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49-527: All player characters have six basic statistics : An ability score is a natural number , with a value of 10 or 11 representing average ability. "These ability scores help determine whether [a] character succeeds or fails at something they try" when a player rolls a d20 . For example, "a Dwarf with 15 strength can probably lift up a huge rock quite easily. A wizard with 6 wisdom probably won't realize when they're getting conned. A bookish monk with 20 intelligence but just 4 constitution [...], would intuitively know

98-429: A player character 's attributes , while allowing each character a fixed number of skills. As a result, characters were at the same time wildly unbalanced in terms of attributes and heavily constrained in terms of skills. Champions (1981) introduced a points-based system of purchasing attributes and skills as a means of improving game balance and flexibility. These points are known as character points, and it has become

147-417: A strategic-level wargame) where players take turns when playing. This is distinguished from real-time strategy (RTS) , in which all players play simultaneously. Many board games are turn based, such as chess , Reversi , checkers , Hare games , and Go , as well as many modern board games . Turn-based tactical game-play is characterized by the expectation of players to complete their tasks by using

196-413: A broad area of expertise of a character. Traits are rarely drawn from a predetermined list; rather, the player chooses some description during character generation. For example, a squash-playing history professor with a knowledge of fine wines might have the traits " History ", " Squash " and " Oenology ". In terms of a more fine-grained system of statistics, a single trait would often be represented by

245-530: A character can lift 10 lbs per point of Strength) whereas in others a small increase can represent a major gain in ability (e.g. in the DC Heroes / Blood of Heroes system, where +1 to Strength doubles a character's lifting capacity). Some games work with only a few broad attributes (such as Physical or Mental ), while others have a greater number of more specific ones. Most games have about 4–10 attributes. Most games try to give all attributes about

294-462: A character possesses a natural, in-born characteristic common to all characters in the game. Attributes are also called statistics, characteristics or abilities. Most role-playing games use attributes to describe the physical and mental characteristics of characters, for example their strength or wisdom . Many games also include social characteristics as well, for example a character's natural charisma or physical appearance . They often influence

343-463: A character takes damage. In the original D&D game a character died when his/her hit point total reached 0. First edition AD&D introduced an optional rule in which a character died when his/her hit points reached -10, with beings falling unconscious at 0 HP, and creatures reduced to negative HPs continue to lose HPs due to bleeding, etc. unless they are stabilized by aid or healing (natural or magical). In third edition, this rule became part of

392-541: A character with the "Channel Divinity" power an additional, alternative use for that power. In 5th Edition, feats are made an optional character customization feature. As characters advance, at certain levels players increase their characters' ability scores. If playing with feats, they may forgo the ability score increases to take feats, which are structured as a package of thematically related improvements, some of which have prerequisites. Statistic (role-playing games) A statistic (or stat ) in role-playing games

441-401: A creature's natural aversion to physical injury, magical enhancements, and any protective garments worn. The dexterity ability score grants bonuses to AC. In 4th edition, there are three defenses that function similarly to armor class. Fortitude is based on strength or constitution; it represents a character's endurance to pain. Reflex is based on dexterity or intelligence and can be modified by

490-642: A feature of numerous later games, most notably GURPS . Usually, a player is allotted a number of points for character creation. A character's attributes (such as high intelligence), skills (such as fixing a car or mechanics ), or powers (such as flying) can then be bought for a certain number of points. More powerful abilities or a greater degree of power will require more "spending" of character points. Later, character points can be earned and spent to improve attributes or skills, or to buy new skills or powers. In some games, such as Champions , these points are experience points ; in others, such as Ars Magica , there

539-480: A group of skills , one or more advantages and attributes , or a combination thereof. The first major role-playing game to use traits was Over the Edge . Some systems, such as Castle Falkenstein and HeroQuest , use traits as the only type of statistic, although they may use some other term for them, such as abilities. Many games make use of derived statistics: statistics whose values are determined only by

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588-433: A medicine skill check, or use more advanced healing options. Certain situations give characters the chance to avoid special types of danger or attacks. These chances are called saving throws or saves . A saving throw is made when a character would come to harm from extraordinary means such as poisons and magical compulsions in nature. In the early editions of D&D , there are five categories of saving throws, based on

