Deathwish characters are defined by many traits: Attributes, Skills, Qualities, Relationships and Resources. The most fundamental of all of these, and of any roleplaying game, are the Attributes — the core capabilities of a character.
Deathwish Attributes represent the physical and mental makeup of the character — the hardware. As such, they serve as the basis and limits of other abilities. They are also, compared to Skills and other “software” traits, relatively fixed and hard to change, with the very notable exceptions of body modifications and injuries. They are also arguably less important than in many other game systems, at least in that having a particularly high Attribute isn’t automatically very useful.
Primary Attributes
Primary Attributes represent a character at its most fundamental. Everything else is rooted in them. Human-scale Attributes run from 1-10, with an average score being 5. Most people have Attributes between 3 and 7; scores outside that range are exceptionally good or poor.
Body is a measure of a character’s overall health and physical condition. It is rolled directly to avoid fatigue, in contests of endurance, and when wounded, and it is also indirectly used to resist damage and in movement. This is Deathwish‘s “Constitution” attribute.
Strength is a measure of a character’s physical power and physical stature. It is rarely rolled directly except when performing feats of strength, but has many ancillary uses, including resisting damage and recoil, carrying heavy loads, moving objects, and doing hand-to-hand damage.
Agility is a measure of a character’s quickness, hand-eye coordination, and precision of movement. It is rolled directly for physical movement or manipulation tasks and is also the base Attribute for many Skills and Secondary Attributes. Almost all physical actions depend to some degree on Agility.
Intelligence is a measure of a character’s reasoning, cognition, knowledge, and memory. It is a broad representation of a character’s overall mental acuity and ability to think. It is rolled directly to correctly draw conclusions or remember information and is also the base Attribute for many Skills and two Secondary Attributes. Intelligence is also important when a character needs to think quickly in order to do something else or make a decision.
Willpower is a measure of a character’s dedication, resilience, and ability to exercise good judgment. It is rolled directly to make tough decisions, endure stress, resist coercion, and in similar situations in which a character’s force of will is important or in question. It is also the base Attribute for some Skills and one Secondary Attribute. Like Strength, it is most often used passively.
Empathy is a measure of a character’s force of personality, ability to relate to others, and general sociability and likability. It is rolled directly to gauge others’ mental or emotional states and contributes to a Secondary Attribute. It is also the basis of most social Skills and is very important to maintaining relationships and getting along in public. It is also prone to being reduced by dehumanizing influences such as combat, drug abuse, living in squalor, and social isolation.
Perception is a measure of a character’s ability to discern, recognize, and properly interpret sensory stimuli. It is rolled directly to spot, hear, or smell things, to notice signs, and to search. It is also the basis of a few Skills and contributes to two Secondary Attributes. It is most often used passively, but is invaluable in keeping characters out of trouble, or at least in helping them get out of trouble they’re already in.
Secondary Attributes
Secondary Attributes are based on two Primary Attributes each. Their beginning values are the average of the two contributing Primary Attributes, but they can be modified independently by events, Traits, body modifications, and experience.
Trauma Tolerance represents a character’s physical resistance to damage and injury. It is the average of Body and Strength; healthier systems handle trauma better, and greater body mass means there’s more tissue to absorb a blow. Trauma Tolerance sets a character’s wound thresholds.
Speed is a character’s ability to move quickly. It is the average of Body and Agility; good physical conditioning and quickness and coordination both contribute to moving fast. It is rolled directly when moving quickly is important and also determines movement rates.
Reaction is a character’s ability to act quickly. It is the average of Agility and Perception; the mind must be able to recognize a situation and determine the appropriate response, and the body must be able to execute it quickly. It is rolled directly to act quickly or before something else happens or someone else acts. It is also of great use in combat and other life-or-death situations.
Initiative is a character’s ability to quickly assess a situation and decide what to do. It is the average of Agility and Intelligence; the mind must be able to quickly figure out a plan of action and get the body to execute it. It differs from Reaction in that it used to determine how quickly a character figures out what to do; Reaction determines how quickly a character actually does it. It is rolled directly to determine the order of action in combat and to make split-second decisions in other situations.
Nerve is a character’s ability to keep a cool head and act effectively under stress. It is the average of Intelligence and Willpower; one has to have a good head on their shoulders in the first place, and it has to be kept focused and running. Nerve is rolled directly to determine how effectively a character may act in combat or other life-or-death situations and to carry on effectively when wounded or frightened. Fighters with low Nerve will spend a lot more time cowering, taking cover, running, or firing ineffectively than doing anything useful, while those with high Nerve will get to make their own decisions in the middle of hectic firefights; it is perhaps the greatest distinction between good and poor combatants.
Intuition is a character’s ability to draw conclusions not immediately obvious or evident from what is known and to discern something amiss — to get and follow a hunch. It is the average of Empathy and Perception; one must be able to feel and read other people and to notice subtle cues. It is rolled directly to detect lies, subtle strangeness, and danger. It is also used to get around dead ends in adventures by soliciting clues from the gamemaster.
