Fudge Forum

[punkbohemian]

I can't help it. I need to have some mechanic to link attributes and skills. It doesn't make sense to me that a person with Terrible Intelligence can be a Superb physicist. And I know that such combinations can be overridden by a GM, but I want to have an objective rule in place.

So, I came up with this. Attributes are a measure of a character's maximum potential, and therefore the maximum level they can raise a skill. So, if one wants to be a Superb physicist, s/he has to be superbly intelligent.

Now the question is how to factor in Scale. Let's say we have a race that is a little smarter than the human average (scale +1). It stands to reason that this should be factored in to their maximum rank in a given skill. Or maybe it should just be a flat bonus to the skill being checked? I'm thinking the former, since being smarter doesn't mean you're a better Physicist if you don't have the training.

So my first question is how does my resolution sound? My next question is that this situation has me wondering if scale is redundant. So, if I have a non-human race that is a little smarter than humans, why not just give said race an automatic bump to Intelligence at chargen with cost to improve as if the attribute was one lower? Sure, it complicates character development a little, but I'm guessing it also speeds up gameplay a bit, which seems like a pretty fair trade off. Any thoughts?

[Knaight]

OK, first things first. Mental attribute scales are a really, really bad idea. I would reccomend against mental attributes entirely(except for Perception), but do not introduce scale to it. Secondly, what about Savants and similar? There are a lot of people who are really, really good at one task, but seem not to be. If you must link attributes and skills, my reccomendation is padded rolls, or a failsafe/limit on the rolls. Basically Fair attributes allow any roll on the skill. Mediocre makes it impossible to roll +4, Poor +3, Terrible +2, and Abysmal +1. Good makes it impossible to roll -4, Great -3, Superb -2, and Legendary -1. It is a nice, clean, easy to remember system that puts on a big impact, while still allowing specialties and such. The obvious question becomes again how to factor in scale. Mass scale is already taken care of(It has no effect on skills directly, but it is a bonus on certain strength checks, and in combat gives ODF and DDF), Speed scale is a bit trickier. Best method is just to plug it into the same system as everything else, and keep it limited. After all, do you ever really need Agility Scale 2?

As for your method of avoiding scale through character development. That is basically exactly how scale works, all you are doing is changing where the extra math is plugged in. Which might well be a good idea, as it probably would simplify things.

[J.Tim]

[punkbohemian]

First, thanks for the tips. I've been thinking a lot about this aspect of my Fudge variant.

[Knaight]

The issue is that that negates the bonus from scale due to how relative degree is used. Plus, smaller people are often much easier to hit, stepping backwards gets them less distance, they have more trouble menacing you with weapons to keep you back, and sheer strength can give you an edge. If shifts are wide enough, it could work however.

As for mental attributes, I would probably just use a cost double or similar. Well, I probably just wouldn't use them, but in the event that I had no good way to get rid of them that would be the preferred method.

On a less important note, the forum name is Knaight, not Knight. Pet peeve of mine, and a dumb one at that.

[TarnishedArmour]

Not to be too much of a forum necromancer, but I don't see the ened to start a new post everytime either... anyhow.

I totally agree with completely removing any sort of mental attribute that could be sued to denote character intelligence or problem solving. I can't count the number of times I've had a player complain that "their character would have been smart enough to figure 'that' out". It agrivates me to no end, those particular things should be a part of the role playing experience. If I simply wanted my characters to be able to roll dice to tyr and figure something out I would have gotten into MMOs (which I try to avoid).

I even have gone so far as to rewrite the Eidetic Memory to require the player to have taken the information down as a note. That way I'm not responsible for deciding if the character has remembered something or not (both reducing my load as a GM, and putting resposability for certain things on the players).

On the issue of scale, when dealing with special operations military forces I was originally going to use it, but in reverse, with normal people being on the scale of zero (0) and the players and similar characters being at a plus one (+1) for certain attributes. I'm still nto opposed to the ides, but I have so far decided to simply grant an overall trait level boost to attributes for players. While I'm not aiming for an overly cinematic game play experience (or maybe I am and don't yet know it) operators do tend to be more superior in their abbilities than the general populace. I've even capped certain attributes with a minimumfor trading as I can't see someone passing selection and training without at least a certain level of some attributes, not for characters as a whole, but rather just for primary characters.
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If a Hero's armour is still shining he either has never used it or spends too much time polishing it. Armour is intended to be used and a Hero's worth should be measured in his armour's scars and dents as well as his own.

[man112]

i am a new fudge player and i am wondering : is it possible to play fudge on a forum like this one?

[TarnishedArmour]

I think it could be quite possible, the only ocmplication, as with any long-distance roleplaying, is die rolls,a nd trusting results between players and Game Masters.
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If a Hero's armour is still shining he either has never used it or spends too much time polishing it. Armour is intended to be used and a Hero's worth should be measured in his armour's scars and dents as well as his own.

[Knaight]

Some forums have dice rollers built in, and the Fudge Chat does as well. If it absolutely has to be play by post, just keep the group on the smaller side. I've been considering GMing one here for a while myself.