637-537: A particular use of that statistic (like Specialisations in Ars Magica or Attribute Aspects in Aria ). Most games divide their statistics into several categories. The set of categories actually used in a game system, as well as the precise statistics within each category, vary greatly. The most often used types of statistic include: There is no standard nomenclature for statistics; for example, both GURPS and

686-533: A period of converting board and historic TBS games to computer games, companies began basing computer turn-based strategy games on completely original properties or concepts. The presence of a computer to calculate and arbitrate allows game complexity which is not feasible in a traditional board game. Some well known turn-based strategy games are Sid Meier 's Civilization series, Heroes of Might and Magic series, Panzer General series, Warlords series, and Age of Wonders series. A further market trend

735-491: A player at 0 hit points must begin making "death saving throws", where an unmodified d20 roll resulting in 10 or above is a success, below 10 a failure. If the player gets three failures before three successes, the character is dead. If three successes are recorded, the character is stable but unconscious. A result of 1 counts as two failures, while a result of 20 is automatic success and the character regains 1 hit point. A fellow player may attempt to stabilize their companion using

784-432: A player's skills at the start of the game, instead allowing players to increase them by spending experience points or during "levelling up". Since some skills are likely to be more useful than others, different skills often have different costs. Skills usually influence a character's chance to succeed by adding to the relevant attribute. In some games (such as GURPS ), each skill has a specific base attribute to which it

833-455: A profession then conveyed a bank of general skills and guild specific ones each containing a ladder of skills which could be invested in via lessons earned through on-line play. Initially there were around 30 such skills with approximately 17 abilities in each covering a wide range from Riding, Perception, Thievery or Demonology. As of 2015 Avalon possesses 66 Skills with 2194 distinct abilities developed over its 26-year tenure. A trait represents

882-528: A relevant skill; older editions of Shadowrun gave a complex network of penalties for using similar skills (such as attempting to pick an electronic lock by using the Computer skill instead of the Electronics skill). The text-based roleplaying game Avalon: The Legend Lives is noted for being the first text based multi user role-playing game to offer a developed profession and skills system . Choosing

931-471: A shield; it represents a character's ability to dodge. Will is based on wisdom or charisma; it represents a character's strength of mind and resistance to mental attack. These defenses are typically lower than AC, so an attack against fortitude is usually better than an attack against AC. Hit points (HP) are a measure of a character's vitality or health; they are determined by the character's class or race, and Constitution score. Hit points are reduced whenever

980-613: A small set of primary attributes control a larger number of derived statistics such as Armor Class or magic points . During character creation , attribute scores are usually determined either randomly (by rolling dice ) or by distributing character points. In some games, such as World of Warcraft , the base attribute scores are determined by the character's race and class (however the vast majority of stat points will be obtained through end-game gear/equipment). Because they represent common, in-born characteristics and not learned capabilities (as skills do), in many games they are fixed for

1029-564: A tangible "in-game" enhancement to skill or ability rolls. Systems of advantages and disadvantages are often criticized for allowing or even encouraging min-maxing , where a player strives to take disadvantages which have little or no tangible effect on play while using the character points gained from those disadvantages to pay for powerful advantages. Character points are abstract units used in some role-playing games during character creation and development. Early role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons assigned random values to

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1078-580: Is turn-based and operates in rounds . A round is a discrete time interval (approximately 6 seconds, game-time in later editions, and approximately 1 minute in earlier editions) in which all involved parties act in the combat. The order in which parties involved in the combat act is determined by Initiative . As the game is played, each PC changes over time and generally increases in capability. Characters gain (or sometimes lose) experience, skills and wealth, and may even alter their alignment or gain additional character classes . The key way characters progress

1127-423: Is a more complicated relationship between experience points and character points. A power represents a unique or special quality that a character can use. In many games, powers are binary on-or-off qualities as opposed to attributes and skills which are usually numeric quantities. The main exception to this is superhero RPGs, where superpowers are often treated as a sort of skill. Superpowers may also use

1176-407: Is a piece of data that represents a particular aspect of a fictional character. That piece of data is usually a ( unitless ) integer or, in some cases, a set of dice . For some types of statistics, this value may be accompanied with a descriptive adjective, sometimes called a specialisation or aspect , that either describes how the character developed that particular score or an affinity for

