cRPG Stats

Stats in Computer Role-playing Games

Statistics aka stats are numbers or sets of numbers that define the nature of cRPG characters, creatures and things. Without interpretable cRPG stats and stat-based interactive mechanics that govern what characters can and cannot do, the game in question has not met cRPG Definition criteria and is therefore not a cRPG.

Stats are the building blocks of rulesets, which are one of the three pillars of cRPG Design.

Stats differentiate my cRPG Build from yours. And ideally, by way of cRPG Reactivity, they differentiate my experience of a cRPG from yours.

Stats are commonly held to be synonymous with Ability Scores or the primary attributes that constitute characters or creatures (e.g., the Strength score). However, there are also derived stats that are governed by prime stats as well as non-derived stats that function independently of prime stats; that is, the stat has no prerequisite and is not reliant on a prime for its function.

Moreover, stats are also assigned to non-living objects and mechanisms, such as locks, traps, static placeables, interactable or destructible objects such as doors, as well as cRPG Itemization (e.g. the stats of arms and armor).

That said, since the subject of cRPG stats is immense -- or rather inexhaustible -- my treatment confines itself to character and creature stats that are prime or derived from or work in conjunction with primes.

Define the cRPG Stat & Make Clear its Function

In cRPGs, what a given stat does is generally known to the player through experimentation, in-game explanation or reference to the game manual and its indexed charts. As a rule, what stats affect should be clear and transparent to players; their purpose should not be obfuscated, ambiguous or abstracted to the point of absurdity.

To be crystal clear, in order to make informed decisions that result in satisfying gameplay and cRPG Builds, players need to know what stats do. And ideally, they shouldn't have to spend too much time working out what is important to their character concept because the stats make sense. For example, the concept referred to by the term "Strength" is generally understood. But what Strength impacts needs to follow the general understanding as well.

Example of cRPG Stat Employment

Let's give an example of how several prime and derived stats work in a basic Baldur's Gate 1 Original character template.

The player wants to assume the role of Fighter BG1. From having read the game's manual, the player knows that Strength, Dexterity and Constitution are the prime stats for the Fighter class. By way of charts, the manual also tells the player exactly how Strength, Dexterity and Constitution scores adjust or modify THAC0, damage, armor class and hit points (and more besides, such as carryweight in the case of Strength).

In addition, the manual details the effects of weapon proficiencies on THAC0, damage, ApR and weapon speed.

Thus, the player knows what an effective basis for Fighter IS (in theory) before they have even begun controlling their character in the gameworld.

If they distributed their stats sensibly, the player can rightly expect their Fighter to be able to hit hard, hit accurately (at least for first level), dodge a hit and maybe even take a hit without being killed.

Once in the gameworld, the player equips a weapon and notes -- on the statpanel -- how their THAC0, damage and ApR adjusts or is modified based on their proficiency in the weapon.

Upon equipping a suit of armor, the player likewise notes how the armor's AC rating has adjusted their AC from their Dex-adjusted base AC (they stack).

The player can also note how one armor is better than another vs. specific weapon types as well as how some shields aid in projectile deflection.

When the Fighter is buffed by potions or spells, the values in the statpanel update accordingly as well. 

And lastly, if the character gains a resistance or immunity, stat entries and indicators are added as confirmation of such.

The physical offense and defense stats feed the to-hit mechanic that governs the rules of melee and ranged combat in AD&D 2nd Edition; that is, THAC0 - AC = to-hit, with each gained point of THAC0 granting +5% to-hit vs. AC 0.

Also explained in the manual, the to-hit mechanic is observable since its instances (each and every attack whether successful or not) are logged in a text-based combat feedback window. Through combat feedback, the THAC0 and AC of enemies can be worked out, too. Thus, thanks to the log, the player can calculate the percentage chance of landing a blow or dodging one (cf. THAC0 Baldur's Gate for a specific example).

On successful hits, damage is applied and sent to the log:

But even without the log, players can work out their expected damage by consulting damage sources such as the weapon's damage roll as well as the Strength and weapon proficiency adjustment to damage.

If the enemy is immune or resistant to the damage or enchantment type or level, the feedback log indicates that clearly as well, thereby forcing the player to make adjustments.

Therefore, at least as it pertains to martial combat, we have shown that what Baldur's Gate stats do can be well understood even by completely new players.

Number of Primary Stats

The sweet spot is six or seven primary stats or attributes. Fallout 1 and AD&D 2nd Edition got it right with 7/6, but Arcanum went overboard with 8. While not exactly the same, Beauty should have just fallen under Charisma. In addition, Perception wasn't needed since Dex could have fulfilled ranged weapons accuracy.

Primary Stat Range

To give primary stats the importance they deserve, the ideal range is 1-10. That is, 1 is the minimum and 10 is the maximum. Basically, Fallout 1's range is perfect. However, Fallout 1 ruined its perfection with the Gifted trait.

