This article is the fourth in a twelve part series that talks about the choices/decisions that need to be made when designing a role-playing game system. In this installment, I discuss aptitude/proficiency systems, the game mechanical representations of how good characters are at accomplishing different tasks. Last time I mentioned the following generic mechanics
- A numeric value that is added to your roll.
- The number of dice you roll.
- The number of rerolls you get.
- The type of dice you roll.
- The number and type of dice you roll.
This time I’m covering the different things those mechanics represent.
Q: How is aptitude at specific tasks typically represented in RPGs?
In many games there are three components to how good you are at specific tasks: attributes, proficiencies, and specialization.
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“Attributes” are sometimes called “abilities” and represent generic aptitude with broad areas of applicability. In d20 systems, and the earlier versions of D&D that d20 is based off of, the 6 abilities/attributes are Strength (STR), Constitution (CON), Dexterity (DEX), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), and Charisma (CHA). This webpage lists the attributes for a large number of different games. If you look at that list, you’ll see that the attributes in many games are a permutation of the 6 found in D&D.
For example, the Palladium system has 8 attributes: Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.), Mental Endurance (M.E.), Mental Affinity (M.A.), Physical Strength (P.S.), Physical Prowess (P.P.), Physical Endurance (P.E.), Physical Beauty (P.B.), and Speed. Wisdom was renamed “Mental Endurance”; “Constitution” was renamed “Physical Endurance”; “Charisma” was split into “Mental Affinity” and “Physical Beauty”; and “Speed” was added.
The Fantasy Flight Games Edge of the Empire Star Wars RPG has 6 attributes: Agility, Brawn, Cunning, Intellect, Presence, and Willpower. “Dexterity” was renamed to “Agility”; “Charisma” was renamed to “Presence”; “Intelligence” was renamed to “Intellect”; “Strength” and “Constitution” were merged into “Brawn”; and “Wisdom” was split into “Cunning” and “Willpower”.
My 3D RPG has 4 attributes. I went with an “A B C D” mnemonic: Acuity, Brawn, Charisma, and Dexterity. “Charisma” and “Dexterity” match up one for one with the D&D standard, but I merged “Intelligence” plus “Wisdom” into “Acuity”, and “Strength” plus “Constitution” into “Brawn”.
I was originally planning on having 5 attributes that followed an “A B C D E” mnemonic, where the “E” was “Endurance” or a renamed “Constitution” and “Brawn” was just “Strength”, but AsaTJ from the d20radio.com forums convinced me to merge “Endurance” and “Brawn” into just “Brawn.” His feedback was:
I’m kind of an evangelist for “Just combine Strength and Endurance already!” but that’s a nitpick.
My original rational for 5 attributes was that 5 dice types were being used in the game (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12) and thus you could use one of each die type for the 5 attributes. But going with 4 attributes let heroes use the d6 through d12 (for a total of 36) and mook NPCs use the d4 through d10 (for a total of 28), which really improved the game.
“Proficiencies” represent experientially learned competence at specific tasks. In most games this is represented by a “skill” system. The original version of D&D created by Gary Gygax didn’t have a skill system, neither did AD&D but it had “weapon proficiencies” and “non-weapon proficiencies” which served the same purpose.
“Specialization” is typically the little something extra that separates a master/expert from a professional. A specialization can take many forms, for example a numerical bonus to a roll, a reroll, or allowing characters to do new things (like make extra attacks or special types of attacks).
Q: Can you give a few examples of aptitude/proficiency systems?
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Sure and since d20 is the “standard” game system I’ll start with the Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Saga Edition RPG which is widely regarded as the best d20 system to date. There are some challengers to Saga’s title though; Mutants & Masterminds is fairly popular and I’ve also heard good things about D&D Next.
