Van Gogh Attributes

I was planning to write about dice pools today and why I chose them for the resolution mechanic, but it's been a long day. Tomorrow (actually now, it's late here) is the final day of the year on the lunar calendar so we had to get up early and clean the house thoroughly. Then we went out to buy flowers and decorative gold coins to hang in the house for luck. I'll talk about dice pools another time when I'm not so tired and can express myself more clearly. For now, I'll just transcribe some notes I made about Attributes.

Attributes

There are four attributes which determine a character's raw abilities: Might, Finesse, Cunning, and Will. Starting characters distribute 9 dice among the four attributes with a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 5. The attributes cover a broad range of abilities that are often linked. For example, strength and endurance often go hand in hand so they are governed by one stat: Might. For unbalanced characters that can bench press a Buick but who have a glass jaw or wiry marathon runners who can’t lift a wet towel, a combination of Talents and Drawbacks can give them a boost in one area and a penalty in another.

• Might: This is the physical power and resilience of the character. It covers strength and endurance. It governs a characters ability to resist damage and disease as well as their ability to deal out damage in hand to hand combat and lift a lot of luggage. Athletics is the only Might based skill, but it's a useful skill. It covers running, jumping, throwing, swimming, and all kinds of other exciting actions. Might can be used in combat by itself for strength-based maneuvers like pushing a stack of crates onto someone or rolling a barrel into a crowd of thugs like bowling pins. Might is also useful because it is the basis of Toughness (the difficulty to damage the character) and melee damage.
• Finesse: This is the character’s balance, spatial awareness, coordination, and agility. Finesse skills include Driving, Fighting, Piloting, Shooting, and Stealth. It's understandably a popular attribute with PCs in action-oriented games. Finesse can also be used in combat for swashbuckler/monkey maneuvers like climbing up a bookshelf, swinging from a chandelier, or diving under a table to unexpectedly kick a foe in the shins like in a Jackie Chan movie.
• Cunning: This is the character’s mental abilities and includes logical reasoning, perception, common sense, intuition, and various types of “smarts” (street, book, people, etc.). Cunning has the most associated skills because it is the attribute that covers retention of knowledge and social perception and manipulation. I chose the name “Cunning” because I think it applies equally well to clever animals, Machiavellian politicians, or an innovative engineer. I don't like it when games use "Intelligence" or "IQ" for this stat and then have to explain how a non-sentient beast can still be really clever even if it's IQ is really low because can't read or speak or do arithmetic. Cunning skills include Bluff, Healing, Helm, Investigation, Knowledge, Notice, Repair, Social Circles, Survival, Taunt, and Wrangling. Cunning can also be used in combat for clever maneuvers like blasting the door control mechanism to make the door slam shut on the foe lunging toward you, smashing an oil lamp on the floor to create a slick spot (or a fire if the lamp was lit, or cutting the rope that holds a chandelier while an enemy is standing beneath it.
• Will: This is the character’s spirit, willpower, determination, and sense of self. Character’s who are exceptionally stubborn or devoted to a cause have a high Will. If you have a high Might, you can walk across a room full of broken glass like John McClane in "Die Hard", but if you don't have a Will, you won't want to. Will skills include Concentration, Intimidation, and Persuasion. Will is also used to resist compulsions like another character trying to intimidate, seduce, bribe, or otherwise tempt you. Opposing psychics staring each other down and engaging in a quick mental tug of war. Combat maneuvers relying on Will aren't as common as the other attributes because most active uses of Will are covered by the Intimidation or Persuasion skills, but some examples include: A warrior charging an enemy through a dangerous path for a surprise advantage (e.g. leaping over a fire instead of going around) or a berzerker pulling himself further onto the shaft of a foe's spear in order to get close enough to strike back. 

There are no "dump stats". Every attribute has useful skills and can contribute to a character's performance in combat. Outside of combat, Cunning and Will are even more useful due to their associated knowledge and social skills and Finesse is still useful for chases (with Driving/Piloting) or spying (with Stealth).  Might remains useful outside of combat thanks to the diversity of the Athletics skill and you never know when you might need to move a sofa. Tomorrow, I'll try to put up some notes about what all those skills are used for.