GURPS Power-Ups 9: Alternate Attributes

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by scc

So I've spotted a problem with the proposed stat listing Kromm posted a few pages back, adding a magic points stat means that non-casters can't use magic wands and the like, which a bit of a no-go for me.

Read more closely and you'll see that isn't actually the case:

Originally Posted by Kromm

Power [20/level]: The biggest change! Will would go away and be replaced by this independent attribute. For most people, it would just do the stuff Will does . . . but by costing a lot more, I could keep the Rule of 16 (again, which I happen to like) and not make supernatural powers worthless. For clerics, wizards, etc., it would govern spells, True Faith, and the like.

As I said, everybody would have Power; it wouldn't be just for wizards:

Originally Posted by Kromm

[...] everybody can cast spells. They're just skills based on Power [...] in the campaign that inspired my example, magic-use was a matter of learning lost lore (which was a bunch of IQ/VH skills, and thus a huge investment), not of being talented in some special way.

Also in that example:

Originally Posted by Kromm

Magic Points [3/level] = Power: This would work more like Energy Reserve, and be exclusively for magic – all kinds of magic. The price wouldn't drop; magic is powerful.

So since everybody would have Power, everybody would have Magic Points. And Magic Points would work for "all kinds of magic." This includes using magic items.

Thus, in that model, you could create high-MP characters who know no spells but use lots and lots of items. A dedicated wizard would be someone who raised Power and bought lots of spells based on it.

[draxdeveloper]

Originally Posted by Kallatari

I'm inspired to provide my Attribute house rules for the last few years. I basically had "cascading" tiers of attributes, where I could use either the highest level (what GURPS Power-Ups 9 called realms), standard level, or detailed sub-attribute level, as desired for a given campaign (although I admittedly pretty much always chose the detailed sub-attribute level).

A cascading system is something that are always on my mind in a RPG, it's works well?

[draxdeveloper]

Probably I will drop in using this (I maybe will use the Physical, Mental, Supernatural, Figured from Kromm with small changes). But since I did it, here is my list:

From ST:
Potency [Pot](6/Level) / Base 10 (Striking ST)
Physique [Phy] (4/Level) / Base 10 (Lifting ST)

From HT:

Health [Heal] (8/Level) / Base 10 (Most HT skills, Stamina,Fatigue,Metabolism)
Stamina [Sta] (3/Level) / Health / Recovery: Health (FP for common stuff)
Fatigue [Fat] (N/A) / Base 0 / Recovery: Health (As in depleted sleep and hunger)
Metabolism [Meta] (2/level) / Health / Recovery: Health (HP for poisons and similars)
Fortitude [Fort] (4/Level) / Base 10 Body resistance, used to absorb damage)
Adrenaline [Adr ] (3/Level) / Fort / Recovery: Fort (FP fpr extra effort)
Resilience [Resi] (3/Level) / Base 10 (Will to live, death and unconscious rolls)
Vitality [Vit] (2/Level) / Resi / Recovery: Resi (HP for physical damage)
Flux [Flux] (3/Level) / Base 10 or 0 / Recovery: own (Pool for powers)

From DX:

Agility [Agi] (8/Level) / Base 10 (Same as PW9)
Reflexes [Refl] (5/level) / Base (Agi+Per)/4 (Basic Speed)
Coordination[Coord] (6/Level) / Base 10 (Same as PW9)
Flexibility [Flex] (2/Level) / Base 10 (Same as PW9)
Dexterity [Dex] (6/Level) / Base 10 (Same as PW9)
Movement [LM] (5/Level) / Base 5 (Basic Move)
Water Movement [WM] (5/Level) / Base MT/ 5

From Will

Dynamism [Dyna] (5/Level) / Base 10 ("Imposition" Will)
Composure [Comp] (5/Level) / Base 10 ("Defensive" Will)

From Per:

Perception [Per] (5/Level) / Base 10 (Five sense perception)
Intuition [Int] (5/Level) / Base 10 (any perception not related to the five sense)

From IQ:

Charisma [Cha] (6/Level) / Base 10 (Same as PW9)
Creativity [Crea] (6/Level) / Base 10 (Same as PW9)
Logic [Log] (8/Level) / Base 10 (Same as PW9)
Memory [Mem] (8/Level) / Base 10 (Same as PW9)

[Kallatari]

Originally Posted by Kallatari

I'm inspired to provide my Attribute house rules for the last few years. I basically had "cascading" tiers of attributes, where I could use either the highest level (what GURPS Power-Ups 9 called realms), standard level, or detailed sub-attribute level, as desired for a given campaign (although I admittedly pretty much always chose the detailed sub-attribute level).

Originally Posted by draxdeveloper

A cascading system is something that are always on my mind in a RPG, it's works well?

Since you asked, all I can say is that it works well for my group.

As I mentioned, my players like the detailed sub-attributes method as it lets them fine tune their core attributes, so we pretty much stick to that. Once they grasped how the sub-attributes are split, it becomes second nature to them (no more difficult than how everyone knows in the actual rules that ST is really Lifting ST, Striking ST and HP), so works well. But no one has ever purchased the Physical or Mental realm-level attributes, so is it really needed? I guess that means my cascading system starting at realms is more to provide a visual breakdown/understanding than being an actual necessity. But the attribute/sub-attribute breakdown is well used.

I guess how well it works will ultimately depend on how convoluted or complex you make your attribute/sub-attribute system. You don't want too many sub-attributes (my breakdown only has 2 per attribute; i.e. 6 attributes into 12 sub-attributes). And they need to be clearly defined so as to not have any overlap. If there is overlap, or even just perceived overlap that might cause confusion, I would suggest that they should be advantages, not sub-attributes.

Plus my core attributes follows the same 6 attributes (or rather ability scores) of D&D/d20 most of my players grew up with, so really nothing new for them to learn.