I'm making an RPG game system and I'm having a hard time deciding on doing detailed or abstract character statistics. These statistics define the character's natural - not learned - abilities. For example:
Mass Effect: 0 (None that I can see)
X20 (Xtreme Dungeon Mastery): 1 "STAT"
Diablo: 4 "Strength, Magic, Dexterity, Vitality"
Pendragon: 5 "SIZ, STR, DEX, CON, APP"
Dungeons & Dragons (3.x, 4e): 6 "Str, Dex, Con, Wis, Int, Cha"
Fallout 3: 7 "S.P.E.C.I.A.L."
RIFTS: 8 "IQ, ME, MA, PS, PP, PE, PB, Spd"
Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1st ed?): 12-ish "WS, BS, S, T, Ag, Int, WP, Fel, A, Mag, IP, FP"
HERO (5th ed): 14 "Str, Dex, Con, Body, Int, Ego, Pre, Com, PD, ED, Spd, Rec, END, STUN"
The more stats, the more complex and detailed your character becomes. This comes with a trade-off however, because you usually only have limited resources to describe your character. D&D made this infamous with the whole min/max-ing thing where strong characters were typically not also smart.
But also, a character with a high Str typically also has high Con, Defenses, Hit Points/Health. Without high numbers in all those other stats, they might as well not be strong since they wouldn't hold up well in hand-to-hand combat. So things like that force trade-offs within the category of strength.
So my original (now rejected) idea was to force players into deciding between offensive and defensive stats:
Might / Body
Dexterity / Speed
Wit / Wisdom
Heart
Soul
But this left some stat's without "opposites" (or opposites that were easily defined). I'm leaning more towards the following:
Body (Physical Prowess)
Mind (Mental Prowess)
Heart (Social Prowess)
Soul (Spiritual Prowess)
This will define a character with just 4 numbers. Everything else gets based off of these numbers, which means they're pretty important. There won't, however, be ways of describing characters who are fast, but not strong or smart, but absent minded. Instead of defining the character with these numbers, they'll be detailing their character by buying skills and powers like these:
Quickness
Add a +2 Bonus to Body Rolls when Dodging.
for a character that wants to be faster, or the following for a big, tough character
Body Building
Add a +2 Bonus to Body Rolls when Lifting, Pushing, or Throwing objects.
[EDIT - removed subjectiveness]
So my actual questions is what are some pitfalls with a small stat list and a large amount of descriptive powers? Is this more difficult to port cross-platform (pen&paper, PC) for example? Are there examples of this being done well/poorly?
Thanks,