Saga uses the 6 standard D&D attributes; these are “permanent” numerical scores which can be generated by rolling dice or using a “point buy” system. Two attributes can be increased by one point each once every four levels (starting at level 4). 10-11 is the average range for an attribute and confers no bonus or penalty; every 2 points higher/lower confers another +1 bonus/-1 penalty. For example: 12-13 grants a +1 bonus; 14-15 grants a +2 bonus; 8-9 imposes a -1 penalty.
Proficiency at attacking is represented by your Base Attack Bonus or BAB, which depends on how many levels you have in which classes. Some classes advance at a 3/4 rate (i.e. the bonuses for the first 8 levels would be +0, +1, +2, +3, +3, +4, +5, +6); others have “full BAB” (i.e. they get +1 for each level). For actions other than attacks, proficiency is represented with a simple skill system; all characters get a bonus equal to half their level with an additional +5 if they are trained in the skill or +10 if they are both trained and focused in a skill. Specialization is represented by a character’s collection of feats and talents.
Earlier d20 systems used a hybridized skill system. “Hybridized” is the polite version; the word I’m actually thinking of asserts illegitimate parentage. Those two parents, a “level based skill progression” (e.g. Castles & Crusades) and a “targeted advancement skill based system” (e.g. The West End Games d6 system and the Fuzion System) work well in isolation of each other. Their unfortunate bast…, I mean “hybrid,” offspring is a levels plus skill point system. At each level, characters get a certain number of skill points that they spend to increase particular skills. Because d20 systems are so prevalent, I think a lot of gamers have accepted levels plus skill points as a “natural” way of doing things rather than seeing it as a nightmarish “Frankenstein Monster” game mechanic; I know that was my attitude until I saw better alternatives. The levels plus skill points approach is very poorly balanced; there are typically far too many closely related skills that needed to be trained separately and too few skill points to make a well-rounded “a jack of all trades and a master of one” character. The skill systems of Saga and D&D 4e (the D&D 4e skill system is very similar to Saga’s) fixed that but there are other alternatives.
The “Castles & Crusades” RPG has been called the “holy grail of old school gaming.” Its Gary Gygax’s reimagining of his original D&D system, updated with elements of modern game design. It has the same 6 attributes as D&D/d20 systems. It does not have a skill system; instead proficiency is represented by character level which is added onto the d20 rolls for attribute checks. Specialization is handled by making a distinction between “primary” and “secondary” attributes. Humans have 3 primary attributes; other races get 2. The rest are secondary attributes. Your class determines one of your primary attributes; you get to choose the other(s). Here’s a quote from the free “quick start” rules (which you can download) that explains the difference.
As mentioned before, the distinction between primary and secondary attributes is important. Almost all non-combat actions in Castles & Crusades for which the Castle Keeper deems a roll is necessary to determine success or failure are resolved by an attribute check.
Every check has an associated attribute. Whenever one of these checks is made, a d20 is rolled by the player. Attribute and level modifiers are added to this roll, if applicable. If the result is equal to or greater than a number generated by the Castle Keeper, called the challenge class, then the attribute check is successful.
The challenge class is a number generated by the Castle Keeper that represents the degree of difficulty for performing that action. The challenge class is generated in two steps. The first is ascertaining the challenge base. This is determined by whether or not the associated attribute is a primary or secondary one. If the associated attribute is a primary attribute, the challenge base is 12 and if it is a secondary attribute, the challenge base is 18. Next, the Castle Keeper adds or subtracts the challenge level to the challenge class. The challenge level represents the degree of difficulty the Castle Keeper believes appropriate for the action being taken. This usually ranges between 0 and 10, but can go higher. The sum total is the challenge class, and the player must roll higher than that to successfully perform the action.
The next system I want to call out is Palladium. Its skill system is a perfect example of what NOT to do. Most games have a fixed set of skills in the core book, and introduce new specializations via feats or talents in new books, and you can add specializations and skills as your character progresses. In Palladium, both proficiency and specialization are represented by “skills.” Some skills are just used for skill checks; other skills increase your attributes or even grant extra attacks. Oh and skills can only be learned at the time of character creation and then improve solely based on level.
