One rule I'm seriously contemplating is allowing the three attributes to influence any skill, depending on the situation. For example, I could see situations where Body might be a better fit for Travel than Heart. I could also see Wits working with Heal more than Heart in some scenarios. Thus, I'm thinking of getting rid of the notion that each attribute "rules" a limited set of six skills.

And, for added controversy, adding a Nimbleness attribute.

Now, tell me why I'm wrong!

I don't think your are wrong, but I see the system differently than other game systems where your attributes are more directly involved in your successes.

In TOR, if all goes well, you don't even have to invoke your attributes; the more skillful you are, the less you need to rely on your attributes to succeed. Attributes only come into play when a test fails and you are willing to go the extra mile (by spending a hope point) and struggle for success. So while it takes intelligence and knowledge to perform healing, I can buy that the difference between success and failure depends on one's dedication and empathy with its patient (especially since we're not talking modern science here).

In that light, attributes can be seen as what you can draw more than what you are. The trait mechanics exists to describe the 'what you are' part, granting automatic successes when that trait is concerned.

A similar situation arise with the Travel skill. Traveling depends on someone's fitness, but many athletes will tell you that it's concentration and willpower that makes you win the race (and sometimes even finish the race). Same with Stealth being under wits rather than body (nimbleness), Explore and Sing being body skills etc. You could mix them all in a different order and still make it work, but personally I like the way they are displayed.

So the way I see it, skills are not so much ruled by their attributes, but they are displayed in a way to portray which attributes makes the difference between close-success and close-failure. So while I can see that someone being particularity robust or physically fit (high body score) will do better at traveling, the system represents that with traits (Hardy in this case).

my two cents on the matter anyhow...

Glorfindel

I personally like the way all of the skills were organized and the great amount of care that was given to assigning them an attribute.

At first, having only three attributes really felt different. Then, the whole process of choosing an attribute score felt weird because I was so used to rolling. Finally, it was a revelation to realize that attribute scores only affect game mechanics when a Hope point is spent (for the most part).

That forces you to understand that a character is really as good as their level in a Common skill, but the difference in a pinch is when they can call on an attribute.

This means that a hero can have very little skill with riddles, for example, but if he has a high Wits score he can call upon his mind-power to do well.

It would be interesting to ask the game designers what their thoughts were when deciding each skill and which attribute would benefit them the most. I wonder which illustrations from Tolkien were thought of in the process.

Generally, I think the discussion presented by this post can also be presented as "Why not give player-heroes one Attribute level similar to Loremaster characters?"

I say this because if any attribute can be justified in some way to enhance a skill depending on the interpretation of the player, then Body, Heart, and Wits might as well be wrapped up in one number that best represents the character's determination or ability to succeed.

This is just my way of thinking. Because if I was a player with a Heart of 7+, I would be finding a way to use it to enhance every skill when necessary.

If the player were allowed to choose the attribute used, I would agree. But I wouldn't allow that. The LM would be the arbiter here, as in other games where the attribute used to affect a skill changes (Ars Magica, etc).

EDIT: I'm re-thinking this a bit. See my next post.

But do you think that by giving such "interpretation" to each attribute that it will lessen the power of the attribute in some way? I am only asking for conversation and curiosity's sake, not argument. It seems the designers have built into the system a balance of power for each attribute by assigning them the same number of skills.

If you want to keep that balance while tweaking things, you might have to look at each individual skill and see if there is another attribute that would also apply. Hopefully, when you are done, each skill will have two attribute possibilities and each attribute will still affect the same number of skills.

As far as Nimbleness goes, I think the Athletics skill is broad enough to cover it. Nimble may serve better as a Trait to cover situations where speed and balance was needed, etc.

Thinking about it more, I think opening it up to all attributes increases the utility of attributes in general, to be honest. I think it opens the game up to more interesting character interpretation. For example, let's look at Craft. Normally it is under the Body attribute. But what if you imagine your character as a master craftsman who has a Body of 2? That limits the brilliance of his potential creations. However, imagine his excellence comes not from the strength of his hammering arm, but his creativity (Heart)? Or what if his craftsmanship is derived from his understanding of engineering (Wits)? By divorcing skills from a fixed attribute, you can shape your character in more unique ways:

BODY: "My character is a skilled smith. His great strength affords him the ability to craft incredibly durable items."

HEART: "My character is a true artist. His creations are works of passion."

WITS: "My character is an inventor. He creates works of extraordinary complexity."

Now, if a character who normally uses WITS for his craft rolls tries to build something of real beauty and spends a Hope point to invoke an attribute, the LM might instead tell him he must use his Heart instead. Thus the engineer won't create an item of surpassing beauty and so on. I think it has real potential for interesting gameplay and character individualization.