Calculated statistics

Perception, Initiative, Body, Stamina, and Speed start free from your base stats — and you can raise them further by spending points.

You do not need this before your first game. Play with the defaults; buy extra levels when a concept asks for them.

Start here

The five calculated stats

Perception
Spot things, read a room, notice the wrong door.
Initiative
Who acts first when things get hot.
Body
How much physical punishment you can take before you go down.
Stamina
Your reserve for actions, exertion, and absorbing blows — the fight clock.
Speed
How quickly you move, and extra actions when the bank fills.

At the table

Using them

The app fills these in from your base stats. You can spend points to push one higher — same cost curve as a skill — when only that number matters to the concept.

Combat uses Initiative, Stamina, Body, and Speed. Perception is a roll of its own. See Combat and Stat & skill rolls.

Look this up: where the numbers come from

Each one starts from its source base stats. Some apply a divisor to fit the scale.

  • Perception — from Intelligence.
  • Initiative — average of Intelligence and Agility.
  • Body — average of Strength and Constitution.
  • Stamina — average of Constitution and Willpower, then scaled up (≈ ×4).
  • Speed — from Agility, halved.
Advanced: buying extra levels

On top of the calculated base, you can spend points to push a calculated stat higher — like buying skill levels. The cost follows the same curve as a skill: cheap at the bottom, steep near the top (level 1 costs 1 pt, level 2 costs 2 more, level 3 costs 3 more, and so on). Full table: Skills.

Lifting a base stat lifts every calculated stat that uses it and every skill rolled against it. That makes a base-stat boost a great deal — while it stays cheap.

Above 10, base stats get expensive fast: 10→11 is 1 pt, 11→12 is 2, 12→13 is 3, 13→14 is 4, and so on. A calculated level always costs the same as the next skill step, and that curve only ratchets up once you have already bought several levels.

So the choice is: cheap and broad now, or expensive and targeted later.

The classic case is Perception. Suppose you want to be the one who spots the trap, sees the ambush, and notices the wrong door — but the rest of an Intelligent character (sharper Initiative, better Medic and Tactics, more cunning) is not part of your concept.

  • Raising Intelligence from 10 to 13 costs 6 points and gives you Perception 13. It also raises Initiative, every INT-based skill target, and the entire INT-flavoured side of the sheet.
  • Raising Perception by 3 levels (on top of INT 10) costs 6 points too, gives you Perception 13, and leaves Intelligence at the human average.
  • Now suppose your INT is already 13 and you want Perception 16. Raising INT another 3 steps costs 4+5+6 = 15 points. Buying 3 Perception levels costs 1+2+3 = 6 points. Same Perception 16, less than half the price — and your INT stays where the rest of your concept wants it.

The same logic applies to Speed (you want to move first or run far without being generally agile), Stamina (you want to soak more without being a tank), or Body (similar). Targeted levels keep character points away from places your character does not need to spend them.

Rule of thumb:

  • Both your concept and a derived stat want lifting? Raise the base stat first — it pays for both.
  • Only the derived stat matters? Buy calculated levels and leave the base stat alone.
  • Already pushed the base stat? Calculated levels are almost always the cheaper extra reach.

See also