I’m probably being a bit too hard on the Palladium system. It was a very early RPG; there weren’t many other games around to draw on for inspiration; and a number features that I first saw in the Palladium system found their way (after modification) into d20. However, most games from that era have either evolved (like D&D) or died. Palladium Books is kind of a zombie game company because they’ve clung to their rather archaic system rather than redesign it from the ground up. The only thing keeping them solvent is their absolutely amazing Rifts setting. But I think Palladium Games could still make a serious comeback if they converted Rifts to a modern system.
In contrast, the West End Games d6 Star Wars RPG is a shining example of an early RPG done right; its innovative mechanics continue to inspire modern games including my 3D RPG. WEG d6 Star Wars has 6 attributes: Dexterity, Perception, Knowledge, Strength, Mechanical, and Technical (but the Control, Sense, and Alter Force “skills” functioned more like attributes than skills). WEG d6 Star Wars Dexterity is similar to D&D Dexterity with hiding and piloting stripped off. WEG d6 Star Wars Strength melds D&D Strength and Constitution. Knowledge melds D&D Intelligence and part of Wisdom. Perception melds Charisma, with the rest of Wisdom and the hiding part of Dexterity. Mechanical represents how good you are at using machines (the piloting part of Dexterity). Technical represents how good you are at fixing things.
Each attribute is represented by a number of d6 dice plus leftover “pips” (dots on d6 die). Each “basic” skill (except Force skills) is associated with an attribute and starts with a number of dice and pips equal to that of its associated attribute. Many skills have one or more specializations. For example: “Blaster – Specializations: Blaster pistol, heavy blaster pistol, blaster rifle, hold out blaster, repeating blaster or any other weapon type” is a skill listed in the second edition of the WEG d6 Star Wars RPG. Improving an attribute does not improve an associated skill that is higher than the attribute. Improving a skill does not improve a specialization that is higher than the skill. (“Advanced” skills work a little differently.) It costs less to improve a single specialization than a skill which in turn costs substantially less than improving an attribute.
I would be remiss to not call out Marvel Heroic Roleplaying at this point. This game is unusual because it has no fixed attributes or skills. Instead characters have a collection of traits, each of which is associated with a die (d4, d6, d8, d10, or d12). The names of the traits are specific to the character and indicate the narrative circumstances under which specific traits (and their associated dice) are applicable. When taking an action, you get to use all of the traits/dice applicable to that action. The only consistently named dice are the affiliation dice, which indicate how well you function by yourself, with a partner, or in a team; these are named “solo,” “buddy,” and “team.” I think that the “arbitrary traits instead of fixed skill list” approach is going to see a good deal of use in the future, especially in indie style games, because of the wonderful narrative flavor; but I don’t anticipate that arbitrary traits will supplant attributes, proficiency, and specialization as the dominant industry practice.
Q: How do you want attributes to interact with proficiency and specializations?
In D&D and other d20 systems, only one skill can be used on a task (although a second relevant skill might grant favorable circumstances), each skill has an associated attribute, and the effects of attributes, proficiency, and some specializations are numerically added together and then added to the result of a d20 roll.
In the West End Games d6 system, attributes, skills, and specializations are alternatives to each other and you select your best one before rolling.
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In the Fantasy Flight Games Edge of the Empire Star Wars RPG attributes and skills are neither additive nor alternatives; you always use one of each. Specialization comes in the form of talent trees which grant diverse and special benefits. When you assemble a dice pool, you pick the attribute and skill that are appropriate to the task; there are common associations between them but those aren’t absolute and narrative circumstance trumps them. You get a number of proficiency dice (custom d12′s) equal to the smaller of your attribute and skill, plus a number of ability dice (custom d8′s) equal to the larger minus the smaller.
In my 3D RPG, each roll uses 3 Dice; attributes are represented by dice; skills are represented by dice; and equipment is represented by dice. There is typically one required skill for each check, but you get to choose any other two dice that can be narratively justified. Think about that approach to dice pool assembly for a moment.
