Attributes

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Joshua
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Attributes

Post by Joshua »

So, I hate the attribute auction. We won't be using it.

Buying Attributes:
1st, there are no ranks. Your attribute is the number of points you have spent on it.

Round 1:
Make your character. You may wish to hold back some small amount of points to spend on attributes after the fact. Your stats are your "initial bid".
  • Any points "bid" are actually spent on the attributes. You may not sell back attributes you have bid on.
  • You do not have to post your bids, you may PM or e-mail them to me.
  • Several NPCs are bidding as well.
  • While there are levels between Human (-25) and Chaos (-10), they will be downplayed. When selling back attributes, please choose Human or Chaos.
  • Taking any attribute at Human (-25) is more-or-less a death sentence. It is often better to take 3 attributes as Chaos, then a single at Human.
  • Dworkin does not bid. He beats you. Sorry. (And he cheats like mad.)
After that, I will note what the highest bid was in each category.

Round 2 and any late comers as well as spending xp:
If you wish to buy up your attribute, do so.
If you wish to buy up higher than the maximum bid, I will warn the people who hold #1 and they will have a chance to prevent you from jumping over them. (Usually by also buying up.)

I recommend 50 points of attributes and about 50 points of powers. I will make an effort to make all 4 attributes equally important. Still, political savvy is most important.

Current Maximum Attributes are: Psyche 25, Strength 21, Endurance 25, and Warfare 30.
Congrats to the winners. There is no need to advertise you're ranked first. Keep it secret, it's fun.
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Joshua
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Re: Attributes

Post by Joshua »

Attribute Descriptions: (posted as a second note in the thread so that I can link directly to it.)

I am going to make the attributes a bit more balanced. Psyche, Endurance and Warfare are all very powerful, so Strength is getting a minor boost / clarification.
As a reminder: Chaos is the normal maximum for humans. Amber level is beyond all but perhaps a few select pinnacles of existence (in their chosen field). So, a world chess champion might be able to match Amber level warfare in chess (at least until the amberite got used to the game.)

Psyche: Represents the raw force you can put behind any power use. It helps with any kind of magic, and dueling mind to mind. There are a number of relatively common powers that allow for this. This is a spellcaster's attribute.

Strength: Represents physical power as well as hand-to-hand combat and prowess. Physical speed, athletics, and power. An Olympic gymnast needs Strength. This is if you want to run fast, hit hard, and make amazing leaps. Also covers natural weapons.
  • Physical agility has been moved from Warfare to Strength, in case you're wondering.
  • If you want to be quick but not strong, simply take Strength at the level you want. You are just as effective in combat / dodging, but instead of a wall of muscle and hitting hard, you're too quick to hit and like raking eyes.
Endurance: Powers all other attributes. It is your staying power in all things and acts to supplement anything you're doing for more than a few minutes. Any contest can become a test of endurance if you go defensive and try to outlast them. This is a defensive attribute.
  • Shapeshifting is based largely off of Endurance. It is unique among the powers.
Warfare: Is your ability to calculate and extrapolate combat and other situations. Sherlock Holmes for the cerebral, this also allows you to fight with weapons. Weapons in this case being anything from a knife to a tank to an army. Note, it does not cover unarmed combat. Once you get grabbed, that's strength. But, so long as you have a sword, that's Warfare.
Warfare also covers most strategy games such as chess.
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Re: Attributes

Post by Joshua »

Attribute Ranks:

Ranks: (Some of these may be refined as I find better descriptions. If these are not what you were thinking they should be, please start a new thread, so I can keep this one clean.)

