Like any good story or historical era, things change in a roleplaying game over the lives of the characters and the campaign. Because virtually all games are based on mathematical formulae, some values are going to change over time to simulate the growth of the characters. Depending on the system and situation this is represented by gaining levels, equipped items, number of skills, improved efficiency/potency of abilities, and so on. All of these have a numerical equivalent that works with the core mechanic and/or a subsystem and reflects the story’s progression and explanation of the character’s powers.
But that’s the long-term. What about temporary and persistent quantitative changes? Most of these are the results of issues like spells (especially curses), diseases, injuries, etc. While such conditions exist, the normal values of the relevant stats are assigned modifiers. While most spells do this, the ones in question for this piece are those which persist across multiple game sessions rather than the duration of combat. Persistent effects can follow a character through several weeks or more of game (story) time.
Generally speaking, the values most prone to such changes are derived values and adjustments. A character’s prime stats (ability/attribute scores) are not immune to adjusting up or down. Rather, they aren’t targeted by most effects given how many items can hinge on those statistics. Affecting a character’s strength score, for example, means a recalculation of so many other values that such changes are seen as major ones. Thus, they do happen, but they are shifts in how a character functions rather than a source of mild irritation.
The reason why long-term changes append adjustments and derived values more often is because these scores are not only specific instances, but they are much more useful in representing a character’s ability to affect the world. Skills and systems that represent an occupation are also included here because they further define what a character can do in the world. The changes are designed, therefore, to show the heightened or decreased nature of a character’s affect on his environment. After all, a character may be nimble, but that doesn’t mean he is a contortionist without having trained as a human pretzel. It helps explain why conditions do not normally change ability scores. A character with a high strength may be too fatigued to lift a heavy object, but his overall muscular build does not change. Losing muscle, however, would be a direct adjustment to strength.
Simulating ailments and boons, changes to the adjustments and derived values, are ways to modify the core mechanics’ and subsystems’ use of the ability scores. Some, like levels, are permanent changes (discounting level drains which don’t appear in all genres). The majority give a story the mathematical power to leverage changes for as long as is necessary to carry out the plot structure of the moment in an ongoing narrative for the campaign. With all the different story elements in play, it is easier to juggle persistent changes to derived values and adjustments than ability scores. It is also less stressful to suffer ill effects to a few specific features to one’s character over a few sessions until a plot line is resolved.
Previous:
Anatomy of Game Design: Cheating Death and Avoiding Injury
Next:
Anatomy of Game Design: Skills