[dataweaver]

Some commentary on my last post:

Agility undergoes the most radical conceptual revision: as currently written, it's assumed to be exclusively about Corporeal matters, whereas Precision and Perception have always had cross-Realm applicability. I've also attempted to provide a clearer definition of what Intellect is; and by all rights, similarly clear definitions of Body, Mind, and Soul should be provided.

Humans fare better under this setup than they do in the 1e model: while they're still weak (5 Forces instead of 9 Forces, for an average Characteristic of 3⅓ instead of 6), they're not inherently incompetent (15 Aptitude points instead of 18, for an average Aptitude of 5 instead of 6). This also preserves the "humans are 5s, celestials are 6s" brainfeel that Beth has mentioned in the past. But despite my earlier advocacy for more capable humans, this was not my primary motivation for coming up with this model; rather, it has always bothered me that Forces conflate quality and quantity. This model makes Forces all about quantity, while the Aptitudes embody quality. It also means that you don't need to worry about cats being inherently clumsy or elephants being inherently nimble, because having a lot of Corporeal Forces doesn't give you more points to spend on Agility.

One thing that sort of gets lost in this is the direct juxtaposition of demonic Will vs. angelic Perception. I say "sort of" because angels and demons still consider the Celestial Realm to be the most important of the three, and angels still prefer quality over quantity while demons still prefer quantity over quality; and taking these things together, the result in that angels will still tend to prize Perception (celestial quality) above all else while demons will likewise favor Will and a strong Soul (celestial quantity).

Still, the lack of a direct opposition between Perception and Will is a bit of a problem. As well, the reason why the "clumsy cats and nimble elephants" is a problem is that common experience implies that the relationship should be the other way around: the smaller you are, the more nimble you tend to be, and the larger you are, the more likely you are to be slow and clumsy. This could probably be addressed by allowing characters to trade Forces for Aptitude and vice versa, but this opens a can of worms.

This setup, combined with the recent suggestion to decouple Character Points from Characteristic Points, gives us three "currencies" in character creation: Forces, Aptitude Points, and Resource Points. This is up two from the current system where everything is based on Forces, and it does add some complexity to the system. I suppose you could try lumping them all together into one currency system; but doing so would lose a lot of what makes the In Nomine system special. And the "three currencies" model has a certain aesthetic feel to it that I like: much like the Corporeal/Ethereal/Celestial division aligns with the concepts of "body", "mind", and "soul", these three currencies roughly parallel the concepts of "to be" (Forces), "to do" (Aptitudes), and "to have" (Resources).