Unifying the System (The Extranormal/Force/Whatever Attribute)

[Jamfke]

After some discussion with Grimace, Lee Torres, Stormchild and Kalzazz during a recent chat session, we wanted to post a short poll for the community to help naming the ever illusive Enigmatic attribute. This is for those wishing to create supplements that can be easily used with any genre.

Here is a list of choices we tossed around while chatting:

Paranormal
Supernatural
Other (insert your ability here)
Metaphysics

My personal favorite is Other. You can insert whatever moniker covers the setting you're working with in the parentheses, like (Magic) or (Psionics).

Vote for your favorite. This will help us flavor any future fan made settings or other material for folks to use in their games.

[imported_Magman]

I like Whatever. :rolleyes:

Ah, I am being serious. I know it is not a choice, but maybe we can add it. :)

[Whill]

I think for your general one-genre version of D6, "Extranormal" is as good as any attribute name. You could even call it "Extranormal (insert more specific description here)."

In my house version of Star Wars, the "Force" skills are based on an attribute as in the current version of D6. But I didn't want to call it "the Force" because even in the Star Wars galaxy there are other non-Jedi/non-Sith approaches to the Force that refer to it as something else. I considered using "Metaphysics" as in D6 Space, but I remembered that the attributes Mechanical and Technical are really short for Mechanical Aptitude and Technical Aptitude, so I settled on "Metaphysical Aptitude" or "Metaphysical" for short. The -al suffix seems to go along with the other attributes better, IMO. And not calling the attribute the Force means it is further differentiated from the game mechanic named Force Points, which I'm leaving the same just because it already has that name.

[Cryonic]

They are Fate points outside the SW D6 System...

[Whill]

They are Fate points outside the SW D6 System...

Yes, I do have D6 Space.

And funny that you said that Cryonic. In my last post I orignally had an extra sentence at the end that I backed out before I submitted it. It was, "And if any of my players refer to Force Points and Fate Points, I don't correct them."

[hums X-Files theme music] :cool:

Since my game is Star Wars, I'm gonna stick with the original name of the mechanic, but like I said, I wouldn't care if anyone said Fate Point instead.

Did you know that Fate Points was the original name for Character Points of SW 2E? You can find them in the original Heir to the Empire Sourcebook in 1992, which is technically still a 1E product that was made while 2E was being finalized. They changed it because they thought there would be too much confusion with Force Points.

[hellsreach]

Extranormal is not really the name of the attribute as it stands. Extranormal simply refers to any esoteric attribute that is present in a system, but NOT manditory to the common denizen of the setting. In Open D6, for example, people would have the option to pick and choose from numerous extranormal FX systems, each with it's own unique attribute name. Actually, that will be one of the requirements of lending an FX system to Open D6 -- a unique name. That way you could have a half dozen different methods to handle traditional fantasy magic, but you could avoid confusion by telling players "the magic rules we are using for this game is Extranormal:Sorcery" or " ... Extranormal:Cabalism" or whatever, and players could go directly to the website an download that ruleset and any suppliments available for is (like spell lists).

There is certainly nothing wrong with wanting a single robust FX system that is applicable to various genres that one can use regardless of the game they are running, but I'm no keen to force everyone into that framework.

D6 is all about options, IMHO.