Spycraft 2.0 & Attributes

The game was interesting to say the least. They attempted to shoot out a camera and blow up the location they were sent to investigate. More D&D, less spy so we'll reboot tonight and try again.

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Now, on to more RPG design thoughts:

Attributes

For the games that use them, which is most, attributes represent your characters natural abilities. Games based on d20 use the following six attributes:

Strength - self-evident
Constitution - how resistant to damage / how healthy
Dexterity - how nible / quick
Intelligence - self-evident
Wisdom - governs perception and self control
Charisma - who knows

Seriously, who knows what Charisma means. No one has ever been able to tell me. I know how I use it in my games, but each Game Master (GM) uses it a little bit differently. Some use it as a beauty gauge, others (including me) as a measure of the force of personality.

The Uni-system made popular by Eden Games uses Perception in Place of Wisdom.

Shadowrun 4 uses these:

Strength - self-evident
Body - measure of how tough / how much damage one can adsorb
Agility - how flexible / athletic
Reaction - how quickly the character can react
Charisma - again, who knows; however, there are rules in SR that use it
Willpower - self-evident
Intuition - innate understanding / street smarts
Logic - raw intelligence / book smarts

So what are the ideal number of attributes? Depends on game design. I would suggest that less than 4 is too few and more than 9 is too many. Most games use 6.

More thoughts later, my kids are asking for some help.