I'm not sure if I mentioned it before but in 2013 I ran a few Perilous Path games, all of them with only one player (my girlfriend, Natalia). As we played only during some "wilderness" trips (actually not very wild, but...), we used one of my favorite set of rules, which is... no rules except GM's decisions! And it worked pretty well.
However, about four months ago I decided that some kind of rules actually may be helpful - just to keep track of character's progress. And due to the wandering nature of our game sessions, it had to be diceless.
Instantly I began to think about some kind of a clone of the game with name of the castle in its title. And castle's name is the same as the common name of the fossilized tree resin :) Unfortunately, I got stuck with its most basic component for over one-third of the year.
For over four months I was unable to simply create a decent set of... basic attributes. I didn't wanted to simply rip off the original four stats, as I avoid direct cloning of the ideas. Also, I thought that despite their work perfectly for demigod creatures, they will be somewhat incomplete for (more or less) ordinary mortals.
Yesterday the enlightenment came. Of course, during the shower (gushing water is my usual source of good ideas :D). Yesterday I finally managed to figure out the five main attributes. And here they are:
STRENGTH | DEXTERITY | ENDURANCE | MIND | POWER
Strength depicts raw physical power.
Dexterity combines both manual ability and more general agility and grace.
Endurance in most cases means the durability of one’s physical body, his/her ability to withstand pain, fatigue and other negative factors.
Mind combines intelligence, cunning and willpower.
Power is a bit tricky, as it contains both combat skills and magical / mystical abilities, as well as any kinds of extrasensory perception.
Most humans have their attributes between 10 and 50. Heroes from the ancient past (and experienced PCs) could have some of their attributes as high as 70-100. Most powerful mythical monsters may have some of their stats even at 250, while gods can attain even higher numbers.
How to use the Power stat?
It's simple, at least for me (but may be bit harder to explain) - in combat, Power attribute may be used combined with Dexterity or Strength, or even both of them.
For magic, Power should be used mostly with Mind, but in some cases Endurance is important as well.
Well, that's all for the moment. I think that players will get 100 character points to distribute amongst the attributes, plus of course some extra points to spent / gain on additional features (I'm currently thinking about them so expect some examples... soon).
