Pyramid #3/120: Alternate GURPS V

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Kromm

At the same time, 18 years of proposals from dozens of authors gradually blew the original model of "ST, DX, IQ, and HT all cost the same, and are the only things you can improve" out into "DX and IQ cost more, and you can directly adjust HP, Will, Per, FP, Basic Speed, and Basic Move." For instance, Per was always there in the form of Alertness, while Extra Hit Points and Increased Speed came later, from different people, and the idea of DX and IQ costing more was an optional rule way back in the days of Roleplayer. To me that suggests that the basic elegance didn't sit all that well with players or writers, who eventually grew four scores into 10 (more, when you throw in Charisma, High Manual Dexterity, etc.) but maintained the illusion of simplicity by treating just four as basic.

As the system's nominal guardian, I'm supposed to be conservative in this regard. As a gamer, I often feel I'd be happier with more attributes. I've put dozens of schemes on paper, but I've never actually tried any of them in play. I tend to come back to something like this:

PHYSICAL

• Strength (ST): Physical strength, but kept on the 1-20 scale so rolls against it make sense. Actual strength would be multiplied by a separate Size trait, which could be real size (as for dwarves and giants) or equivalent size (as for supers). The latter would cost slightly more because it wouldn't come with drawbacks like being easier to hit and see, and needing more expensive armor.
• Agility (AG): A measure of balance and flexibility, governing whole-body movement such as Acrobatics, Dancing, Jumping, and melee combat.
• Dexterity (DX): A measure of manual dexterity, governing fine motor skills in areas like Filch, Leatherworking, Pickpocket, and Sleight of Hand.
• Health (HT): Physical fitness and resistance, pretty much what it is right now.

MENTAL

• Presence (PR): Social intelligence with a catchier name, governing just about any skill that could be seen as social, including not just Influence skills but also stuff like Leadership and Public Speaking.
• Alertness (AL): Awareness of the real world, governing a lot of the same stuff it does right now: Scrounging, Search, Tracking, etc. – but also (and most likely controversially) vehicle operation and ranged combat.
• Intellect (IN): Pure braininess, governing arts, sciences, and technical skills that aren't otherwise the realm of DX or AL.
• Willpower (WL): Mental resistance to fatigue, fear, pain, and PR skills.

SUPERNATURAL

• Power (PW): Raw supernatural ability, limiting such things as damage dice for spells and super abilities, and maximum ST boosts from stuff like Power Blow.
• Awareness (AW): Awareness of the supernatural world, governing spells and abilities for finding and detecting things, plus resistance to supernatural forms of obscuration and illusion.
• Control (CN): Control of supernatural ability, used as the base for success rolls for most spells and abilities that affect the world.
• Resistance (RS): Resistance to being directly controlled or affected by magic, psi, and the like.

FIGURED

• Basic Speed: How quickly you react to changes in the environment. (AG + AL)/4.
• Movement: How fast you walk, run, swim, fly, etc. (AG + HT)/4.
• Hit Points: Same idea as now. (ST + HT)/2, multiplied by the same Size trait that adjusts ST.
• Fatigue Points: Same idea as now, but not used for supernatural gifts. (HT + WL)/2.
• Essence Points: Used instead of FP to power supernatural gifts and absorb supernatural harm. (PW + RS)/2.

It goes without saying that skills would be spread out as much as possible among the attributes, but especially AG, DX, PR, AL, IN, AW, and CN.

Aside from the figured traits, and the resistance ability, this looks quite similar to the stats Rolemaster used. It had ten:

Constitution, Agility, Self-Discipline, Memory, Reasoning, Strength, Quickness, Intuition, Presence, and Essence.

Intuition and Presence double up as mental and supernatural, and Essence had some odd skill choices attached to it to try and make it useful for people other than magicians, but otherwise these map fairly well to yours.

[DouglasCole]

I had turned my mind to this in the past as well, and because I'm in a hurry will return with details.

I had made a grid:

Physical
Mental
Social/Spiritual

and crossed it with

Power
Control/Agility
Endurance

to get nine attributes. Sean does similarly, it would seem, except he has "gross control" and "fine control" in each one, which is a valid adjustment.

In a game with overtly supernatural elements, dividing Social and Spiritual/Supernatural into separate categories and thus resulting in 12-16 fine-grained stats would cover everything.

