Hello everyone, I’ve been around for a while and have toyed with the idea of making a game but haven’t gotten serious about it until now. I have an idea for a game that will be very much character driven, revolving around who likes and trusts you along with who will be in your group and how that will affect the dynamic of the group as a whole. I also don’t plan on having the main character be any sort of action hero, so I won’t have much need for the conventional (strength, stealth, speed, firearms, etc.) stats to be shown on the stats screen. Instead, I plan on using stats that would more forge your relationship with others and are driven mainly by dialogue. However, I’ve hit a roadblock in that I’m having trouble coming up with very many stats to be used.
This is where I ask this amazing community to help me out in coming up with a few characteristics that could be made into stats that would change how people see your character. I’ve already thought of “honesty,” “ego/pride,” “competence,” and “introvert vs. extrovert” and if anybody else has any more ideas I would be in your debt.
Perception, charisma, wit, intellect, social skills, politics. Just a few off the top of my head.
strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, wisdom, charisma, alignment, sanity, bravery…
@TheWaffle
It’s so much easier to write these stories when you have your stats nailed down from the getgo, and you’re very wise to do so before getting knee-deep into the narrative. Character-driven, personality stats are my favorite stats because they really help in setting the tone and approach your main character takes to whatever obstacles he/she will face. The choices darn near write themselves!
The “vs.” stats are wonderful for a variety of reasons. They prevent Mary Sue-ish, perfect characters and force you as a writer to make every build a viable one for enjoying the story. The goal is to make either side desirable in it’s own ways, so that during the first playthrough the player is happily anticipating the second and third and so on.
“Competence” is probably not a good stat to have, or at least not as I’m interpreting it. Being unskillful isn’t fun, but a “Professional vs Casual” on the other hand brings up a ton of roleplaying opportunities and details down to how messy your hair and office is etc.
Intelligence and wisdom could be “Book smarts vs Common sense”, charisma could be “Smooth vs Blunt” and so forth.
What about a Myers-Briggs personality chart? You could make four stats, and based on the dominance, come up with 16 different personalities (INTJ or ENFJ for examples) which may be too many, but you could basically have specific lines based on one aspect of your personality
@jasonstevanhill Captain on deck!
@stainedofmind I want to avoid broad terms like charisma, but I do like myself some witty dialogue, so I’ll probably make use of that. Thanks for the ideas.
@Doctor Like I said in my earlier post, I’m not planning on having things like strength and dexterity be important in my game, and I’m not quite sure how I would gauge what’s sane and what’s not. That being said, the idea of someone slowly growing more unstable does sound interesting in the overall story, maybe for one of the NPC’s?
@MultipleChoice The captain says listen, so I must heed your words. Anyway, yeah, I’m never able to start writing anything unless I have everything pretty much all planned out (characters, basic timeline, and in this case stats). I usually like the games that use vs. stats as well, so I’ll probably implement more of those. As for competence, I was meaning more along the lines of “do you know what you’re talking about or are you just making it up,” kind of like the book smart suggestion you had thrown in. I’m not so sure on the “professional vs. casual,” or at least not those exact words: I do like the idea, but in the setting/situation the characters are in, not very many people would be looking at whether your acting in a professional manner.
Thanks everyone for helping out so far; I already have several more ideas to work with now.
Some stats I have been going with as I learn choicescript have been:
Knowledge: 10%
Skill: 10%
Body: 10%
Allure: 10%
Opposed stats:
Amiable: 50% Independant: 50%
Blunt: 50% Glib: 50%
Diligent: 50% Easygoing: 50%
Brave: 50% Cautious: 50%
Competitive: 50% Humble: 50%
I hope that helps give you some ideas.
@Outrageous That does really help. The opposing stats are almost exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for the suggestions.
Glad I was able to help even a touch. I literally only had one minute before heading back to work, so I didn’t have too much time to think about them 
I can also add Calm vs Emotional. Either you keep your composure all the time, or you get emotional quickly.