Brett's Blog 5 Abilities Mar 13, 2009 | 1:33 pm Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma These are the 6 original attributes that have been copied so many times. What do they mean and how do they compare to genreDiversion abilities? The first three are clearly physical attributes -- half of the attributes are physical. Why? Because D&D was born out of tactical/war games, and so the physical is of the utmost importance, some might even say all that is important. In genreDiversion terms, strength, dexterity, and constitution all belong to fitness. Gimmicks like musclebound/weak, agile/clumsy/dextrous/maladroit, and constitution/sickly/fortitude/frail/endurance/short-winded respectively can mimic them. So we condensed the three attributes into one ability, with the option of expanding it not only into the three, but even more than that via ability gimmicks. Intelligence is pretty straight forward and mirrors reasoning. It is clearly a mental attribute. Wisdom is actually a contraction of both awareness and creativity. It governs perception, common sense, and to some extent, the spiritual side. To me, these are different things, so while this does handle sensory, mental, and spiritual, I would still lump it together into a mental attribute. Creativity is important in my games. It governs improvisation, the ability to draw a proper map, and connect on a spiritual level. I keep getting told that it's worthless as an ability. Why? Because it has no place in combat? Not true. Imagine drawing a building plan for your crew and they can't figure it out. Or how about if you disguise yourself as the enemy and your disguise isn't good enough. Or what if you suddenly get a visit from an angel, but are just not imaginative enough to recognize its true form? A last minute improvisational action can be done with creativity, as can performing makeshift repairs in the heat of battle. Some magic is also dependent on it. If you can't figure out how to use this ability, perhaps your own rating in it is quite low. :lol: I jest, of course. Finally, we have charisma which matches up to influence. The two are pretty much the same, although influence can also represent one's social circle or family status. So let's recap. D&D has three physical, two mental, and one social attribute. genreDiversion has one physical, one sensory, one spiritual, one mental, and one social ability. 3 Comments | Add Comment | Permanent Link | Return to Overview cknason Commented: Mar 13, 2009 | 6:37 pm Fascinating. I'm always interested in how games are designed. I'll admit it took me some time to get over the one physical ability thing, but I'm well past that now. It definitely requires a shift in focus, but I do think it actually forces players to look more at the non-physical aspects of their characters more. I've really come to enjoy these five attributes, so much so that I refer to them as FACRI, much like we all used to refer to FASERIP in the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG. CrazyBlend Commented: Mar 14, 2009 | 12:41 am Brett, this is one of the genius ideas of GD3E. Those five abilities evenly cover the spectrum of everything a character can be. I've seen tons of other systems -- some with more abilities, some with less -- but GD3E nails it. Brett Commented: Mar 14, 2009 | 12:17 pm I don't know if it's genius, but yes, I did try to cover a wider gamut. Bear in mind that FACRI (yes, I've called it that too) originates in Active Exploits. There was a need to cover more areas of ability than just the physical and mental. Otherwise, it only would have been two or three abilities. And influence was added later with Impresa, since the diceless mechanics would have focused on a player's charisma rather than that of his character. The "i" in genreDiversion i stands for Impresa. Add Comment