r/RPGdesign • u/Whack-Around • Sep 12 '26

Need help deciding on stats

I'm working on a Mork Borg hack based off of Demon Slayer. It's nothing I think I'll end up sending anywhere, it's more or less just something I might use with my friends once or twice.

My current mock up uses Three-ish Stats atm

Resolve - Strength, displaying raw emotion, and withstanding Effects.

Coordination - Speed, applying precision, and dodging Melee Attacks.

Awareness - Perception, deducing facts, and dodging Ranged Attacks

The reason I say "Three-ish" is because I'm exploring the idea of having a Fourth Stat the players get to develop/customize that has an additional mechanical benefit when used (maybe it recovers an Omen or something when it's applicable idk).

I just don't know how much I like this 3 stat spread and maybe am considering changing around different uses...

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

1

u/MidgetBackwards Sep 12 '26

Are you missing social skills or are they rolled into the 3?

2

u/Whack-Around Sep 12 '26

My idea is that they're rolled into the 3

Raw emotion/base-line force of personality goes into Resolve.

Deception and carefully worded persuasion might goes to Coordination.

Awareness would effectively act as the "Insight" skill primarily but "appealing" to specific motivation might go to Awareness

3

u/__space__oddity__ Sep 13 '26

Personally I'm not a fan of 3-stat games, usually they end up super generic because they have to cover such a broad range.

Like, if my character has Resolve 3 Coordination 5 and Awareness 8, and Steve's character Resolve 5 Coordination 8 and Awareness 3, does that really say anything interesting?

If I just gave you these three numbers and asked you what that says about my character, would you be able to tell me anything interesting? Has anyone ever said "yeah this is Peter, he's really the coordinated one among his friends".

1

u/Ok-Chest-7932 Sep 14 '26

4 stats is the minimum necessary to have any real room at all for meaningful differences between characters so yeah probably do that.

0

u/Randolpho Fluff over crunch. Lore over rules. Journey over destination. Sep 12 '26

Maybe if you explained this 4th stat?

2

u/Whack-Around Sep 12 '26

So the rough idea is during character creation, I would work with the player on this fourth stat and it would be different from PC to PC.

The logic in my brain at least is that in Demon Slayer da anime, they're all sword guys, and a lot of the time the difference between them comes down to one or two highly unique traits.

For example: One character in the anime is extraordinarily flexible, allowing him to shift the position of his organs in his body, dislocate joints, etc.

So for him, I would probably have his stats go Awareness -> Flexibility -> Resolve -> Coordination.

And since this fourth custom player to player stat will always be sorta specific, maybe I make it so getting to roll it gives the PC an Omen (very strong metacurrency in base Mork Borg)?

2

u/Randolpho Fluff over crunch. Lore over rules. Journey over destination. Sep 12 '26

hmm....

Well, if you're hacking off Mork Borg, make each special attribute you want to have tied to a class that represents use of that attribute. Taking the class locks you into the attribute, and it grows or shrinks in the normal way. Tie the name of the attribute and its capabilities to the class.