Standard (Basic, many other dialects)
Homeworlds: Coruscant, Corellia, Alderaan, and many more.
Species Type: hominid mammals
Size: 1.7 (female), 1.8 (male) / 1.5-2.0 meters
Move: 10/12
Average Total ATTRIBUTE DICE: 14D

[CRMcNeill]

Some interesting stuff here. I may be incorporating the "Attribute fractions" or something akin to them when I do some of the Creature stat rewrites...
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Dr. Bidlo]

I am sure there is a lot of history to it, but why bump all mins and max Attribute ranges for humans by +1 and why +2D Attribute dice? It seems like such a basic premise for 2D/4D and 12D Attribute dice, why change that?

[Whill]

[garhkal]

[Whill]

I guess I should have put my human stats in their own thread. I just wanted my house humans stats here since humans were the RAW average species premise in the game as originally designed.

I expected someone to mention the sexual dimorphism in the stats, but not like that! But then again, this concept first appeared in my Zabrak stats (opposite, I made males stronger with an interaction skill penalty to choose). Zabrak are near-humans (as a result of genetic engineering in my SWU).

Physically, Star Wars humans seem to be exactly like modern Earth humans, but they don't have to be. I just wanted something that was a little nod toward real life where men tend to be stronger than women (due to nature), to assuage my disbelief suspension (no way little Carrie Fisher has 3D lifting). Since all PCs must balanced, I added the compensation that female PCs get an equal bonus to another skill. I had read a study that determined parents tended to talk to baby girls more than boys, and it reflects later in life with girls tending toward more socialization and higher grades in language arts. So I chose influence skills based on some scientific evidence that Earth females tended to be more social due to societal gender "norms" (nurture, although I imagine these are changing nowadays).

I just made the bonus the entire category of influence skills. (And making it only certain influence skills would seem more like misogyny.) However, while Star Wars seems to have humans with similar nature to us, it may not have the same nurture. I guess a GM using these stats could expand the PC bonus to choose from all non-Strength skills.
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[Whill]

[Mamatried]

Posting this here since it it does concern revised attributes.

The Force Attribute and the "power levels"

it has been said that someone strong enough to be considered by the jedi will be at 2D+ to 3D
and people with more than this are super powerful.

However this makes me wonder should it be a cap on how much you can raise a skill after creation.

I can crate a character with 3D sex and start with a 5D skill, and later spending CP I can raise this to 6D or 7D, this being now 3D and +4D above attribute and I can raise this even further, we see people with 2D+ attributes and 8D-10D skill levels.

Now would it make sense that someone with 1D in Force attribute can NEVER EVER raise a force skill above lets say +3D, allowing them a max 4D to alter, control and sense. allowing them to reach a level where they can acta as the teacher ( +3D in skill)

then have someone with 2D have a higher cap on hogh much they can rise a skill.

I can see an exploit here where my 1D force, with 6D+ in all the force skills will basically pass as close to "ignored" by the empire due to barely being in touvh with the force, while if I was 3D force and had 6D in the skills they would be very intersted, so maybe there should be a cap on the skills under force, even if is is not on the other skills.

I can see someing like

1D (max 4D)
2D (max 5D)
3D (max 6D)

and so on, maybe adjust this of course

[Whill]

I like this concept for The Force attribute. That way the attribute dice code is not just the starting point, but also a measure of the character's potential with the Force. But I think I'll adjust your maxes upward to this:

1D 6D
2D 8D
3D 10D
4D 12D
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[Mamatried]

[Whill]

[garhkal]

[Whill]

I haven't worked out the details of my Force system yet, so it may change. Right now I think I am learning toward making Force powers somewhat like advanced skills.
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[Mamatried]

An alternative is to issue some rule on learning powers, with using the force attribute to roll to learn a new power, this will limit the imo easily overpowering 1D characters.

With the rules being that you spend cp, and you have what you need to advance the force skills, you can advance these forever with no actual cap, and you learn a new power pr pip in the skill.

Now if we had a difficulty on the powers, in addition to the skills requirments, we would limite the amounts of power leraned or at least it is harder to simply learn powers even with a teacher when you barely have a connection to the force at all.

Now with 1D we can with a fair chance do most very easy/easy tasks, and we then can learn the powers that have an "easy/very easy" rating.

becuse nature does have the strange outlayer, the person that has only weaknesses and the person with no weakness both exist in the fringes, and to have something in the middle we let the FORCE Attribute Dice be a wild dice at 1D and above, alllwing the character to when the force willst it be able to learn something more "advanced"