Statistic (role-playing games)

• 1. Introduction

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  A statistic in role-playing games is typically a unitless integer, though it can also take the form of a set of dice. That single number captures one particular aspect of a fictional character. Deciding which aspects deserve a number has driven game design debates for decades.

  GURPS and the Storytelling System both label their core numbers "traits." Yet each treats those numbers in ways that other designers would call attributes and skills. No universal naming standard exists across the hobby. That inconsistency reveals how open the question of how to measure a fictional character actually is.

  In the DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes system, a single additional point of Strength doubles a character's lifting capacity. In other games, scales work linearly, so every point gained produces the same effect. Whether exponential or linear scaling better serves play has shaped some of the most enduring design debates in the hobby.

• 2. Natural Gifts

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  Most role-playing games use somewhere between 4 and 10 attributes, covering physical and mental characteristics. Many games extend into social ones as well, such as natural charisma or physical appearance. These attributes influence a character's chances of success, either by being added to a die roll or by determining how many dice to throw. Ranges can be as small as 1-5 or as large as 1-100.

  In Tunnels and Trolls, a character can lift 10 pounds per point of Strength. Every additional point has precisely the same effect.

  The original Unearthed Arcana introduced "Comeliness" as a separate attribute, splitting physical appearance away from Charisma. Other designers merged Charisma-type and Willpower-type attributes into a single Personality stat. In some hack-and-slash adventures, Intelligence and Charisma are dropped from the attribute list entirely.

  In World of Warcraft, base attribute scores come from a character's race and class. End-game gear and equipment provide the vast majority of stat points. Many games hold attributes fixed from character creation, since they represent in-born qualities. In others, experience points or levelling up can raise them. The question of what stays fixed and what can be earned through play would become central to a new game called Champions.

• 3. Buying Power

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  Dungeons and Dragons assigned random values to a player character's attributes while giving each character a fixed number of skills. Characters that emerged from this process were at once wildly unbalanced in attributes and heavily constrained in what they could do.

  Champions, published in 1981, offered a different answer. It introduced a points-based system of purchasing attributes and skills as a means of improving game balance and flexibility. A player receives an allotment of points for character creation. High intelligence, the ability to repair a car, and the power of flight each carry a cost. More powerful abilities cost more.

  In Champions, points earned during play also serve as experience points. Ars Magica maintains a more complicated relationship between experience points and character points, keeping the two systems distinct.

  The approach Champions introduced was adopted most prominently by GURPS. Yet alongside its flexibility, the system drew a familiar criticism. Players sometimes take disadvantages with little practical effect on play and use the points they generate to buy powerful advantages. That practice, known as min-maxing, is a common criticism of character point systems. Across the hobby, disadvantages also go by other names: flaws, hindrances, and the abbreviated "disads."

• 4. Learning and Craft

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  In GURPS, each skill is tied to one specific base attribute and uses it every time the skill is applied. In Ars Magica, the same skill can be added to different attributes depending on how the character uses it.

  Feng Shui takes a third approach. The base attribute and skill are combined into a single value at character creation. After that, the skill functions independently rather than adding to the attribute each time.

  Older editions of Shadowrun imposed a complex network of penalties for using a related but imprecise skill. Attempting to pick an electronic lock with the Computer skill rather than the Electronics skill would trigger those penalties.

  Avalon: The Legend Lives holds a particular place in this history. It is noted as the first text-based multi-user role-playing game to offer a developed profession and skills system. Choosing a profession gave a character a bank of general skills and guild-specific ones. Each contained a ladder of abilities that players could invest in through lessons earned during online play. When the game launched, it offered around 30 such skills, each with approximately 17 abilities. These covered areas from Riding and Perception to Thievery and Demonology. By 2015, Avalon had grown to 66 skills with 2,194 distinct abilities, developed over its 26-year tenure.

• 5. The Freeform Approach

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  Over the Edge was the first major role-playing game to use traits as a primary statistic type. Where attributes are selected from a predetermined list, traits are descriptions that players write themselves during character creation. They can cover any broad area of expertise the player chooses.

  A squash-playing history professor with a knowledge of fine wines might carry the traits "History," "Squash," and "Oenology." In a more granular system, each of those traits would typically map to a cluster of skills, advantages, and possibly some attributes too.

  Castle Falkenstein and HeroQuest commit entirely to traits as their only form of statistic, each using a different name for the concept. Ars Magica allows specialisations to accompany an attribute score. Aria uses Attribute Aspects in the same role. Each is a descriptive adjective that explains how a character developed a quality or where they tend to apply it.

• 6. Connected Numbers

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  Hit points, Armor Class, and initiative are common examples of derived statistics: numbers calculated directly from other, more basic statistics. Derived statistics often reflect specific in-world capabilities, such as the weight a character can lift or the speed at which they can move.

  In GURPS Martial Arts, the "cinematic" and "mystical" abilities require a character to possess a specific advantage called Trained by a Master. That is one example of a prerequisite: before one statistic can exceed a given threshold, another must first be high enough.

  A disadvantage such as Unfit might hold Constitution or Health to no more than an average value. That cap holds regardless of how many points a player might want to invest there. A character class might similarly be disallowed for characters of certain races.

  Spells and magical items can raise or lower derived statistics temporarily during play. Race and class also modify derived statistics in games that use those concepts. Higher scores in one attribute often grant bonuses to a group of related skills.

  Some derived statistics escape the unitless convention entirely. They express capabilities in kilograms or metres per second instead.