1225-410: Is always added; in others (such as Ars Magica ), a skill can be added to different attributes depending on how the skill is being used. Some games (such as Feng Shui ) add the base attribute to the skill at character creation time; after that, it is independent of the attribute and is used instead of the attribute rather than adding to it. Most games have a fixed penalty for attempting a task without

1274-481: Is by earning experience points (XP), which happens when they defeat an enemy or accomplish a difficult task. Acquiring enough XP allows a PC to advance a level , which grants the character improved class features, abilities and skills. XP can be lost in some circumstances, such as encounters with creatures that drain life energy, or by use of certain magical powers that come with an XP cost. Dungeons & Dragons , starting with AD&D 1st Edition and continuing to

1323-429: Is similar to the system in 3rd, with each feat having any number of prerequisites and some beneficial effect. Feats are also categorized by type, though "general" feats lack a category. "Class" and "Racial" feats require the character to be the indicated class or race. The "Heroic", "Paragon", and "Epic" descriptors indicate that the character must be in that tier or higher in order to choose the feat. "Divinity" feats grant

1372-656: Is the rise of "Indie" TBS games (games produced by small groups, independent or only somewhat affiliated with the major elements in the computer games industry). These games often extend or refine already existing TBS games. Examples include Freeciv or Golden Age of Civilizations . Since turn-based strategy games do not typically require vast amounts of art or modeling, developers willing to volunteer their time can focus on gameplay. Directories like Freecode provide large lists of open-source , turn-based strategy projects. Online browser-based games do not require users to install files and are often free. The Hex Empire set of games

1421-498: The Storytelling System refer to their statistics as "traits", even though they are treated as attributes and skills. Many games make use of derived statistics whose values depend on other statistics, which are known as primary or basic statistics. Game-specific concepts such as experience levels , alignment , character class and race can also be considered statistics. An attribute describes to what extent

1470-458: The abbreviation "disads". Many games encourage or even force players to take disadvantages for their characters in order to balance their advantages or other "positive" statistics. Disadvantages also add flavor to a character that can't be obtained solely by a list of positive traits. Advantages and disadvantages often have a thematic element to them. They often provide a direct relationship between how someone wants to role-play their character and

1519-459: The chance to succeed in a skill or other tests by addition to a die roll or by determining the number of dice to be thrown. As a consequence, usually a higher number is better, and ranges can be as small as 1–5 (for numbers of dice) or as great as 1–100 (when adding to results of percentile dice ). In some games, attributes represent linearly increasing ability (e.g. in Tunnels and Trolls , where

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1568-545: The character (such as a special combat maneuver) or some modification to game options and the mechanics involved. Feats can be contrasted with skills , which were also introduced in the same edition, in that using a feat does not usually require the particular success/fail roll that skills do. Instead of possessing a certain rank at a skill, a character either possesses a feat or does not. Many feats require certain prerequisites (such as related feats or minimum ability scores) in order to select that feat. The 4th Edition feat system

1617-441: The character a chance to shake off the effect. They are meant partly to simplify record-keeping for effects that last more than one round but less than the encounter. In 5th Edition, saving throws are explicitly tied to the ability scores, and carry their names, resulting in six categories of saves. A saving throw is performed similarly to a skill check, with a d20 roll result added to the relevant ability modifier and, if applicable,

1666-431: The character's race and class . In addition, certain in-game methods such as spells or magical items might raise or lower these statistics temporarily. Some games define various interdependencies between statistics of different categories, as well as within categories. The most common are: Turn-based strategy A turn-based strategy ( TBS ) game is a strategy game (usually some type of wargame , especially

1715-402: The character's attributes while at the same time limiting just how powerful the character could become [...] [was] formalized in the third edition". There are now several methods of determining a character's initial ability scores during character creation : Armor class (AC) is a rating used to determine how difficult it is to damage a creature/character. It is based on several factors such as

1764-505: The combat forces provided to them, and usually by the provision of a realistic (or at least believable) representation of military tactics and operations. Tactical role-playing games are a part of this genre. Examples include Fire Emblem , The Battle for Wesnoth , Poxnora , Silent Storm , Steel Panthers: World at War! , King's Bounty , Great Big War Game , Nintendo Wars , UniWar , XCOM 2 , The Battle of Polytopia and Chessaria: The Tactical Adventure . After

