Post by Frederic Bourgault-Christie on Nov 25, 2005 20:42:54 GMT -5
Attributes
All attributes are ranked in seven ranks: Crippled, Human, Superhuman, Supernatural, Legendary, Deific, and Forbidden. Classifications are "very low", "low", "moderate", "high", and "very high", plus what is considered to be a "very high 1/2" or alternately a "very low 1/2". When raising attribute ranks through Godlike and Forbidden, it costs 2 ranks, and when raising inbetween classes (i.e. between Human and Superhuman), it costs the following additional amount: 0 for Crippled, 1 for Human, 2 for Superhuman, 3 for Supernatural, 4 for Legendary, 5 for Godlike, and 20 for Forbidden.)
Strength: This is raw muscular strength, the capacity to carry, throw, punch, kick, and so on. High strengths offer bonus to speed and to leaping distance, but too high of a strength proportional to Reflex offers a ponderous frame.
Reflex: Reflex bundles the capacity to quickly see events and respond to them. It helps to determine running and leaping speed, initiative, dodging/parrying/striking, and so on. Too high of a Reflex without a high enough Precision makes a very antsy and imprecise character, capable of moving quickly but with little control.
Precision/Keenness: The flipside of Reflex. This involves the perceptual and muscular/reflexive prowess necessary to be balanced, graceful, delicate, and capable of seeing precise data. A marksman would need a high Precision.
Intelligence: Raw mental computing ability. Intelligence does get factored into some psychic resistances (though it may be more of a penalty than a boon), into breadth of skills (it requires a high Intelligence to multi-class), capacity to design machinery and new enchantments, etc.
Paranormal Ability: Describes the character’s potency of magic/psionics/natural skills/ki and helps to determine the reservoir of energy involved. (In most cases, Willpower, Paranormal Ability and Endurance will constitute MP/ISP/Ki/TP, to varying degrees).
Affinities: Affinities are a subset of Paranormal Ability, so note it as such. Affinities describe the character’s orientation to which they put their Paranormal Ability. A zero affinity means no skill as of now. There are negative Affinities, which indicate that that race or class is so untalented with the form of energy that they suffer penalties. The four types of Affinities are:
Ki: The Oriental energy source, based off of either the positive/abundant/lively energy forces and the negative/desolate/decaying energy forces. Martial artists, certain rarer spell casters, Eastern geomancers, and others use this energy type. The universal form of ki is ki lines.
Magic: The mystic energy, that which powers spells, enchantments, dweomers, and so on. This is the energy of faeries, dragons, phoenixes, and gods. The universal, ambient form of ki lies in ley lines.
Psionic: The mental energy, that of the intelligent mind projecting its will outwards through various means. The universal form has been titled the Force by some philosophers.
Technique: “Other”, that which powers most non-ki based techniques, superpowers, etc. There is no universal form of this energy. This is probably the most science-based of techniques, and thus those who use it are considered to be doing non-paranormal attacks for most purposes.
Willpower: Someone’s capacity to continue fighting, to resist, etc. While Willpower will not often form a large part of HP, it will allow someone to fight below 0 HP and also allow them to resist pain, making their HP be that much more meaningful.
Endurance: Your ability to exert effort and endure damage. Endurance factors into Hit Points and your paranormal energy supplies.
Charisma: Your natural ability to cajole, intimidate, convince, haggle, and so on. This is largely unrelated to alignment - someone who does horrendous things can nonetheless be very convincing and articulate. It's also hard to make someone hate you, even with a low Charisma - you'll simply be uninteresting, bland, etc. It does, however, make it easier to dislike you if you've already performed a number of faux pas or are of a discriminated group, so be careful. Many checks for skills like Singing or Leadership are based off of Charisma, so don't underplay it.
Rank Boosts:
Your character will get rank boosts to push him along here.
A Rank Boost can indeed be gained by lowering your starting stats and putting that tradeoff into an attribute you want to raise.
All attributes are ranked in seven ranks: Crippled, Human, Superhuman, Supernatural, Legendary, Deific, and Forbidden. Classifications are "very low", "low", "moderate", "high", and "very high", plus what is considered to be a "very high 1/2" or alternately a "very low 1/2". When raising attribute ranks through Godlike and Forbidden, it costs 2 ranks, and when raising inbetween classes (i.e. between Human and Superhuman), it costs the following additional amount: 0 for Crippled, 1 for Human, 2 for Superhuman, 3 for Supernatural, 4 for Legendary, 5 for Godlike, and 20 for Forbidden.)
Strength: This is raw muscular strength, the capacity to carry, throw, punch, kick, and so on. High strengths offer bonus to speed and to leaping distance, but too high of a strength proportional to Reflex offers a ponderous frame.
Reflex: Reflex bundles the capacity to quickly see events and respond to them. It helps to determine running and leaping speed, initiative, dodging/parrying/striking, and so on. Too high of a Reflex without a high enough Precision makes a very antsy and imprecise character, capable of moving quickly but with little control.
Precision/Keenness: The flipside of Reflex. This involves the perceptual and muscular/reflexive prowess necessary to be balanced, graceful, delicate, and capable of seeing precise data. A marksman would need a high Precision.
Intelligence: Raw mental computing ability. Intelligence does get factored into some psychic resistances (though it may be more of a penalty than a boon), into breadth of skills (it requires a high Intelligence to multi-class), capacity to design machinery and new enchantments, etc.
Paranormal Ability: Describes the character’s potency of magic/psionics/natural skills/ki and helps to determine the reservoir of energy involved. (In most cases, Willpower, Paranormal Ability and Endurance will constitute MP/ISP/Ki/TP, to varying degrees).
Affinities: Affinities are a subset of Paranormal Ability, so note it as such. Affinities describe the character’s orientation to which they put their Paranormal Ability. A zero affinity means no skill as of now. There are negative Affinities, which indicate that that race or class is so untalented with the form of energy that they suffer penalties. The four types of Affinities are:
Ki: The Oriental energy source, based off of either the positive/abundant/lively energy forces and the negative/desolate/decaying energy forces. Martial artists, certain rarer spell casters, Eastern geomancers, and others use this energy type. The universal form of ki is ki lines.
Magic: The mystic energy, that which powers spells, enchantments, dweomers, and so on. This is the energy of faeries, dragons, phoenixes, and gods. The universal, ambient form of ki lies in ley lines.
Psionic: The mental energy, that of the intelligent mind projecting its will outwards through various means. The universal form has been titled the Force by some philosophers.
Technique: “Other”, that which powers most non-ki based techniques, superpowers, etc. There is no universal form of this energy. This is probably the most science-based of techniques, and thus those who use it are considered to be doing non-paranormal attacks for most purposes.
Willpower: Someone’s capacity to continue fighting, to resist, etc. While Willpower will not often form a large part of HP, it will allow someone to fight below 0 HP and also allow them to resist pain, making their HP be that much more meaningful.
Endurance: Your ability to exert effort and endure damage. Endurance factors into Hit Points and your paranormal energy supplies.
Charisma: Your natural ability to cajole, intimidate, convince, haggle, and so on. This is largely unrelated to alignment - someone who does horrendous things can nonetheless be very convincing and articulate. It's also hard to make someone hate you, even with a low Charisma - you'll simply be uninteresting, bland, etc. It does, however, make it easier to dislike you if you've already performed a number of faux pas or are of a discriminated group, so be careful. Many checks for skills like Singing or Leadership are based off of Charisma, so don't underplay it.
Rank Boosts:
Your character will get rank boosts to push him along here.
A Rank Boost can indeed be gained by lowering your starting stats and putting that tradeoff into an attribute you want to raise.