Soz, can't come up with a good title for this thread :(

[Kindling]

So, you know how in some games you have certain quite specific derived stats like "resist poison" or what-have-you? Imagine if ALL your stats were like that. So rather than trying to hit someone with a crowbar being like Strength+Attack Bonus+whatever, you just look on your character sheet for the statistic called "hit with crowbar" and then roll on it.

So you would need a ridiculous number of these to cover most stuff you might choose to do in game. So maybe you have a giant list of genre-appropriate things and then one "do other shit" stat you use when you're doing crazy stuff not covered by the main list of like 7 billion stats.

Or you could just basically come up with like 20 actions that your character should be good at like, say, for a warrior type guy:

hit with sword
parry with sword
parry with shield
hit with crossbow
hit with battleaxe
hit with lance
not get tired while wearing armour
ride horses in combat
not get tired while riding long distances
go berserk in combat
intimidate enemy
feint
repair armour and weapons
forage for food
spot ambushes and traps
not run away in terror
keep commanding officers happy
do first aid on battlefield wounds
grit teeth and ignore pain
know about military tactics

And then if you try to do anything outside of those areas of specialisation you roll on your "do other shit" stat which is always like human-average-ish.

And now that I've written this down, I realise it's a bit like Aspects from FATE. Or basically the same, actually. But anyway...

[Kindling]

Or! This could be good for monsters. Why does a monster need the same stat array as a "normal" adventurer, after all? Just give it like

Ignore mundane wounds
Grab with tentacles
Chomp grabbed prey
Squirm rapidly into hiding
Exude nauseating stench

[Humabout]

Sounds very similar to Gurps and skills.  Bazillion and counting skills, though they're based on one of six attributes, to which they default at penalty if you don't put points in them.  The system is solid, so go for it!  :)

[sparkletwist]

It's "solid" in the sense that it functions, but why would you put yourself through this?

It seems like it's adding a lot of complexity for not much gain, because what you've really got, if everyone's pulling everything off a list, is a horribly detailed skill system that nonetheless reduces everything to the 4e approach of "trained" or "untrained." It seems like the worst of both worlds to me.

You'd also have to figure out how these different "skills" (or talents, purviews, whatever) interacted with each other, which, if you're just saying "trained" or "untrained" doesn't leave you a whole lot of options. If you're good at hitting people with swords and hitting people with axes, if you pick up a club, are you nonetheless restricted to using your "do everything else" stat? If so, how does this make any sense?

[Lmns Crn]

I mean, this is not really that new of a thing, is it? You're just taking a standard type of system where players have multi-tiered stats that work in concert (like the way D&D has Str/Dex/Con etc. and then assorted skills which rely on them, or the way World of Darkness has nine basic physical/mental/social attributes and a bunch of abilities such that each roll contains one of each, but they can be combined fluidly), and you're doing the math ahead of time. Plenty of existing systems also advise you to do the math ahead of time. (Just look at all the addition space on a typical D&D sheet.)

I'm really not sure what you gain with a system like this, besides a lot of stats that are more specific than I ever actually want to deal with. I can't imagine a system where I'd want to roll a stat like "not get tired when riding long distances" or "repair armor and weapons" or "not run away in combat", or where the outcome of such a roll is really going to be interesting or not-tedious.

Rather than split everything into a ton of incredibly specific skills (increasing bookwork and producing a fair number of individual skills which are, in my opinion, not very exciting), why not go the other way, get more general? Instead of two-dozen skills for warriors, why not just have a skill called "warrior" or something, that covers all the activities you mention in your first post? I'm a 3d6 Warrior (or whatever); therefore I roll 3d6 for all the stuff warriors are expected to have to be able to do. Maybe I'm also a 2d4 Trader and a 2d12 Explorer and a 1d6 Wiseass.

That way, if you decide during play that someone really needs to make a roll to keep their weapons and armor repaired or whatever, you have a system in place that's flexible enough to tell you what you should roll. But you aren't starting out by mandating those rolls based on the existence of a stat that only handles weapon and armor repair and does nothing else.

[Lmns Crn]

I mean, one thing that I do think is awesome about this idea is that it is a radical breakaway from the very traditional forms of Strength, Intelligence, etc. that we've seen for decades in all sorts of systems, and that it is also a breakaway from the two-tiered system of general, broad attributes which narrow down into more specific skills ("Agility" vs. "Sword Accuracy", etc.).

I basically think that anything that gets people thinking more creatively about stats and what makes a character is always a good thing.

[Kindling]

Too hungover to compose a proper response. Basically, there already are games that are very general with their stats and have things "warrior" that you roll on. Some of those games, I really like. This was just a thought-experiment about what would happen if you went the other direction. And yes, it would be over-complicated and a bit annoying and not very believable at times, but that might be part of the fun. Maybe. Probably not.

What about the idea of statting monsters that way though? Eh eh eh?

[Lmns Crn]

I think the more complicated approach would probably fine in, say, a video game-- where you wouldn't have to make all those rolls, and they could just happen behind the scenes.

I am pretty much 200% sold on that kind of monster stats, though. I want to say that's an idea that's familiar from somewhere, but I can't place where.