Exploring Characters pt. 3: Replacing Attributes and Rolling Under

Attributes are a sacred cow, which means for me they're good beef to eat.

That's Athletics alright.

First off, I'm a big believer that only 4 attributes are needed for a character and that one of these four should always be setting dependent. This means I have a standard 3 + 1 special. I'm a bit afraid that this might make things seem super rules-lite or straight forward, but to be honest, 6 attributes causes confusion both from # and how much overlap they have amongst each other.

In most OSR games, well, all OSR games, attributes are used as slight modifiers and no great focus is put on them. This is both good and bad. A big attribute focus implies character sheet and rolls are more important than choice; however, attributes can be a fantastic tool for both building a character narratively, as well as worldbuilding too (basically through that special stat).

I think roll under attributes takes the best of both worlds. Attributes can be a bit more important, but you only roll dice when you haven't taken enough precautions to really impact the chance of failure. This also allows for tinkering with attributes. 

The three standard attributes are:

Athletic - This replaces strength, dexterity, and constitution. In a real world situation, most people who are strong are fit, and are usually good with their hands, especially athletics, etc. Gymnasts, basketball players, samurai, jousters--none of these people are clumsy by nature, weak, or of frail constitution (usually; exceptions can be handled with keyword conditions).

Athletics governs three things: Encumbrance, To-Hit Accuracy, and Damage. You have a # of encumbrance slots equal to your Athletics attribute; you roll under your Athletics to hit things with any type of non-magic attack; deal the # of damage dealt + the weapon die, so long as you roll under your attribute (so if your athletics is 18 and you roll a 4 to hit, you're doing 12 extra damage).

Savvy - This replace Intellect, Wisdom, and Charisma. Essentially, the more savvy you are, the craftier and more skilled you are, both signs of intellect. If you are really good at sleight-at-hand and pulling off heists, you probably learn things quickly and are good at picking up things on the fly.

Savvy governs three things as well: Delicate Matters, Knowledge, and Languages. You roll under your Savvy attribute whenever doing something like being sneaky, sleight-of-hand, or lying; roll when you enter an new hex and learn that many rumors, details, or events as long as it's under the attribute  (so if I make it to Vornheim and I have a Savvy of 12 and I roll a 5, I know 7 rumors, details, or important pieces of info); roll a d20 and you know that many of languages under your savvy score.

Weird - This doesn't replace anything specifically. This is what you use both for dealing with anything supernatural. Essentially the higher your Weird attribute, the more in touch you are with things spiritual and divine, or arcane and eldritch, or just plane fucking strange.

Weird covers a single thing: your knowledge of Esoteries. When you make your character, roll a d20 under weird and gain that many Esoteries. Whenever you spend an XP, you roll under Weird again to learn an additional +1 Esotery in addition to whatever you roll on your Class Advancement table.

Low Savvy & Weird.

To determine your stats roll 2d6+6 for one of your choice, and then 3d6 for the other three. Alternatively, put a 15 in one of your choice, and then a 10, 9, and 8 in the other three. These are low on purpose, given the power of keywords.

So then, on to the special 4th stat. Again, this depends on setting, but I'll give some archetypal ones.

Corruption/Taint/Radiance - Roll under this whenever you would suffer any of the above. On a success, you only suffer 1 point. On a fail, you suffer however many points are being given. If you have more points than your score, you lose your character or get a mutation or something.

Honor/Glory/Reputation - Roll under this whenever you enter into a scene with NPCs or monsters. On a success, they are awed or cowed by you without you having to do anything. The higher this is, the more well-known you are, the more doors open up for you in terms of exploring a world. Can be increased as rewards for clearing dungeons or helping kings or something.

Alignment [Ambition vs. Harmony/Chaos vs. Order/Light vs. Shadow] - Divide this attribute into 2, but choose one to be higher than the other (so a 12 in Alignment can be a 8 in Chaos and a 4 in order). Refer to this otherwise, though I might update this for the new method.

High Weird, probably high Reputation too.

I guess some examples might help.

Conan, the Barbarian - High Athletics and Savvy, low Weird, Reputation changes every story.

Alice from Alice in Wonderland - Low Athletics, middling Savvy, High Weird, special stat is something like Determination or Willpower or Acceptance, in which she is high.

Princess Mononoke - High Athletics, middling Savvy, low-middling Weird, middling Alignment with a lean towards Harmony.

Geralt of Rivia - High Athletics, high Savvy, high Weird, high Taint (from Witcher potion shit). 

Odysseus - Middling Atheltics, High Savvy, middling Weird, middling-high Reputation.

Aragorn - High Athletics, high Savvy, low-middling Weird, high Alignment focused on Light.

Luke Skywalker - Middling-high Athletics, low-middling Savvy, high Weird, high Alignment focused on Order.