From eight years ago, the first of a series that never was completed on Gaming Outpost. I give you "The Die is Cast":
Part I: Welcome to the Beginning!
Posted on 04 September 2000
I am hoping to use this series of articles to help deconstruct our beloved hobby, so we can all come to a better understanding of what it is that takes up so much of our time. I'm not going to do any in-depth analyses of individual gaming systems. There are too many game systems to really have a meaningful discussion, and it is beyond the scope of this article to attempt. We all have our favourites, and we all have our reasons that they are so loved. Inclusion or exclusion of a particular system is not an indication of the relative merits of said system. There are so many pros and cons to any game, and many of them are simply matters of personal taste. I'm not here to change anyone's mind, but rather to look into some of the 'mystique' that is role-playing. This is a far more concrete subject than which system has a better implementation of a given mechanic, which is another reason to avoid that topic. Of course, the best place to start is with the basics.
The most basic aspect of any role-playing game is the persona that we take on to play it, in the form of a character. The most basic aspect of a character is the attributes that comprise that character. They usually take one of three forms: Physical, Mental, or Metaphysical. The Physical attributes are the most obvious, concerned with the actual physiological makeup of the character. These attributes are usually those such as Strength, Dexterity, Appearance, and so on. The Mental attributes are the ones that govern how the character thinks, how smart they are, how resistant their minds are to supernatural occurrences, and so on. Usually, these kinds of attributes take on the form of Intelligence, Wits, or Mental Acuity. The Metaphysical attributes are typically the catchall category, for attributes that don't necessarily fit well in the other two. Usually, this is expressed as Luck, but some others that might be included would be certain Social attributes, Aura, or possibly an attribute like Sense, which would be a combination of the Physical (the actual sensing organs) and the Mental (how well the mind interprets these signals).
Therefore, a character in a role-playing game can be said to comprise the Physical, Mental, and Metaphysical attributes that are generated through the process of character creation or character generation (although the Metaphysical group is not as often used as the first two groups). I will begin with the Physical attributes, since these are the easiest to grasp.
The most basic and oft-used Physical attribute is Strength. From a very early age, we all tested our strength against whoever would stand still long enough for us to talk to. Whether it was wrestling, or lifting things, or push-ups, it was a very basic way for people to begin comparing themselves with others. Typically, the Strength attribute is just a simple measure of raw lifting capability, or muscle mass. While Agility is more often used to determine bonuses or penalties to the ability to strike, the Strength attribute is most often the largest determinant for combat bonuses or penalties in regards to melee combat. The differences between these two mechanics, how those differences are implemented, and how that impacts the game system will be the focus of a future installment. There are virtually no games that use a Strength attribute that don't also use it to modify the amount of damage a successful hit causes. From what little I remember about TWERPS from a decade or so ago, Strength was in fact the only attribute used! For just about all other games, however, more attributes are needed to help define a character. These other attributes will be the focus of future articles, and how they relate to Strength will also be discussed.
Just about every game has an archetype or template that relies on Strength to perform their duties. (Archetype or template are terms some games use to refer to a pre-generated type of role a character may portray, such as Pilot, or Archeologist. It is a rough outline of the minimum skills a given profession would possess, within the structure of the game, without locking the character into an arbitrary set of skills or abilities.) Most games term this type of character a Warrior or Fighter. Even in games that don't have a particular role defined in this way, there is a template for the character that shoulders the burden for most of the toe-to-toe conflict resolution. In Vampire: The Masquerade, this role is usually served by the shape changing Gangrel, whose primary attributes are in the Physical category. In modern or futuristic games, this type of character is usually a soldier or mercenary. In the HERO system, there is a 'type' of character that emphasizes the physical characteristics and strength especially. This 'type' of character is called a 'Brick,' and usually has the single greatest point expenditure in Strength. Where all other attributes are variable in their inclusion, Strength is the one constant to character generation.
This leads us to the uses of Strength. As already mentioned, the most basic use is as a measure of raw physical power. It can also be used to determine a measure of Stamina, when this isn't otherwise included, as stronger people tend to be able to perform physical labour for longer periods of time, theoretically. Often times, it is also used to define the body type of a character, although in a strict sense, this may be a bit inaccurate. Many US soldiers were amazed at the feats of strength displayed by physically smaller hill-dwelling Asian and Pacific Islander peoples many years ago, during the various conflicts there. Often, one man, no more than five feet tall, and about 130 pounds in weight, could be seen carrying objects many times heavier than themselves up the sides of steep hills, usually strapped to their backs. These were objects as large as an icebox, which was about half the size of a modern refrigerator, but made entirely of heavy gauge steel. Strength can be considered to be a measure of how well muscles work together in this instance. Therefore, a high score in Strength doesn't always correlate to the massive frame of a stereotypical barbarian. In the Silhouette system by Dream Pod Nine, Strength is actually a devised attribute, found by adding Build and Fitness together and dividing to get the result. The frame or body type of the person is measured by the Build attribute.
