I'll come back to Task Resolution mechanics in the future. For now I'll skip to Attributes and Skills.
AttributesThe arrangement of Attributes is essentially arbitrary, though STing, V5, and SP use two axes similarly to Action! System (and other games, such as DC Heroes). As Action! System has an OGL SRD I will be using it as a reference for my own efforts.
Under Action! System, all Attributes are one of Power, Aptitude, or Resistance. Action! provides an example second axis of Mind and Body. The S* games all use a second axis of Mental, Physical, and Social. These axes don't always have names themselves, but for reference I will refer to the first axis as "Function" and the second as "Form."
Each Attribute is a combination of Form and Function: Physical Power, Mental Aptitude, Social Resistance, etc. These Attributes have unique names too: Strength, Senses, Charisma, etc. (I can't use the ST names in any clone due to copyright.)
Opening the Dark doesn't have this two axis mechanic, but it does pair up Attributes with Emotional Traits and that can be used as a shorthand:
- Physical Power = Strength (STR)
- Physical Aptitude = Dexterity (DEX)
- Physical Resistance = Constitution (CON)
- Mental Power = Intelligence (INT)
- Mental Aptitude = Senses (SEN)
- Mental Resistance = Wisdom (WIS)
- Social Power = Attractiveness (ATT)
- Social Aptitude = Grace (GRA)
- Social Resistance = Charisma (CHA)
The task resolution generally relies on Attributes to determine dice pools. Sometimes deciding which Attribute to use
may be contentious. To get that out of the way, I'm going to say that in this system sometimes more than one Attribute may be used for a roll because they compensate for one another. For example, realizing whether someone is manipulating you may involve rolling Mental Aptitude (SEN) or Social Aptitude (GRA).
Humans are generally limited to ranks of 1-5. According to Opening the Dark: If any of a character's attributes drop to zero for whatever reason (negative values aren't possible), then they automatically fail roles that rely on that attribute. They are either dead (or soon will be), paralyzed, comatose, catatonic, etc. However, I generally prefer to use hit points to represent that instead; when I get to it, I will address mental/social hit points.
STing uses 0 INT scores for animals, though Opening the Dark doesn't seem to allow normal scores of 0. Instead, it provides scores of "none" (see below).
Tangent: Non-human attributesThe Attribute mechanic is intended to model adult humans, so it breaks down when applied to
animals or children.
Opening the Dark provides brief mechanics for scores of "none," similar to d20 v3.5. This isn't the same as having a score of 0, save that a score of none auto-fails on rolls. A creature with no STR can't exert force, perhaps because it lacks a physical body (like a ghost) or can't move (like a tree). If it can't move, then it also has no DEX. If it has no body,
or no metabolism, then it also has no CON.
Null scores in the Mental and Social attributes are pretty weird and I am having difficulty imagining NPCs with null scores other than automatons. For reference, in 3.5 anything without Wisdom/Charisma was considered terrain.
I don't see null attributes as appropriate for most animals either. (Animal statistics are vital for any animal handler characters and all superpowers involving animals.)
A dog isn't going to be able to make INT rolls like a human being, but that doesn't mean they're stupid or an automaton. A spider won't be able to exert force on a human being or deal any damage by biting alone, but that doesn't mean it has STR 0. A house cat might be able to give you a nasty scratch or even disfigure your face, but it will generally be unable to kill you with its claws and teeth.
Arthropods (which are given null INT in 3.5) aren't immune to mental influence, since many parasites on arthropods use pheromones, drugs and viruses to alter their host's behavior. Obviously most arthropods will run away from perceived danger and if that isn't a fear response than I don't know what is.
My rule of thumb is that this would be represented with a score of "negligible" (negl.), which doesn't provide any dice but doesn't auto-fail ALL tasks either. A dog with negligible INT won't be able to perform math problems, but it can determine if a kid fell into a well and go get help. A house cat won't be a direct threat in combat, but it could definitely provide a distraction.
Alternately, these animals would be treated as non-combatants or environmental hazards rather than NPCs with full statistic blocks.
SkillsThat brings us to Skills. Attributes represent general areas of competence available to all characters, whereas Skills reflect more specific areas of training. Skills are typically categorized into three groups, which Opening the Dark names "informal," "formal", and "technical." These names aren't cosmetic: different groups may have slightly different mechanics.