The other bit that would work even within the GURPSy model is to have there still be four attributes. They might be

Physical [100]
Mental [100]
Social [100]
Supernatural/Spiritual [100]

Or something like that. Each would assume power, control (gross/fine if you like), and endurance were equal, to be adjusted if you like.

That way, you can still speak broadly and quickly with a minimal set, but can tune as you prefer.

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by Kromm

At the same time, 18 years of proposals from dozens of authors gradually blew the original model of "ST, DX, IQ, and HT all cost the same, and are the only things you can improve" out into "DX and IQ cost more, and you can directly adjust HP, Will, Per, FP, Basic Speed, and Basic Move." For instance, Per was always there in the form of Alertness, while Extra Hit Points and Increased Speed came later, from different people, and the idea of DX and IQ costing more was an optional rule way back in the days of Roleplayer. To me that suggests that the basic elegance didn't sit all that well with players or writers, who eventually grew four scores into 10 (more, when you throw in Charisma, High Manual Dexterity, etc.) but maintained the illusion of simplicity by treating just four as basic.

That “illusion of simplicity” is important. I have a system of eighteen attributes that I use as a touchstone to see if I've got everything covered, which could benefit from an illusion of simplicity.

Originally Posted by Kromm

As the system's nominal guardian, I'm supposed to be conservative in this regard. As a gamer, I often feel I'd be happier with more attributes. I've put dozens of schemes on paper, but I've never actually tried any of them in play. I tend to come back to something like this:

PHYSICAL

• Strength (ST): Physical strength, but kept on the 1-20 scale so rolls against it make sense. Actual strength would be multiplied by a separate Size trait, which could be real size (as for dwarves and giants) or equivalent size (as for supers). The latter would cost slightly more because it wouldn't come with drawbacks like being easier to hit and see, and needing more expensive armor.
• Agility (AG): A measure of balance and flexibility, governing whole-body movement such as Acrobatics, Dancing, Jumping, and melee combat.
• Dexterity (DX): A measure of manual dexterity, governing fine motor skills in areas like Filch, Leatherworking, Pickpocket, and Sleight of Hand.
• Health (HT): Physical fitness and resistance, pretty much what it is right now.

MENTAL

• Presence (PR): Social intelligence with a catchier name, governing just about any skill that could be seen as social, including not just Influence skills but also stuff like Leadership and Public Speaking.
• Alertness (AL): Awareness of the real world, governing a lot of the same stuff it does right now: Scrounging, Search, Tracking, etc. – but also (and most likely controversially) vehicle operation and ranged combat.
• Intellect (IN): Pure braininess, governing arts, sciences, and technical skills that aren't otherwise the realm of DX or AL.
• Willpower (WL): Mental resistance to fatigue, fear, pain, and PR skills.

SUPERNATURAL

• Power (PW): Raw supernatural ability, limiting such things as damage dice for spells and super abilities, and maximum ST boosts from stuff like Power Blow.
• Awareness (AW): Awareness of the supernatural world, governing spells and abilities for finding and detecting things, plus resistance to supernatural forms of obscuration and illusion.
• Control (CN): Control of supernatural ability, used as the base for success rolls for most spells and abilities that affect the world.
• Resistance (RS): Resistance to being directly controlled or affected by magic, psi, and the like.

FIGURED

• Basic Speed: How quickly you react to changes in the environment. (AG + AL)/4.
• Movement: How fast you walk, run, swim, fly, etc. (AG + HT)/4.
• Hit Points: Same idea as now. (ST + HT)/2, multiplied by the same Size trait that adjusts ST.
• Fatigue Points: Same idea as now, but not used for supernatural gifts. (HT + WL)/2.
• Essence Points: Used instead of FP to power supernatural gifts and absorb supernatural harm. (PW + RS)/2.

It goes without saying that skills would be spread out as much as possible among the attributes, but especially AG, DX, PR, AL, IN, AW, and CN.

Especially for a game that supposed to be universal, I tend to dislike Attributes that are only useful in games with supernatural powers. As such, I prefer to combine them with other traits that are useful even when no supernatural powers are involved. This is aided by the fact that the source material tends to link magical powers to other expressions of the soul: powerful mages and psychics tend to be strong-willed; successful magicians and psychics tend to be good at performance and social skills (the cynic will tend to say that this is because in reality, they're con artists and/or performers, so they have to know how to charm, deceive, and impress in order to survive; but even if true, this association between social aptitude, aesthetic aptitude, and supernatural aptitude tends to hold even in settings where supernatural powers are demonstrably real); so it makes sense to base supernatural ability on the same thing that artistic and social ability is based on.