“Whatever can be narratively justified” encourages narrative justification (read as “storytelling”) of unconventional applications of what the characters are already good at. It adapts the narrative to the characters. It also simplifies, and imposes common sense on, the decision of which skill(s) to use for a task; if you encounter a situation where it’s unclear which of two skills or which of two attributes is more applicable, you can use either or both.
That there are 3 dice in the pool and all three contribute rewards both depth and breadth of proficiency. “Talent” and “skill” are equally important and since success is determined by the “first die” (the die with the largest rolled result) the one you have more of is the one that helps you the most, while the other serves as a backup. And not being good at the required skill for a task still has an effect.
In other words, the use of skills and attributes in the 3Dice pool looks a lot more like the real world and is also simpler than in many other games. I’m quite pleased with how my central mechanic turned out.
Of course I haven’t yet mentioned how I implemented “specialization.” The short answer is that I represent specialization with “themes.” I’ll talk more about themes next time (in Part 5). For now I’ll just say that “themes” in my 3D RPG are a lot like “aspects” from FATE. Themes represent the narrative focus of a character, “it’s what I do” type statements, and grant favorable circumstances on applicable checks.
Q: How do you convert attributes into real world units?
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This is a trick question. Although there are many online gamer tests to determine a real person’s D&D stats, I believe that games should not convert in game attributes into real world units except when they have to. So when do they have to? Well how much weight a character can carry is going to come up so there needs to be a strength conversion, but there is no need to convert the in game metric of intelligence into real world I.Q., and honestly no good can come of attempting to do so. Thankfully, Charisma and Dexterity are abstract things so there are no real world units that these can be converted to. But you do need to provide some measure of poor, normal, and awesome.
I my 3D RPG, attributes are represented by die between d4 and d12; d4 means poor or completely untrained; d6 means average; d8 means professional; d10 means expert; d12 means heroic or world class. Except for the conversion from strength into how much a character can carry, that’s all you actually need to provide.
Ok, we’ve decided what the game mechanical representation of average is, now we’ve got to match that up with how much someone can carry, and we need to make that conversion simple. My solution was take the die size square it, and that’s how many pounds you can carry without being encumbered (slowed down), triple that is the maximum they can carry So a person with average d6 strength can carry up to 6^2=36 pounds without penalty, or stagger slowly while carrying 108 pounds. But wait you say, pounds are only used as a unit of weight/mass in the United States, and they don’t convert cleanly into kilograms. I’ve got you covered; divide pounds by 2 to convert to kilograms. Yes I realize that 1 kg equals 2.20462 pounds but that just isn’t convenient for the purpose of a RPG. And seriously, converting units is not something that needs to happen IN GAME; the PCs and GMs are either going to work in pounds or kilograms, and as long as the unit of mass is self-consistent that’s all that matters.
So how much can the strongest normal human (d12 for Brawn) carry?… 12^2=144 pounds/72 kg without being slowed down and 432 pounds/216 kg while staggering forward. That seems reasonable enough, but what about super humans? Well that’s what Brawn and Dexterity multipliers are for. In my 3D RPG, Dexterity multipliers of x1, x2, and x3 are allowed. The allowed Brawn multipliers are x1, x2, x3, xM, x2M, and x3M. Here M means “Mega” or x10, which is the number used for most purposes, including damage. To determine how much you can carry, you cube the Brawn multiplier and multiply that by how much a normal human with a x1 Brawn multiplier could carry. Don’t worry, this appears in a table so gamers don’t have to do the math.
By the way, if “super guy” had a Brawn of d12 x2M then he could carry a Boeing 747 without being encumbered (super guy would have to be “not encumbered” to fly while carrying a 747). You might be interested to know that I ran a play test in the post apocalyptic “Mega future” setting in which a player actually did play “super guy.” That character felt authentic, didn’t break the game, and combat still ran fast and smooth. The take away message is that my 3D RPG is very well balanced across a large range of power levels.