Human (-25): Means you are going to die. There's a reason a 100 point character gets 25 extra points for this. You are a "typical" mortal. Or, in D&D terms, have a stat of 10. (although anywhere between 3 and 14-ish would fall in this category.)
  • Human Psyche: Means people holding a trump card of you can rip apart your mind.
  • Human Strength: Means you're looking at one hit KOs in unarmed combat.
  • Human Endurance: Means you get tired after 10 - 15 minutes of full on action. (That's a sprint, without pacing yourself.) You also do not "full heal". The Pattern kills you within minutes of stepping on it. (Maybe within seconds.) IF you can shapeshift, it's once a day.
  • Human Warfare: Means you're able to be killed without the chance to defend yourself physically.
Chaos (-10): Roughly equivalent to human maximum. You may still have some flaws in the attribute that would spell doom. D&D (2nd ed) means 18/00 or 18s. In 3rd ed, you're looking at 18 to about 23.
  • Chaos Psyche: Like Derren Brown, you can read people well. You can get hunches and manipulate others, unless you have to deal with real power.
  • Chaos Strength: It is up for debate if Bruce Lee is Chaos or Amber. Still, it means you can take on the winner of the Kumate and stand a good chance of winning.
  • Chaos Endurance: Means you get tired after 2 - 3 hours of full exertion. You can regenerate lost limbs but it might take a century. (Harry Dresden has this.) You cannot walk the entire pattern, you will get winded, collapse and die.
  • Chaos Warfare: The best fencer in the world is a worthy opponent. If you played chess against everyone on the planet, you MIGHT lose a handful of games. Your skills are important here. If you have no experience in chess, you'll probably lose a lot more games to the top ranked players.
Amber (0): Think low level greek demi-god. Amber level means you have no obvious or crippling weaknesses.
  • Amber Psyche: Not only are you really good at reading people, you can do some touch telepathy. Spock is a good template for the kind of mental power you can display.
  • Amber Strength: Catch flies with chopsticks? You're fast enough. In a street brawl, you can hold your own against any human, past or present. Any character played by Jackie Chan is a fairly good reference.
  • Amber Endurance: Means you get tired after a day of full exertion. You can regenerate lost limbs but it might take twenty years. You can walk the pattern, though it does take a lot out of you.
  • Amber Warfare: The first time you play chess, you have a 50/50 chance of beating the best player in the world. After that, you clobber him. The same goes for fencing, battle simulators, or actual battle command. You can quickly adapt to new weapons and rules of war.
Other Ranks:
  • Unranked/Amber: 0 - 5 points
  • Low Rank: 5 - 15 points
  • Mid Rank: 15 - 25 points
  • High Rank: 25 - 50 points
First off, you'll be competing with PCs and your own powers, so how you compare point-wise is most important. Higher point value wins... Except when you cheat. Traps, clever use of powers, political maneuvering, overpowered weapons, and Zanatos Gambits are all ways that you can defeat a superior opponent. These are the core of Amber.
Tricks and tactics are more important than a 1, 5 or even a 15 point difference. In fact, they're more important than "first rank". My thought is that the greater the difference, the greater a hail Mary that's needed.

The point values listed in the book for NPCs are on crack. So, I'm not going to worry too much about them. My goals are to make the point values more linear (once you pass Amber), and a bit more sense.

There are a number of attribute tricks listed in the book, and my gut instinct is to let people to develop one of these every 15 - 20 points... Although, some of those tricks would have a different minimum. (And some, like endurance, can have more, like poison resistance.)
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Re: Attributes

Post by Joshua »

Attributes and Powers:

Powers:
Warfare applies to using any power in battle (especially large scale battles). It lets you predict when people are at their weakest.
Still, mind to mind battles are always Psyche, once contact is achieved. (Like once you're grabbed, the battle becomes Strength.)

Pattern:
Psyche: Most Pattern manipulation is done with Psyche. The better your psyche, the faster you can shift and alter shadow. All the powers will still work with just Amber Psyche, (or even Chaos), they just take a lot longer. Shifting shadow near Amber becomes more and more possible.
At Chaos Psyche, you might not be able to shift all the way to Amber, and may be stuck there. (You can always follow someone into or out of Amber, but forging your own way may be impossible.)
Please don't make me figure out what happens to a person with Human Psyche if they try to shift shadow.
Endurance: At human endurance, walking the pattern will kill you. At Chaos endurance, you cannot make it to the center before you pass out and die. At Amber level, you can make it to the center and successfully walk the pattern. The higher your endurance, the more wounded you can be and still walk the pattern.

Trump:
Psyche: Trump is 100% Psyche based. Its primary purpose is to make mind-to-mind contact and allow for psyche battles. As such, difficulties are based on who is using Trump against you.

Shapeshifting:
Psyche: Only applies when you get to Advanced Shapeshift and can mold your own personality. It prevents you from losing your mind. Speed is still governed by Endurance.
Strength: Amber Strength is needed to make a form that flies under its own power. Part of this is that you have conservation of mass. Some shadows eliminate this requirement.
Note: Natural weapons are governed by strength, although some forms can make weapon equivalents.
Endurance: At Human endurance, you can shapeshift once a day, if you're lucky. At Chaos, several times a day. At Amber, as much as you'd like, thought you might get hungry. Endurance helps you shift faster and keep your new forms under control.

Logrus:
Psyche: Amber level is required to use the logrus. Chaos level means you go mad often. Logrus allows you to use Psyche as strength.
Endurance: Touching the logrus is touching primal chaos. Human level Endurance characters risk being absorbed by primal chaos every time they use the logrus.
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