Stats

Like many other tabletop roleplaying games, Edda uses a set of values to describe physical, mental, social and spiritual capabilities of all characters and creatures. In Edda I’ve decided to go with stats, short for statistics, simply because it is snappy and easy to remember.

Edda’s five stats

When the players look at their stats, they should evoke Norse fantasy. Naming the stats then becomes about finding words that could be used to describe an archetypal hero in a saga. Because I do not want Edda to have a list of skills, the framing of the stats also needs to showcase their use. I began in my native language, Danish, and then did my best to find a translation that works in English. I have included the Danish words here, for fun. 

• Strength (Styrke) – your brawn, might and endurance. 
• Agility (Adræthed) – your finesse, speed and stealth.
• Cunning (Kløgt) – your logic, knowledge and guile.
• Instinct (Instinkt) – your awareness, aim and intuition.
• Spirit (Ånd) – your empathy, willpower and charm.

Personally, I really like that the three non-physical stats all have both a mental and social aspect. I also really wanted to separate speed and precision. Here is my current draft for the rules:

Strength

• You use your strength to lift, break, endure, and hold your ground. 
• It is your physique and the force you apply with your muscles. 
• Strength checks include jumping over a chasm, running for hours without a break, climbing a wall to get into town, holding the door to keep out a hostile horde, or pushing an enemy over a precipice.
• You add strength to the damage die on melee attacks.

Agility 

• You use agility to dodge, sneak, hide, and balance. 
• It is your finesse, precision, and dexterity. 
• Agility checks can be moving unseen and silently through an enemy camp, avoiding falling into a dangerous trap, squeezing through prison bars, or stealing a wallet from a merchant’s pocket.
• You add your agility to your defence when taking a dodge reaction.

Cunning

• You use cunning to understand, analyse, deduce, and strategise.
• It is your reason, logic, and guile.
• Cunning checks might be to estimate the price of a gemstone, lie to the town guard about what is in your cart, or figure out the meaning of an ancient runic script.

Instinct

• You use instinct to observe, track, and shoot your bow.
• It is your awareness, aim and intuition.
• Instinct checks are used to discover enemies lurking in the dark before they attack, find your way through a dense forest, and figure out the merchant’s motivations for their actions.
• You add instinct to the damage die on ranged attacks.

Spirit 

• You use spirit to sympathise, sing, speak to an audience, and compose yourself.
• It is your empathy, charisma, willpower and courage.
• Spirit checks could be to resist magical effects on the mind, persuade the city guard to let you in through the gate, speak an epic poem in front of a crowd or negotiate with a merchant about purchasing a new sword.

Rolling stats

In Edda you roll your stats. I want to use a process that lets you roll your stats without running the risk of an imbalance. Ending up with low stats can be very discouraging, especially for new players. I want players to walk away from character creation excited to play their character. So I went with a distribution method that is random without being punishing.

Variant rule: Random stats

Some people enjoy creating characters with high stat randomness. If you are ready to play what you are given by the Norns, don’t worry. Edda has something for you! Instead of creating the groups and assigning them, do this instead:

• The number of 1s determines your strength.
• The number of 2s determines your agility.
• The number of 3s determines your cunning.
• The number of 4s determines your instinct.
• The number of 5s determines your spirit.
• Reroll your 6s, or if you are truly hardcore, discard them.