AD&D 2nd Edition's 1-25 range is rubbish in that derived martial accuracy deadzones exist: a Strength score of 16 doesn't adjust melee THAC0 any more than 8 does, and a Dex score of 15 doesn't adjust ranged THAC0 any more than 6 does.

In-game permanent increases to primary stats should be non-existent or extremely rare, forcing players to live with their build foundation. In addition, there should be no itemization that increases primaries when wielded or worn, such as Fallout 2's Advanced Power Armor granting +4 ST, which is OP.

Likewise, the Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Strength Tome eventually ruined innate Exceptional Strength (18/01-18/00) in BG1. And in its ham-fisted design BG2 (which is one of the worst cRPGs, not one of the best) basically wrote the rule off altogether with its early-game girdle of strength, not to mention imports.

Point Buy or Rolling

This one is easy: point buy all the way. Rolling is garbage and bad for game balance since most players NEVER accept bad rolls; they just keep re-rolling until they get an OP statline.

You cannot balance campaigns for optimal and gimped statlines.

cRPG Dumpstats

Dumpstats are cRPG stats whose scores have been deliberately reduced to minimums; that is, they have been dumped. Stat-dumping is employed by powergamers that want to free up stat-points for other, more important stats.

From cRPG Builds:

Min-maxing is the dumping of secondary stats in favor of further increasing core stats. Usually, social stats are dumped in favor of physical or mental ones. Extreme min-maxing even dumps one or two core stats in favor of a prime. For example, physical survivability such as dodge and soak is eschewed in favor of inflicting more damage (the glass cannon).

User Interface Presentation of cRPG Stats

In the past, cRPG user interface design has been limited by a lack of screenspace. However, the limited dimensions of active displays (e.g., 320x240 resolution) can be overcome by adding more UI modes or layering UI panels one atop another. Thus, stats can be presented clearly even at low resolutions if only developers take the time to design UIs that reduce reliance on external documentation. That said, the governer of stat presentation would then largely become RAM size, which was also lacking back in the day (e.g, a 600 KB assembly-coded executable running within 1 MB RAM).

An example of primitive stat presentation in Darklands, which was coded to run in a lousy 640 KB RAM yet took up 20 MB of hard disk space:

On the other hand, Master of Magic presents and explains its stats well. Even though MoM is an old, pre-Renaissance cRPG that runs in low fidelity, I never needed to refer to its manual for information on stats. That is because MoM -- being of god-tier design -- employs right-click pop-ups for almost all of its on-screen info (called by MoM Expanding Help).

Indeed, I never needed to reference MoM's manual for anything since the entire game makes perfect sense.

Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 furnish other examples of excellent SPECIAL stat presentation. Almost every component of their character sheets can be clicked on or moused over in order to get an explanation of what stats and derived stats do. Note how everything is packed into one screen thanks to a doubling of fidelity (native resolution of 640x480): all stats are visible at all times.

It does NOT get any better than that. It just doesn't. Fallout 1 absolutely nailed chargen stat presentation directly on the head. You cannot beat this. It is perfection.

As we increase and decrease our prime stats in Fallout and Arcanum, we can observe -- in realtime -- how derived stats are impacted.

Temple of Elemental Evil reigns supreme in the sphere of cRPG stats since almost nothing is hidden from players. This is known as the ability to look under the hood.

More than any other game in cRPG History, ToEE allows players to see how things work and what's going on.

In ToEE, players get extensive yet concise stat breakdowns for each and every combat and non-combat action. In addition, players can access the D&D 3rd Edition SRD ruleset through hyperlinks in the combat feedback log and statpanels, which are shown below in blue text.

That is an example of King-tier UI design. To this day, I have never referenced the ToEE manual.

Most other cRPGs lack ToEE's hyperlinks and built-in ruleset referencing, but still do a good enough job in stat presentation.

Presentation of an attack bonus in Icewind Dale 2:

Presentation of an attack bonus in Neverwinter Nights 1:

Presentation of an attack bonus in Neverwinter Nights 2:

Sometimes, due to dev-cycle oversights, cRPGs fail to display stat updates based on buffs and abilities. Take for example Neverwinter Nights 1: note how Haste (a buff) and Flurry (an ability) are not coded to update the attack bonus readout on NWN Builds.

That said, stat employment and stat presentation in both NWN1 and NWN2 are well above average.

An example of weapon stat presentation in Jagged Alliance 2 1.13.

Conclusion

Ultimately, we want to know what cRPG stats do and we want to see stats at work in the cRPG through the frequent interplay of impactful combat and utility mechanics, which are stat-based. For me, this is a primary contributor to cRPG Meaning and a key component of cRPG Design.

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