Introduction to the Elements Part 2- Attributes.

Note: This post is out of date. For an up to date explanation of the Elements, go here.

Before discussing Attributes, I should discuss one particular, and perhaps the most important type of Frame in Tribute; the HOUSE.
 
A HOUSE is a potential plane of conflict in a campaign, and they can vary depending on the types of conflict that the campaign about. A HOUSE is where you keep most of your innate effects and powers.

Example HOUSEs are "Body", "Mind", and "Soul", but there's no reason your campaign couldn't use "Yin" and "Yang", the four classical elements ("Earth", "Air", "Fire", and "Water"), or "Social" and "Finance".  A given HOUSE is given a definition that defines constant effects, or which disallows it  from containing certain other elements or effects, so each HOUSE can have its own "laws of physics". The game world itself is treated as a HOUSE, and so are other planes of existence if they are used.

ATTRIBUTES 

Attributes define broad strengths and weaknesses in your character. They facilitate contested actions, and modify every roll you make in the game.

They are close to what you might be used to in other games, except that they are more generalized. There are three Attributes; ACCESS, FORCE, and COUNTER. Typical stats like "Perception", "Strength", or "Endurance" can be seen as specific instances of these three Attributes.

ACCESS is the Attribute that governs activating, using, converting or infiltrating. It's the Attribute that gives you opportunities. Finesse.

FORCE is the Attribute that governs empowering, overpowering,  moving, or destroying. It's the imposing Attribute.  Power.

COUNTER is the Attribute that governs building, reinforcing, deconstructing, or denying. It's the recovery, protection, and growth Attribute.  Resistance.

Attributes are primarily understood within the context of the HOUSE (or other Frame) they reside in. Therefore, { FORCE of "Body" }  correlates to "Strength", while { FORCE of "Mind" } might correlate to "Willpower".

Each of the Attributes governs four Functions, hinted at above.

ATTRIBUTE USAGE

Attributes are Ranked on a logarithmic scale, centered on 0 (average for a human) that can go negative or positive to infinity, at least in theory. The scale is such that for FORCE (of "Body") , the weight/mass you can lift roughly doubles every +3 Ranks, and roughly multiplies by 10 every +10 Ranks.

When you perform any action that attempts to overcome obstacles, you roll at least one die, and add the Attribute's Rank (possibly with limited modifiers)  to your roll.  Compare your roll to your opponent's roll, even if that opponent is the environment itself, and whoever rolls higher succeeds.  That's right, Tribute uses opposed rolls for everything. I think I might include options for allowing GMs to set Target numbers if they like, but I like the default rule to be that the world can present active resistance. It allows for things like winds that try to pull your character off of a cliff that they're climbing, or lava plumes that attack you in the middle of a combat.

CONNECTION to KABBALAH

The three Attributes correspond to the three "Mother" letters in Hebrew- Aleph, Mem, and Shin. They are said to form the other letters, but to have been created ex nihilo.  Mem is ACCESS, Shin is FORCE, and Aleph is COUNTER.

The three mother letters represent three polarities,  sort of like  -, +,  and Ø, or Yin, Yang, and Tao.

The Sepher Yetzirah , "The Book of Formation", a central Kabbalistic text, says:

"Three mothers, namely A, M, SH, these are Air, Water, and Fire: Mute as Water, Hissing as Fire, and Air of a spiritual type, is as the tongue of a balance standing erect between them pointing out the equilibrium which exists."

This means that Mem (meaning "water") is Yin, Shin (meaning "tooth") is Yang, and Aleph (meaning "Ox") is Tao.

Since the three Mothers covered the three primal "energies" from which all else was created and motivated, it made sense to use them for my three Attributes.

Taking a page from White Wolf's World of Darkness,  I decided that I needed a power stat, a resistance stat, and a finesse stat. It seemed like these would cover most of the bases.

Yin, Mem, would be the finesse stat- ACCESS.

Tao, Aleph, would be my resistance stat- COUNTER.

Yang, Shin, would be my power stat- FORCE.

They've each become a bit more than just finesse, resistance, and power, but that's the origin of these Elements.

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