1813-452: The core rules. In 4th Edition, death occurs when a character's hit point value is reduced to half their total expressed as a negative number. For example, if a character has hit points of 52, the character is unconscious and dying at 0 hit points and death occurs when the character's hit points reach -26. In 5th Edition, a character is killed automatically if the damage is greater than the negative value of their maximum hit points. Otherwise,

1862-415: The current 5th Edition, has many skills that characters may train in. A skill check is always a d20 roll, with bonuses added. Sometimes, a skill check may be aided by favorable circumstances (such as you brandishing a weapon while using Intimidate) or hampered by unfavorable circumstances (such as using improvised tools to pick a lock). A skill check is successful when the roll is higher than or equal to

1911-413: The damage dealt by a sword, the dexterity modifier to Armor Class (see below) as the character's ability to dodge attacks, and the charisma modifier to an attempt to smooth-talk a merchant. In AD&D , ability scores were "determined by rolling three 6-sided dice and adding up their values". This had a significant impact on character creations as "certain classes could only be taken up by characters with

1960-543: The difficulty class (DC) of the task. Usually, the Dungeon Master sets the DC. Sometimes the DC is set by the result of something else's check, this is an "opposed check". An example of an opposed check is spot against stealth: the character is trying to see something else that is trying not to be seen. Feats were introduced in 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons . A feat is an advantage , often some special option for

2009-414: The duration of the game. However, in some games they can be increased by spending experience points gained during the game, or as part of the process of " levelling up ". An advantage is a physical, social, intellectual, or other enhancement to a character. In contrast, a disadvantage is an adverse effect. Advantages are also known as virtues, merits or edges and disadvantages as flaws or hindrances, or by

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2058-465: The form of the potential damage: In 3rd Edition, they were reduced to three kinds of saving throw based on what aspect of the character was under threat. In 4th Edition there is only one type of saving throw. Saving throws are usually rolled after a character has already been affected by an attack (by hitting the character's AC or fortitude, reflex, or will defense, defenses which the 3rd Edition saves had been converted into), rolled each round to give

2107-437: The perfect regimen for training for a marathon, but couldn't even come close [to] completing one". Beginning with the 3rd Edition, each score has a corresponding ability modifier , where Modifier = ⁠ Score − 10 / 2 ⁠ , rounded down. It acts as a bonus or penalty depending on a character's ability scores. This modifier is added to the appropriate dice rolls. For example, the strength modifier would be added to

2156-399: The proficiency bonus. When a character makes an attack, a 20-sided die is rolled to determine success/failure. The result could be adjusted based on any number of possible modifiers the character or its intended target have. The number added to the die roll is actually several different modifiers combined, coming from different places. These modifiers include the character's proficiency with

2205-504: The right combination of statistics. As a result, players often" re-rolled characters until they ended up with the combination of ability scores they desired. The point buy system was originally added as an optional ruleset in the second edition supplement Player's Option: Skills & Powers (1995) and while it is "largely incompatible with most of the other books released for AD&D second edition" it still "proved very popular among fans". "A point system to ensure total player control over

2254-478: The same rating scale as the primary statistics. A skill represents the learned knowledge and abilities of a character. Skills are known by various names, including proficiencies, abilities, powers, talents and knacks. During character creation , a player character 's skills are generally chosen from a long list. A character may have a fixed number of starting skills, or they may be paid for using character points. In contrast to attributes , very few games fix

2303-428: The same usefulness to a character. Therefore, certain characteristics might be merged (such as merging a Charisma-type and a Willpower-type attribute into a single Personality attribute), or split into more attributes (such as splitting physical "Comeliness" from Charisma in the original Unearthed Arcana ), or even ignored altogether (for example, Intelligence and Charisma in a hack and slash adventure). In many games,

2352-402: The specific weapon and weapons in general, the quality of the weapon (masterwork craftsmanship or magical enhancements), the modifier of the ability associated with the weapon (strength for melee weapons, and dexterity for ranged weapons), magical effects improving/hampering the character's ability to attack, and any special experience the character has fighting a certain foe. The combat mechanic

2401-573: The values of other, "basic" statistics. They often represent a single capability of the character such as the weight a character can lift, or the speed at which they can move. Some are unitless numbers, but often they use real-world units of measurement (such as kilograms or metres per second ). Derived statistics are often used during combat (e.g. hit points , Armor Class and initiative ). Basic and derived statistics are also called primary and secondary statistics, respectively. In games which use such concepts, derived statistics are often modified by

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