I have a question. Why do we have stats? And let me clarify, so things don’t too get out of hand that I’m mostly interested in “storygames”. I think broadly stats (along with skills) have been our historical answer to the question of how we mechanize who our characters are. They represent the basic identity of the character translated into game terms.
Masks has an interesting approach here, with stats that are fairly traditional in some ways (ranging from -2 to +3, answering questions like "how good are you at fighting?") but very unique in others. They are called Labels, their names are things like "Danger" and "Superior" and 'Mundane," and (most crucially!) they shift around as grown-ups tell you who you are and how the world works. Building off that traditional base, Masks makes its stats mean something really specific about its themes of young people figuring out who they are based (partly) on how the world sees them.
I read your intro and thought "Hating to go GNS on this, but this is right. Stats are basically the Simulationist vestigal organs, born of the idea there's objective truths about characters in a world."
Using elements of play, the cards, dice & tokens as the stats?
Per usual, I sit down to read your newsletter and go plummeting down another rabbit hole of design. Thanks Thomas!
Masks has an interesting approach here, with stats that are fairly traditional in some ways (ranging from -2 to +3, answering questions like "how good are you at fighting?") but very unique in others. They are called Labels, their names are things like "Danger" and "Superior" and 'Mundane," and (most crucially!) they shift around as grown-ups tell you who you are and how the world works. Building off that traditional base, Masks makes its stats mean something really specific about its themes of young people figuring out who they are based (partly) on how the world sees them.
I read your intro and thought "Hating to go GNS on this, but this is right. Stats are basically the Simulationist vestigal organs, born of the idea there's objective truths about characters in a world."