I would like to propose a change to the rules.

That is to change S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to S.P.E.C.I.A.L.S. an going from 42 to 48 points.
Adding a Speed stat.

Currently, we have to use Agility for how fast a character can run, which makes no sense at all. "How fast a character is has nothing to do with being agile at all, unless they are trying to make a sharp turn while running at full speed, perhaps while in mud or on ice."
There are pets who can juggle 5 or 6 tennis balls in the air, but still is a slow runner when they have to run.

Agility is about ("hand to eye coordination" parring a punch, your To hit when throwing a snowball) ("Balance" not falling off that tree limb your walking on.) an other "dexterous activities" an reflexes. (like not getting stabbed when fencing.)

Speed would be how fast the character is in a sprint, or straight line all-out run. how fast he/she runs the 4/40. (Dodging would use the speed stat, dodging out of the way of the car racing down the street, getting out of the way of the dodge ball.)

We can easily retrofit current characters by giving them a speed stat of 6.

Or we can allow the characters a one time reshuffling of there stats to account for this newly added stat.


Thank you for your attention...
Kee

I hate SPECIAL and basically ignore it.
I vote that everyone else do the same.

Whilst on the other side of the spectrum...

I had that problem quite a number of times to be honest, going so far as actually subdividing a stat into subcategories and basically just averaging their weights to determine the allocation for the available stat.

However, as seen in the post above, there are players who look at the SPECIAL(S) system as a mere encumbrance to character creation, preferring to resolve the differences by natural endowments as opposed to player set stats. ( i.e. CAT no beat up HUMAN but CAT can scratch up HUMAN real badly, etc. ) I believe it's not farfetched to say that the stat system had actually turned a few interested individuals away.

That said though, I still prefer a stat system with a fair share of common sense to prevent occurrences of....

<source: Wikipedia>
STR 20 mouse?

And I do support the addition of the speed stat. With 6 points available for allocation, which puts the stat as above average, it would allow players to customize their character to their liking without sacrificing other stats, but this might not be welcomed by characters who had allocated agility as a high stat as they would "lose" one point for every stat point above six they assigned to agility.

I think, for a free-form RP, trying to figure out how to make numbers work is a pain when you're not rolling anything. On top of that, it's really up to the players to watch their own characters, and to watch the characters they're letting into the neighborhood. This is much easier if we use the Strengths and Weaknesses system that I set up, where it clearly states what the character is good or bad at: they have their ups and downs. If it were up to me, I'd probably melt SPECIAL down into a more comprehensive version of that and just describe the characters by their capabilities.

Honestly, I don't think many of the roleplays use SPECIAL in a massive way. Either way, I see no trouble in allowing GMs the option of adding the extra stat (so long as the majority of people in the RP would be fine with the new skill being added). Forcing all the RPs to do it won't happen though. In the future, we may turn SPECIAL to SPECIALS in any case.

The reason why SPECIAL is so good is how mostly everybody has heard of it at some point. A lot of video games and adventure board games use SPECIAL after all. Alongside this, it's not a challenge to do. It takes minutes to write a SPECIAL, and probably won't take noticeably longer to write 'SPECIALS'. Adding any more detail to it though isn't really necessary and adds another level of complexity to it all.

The stat system is more or less to simply give other roleplayers and the GM a good representation of what your character is able to do, as well as helping to make a more balanced character.

In that regard, I am in support of adding the Speed stat.

I agree with adding a speed stat as well.

I'm against it... I have my character's stats as I like them and I don't wanna have to rebalance it again... and I don't wanna have to have another categorie to worry about splitting with....

it wouldn't really require a rebalancing, just assign between 1 and 6 points to speed and your good.

Speed could also be a combination of Strength and Agility, but I'm thinking of making an alternative system and tossing it in. I'm gonna look at my sheets when I have the time and try that...

Even if someone is muscular, he can still run really fast, no matter the size. Then again, if someone is slim and build like an athlete, doesn't mean he can run as fast.
SPECIAL system is good enough, but if more stats are to be added - It will be better if another system is put to use. Which will make a lot to people to re-stat their characters.

I'm against it actually. I'm pretty sure that the faq has agility covering both speed and reflexes. I'm certain it's not needed and might overcomplicate things. In generally most rpgs and board games, according to my research, speed is usually not used if agility is already there. Since agility is inclined to cover how fast a character can go doing anything to begin with. On the other side, Strengths and Weaknesses should be (if players want them) alotted to an option. I think SPECIAL is just fine by itself for right now.

Raccoon also came up with another additional option, Characteristics, and I think they should both be added as an optional section like the background.

Oh, yes, that is my character sheet there. I'm still working on it, though the basic idea is that you take each of those 4 categories, give a one or two word summary, and then go into detail about it. Still thinking up how to balance it...

I dislike the speed stat. I have built my characters the way I want, so long as it is not required, I can abide. But if is required, I will not rebalance my existing pets.