Play Testers Wanted
How did I achieve that kind of balance? Among other things I’m a power gamer. Well, I suppose “omni-gamer” is more accurate.
Power gamers tend to have a knack for spotting how to game/abuse the rules, and are therefore well suited to designing rules-sets that are hard to abuse; basically “it takes a thief to catch a thief.” I’m also an experienced gamer and GM. But there’s more to this story; my objective for my 3D RPG was to create a game that I would want to play. I wanted a game that did all things well. My 3D RPG might not be the most narrative game or the most tactical game, but it strikes a great balance between them. It’s also a simple yet realistic world simulator that runs fast and smooth. If my preferred play style covers yours, then I encourage you to send a PM to EliasWindrider over on the d20radio.com forums to sign up as a play-tester.
Next Time
In Part 5 of this series, I’ll talk about mechanics for narrative modification of dice rolls (both before and after the roll) and exerting direct control over events. Basically ways to make dice rolls less random when it really counts so they don’t screw up the narrative. Among other things, I’ll cover circumstance modifications, themes, Karma, and Destiny.
You can find the first part of this series here, the second part here, and the third part here.
Help Wanted
Since GM Dave announced it in episode 14 of the Order 66 Podcast (Edge of the Empire edition), I can now say that Gamer Nation Studios is the game design company that will be publishing my 3D RPG. The first book is going to feature a slightly stripped down version (e.g. no cybernetics/robots chapter) of my system for a traditional (D&D style) fantasy setting. If you have the time, inclination, and talent to be a world builder then send a PM to EliasWindrider on the d20radio.com forums. Initially I’ll be looking for 1 to 3 fluff/setting writers who would get a share of the profits.
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Here’s a brief outline of this setting. It’s a primitive prison planet. There are wormhole gates from various technologically or techno-magically advanced worlds that periodically open and deliver new convicted felons: humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, orcs, trolls, goblins. Each race generally (but not always) arrives at a different gate and settlements have sprung up around them. The gates are techno-magical artifacts, and an artifact really amps up the magic in its immediate vicinity, but the “Wardens” (NPCs) prevent that from being abused. While the world is a bit seedy and rough, good people do live there, in fact many of the inhabitants were born on this planet. You can think of it being like real world Australia which started a penal colony for Great Britain. There are bastions of civilization, albeit at late medieval or early renaissance level of technology (archaic firearms like muskets and flintlock pistols exist), amid the wilderness and wild beasts. Many of the major centers of culture sprang up in the vicinity of one gate or another under the protection of the gate’s Warden.
Magic is part of the setting. The “Karma effect” is well known and accepted as true (the evidence for it is overwhelming), but what causes it is the subject of a fierce debate among the inhabitants of the game universe. Some assert that conservation of Karma is a natural law like the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy. Others believe in an all powerful, primal, dualistic good and evil, semi-aware, mystical energy field created by all living things that binds the universe together. Still others place their faith in a supreme being who rewards the good and punishes the wicked, although different religions disagree on the exact nature of this supreme being. One of the more pragmatic religions proclaims the existence of an omnipotent “unknown god” who is unknowable by mortals, but chooses to reveal his/her just nature through the Karma effect. If you want to create a religion in the game world, go for it, but it’s not going to be the only one, and won’t be established as “true.” You can read more about my Karma system in part 2 and part 5 of this series.
Two other things I’d like help with are:
- Coming up with spells, now I don’t mean rules, I mean effects, descriptions, inspiration. Fireballs, disintegrate, etc. are obvious. I’m looking for the less obvious stuff.
- A list of mythological creatures you’d like to see in the game.
I’d like to have this first book be more or less “done” (subject to later revision based on play testing) by mid November (which will be one year since I started developing it), so time is short. If you’d prefer to publish a separate setting book using my system that’s OK too and I don’t need to be involved in it; my system is going to be released under the Open Gaming License.