How do you explain "stats" system

[kokirisoldier]

Like the title says, how do you explain the stats system in a realistic way. Stat based leveling is found in so many games and so many game genres. But if you try to explain it in a way such as D&D it just is hard to wrap your head around some of it.

For example:

STR: 14 Strength is easy to explain. You work out in your own way, in the way your character would become more robust. Pretty much just pick your own exercise routine that works.


DEX: 12 Any one who has done any type of martial arts knows you can become more limber and accurate with moves from repetition developing "muscle memory". Making the once hard feats such as shooting faster/walking softer all because you know yourself better.

CON: 10 This seems just hard to explain if you increase it by (5) points. I have seen some of the most burly men with 40 extra pounds of pure muscle and great at running believe it, still fall to the same gunshot that killed any other man. So conditioning doesn't seem to effect it, but helps. Maybe its the will to live? Like the show "I shouldn't be alive".

INT: 11 Do you truly get "more smart"? Or do you get better at retaining information?

WIS: 13 "Wisdom comes with age". Or so the saying goes. The memories of past events help you with the future. Seeing the world, soaking up all you can and putting yourself in situations positively effect wisdom.

CHA: 12 I seriously doubt there is a way to become more charismatic. I can understand being more "worldly" would help you in many situations. Being social with your chums or people within your own country can seem possible. But place you in a different country and I highly doubt you still are as charismatic with someone who doesn't even have electricity/running water Or hell even a house like you are accustomed to. Maybe they live underwater? Your vocal form of charisma has just been stunted. But what about your physique? The Greeks carved statues of men and women of what they believed to be beauty. But the Japanese also carved statues of what their warriors looked like, Just going by Physique (not armor) they are pretty different. So Not sure dumping (3) points into your CHA when you level would even seem realistic.

It seems great on paper, but it's been on my mind for years now.

Discuss.

 

[DiMono]

On the assumption that what you mean is "how would you explain raising each of these stats in real life," here are my answers:

STR: Lifting heavy things makes you better at lifting heavy things. Completely self explanatory.

DEX: Stretching is a big part of this: the more limber you are, the more agile you become. With practice you can hone your reflexes, and between reflexes and flexibility your overall dexterity improves.

CON: Constitution is basically how much punishment you can take, and how fast you heal. The best way to raise this would be through diet and exercise, to a) speed up your metabolism, and b) help your body work as efficiently as possible. There are always one shot kills, but you can certainly increase the odds of lasting a long time in a beatdown.

INT: Put simply, intelligence is the ability to learn. Like any other talent, the more you do it, the better you become at it, so the more you learn, the better you get at learning. And the more you know, the more intelligent you are.

WIS: Wisdom is basically knowing when to take which action. And yes, it generally comes through experience. If you want to know how to react or respond in certain situations, put yourself in those situations and see what works and what doesn't. And the more situations you put yourself in, the more you'll be able to apply your experience in order to apply what you've learned to situations you haven't been in yourself.

CHA: Being charming is a talent, like anything else, and like every other talent it can be learned and improved. Put simply, charisma is your ability to be liked in social situations. "Charm school" really existed, and there was a reason for it: it worked. Even if you don't have natural charisma, you can still increase what you've got by being sociable and paying attention. Looks are also a part of this, so learning posture, makeup if appropriate, and dress style are also important.

At least that's what I think.

 

[fletch_talon]

STR: Physical strength via exercise
DEX: Agility/flexibility via exercise
CON: Endurance/pain threshold/immune system via exercise and exposure to pain/disease
INT: Knowledge/memory/mental capacity via mental exercise
WIS: Experience via experience
CHA: Social skills/diplomacy via practice and observation

DnD heroes aren't normal people and don't live in a normal world. As such things that would normally stay relatively constant like mental capacity (after a certain age) can be developed well into a character's old age.

In saying that the system is flexible and if you think its too unrealistic to increase a certain score then houserule it out.

 

[Jfswift]

Strength: how strong you are, how much crap you can lift.
Dexterity: the lower this is, the more clumsy you are. next.
Constitution: This is how healthy you are. If you eat junk food and don't work out, chances are it's very low.
Intelligence: How much raw information you know. "book smarts"
Wisdom: common sense meter "street smarts"
Charisma: how charming and well liked you are.

 

[Something Amyss]

Like the title says, how do you explain the stats system in a realistic way. Stat based leveling is found in so many games and so many game genres. But if you try to explain it in a way such as D&D it just is hard to wrap your head around some of it.

For example:

STR: 14 Strength is easy to explain. You work out in your own way, in the way your character would become more robust. Pretty much just pick your own exercise routine that works.


DEX: 12 Any one who has done any type of martial arts knows you can become more limber and accurate with moves from repetition developing "muscle memory". Making the once hard feats such as shooting faster/walking softer all because you know yourself better.

CON: 10 This seems just hard to explain if you increase it by (5) points. I have seen some of the most burly men with 40 extra pounds of pure muscle and great at running believe it, still fall to the same gunshot that killed any other man. So conditioning doesn't seem to effect it, but helps. Maybe its the will to live? Like the show "I shouldn't be alive".

INT: 11 Do you truly get "more smart"? Or do you get better at retaining information?

WIS: 13 "Wisdom comes with age". Or so the saying goes. The memories of past events help you with the future. Seeing the world, soaking up all you can and putting yourself in situations positively effect wisdom.

