I'm aware the thread's been dead for a while, but it's also the best suited for me to use for the pitch I'm making.
Stats Are Dead, Long Live Praxis
Somewhere around trying to envision another set of stats for yet another RTD, I decided to try and design an alternative system, as a theoretical exercise.
A
Praxis is a set of several linked concepts attached to a die. The Praxis also has a number of uses, as well as a level, and potentially even other effects.
An example would be...
Endure The Pain LV 1: (3 Uses)
Roll Endure The Pain when attempting to act while injured, push through harmful terrain, or (reflexive) survive a devastating physical attack.
(1, 2, 4, 4, 5, 6)
On 6: Negate all Wound penalties for 1 Turn.
Endure The Pain LV 2: (4 Uses)
Roll Endure The Pain when attempting to act while injured, push through harmful or difficult terrain, or (reflexive) survive a significant physical attack.
(1, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6)
On 5 or 6: Negate all Wound penalties for 2 Turns.
Endure The Pain LV 3: (5 Uses)
Roll Endure The Pain when attempting to act while injured, push through harmful or difficult terrain, or (reflexive) endure any physical attack.
(2, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6)
On 5 or 6: Negate all Wound penalties for 2 Turns, and remove your worst Wound.
Instead of having several stats, each player collects a set of Praxis, adding new ones or upgrading old ones as their character grows. In the event that a character has no applicable Praxis, or wishes to preserve uses, they can roll
Unskilled Improvisation LVL N/A, which has infinite uses, but uses a basic (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) die and has no bonuses.
Praxis are recharged when an applicable rest period occurs, or on specific other triggers (a full moon! landing a critical blow in combat!, etc).
While I like the mechanics benefit of this method, I do think there's a cost in bookkeeping to be had - you can make each player keep track of their own Praxis, but you'll still have to develop the Praxis you want to be available for your game, or add new ones on the fly, which has the risk of being unbalanced, especially in a competitive game. Additionally, players will have to decide in advance which Praxis they want to use reflexively, to deal with unexpected situations.
There's other potentials, such as using multiple Praxis in one action, Praxis that can be used to retroactively reroll the failures of another Praxis (
Mitigate Disaster LV 1?), but all of this comes at a pretty high complexity cost.
Maybe that's why people just use stats.
What do you all think?