Stats

Stats are a basis for your character. They vaguely describe such things how strong, smart, magical, or agile your character is. These stats usually effect many aspects of your character such as HP or damage as well as your ability to do successful checks. With the way this is set up a system that uses skills and stats may cause someone with high stats and no ranks in a skill to outperform someone with poor stats and spending ranks in the skill. The importance of a stat may cause a God Stat or a Dump Stat if the stat is underrepresented in the RAW of the game.

Some systems avoid stats and go with a skill based system instead. Some people call skill ratings stats, too. The distinction is a bit muddy.

Examples

Fallout's SPECIAL system. The SPECIAL stats are:

• Strength: A measure of your raw physical power. It affects how much you can carry, and determines the effectiveness of all melee attacks
• Perception: A high perception grants a bonus the Explosives, Lockpick and Energy Weapons skills, and determines when red compass markings appear(which indicate threats).
• Endurance: Endurance is a measure of your overall physical fitness. A high Endurance gives bonuses to health, enviromental resistances and the big guns and unarmed skills.
• Charisma: Having a high Charisma will improve people's disposition toward you, and give bonuses to both the Barter and Speech skills.
• Intelligence: Intelligence affects the Science, Repair and Medicine skills. The higher your Intelligence, the more skill points you'll be able to distribute when you level up.
• Agility: Agility affects your Small Guns and Sneak skills, and the number ofAction Points available for V.A.T.S
• Luck: Raising your luck will raise all of your skills a little. Having a high Luck will also improve your critical chance with all weapons.