Also, ST isn't the only trait that needs to be adjusted for scale. Movement is another trait that really ought to be more scalable: just like Strength can run from inhumanly small to insurance inhumanly large, so too can speed range from inhumanly slow to inhumanly fast. This is an example of where such things as Enhanced Move factor in.

Finally, certain traits have what I call “modes”: Move comes in a number of varieties, such as running, swimming, and flying; Perception deals with a number of senses; and traits like Animal Empathy and Spirit Empathy imply that social acumen likewise comes in multiple flavors. You always get one by default: humans run and jump, rely on sight, and have a social affinity of other people (as opposed to, say, animals or spirits).

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

I had turned my mind to this in the past as well, and because I'm in a hurry will return with details.

I had made a grid:

Physical
Mental
Social/Spiritual

and crossed it with

Power
Control/Agility
Endurance

to get nine attributes. Sean does similarly, it would seem, except he has "gross control" and "fine control" in each one, which is a valid adjustment.

In a game with overtly supernatural elements, dividing Social and Spiritual/Supernatural into separate categories and thus resulting in 12-16 fine-grained stats would cover everything.

The other bit that would work even within the GURPSy model is to have there still be four attributes. They might be

Physical [100]
Mental [100]
Social [100]
Supernatural/Spiritual [100]

Or something like that. Each would assume power, control (gross/fine if you like), and endurance were equal, to be adjusted if you like.

That way, you can still speak broadly and quickly with a minimal set, but can tune as you prefer.

I've got a larger grid:

Body
Basis: Fortitude and Fitness (opposing injury and fatigue)
Primary: Might and Precision
Mobility: Speed and Agility (default mode: ground movement)

Mind
Basis: Stability and Attention (opposing disquiet and distraction)
Primary: Focus and Reason
Perception: Acuity and Discernment (default mode: sight).

Soul
Basis: Integrity and Composure (opposing corruption and stress)
Primary: Spirit and Elegance
Social: Presence and Guile (default mode: people).

Some clarifications:
• Might is what's normally called “Strength”; the renaming is because I refer to each pair of attributes as a Strength and an Affinity. This was inspired a bit by how In Nomine organizes its Attributes, with each of three Realms having two traits that roughly correspond to power and finesse: Strength and Agility, Intelligence and Precision, Will and Perception. The reason why I went with the split was so that the Strengths could all have some sort of “scaling mechanism” allowing them to reach inhuman levels (e.g., inhumanly tough, strong, or fast), the theory being that strengths tend not to be used for success rolls; that's properly the domain of affinities.
• Also borrowed from In Nomine is the idea that each realm has its own kind of “hit points” (Fortitude=Body Hits, Stability=Mind Hits, Integrity=Soul Hits) — though I use something similar to “Conditional Injury” instead of Hit Points.
Fitness, Attention, and Composure are physical, cerebral, and visceral forms of HT; as such, each provides a kind of “energy pool” suitable for it's realm: Fatigue, Distraction, and Stress. However, each is also an affinity, and gets used for resistance-like success rolls.
• Each realm also has an auxiliary strength and affinity pair, covering a more specialized subject that's too important to ignore despite not being covered by the primary traits of that realm: Mobility, Perception, and Social. I just couldn't bring myself to say that Speed tracks with Might; though Tbone once made a case that it ought to track more or less with the ratio of Might to Mass. After I established the auxiliary pairs, I realized that all three of them come in different types, and that part of defining non-human characters lies in deciding what type of mobility, perception, and “social” comes naturally to them.
• Speed is what GURPS normally calls “Move”, because I roll what GURPS normally calls “Speed” into Agility.
• Spirit is what GURPS normally calls “Will”.

[Tyneras]

All this need for "more attributes" stems, I think, from a fundamental flaw in GURPS and many other RPGS. That flaw is that the attribute forms the base off which the skill grows. The higher the attribute, the higher your skills with the same investment. This leads to omnicapable characters, even when they are operating from default, and thus the obvious solution is when people add new attributes that characters wont all have.

I would prefer to solve the problem directly.

Instead of:
Effective skill = Attribute + Talent + Skill Investment

Effective Skill = Talent + Skill Investment
Skill Cap = Attribute + Talent + 2
Techniques can exceed the skill cap for their narrow range of use, as intended.

The advantage here is you don't need to invent new attributes, if you don't invest the points in the skills you'll be operating off default. Your cloistered academics with sky-high math and science skills will already have terrible social skills because the default isn't inflated.

