Podcast Update: No News

It's been about a month since I wrote about starting a podcast. I said that I wanted James to join me, but also that I predicted scheduling issues.

That prediction was correct. Between his job, my two jobs, the time reserved for our respective families, and workout schedules, we essentially only have Saturday mornings free. Even then, we only have 3 out of the 4 Saturdays.

Today is Saturday, and we didn't record. We didn't record last Saturday. We haven't gotten together to record at all, though we seem to talk about it every week.

At first I was annoyed at James about this, but then it dawned on me that I never actually told him that we were going to record on either of those dates. That means the fault is all mine.

SO how about it James? Want to record on July 9^TH?

Generic Terms for Character Flaws (and Gifts!)

One of my peeves in games is when the author or some new game insists on using some new term when there’s a perfectly good term that everyone already knows and uses. Example: we’ve been using the term “constitution” since 1974, but sometimes you’ll pick up a book and see that they’ve called it “health” or “endurance” or some other term instead even though it’s serving the same function.

Because of this, one of my goals for Lucky 7 is to use to most generic and commonly used term whenever I can. That’s why I have a game master/GM instead of a “referee” or “narrator” or “Luck Lord” or some other term. But when I was writing last week’s post, I was stopped in my tracks for a pair of terms.

Characters often have a beneficial trait; maybe they’re ambidextrous or they are nobility. Likewise, they will often have a problem of some sort. They might be afraid of snakes, or have a bounty on their heads.

I can’t figure out what the most generic term is for these things, though. For last week’s post I went with “Advantages” and “Disadvantages” because that’s what GURPS called them, and that’s where I first encountered them. But what should they be called?

I decided to do a survey of various games on my shelf. Many games don’t have these kinds of aspects. Some games only have one or the other. But of the games that I had that use both, these are the terms:

Game	Beneficial	Problematic
Alternity	Perks	Flaws
Ars Magica (4E)	Virtues	Flaws
Big Eyes, Small Mouth	Attributes	Defects
Conan (TSR)	Talents	Weaknesses
Fudge	Gifts	Faults
GURPS	Advantages	Disadvantages
Hackmaster	Talents	Flaws1
HERO	Perquisites (Perks)2	Disadvantages
JAGS	Enhancements	Defects
Savage Worlds	Edges	Hindrances
Simply Roleplaying	Abilities	Disabilities
Star Trek (Decipher)	Edges	Flaws
Star Trek (Last Unicorn)	Advantages	Disadvantages

Breaking that down by the word used:

Beneficial	Times Used	Problematic	Times Used
Advantages	2	Disadvantages	3
Edges	2	Flaws	3
Perks	2	Defects	2
Talents	2	Disabilities	1
Abilities	1	Faults	1
Attributes	1	Hindrances	1
Enhancements	1	Weaknesses	1
Gifts	1
Virtues	1

For the beneficial term, four words were tied for first. But those four were only used twice each compared to once for the others. There’s no clear-cut favorite.

“Disadvantages” and “Flaws” were tied for the number one spot of problems, but even then there’s not a huge difference between being used thrice versus once.

“Advantages” and “Disadvantages” mirror each other nicely, and are both on top of their lists, which is why I used them last week. But if I were to pick the ones I like the best I would say “gifts & flaws.”

What do you think? Am I over thinking it? Which terms do you like the best?

---

1. Technically this was “Quirks & Flaws.” But GURPS uses “Quirks” as very low level disadvantages and I didn’t say “Quirks & Disadvantages” for that game.↩

2. Although exact verbiage in the book is “Perquisites (Perks),” I’m simplifying this as “Perks.”↩

There was no post last week. Part of the reason is that I was working both jobs, but the main reason is that I’ve been having a problem with green slime. Specifically, I’ve been trying to write a post about the various slimes, oozes, molds, and gelatinous entitles. What I thought was going to be a simple, quick post to fire off has been giving me problems for over three weeks now. It’s still giving me problems, so this is not that post.

A few weeks ago I mentioned in passing that I was thinking about using only three attribute scores for L7. This post is about that.

We’ll do it as a FAQ.

Attributes in Lucky 7

What is an attribute?

For our purposes, an attribute is a numerical representation of a broad group of your character’s qualities. The same attributes (but with different values, of course) are used for all characters. Traditionally, attributes used in most games have been things like Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, etc.

What attributes does Lucky 7 use?

L7 uses three attributes: Physical, Mental, and Spiritual.

What does the Physical attribute cover?

The Physical attribute covers everything to do with the body. Your strength, dexterity, balance, constitution, and speed all fall under the Physical attribute.

What does the Mental attribute cover?

The Physical attribute covers everything to do with the mind. Your intelligence, wit, inventiveness, knowledge, and problem solving abilities are examples items in the Mental domain.

What does the Spiritual attribute cover?

Characters in Lucky 7 are more than just body and thoughts. There's also that “certain something” that makes you different from me. In these rules, we call that the spirit. In game terms this attribute covers things like will power, charisma, and personality. It is also used to represent your connection with the supernatural realm.

What numerical range is used for attributes?

Technically speaking, attributes are open ended. Realistically, though, character attribute scores range from -2 to +2 as shown in the next question’s table.

What do the different numbers represent?

Value	Meaning
-2	Terrible
-1	Bad
±0	Average
+1	Good
+2	Awesome

How are attributes used in game play?

Whenever you attempt a task, the GM determines which attribute is most applicable to the task. That attribute’s value is then used as a modifier to you die roll when determining success.

Example: Your character is crossing a slippery ledge. The GM determines that is a physical task of balance. You have an Awesome Physical score, so you get a +2 to your roll.

What if I want to my character to be fast but not strong?

There’s two ways to do this. One way uses an advantage, and the other uses a disadvantage. The way you pick should depend on your character’s concept and the one that you think will work best with your playing style.

For the advantage method you would give your character an Average Physical score (±0), and you would give then an advantage of “Fast.” This is appropriate if you see your character as pretty normal, but with a gift for speed.

If you see you character as above average physically except for his strength, you would use the disadvantage method. In the case you would give your character a Good (or Awesome!) Physical score (+1 or +2), and the disadvantage of “Weak” or “Reduced Strength” or whatever.

In game play the advantage method has the drawback of costing you an experience point every time you use that advantage. The disadvantage method will actually earn you an extra experience point whenever it comes into play. On the other hand, an average “Quickness” task is 16-17% more likely to succeed using the Advantage method rather than using the disadvantage method. Whether that extra chance of success is worth spending an experience point for is a matter of personal opinion.

Epilogue

I clearly stole was clearly inspired by Big Eyes, Small Mouth for the three stats. Although the attributes are the similar, the rest of the game is very different.

What do you think of the idea?

That’s it for this week. While writing this post, a short topic for next week came to mind. Plus I still have to finish the post about Slimes.