Many early fantasy games, such as AD&D, limited the maximum value of a Strength attribute in female characters. Often this was based on the assumption that females have greater strength in their lower bodies, while males have greater strength in their upper bodies. Evolution of thought seems to have put this notion to rest, as there are few games on the market today that arbitrarily limit the maximum Strength allowed based on gender. Fortunately, this bias didn't seem to show up in the assignment of other attributes, such as Mental or Metaphysical ones. Had that been the case, the number of female gamers today would undoubtedly be a good deal less than it is.
Physical attributes are nearly always in opposition to Mental attributes. In games where values are assigned to attributes, rather than randomly generated, often more points are awarded to one than the other, as in most White Wolf games, where you get 7 points for the Physical attributes, 5 for the Mental, and 3 for the Social (or, in our parlance, Metaphysical) attributes. In other systems, such as Cyberpunk 2020, allocating points to Strength simply leaves fewer points to allocate to the rest of the attributes, as a means of self-regulation in this regard. In games where attributes are randomly generated, such as AD&D, Palladium games, or Call of Cthulhu, it is possible to have a character who is physically powerful, and mentally adept as well. This is more of an exception, however, as most games today use a point allocation system for attributes.
What about the range of values for Strength? Some games use a percentile value method, and some use a different range, such as 1-10, or 3-18. These seem like good values at first blush, but if we look into things a bit more, we can see how some problems can surface. The strongest person on record lifted something in the neighborhood of 465lbs over their head. In AD&D, the highest Strength score possible allows one to lift around 480 pounds in a similar manner. The individual who lifted the 465lbs may not be entirely unique. However, the number of individuals that can match this feat is certainly very limited. As a conservative figure, perhaps less than 100 people would be able to accomplish this. That leaves the bulk of the 6 billion people on this planet somewhat less capable. That makes about one in 60 million capable of lifting that much weight. In AD&D, the odds of rolling a natural 18 are 1 in 1296. In order to get the additional Strength required to reach this maximum, one must be a Warrior, and roll a percentile score for Strength, termed 'Exceptional Strength'. This brings the odds to one in 129,600, several orders of magnitude less than the one in 60 million that would be expected. Games that use a percentile system have even better chances of achieving these lofty feats of strength, as there is relatively certain one in one hundred chance of attaining the highest score possible. Some games focus on characters whose abilities far exceed human potential, such as superheroes from comic books, and these games don't necessarily conform to these standards. Characters in Vampire: The Masquerade are able to lift and possibly throw a bus with a high enough Strength score. In the HERO system, as a Normal character, your Strength would be limited to on par with an Olympic lifter. However, as a superhero in the HERO system, there is no upper limit on the Strength statistic. Most games that focus on more mundane types of characters, such as modern or futuristic settings, tend to keep things on more of a 'realistic' scale. Therefore, while Strength is a universal attribute, the treatment of it within the game isn't. This can be an important consideration when determining the type of game you are designing, or deciding on playing.
What then, is the philosophy of the Strength attribute? In almost all games, with the possible exception of Head: The Floating, there are always going to be physical actions that need to be resolved. Some highly enjoyable gaming sessions have almost nothing but physical action resolutions. Even campaigns that are more involved with intrigue and social conflicts are going to have some form of physical confrontation at some point. It's nearly impossible to entirely avoid it. Some games have a greater focus on Physical contests, and these are usually Heroic or High Fantasy games. Other games have a greater focus on common interactions between people, or on political intrigue. Typically, these are Realistic or Low Fantasy games, in that the characters are not routinely expected to perform 'larger than life' feats of prowess. However, in any game in which characters have a corporeal form, there must be a way to measure the physical power of that form. Thus, Strength is a universal attribute, in one form or another.
That should wrap things up on Strength for now, but I'm sure I will come back to it in future installments. In the next column, I will explore another Physical attribute, in the form of Dexterity. After the basic Attributes are covered, the controversial topic of 'Should attributes be improvable, and if so, how?' will combine these topics and discuss the merits and problems associated with improving a character's basic attributes.
Until then, Game On!!
StormBringer
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