IQ and DX can be much cheaper because they aren't effectively +1 to half of all skills per level. They are also less of a point crock, the only point when investing in IQ or DX for a player is better than investing in skills is when your skills run into the skill cap.

Talents and Techniques work normally.

A side benefit is it adds some interesting control to AIs with complexity based IQ. In addition to preventing them from sitting in a closet for a thousand years to abuse the time spent learning rules, if you can get 2 levels of talents for the complexity cost of 1 level of IQ then AIs that are very good at a narrow range while sharply limited outside that ranges would be very organic to a setting.

[Arcanjo7Sagi]

Originally Posted by Kromm

At the same time, 18 years of proposals from dozens of authors gradually blew the original model of "ST, DX, IQ, and HT all cost the same, and are the only things you can improve" out into "DX and IQ cost more, and you can directly adjust HP, Will, Per, FP, Basic Speed, and Basic Move." For instance, Per was always there in the form of Alertness, while Extra Hit Points and Increased Speed came later, from different people, and the idea of DX and IQ costing more was an optional rule way back in the days of Roleplayer. To me that suggests that the basic elegance didn't sit all that well with players or writers, who eventually grew four scores into 10 (more, when you throw in Charisma, High Manual Dexterity, etc.) but maintained the illusion of simplicity by treating just four as basic.

As the system's nominal guardian, I'm supposed to be conservative in this regard. As a gamer, I often feel I'd be happier with more attributes. I've put dozens of schemes on paper, but I've never actually tried any of them in play. I tend to come back to something like this:

PHYSICAL

• Strength (ST): Physical strength, but kept on the 1-20 scale so rolls against it make sense. Actual strength would be multiplied by a separate Size trait, which could be real size (as for dwarves and giants) or equivalent size (as for supers). The latter would cost slightly more because it wouldn't come with drawbacks like being easier to hit and see, and needing more expensive armor.
• Agility (AG): A measure of balance and flexibility, governing whole-body movement such as Acrobatics, Dancing, Jumping, and melee combat.
• Dexterity (DX): A measure of manual dexterity, governing fine motor skills in areas like Filch, Leatherworking, Pickpocket, and Sleight of Hand.
• Health (HT): Physical fitness and resistance, pretty much what it is right now.

MENTAL

• Presence (PR): Social intelligence with a catchier name, governing just about any skill that could be seen as social, including not just Influence skills but also stuff like Leadership and Public Speaking.
• Alertness (AL): Awareness of the real world, governing a lot of the same stuff it does right now: Scrounging, Search, Tracking, etc. – but also (and most likely controversially) vehicle operation and ranged combat.
• Intellect (IN): Pure braininess, governing arts, sciences, and technical skills that aren't otherwise the realm of DX or AL.
• Willpower (WL): Mental resistance to fatigue, fear, pain, and PR skills.

SUPERNATURAL

• Power (PW): Raw supernatural ability, limiting such things as damage dice for spells and super abilities, and maximum ST boosts from stuff like Power Blow.
• Awareness (AW): Awareness of the supernatural world, governing spells and abilities for finding and detecting things, plus resistance to supernatural forms of obscuration and illusion.
• Control (CN): Control of supernatural ability, used as the base for success rolls for most spells and abilities that affect the world.
• Resistance (RS): Resistance to being directly controlled or affected by magic, psi, and the like.

FIGURED

• Basic Speed: How quickly you react to changes in the environment. (AG + AL)/4.
• Movement: How fast you walk, run, swim, fly, etc. (AG + HT)/4.
• Hit Points: Same idea as now. (ST + HT)/2, multiplied by the same Size trait that adjusts ST.
• Fatigue Points: Same idea as now, but not used for supernatural gifts. (HT + WL)/2.
• Essence Points: Used instead of FP to power supernatural gifts and absorb supernatural harm. (PW + RS)/2.

It goes without saying that skills would be spread out as much as possible among the attributes, but especially AG, DX, PR, AL, IN, AW, and CN.

I'm here just to say that I would buy that. Or at least give it a try.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Kromm

As the system's nominal guardian, I'm supposed to be conservative in this regard. As a gamer, I often feel I'd be happier with more attributes. I've put dozens of schemes on paper, but I've never actually tried any of them in play. I tend to come back to something like this:

I like the elegance of 4 overall, especially with add on traits and Talents, including Anti-Talents which are too often overlooked.
On the other hand I do like the idea of separating some things, especially social.
It makes sense that IQ boosts most social skills but maybe not so much.
hmm I just had a thought. Ill ponder it more though.

