Yes, yes, I know, I should have killed them and taken their stuff when I had the chance. But now, by jove, I find myself… agreeing. It just seems that two stats, while quick and easy, just aren’t enough to feel like a fleshed-out RPG to us. Fortunately, I had a nog-fueled epiphany a couple nights ago as I was drifting off to sleep, and have decided upon a hideous solution.

• *FA is divided up into three sub-stats: Gunnery (for all firearms), Explosives (for grenades, TPKs, and Paradise Bombs), and Melee (for all hand weapons).
• NFA is divided up into three sub-stats: Physical (changing range/weapon, any story event that requires lifting or climbing, etc.), Mental (the Dominance roll, any story event that requires spotting, thinking, fixing, etc.), and Social (the Development roll, any story event that requires shmoozing, ordering, bootlicking, etc.).
• FA and NFA are kept around because they are still used for stuff, including determining Level and the Aliens’ AA. Straight NFA is still used for special abilities (Force Weakness, Evac, Orbital Bombardment, etc.).

Characters are generated as normal, with 10 points to split between FA/NFA. Sub-stats are determined from a point pool of 2X the relevant stat. Example: Biffy gives his Trooper an FA of 6 and an NFA of 4. He now has 12 points to divide among Gunnery/Explosives/Melee, and 8 points to divide among Physical/Mental/Social.

One side effect of this mod is that even a 20th-level character will not be maxed in every ability. I consider it a feature, not a bug.

I plan on playtesting this within the next weekend or two. I think it will provide a better handle on PC customization and encourage my players to do stuff outside of combat more often, but the proof is in the pudding.

I plan on having leveling up be normal (+1 to either FA or NFA). This would result in one more point being available to add to the sub-stat of the player’s choice.

I think I won’t put any restrictions on point distribution in sub-stats; if a player really wants to overspecialize, it creates an opportunity for other players (or the GM!) to screw him over by pushing him into situations where he sucks.

One idea I’m mulling over is to give players an additional +1 to the sub-stat of their choice when they use a flashback. If a player put them all in the same set of sub-stats, it would allow them to max them out (thus making those sub-stats irrelevant), but it would only occur at max level, which isn’t too bad. Perhaps only a +1 for using a Strength, which would still leave them 5 points short of perfection…