CHA: 12 I seriously doubt there is a way to become more charismatic. I can understand being more "worldly" would help you in many situations. Being social with your chums or people within your own country can seem possible. But place you in a different country and I highly doubt you still are as charismatic with someone who doesn't even have electricity/running water Or hell even a house like you are accustomed to. Maybe they live underwater? Your vocal form of charisma has just been stunted. But what about your physique? The Greeks carved statues of men and women of what they believed to be beauty. But the Japanese also carved statues of what their warriors looked like, Just going by Physique (not armor) they are pretty different. So Not sure dumping (3) points into your CHA when you level would even seem realistic.

It seems great on paper, but it's been on my mind for years now.

Discuss.

I'm assuming 3.X since I'm most familiar.

Keep in mind most of us would be level 1 or similarly low level characters in D&D terms. We would also likely not be heroic classes because that's the way it works.

As such, CON isn't as problematic as you might think. Even a commoner with max starting CON will likely fall to a hit, assuming you come across one. A warrior with max CON will still be in danger from a single critical hit.

INT is described as the way you learn and reason. You can improve your reasoning skills, even if you can't truly make yourself "smarter."

Wisdom includes willpower, common sense, and intuition. They can all sort of be improved.

CHA can be improved by being more assertive.

But...how are you getting 5 points to put into CON? If it's magical, it doesn't really need an explanation.

 

[SturmDolch]

Well, to level them up in real life:

Strength: You worked out.
Dexterity: You did yoga.
Intelligence: You read a book.
Wisdom: You wrote a book.
Charisma: You took a Dale Carnegie course.

 

[Gearran]

All right, this is actually pretty easy to explain. As such, I'm going to outright ignore the things you more or less nailed in your OP. Which leaves me with Intelligence, Constitution, and Charisma.

Constitution: This is a combination of pain resistance, general healthiness, and good old fashioned stamina; in short, it's how "healthy" you are. This goes up as you exercise, eat well, and all those things that they told you in health class (hope you were listening!). It is entirely possible to be really strong (high STRENGTH score) but have really bad health issues (which in turn becomes a low CONSTITUTION score), and vise versa. The "bullet" example is kind of awkward, because of how a bullet effects the human body (the act of passing through the body at several hundred feet a second not only makes a hole, but actually pulls body mass after it from sheer momentum). A better example would be something like a person's resistance to disease.

Intelligence: this is raw brain power. This is what the "Intelligence Quotient" (aka IQ) measures. Despite how static it sounds, it IS possible to raise this stat; there are training methods to help your brain enhance it's absorption of data, and your IQ naturally rises as you come out of childhood into adulthood as you learn how to study, read, write, and focus.

Charisma: This is by far the most ephemeral of the statistics. Despite what people seem to think, this does not tie solely into physical appearance (although that does play a part). Charisma is your presence, how other people view you and react toward you. Good manners, witty banter, natural good looks (or a good stylist), and your social acumen all tie into this stat. Improving this stat is both easy and REALLY difficult, because there are a myriad of ways to do it. Public speaking classes, behavior coaching, proper hygiene, and (if you've got the gold pieces for it) plastic surgery or "corrective" measures all help.


Also, important point: we would all be (provided there isn't some herculean superman hidden amongst us) level 0 characters. Remember that, just by reaching level 1, a character is clearly above and beyond what is considered "average," making them particularly skilled (which, of course, allows them to gain their classes).

 

[TeeBs]

Shut up and follow me, I will take you to Morador.

 

[Cazza]

CHA: 12 I seriously doubt there is a way to become more charismatic. I can understand being more "worldly" would help you in many situations. Being social with your chums or people within your own country can seem possible. But place you in a different country and I highly doubt you still are as charismatic with someone who doesn't even have electricity/running water Or hell even a house like you are accustomed to. Maybe they live underwater? Your vocal form of charisma has just been stunted. But what about your physique? The Greeks carved statues of men and women of what they believed to be beauty. But the Japanese also carved statues of what their warriors looked like, Just going by Physique (not armor) they are pretty different. So Not sure dumping (3) points into your CHA when you level would even seem realistic.

It seems great on paper, but it's been on my mind for years now.

Discuss.

Charisma isn't completely about knowledge of words and there meaning. It's also about body language which is universal across all people. Although I'm not sure about mythical creatures such as elves, halflings to non humanoid like griffins etc. Which if they were different you would learn them. The ability to gauge people's emotions. Being able to pick up that someone is sad is one thing. Being able to know why by asking the right questions at the right times is another thing. Choosing your words to suit a situation, if you wanted someone to join your group you need to know what kind of person they are and use that towards your advangtage and other factors.


When it comes to leveling charisma you do get better at those things. About large increases like adding 3 extra points to it maybe that character found somthing thats disarms peoples anger like admitting they were wrong before the person got angry. Now they always use it and it works. I have found things like that.

Many D&D add looks into this area. When it comes to leveling how you look maybe you did your hair differently and everyone likes it.

Although any sinking of large amount of points into any area (after character creation) would be unrealist. At the end of the day D&D isn't realist and people don't mind. If they do they would take a realist approach to level. Adding one point very few level or so.

The other ability scores are simple enough. I just wanted to give my opinion on charisma. I feel it is one of the most complicated. I tryed not to repeat other people.