QN seems nice in some ways, though as its coming so late to the game it did not mesh well enough with all the existing material in my opinion.
I would like to test it as Chi though, no martial artists in my campaign so its less disruptive to slip in.
But as described I dont like it being used for Magic, Psi and Chi abilities. There is a reasonable case for it, just a matter of taste.

[Yafnag]

Originally Posted by Kromm

At the same time, 18 years of proposals from dozens of authors gradually blew the original model of "ST, DX, IQ, and HT all cost the same, and are the only things you can improve" out into "DX and IQ cost more, and you can directly adjust HP, Will, Per, FP, Basic Speed, and Basic Move." For instance, Per was always there in the form of Alertness, while Extra Hit Points and Increased Speed came later, from different people, and the idea of DX and IQ costing more was an optional rule way back in the days of Roleplayer. To me that suggests that the basic elegance didn't sit all that well with players or writers, who eventually grew four scores into 10 (more, when you throw in Charisma, High Manual Dexterity, etc.) but maintained the illusion of simplicity by treating just four as basic.

As the system's nominal guardian, I'm supposed to be conservative in this regard. As a gamer, I often feel I'd be happier with more attributes. I've put dozens of schemes on paper, but I've never actually tried any of them in play. I tend to come back to something like this:

PHYSICAL

• Strength (ST): Physical strength, but kept on the 1-20 scale so rolls against it make sense. Actual strength would be multiplied by a separate Size trait, which could be real size (as for dwarves and giants) or equivalent size (as for supers). The latter would cost slightly more because it wouldn't come with drawbacks like being easier to hit and see, and needing more expensive armor.
• Agility (AG): A measure of balance and flexibility, governing whole-body movement such as Acrobatics, Dancing, Jumping, and melee combat.
• Dexterity (DX): A measure of manual dexterity, governing fine motor skills in areas like Filch, Leatherworking, Pickpocket, and Sleight of Hand.
• Health (HT): Physical fitness and resistance, pretty much what it is right now.

MENTAL

• Presence (PR): Social intelligence with a catchier name, governing just about any skill that could be seen as social, including not just Influence skills but also stuff like Leadership and Public Speaking.
• Alertness (AL): Awareness of the real world, governing a lot of the same stuff it does right now: Scrounging, Search, Tracking, etc. – but also (and most likely controversially) vehicle operation and ranged combat.
• Intellect (IN): Pure braininess, governing arts, sciences, and technical skills that aren't otherwise the realm of DX or AL.
• Willpower (WL): Mental resistance to fatigue, fear, pain, and PR skills.

SUPERNATURAL

• Power (PW): Raw supernatural ability, limiting such things as damage dice for spells and super abilities, and maximum ST boosts from stuff like Power Blow.
• Awareness (AW): Awareness of the supernatural world, governing spells and abilities for finding and detecting things, plus resistance to supernatural forms of obscuration and illusion.
• Control (CN): Control of supernatural ability, used as the base for success rolls for most spells and abilities that affect the world.
• Resistance (RS): Resistance to being directly controlled or affected by magic, psi, and the like.

FIGURED

• Basic Speed: How quickly you react to changes in the environment. (AG + AL)/4.
• Movement: How fast you walk, run, swim, fly, etc. (AG + HT)/4.
• Hit Points: Same idea as now. (ST + HT)/2, multiplied by the same Size trait that adjusts ST.
• Fatigue Points: Same idea as now, but not used for supernatural gifts. (HT + WL)/2.
• Essence Points: Used instead of FP to power supernatural gifts and absorb supernatural harm. (PW + RS)/2.

It goes without saying that skills would be spread out as much as possible among the attributes, but especially AG, DX, PR, AL, IN, AW, and CN.

I'll love read an article about that!


By the way, another solution by Dave Morris:
https://fabledlands.blogspot.com/2010/07/7urps.html
That add also empathy (EQ)

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Kromm

SUPERNATURAL

• Power (PW): Raw supernatural ability, limiting such things as damage dice for spells and super abilities, and maximum ST boosts from stuff like Power Blow.
• Awareness (AW): Awareness of the supernatural world, governing spells and abilities for finding and detecting things, plus resistance to supernatural forms of obscuration and illusion.
• Control (CN): Control of supernatural ability, used as the base for success rolls for most spells and abilities that affect the world.
• Resistance (RS): Resistance to being directly controlled or affected by magic, psi, and the like.

