@Calvino: There will be a couple of posts this week that expand on this one.

I like the idea of adding qualitative tags to stats. This isn’t just a way to hide a “simplistic” stat engine at all, but a way to show that no number exists without its quality and no qualities exist without some kind of measure. Anyway, thanks for the post.

And I always liked the idea of having text descriptions for stats.

I seem to recall that Harn may have had something like that?

Of course, it’s been a long time, and I may have simply dreamt it.

While FATE uses FUDGE’s verbal scale and four three-sided dice, it breaks from practically every other role-playing game by doing away with mandatory traits such as Strength and Intelligence, and substantially reworking the “experience point” mechanic. It instead assumes that every character is “average” in all regards, unless stated otherwise. Exceptional abilities (the “otherwise”) are defined through the Aspect system. A player may choose, for example, to take an Aspect in Brawny (or Muscle Man or Wiry Strength) and choose to spend Aspects to gain a temporary bonus in a relevant situation. Aspects may also be taken in possessions, e.g. the character Indiana Jones for example, might have the Aspect “Whip and Fedora”. The fact that Aspects can be anything integral to the character allows for a degree of melding of mechanics and role-playing, that are difficult to achieve in most other gaming systems.

Aspects are an important and original concept in FATE. They are not intrinsically good or bad; they are simply descriptive, up to the level of detail the player requires. In addition to the obvious direct character help in most cases, the FATE system also provides a mechanism to reward the characters when one of their Aspects has restricted their choices or landed them in some trouble.

Sounds neat.

This idea moves very squarely in the direction I like to play.