DrPraetor wrote:
I agree that - of all things - Palladium has basically the correct approach, in which your weird-acronym stats are "capable like a normal guy"-unless-noticeably-better.
A sentence that starts with Palladium has the correct approach is almost never true. Your representation of them is not accurate here either.
Like all things in Palladium books, nothing is straightforward. True, there aren't any listed penalties for low attributes inverted from the bonuses for high attributes in the attribute modifier table, but oh boy, there are penalties.
If anything the penalties are worse than a mere minus to whatever the bonuses were boosting. I think they didn't write in the penalties because the table would be a clusterfuck because the penalties are far more wide ranging and hit you right in the asshole hard. You just cannot make a functional table that encapsulates how bad low stats are in Palladium. I'll have to gloss over a lot just to summarize them even.
For low attributes in Palladium (referencing Rifts Ultimate, since it's the only PDF I had available and I am not home):
• Strength has severely limited carrying capacity, no bonuses from combat skills, and deals pretty much no damage with weapons.
• Speed has severely limited movement rate, also penalty to dodge and initiative
• IQ you get less skills and cut skill bonuses, and the skills that you do get are limited.
• ME you get screwed hard on horror checks.
• MA you get penalties that basically make things like disguise, bartering, seduction etc, impossible.
• PP tanks your physical skills, your attack modifiers, your initiative, your dodge, and you get a bad fumble rate
• PE you get screwed hard on diseases, drugs, magic saves, oh and maybe take an insanity or two.
• PB penalizes a few social checks, but if you have a 1 or 2 you can actually have a Horror Factor of 15 (1d6+9)! That's fucking amazing. That's the same as Tezcatlipoca, the Aztec god of darkness. (was that just the first god listed in the deities conversion book becaused you couldn't be fucked to look further erik? yes. yes it was.)
[edit:
OH, something for consideration in D&D. Why the fuck do we need granularity down to 5% for skills? I'd be happier if the skill system were divorced from d20 RNG. Dice pools for skills, d20 for combat.
Upside: people aren't tempted to do stupid crap like combat altering abilities based upon the d20 skill system like Iajutsu bullshit or UMD or Diplomancy.