Attributes in Gaia Gamma

Attributes always are a sensitive topic to me. IMHO they form many aspects of the game and have vast influence on how characters feel.


As Gaia Gamma is supposed to be an old school game it was clear for me from the beginning that some well known candidates would show up. I have renamed a couple of candidates to include more aspects and I also have chosen the following attribute names in order to allow for one letter abbreviations for attributes (remember one of the design goals - I want short stat blocks; thus I decided to get rid of PS and MS, although I carry a strange fondness for those shortcuts in my heart). Here we go:

• Strength (S)
• Intelligence (I)
• Will (W)
• Dexterity (D)
• Toughness (T)
• Charisma (C)
• Perception (P)

Charisma is the one attribute that I included in order to allow introverted players to nonetheless get a chance to play "Mutant Charming". Toughness is constitution, I just like the name better for a post apocalypse setting. The remainder should be obvious.

Attributes according to my plan will be rolled with 3d6 each and probably be used in order. Maybe Pure Strain Humans will be allowed to reorder them at will to give them more benefits compared to mutants. Additionally I plan to introduce attribute modifiers based on profession or area of expertise - more on that topic in a later blog post.

Sentient animals will probably have special rules for generating physical attribute scores, maybe also the others. I still need to give that aspect some thought.

For some moments I had considered to combine intelligence and perception into "Awareness" but then again a mutant setting seems to cry for animal-like barbarians with keen senses - something that technically would not have worked well with the combined attributes.

Any opinions? Would you choose different attributes, different names, etc.?

P.S.: The "hopeless character" to the top right is copyright Octavirate Entertainment and naturally used with permission.