Actions typically involve rolling an Attribute plus a Skill. If the character doesn't have ranks in the relevant skill, then they take a penalty depending on the type of skill. For example, "technical" skills inflict a greater penalty than "informal" skills. This penalty, I assume, is intended to reflect how much specific learning goes into the skill and how much may be compensated by the more general learning represented by attributes.
The skill list is essentially arbitrary and varies according to the historical period the characters live in. For example, there is no Driving skill because typical characters in a modern setting are generally assumed to know how to drive (and not knowing would be considered a Disadvantage), but Stunt Driving is still a skill that inflicts a penalty for attempting without ranks.
If no skill applies to action (that is, there is no skill that would apply, not that the character lacks it), then the character generally rolls the sum of two attributes. For example, unskilled manual labor might roll STR+CON or STR+DEX depending on the task.
Some iterations of ST automatically paired skills with attributes. No jargon was given to this mechanic, but for reference I will do so. Burrowing a term from the Vampire: Bloodlines video game, I would refer to standard combinations of Attributes and Skills for specific categories of actions as "Feats." For example, the common actions "Persuade", "Seduce", and "Intimidate" are Feats. Feats would be useful for adjudication.
Anyway, the list of Skills is essentially arbitrary and more so than Attributes. The S* systems use heavily abstracted and simplified skill lists compared to real life. "Science", "Politics," "Firearms," etc. Real life is much more complicated, but we're not trying to be realistic here.
Not only that, but you can apply mechanics from other systems like Broad Skills, Narrow Skills, Sub-Skills, Background Skills, etc. I don't recommend having all those at once, but if so then the only way to remotely balance them is by varying the XP costs.
SpecialtiesThese are basically what other systems call sub-skills. These don't appear in Opening the Dark, but they do appear in various ST iterations. STer allows specialties for Attributes and Skills, whereas STing only allows them for Skills. In order for Specialties to be justified as traits then they need to extremely cheap.
The Everlasting makes far more extensive use of broad skills and sub-skills than the S* systems did. Just a comparison in case anyone cares.
Personally, I would categorize Specialties under Advantages rather than their own trait. YMMV.
[EDIT: Opening the Dark already classifies these under the Background Trait of "Focus."]
Other TraitsAs I said, this category includes secondary attributes, derived traits, and hit points.
A Secondary Attribute would be Size. This is considered a primary Attribute in BRP, but in S* it's either absent or only present in some iterations. Size is used to calculate physical hit points, which makes it more regular than editions where this is arbitrary. In STing, the average adult human is Size 5; Size 6 indicates a degree of gigantism that is treated as an Advantage. It becomes increasingly abstract: Size 1 applies to both infants and all insects.
The derived traits include Speed, Hit Points, and Defense Values.
Speed is typically ignored by most S* systems. In STing, it is derived from STR+DEX+"species factor" (5 for humans). In an old periodical, a house rule was introduced that changed this to STR+DEX+Athletics skill+species factor; species factor was 0 for adult humans and could presumably be negative.
Hit Points are what they sound like. The default rules in S* systems always include physical hit points. These are typically divided into two, sometimes three degrees of severity. Other systems, like Alternity, used similar mechanics. In typical S* these damage types displace one another in the hit point pool, whereas Opening the Dark (and Alternity) tracks them separately. In STing, the least severe type doubled as fatigue. The basic purpose of these multiple types of hit points is to determine how quickly a given attack will kill you or recover from. Taking a page from Alternity, I was planning on having the different types vary in amount rather than being the same amount as typical.
Some variants include mental and/or social hit points. The most common is what Opening the Dark labels "Will." This is typically used as what other systems might call "kicker", providing a bonus to your chances of success on a roll. In some variants, other effects may damage Will similarly to physical hit points. There are several variants of such "social combat" mechanics, with varying degrees of sensibility since social interaction metaphorically doesn't work like punching people in the pace. I haven't refined it, but I had this idea to use different types of mental hit points to represent damage to the character's reserve of mental stamina, their sanity, and their soul.
Defense Values are used to reduce or avoid damage before applying it to hit points, as well as resist non-damaging effects like mind control. That is, they are applied as modifiers to the attacker's dice pools or difficulty class depending on the edition. Which Attributes and Skills are used depends on the nature of the attack: physical blow, psychic assault, or biological. For the purposes of streamlining I decided to call these out as derived traits. For example, Psychic Defense Value is WIS+CHA, Bodily Defense Value is CON+WIS, and Attack Defense Value is a more complicated mix of Reflexes, Toughness, Armor, and Block/Dodge/Parry.
A more detailed analysis will follow in future posts.