I probably wouldn't include any of these traits -- just use the same trait that you'd use to do the same thing by mundane means, and take advantages that let you do things that wouldn't be normally possible, or use limitations if for some reason you're only good at the supernatural version (which is actually somewhat rare in genre). That usually means PW->ST, AW->AL, CN->(varies, usually one of AG,DX,PR), Resistance->HT or WL.

[bert]

Originally Posted by Kromm

At the same time, 18 years of proposals from dozens of authors gradually blew the original model of "ST, DX, IQ, and HT all cost the same, and are the only things you can improve" out into "DX and IQ cost more, and you can directly adjust HP, Will, Per, FP, Basic Speed, and Basic Move." For instance, Per was always there in the form of Alertness, while Extra Hit Points and Increased Speed came later, from different people, and the idea of DX and IQ costing more was an optional rule way back in the days of Roleplayer. To me that suggests that the basic elegance didn't sit all that well with players or writers, who eventually grew four scores into 10 (more, when you throw in Charisma, High Manual Dexterity, etc.) but maintained the illusion of simplicity by treating just four as basic.

As the system's nominal guardian, I'm supposed to be conservative in this regard. As a gamer, I often feel I'd be happier with more attributes. I've put dozens of schemes on paper, but I've never actually tried any of them in play. I tend to come back to something like this:

PHYSICAL

• Strength (ST): Physical strength, but kept on the 1-20 scale so rolls against it make sense. Actual strength would be multiplied by a separate Size trait, which could be real size (as for dwarves and giants) or equivalent size (as for supers). The latter would cost slightly more because it wouldn't come with drawbacks like being easier to hit and see, and needing more expensive armor.
• Agility (AG): A measure of balance and flexibility, governing whole-body movement such as Acrobatics, Dancing, Jumping, and melee combat.
• Dexterity (DX): A measure of manual dexterity, governing fine motor skills in areas like Filch, Leatherworking, Pickpocket, and Sleight of Hand.
• Health (HT): Physical fitness and resistance, pretty much what it is right now.

MENTAL

• Presence (PR): Social intelligence with a catchier name, governing just about any skill that could be seen as social, including not just Influence skills but also stuff like Leadership and Public Speaking.
• Alertness (AL): Awareness of the real world, governing a lot of the same stuff it does right now: Scrounging, Search, Tracking, etc. – but also (and most likely controversially) vehicle operation and ranged combat.
• Intellect (IN): Pure braininess, governing arts, sciences, and technical skills that aren't otherwise the realm of DX or AL.
• Willpower (WL): Mental resistance to fatigue, fear, pain, and PR skills.

SUPERNATURAL

• Power (PW): Raw supernatural ability, limiting such things as damage dice for spells and super abilities, and maximum ST boosts from stuff like Power Blow.
• Awareness (AW): Awareness of the supernatural world, governing spells and abilities for finding and detecting things, plus resistance to supernatural forms of obscuration and illusion.
• Control (CN): Control of supernatural ability, used as the base for success rolls for most spells and abilities that affect the world.
• Resistance (RS): Resistance to being directly controlled or affected by magic, psi, and the like.

FIGURED

• Basic Speed: How quickly you react to changes in the environment. (AG + AL)/4.
• Movement: How fast you walk, run, swim, fly, etc. (AG + HT)/4.
• Hit Points: Same idea as now. (ST + HT)/2, multiplied by the same Size trait that adjusts ST.
• Fatigue Points: Same idea as now, but not used for supernatural gifts. (HT + WL)/2.
• Essence Points: Used instead of FP to power supernatural gifts and absorb supernatural harm. (PW + RS)/2.

It goes without saying that skills would be spread out as much as possible among the attributes, but especially AG, DX, PR, AL, IN, AW, and CN.

Thank you for the very detailed response! In my opinion, the apparent elegance of having only four core attributes is that everything is derived from them, and can be left at default if not explicitly stated otherwise. This advantage of GURPS is very real for me. It allows me to only add the detail or clutter when needed.

I also think having too many attributes makes statting out characters a bit bothersome. The real weakness in GURPS in this regard is in my opinion the omnipotence of DX and IQ; however, most other systems I used have almost no correlation between skill and attribute. At the end of the day it makes sense to let characters have talents (modeled by attributes and advantages) rather than ” all skills cost the same”.