Kinetic and Potential Abilities Across D&D and Other Games
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In this blog post, I'm going to investigate what I find dissatisfying about the use of ability scores in tabletop games since their functionality was expanded upon between the publications of the original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) and the later editions of the game. Then I’m going to look at some later games from the OSR and post-OSR movements, and how they approach character statistics from a functional and a mathematic angle. This is personally useful to articulate what I want from a rulebook, and how I’d like to play or run games going forward. The Origin of Ability Scores I've done nothing but read the 1974 edition of Dungeons & Dragons for months now. This experience has given me a lot of time to reflect on what I like or don't like about the different rulesets I've played with for the last couple of years. I made a post a couple of months ago ( link ) about the extent to which ability scores, for example, actually affect player experience in OD&D .