@Nyther: I put my foot in own mouth, apologies. Can you bulk up the Background a bit more? When I said Sparknotes give us the highlights, I did want an idea of what made them who they are and anything that helped shape them along the way. It doesn't need to be long in any way, but it'd be nice to see even one specific event that shaped James-z. I love that sketch by the way! 

[quote=Imperfectionist]
To be completely honest, Pellegrino, I am not a fan of numbers in this kind of game. I don't think they're necessary. The SPECIAL system is about game balance... Which we don't need in the slightest. This is an abstract game, we don't need to compare numbers between each other and the NPCs, we don't have derived statistics or hit points or anything at all. The numbers make the characters limited, when they really don't need to be.Can we just say which of our character's SPECIALs are above average, or below average, or really good, or really bad? More wriggle room, less "well, my Strength is seven and yours is six, so I can overpower you, and you can't argue against it!"EDIT: Then, we as a group and you as a GM can decide whether a character is realistic/reasonable or not.
[/quote]

I hear you, but please, humour me a little. The idea to using the SPECIAL system in this way is to give a clear reference point not just for your mates, but for me as a GM to use throughout the game. It's really easy to say someone walks with a bit of limp in a game and yet that limp never seems to get them caught when it counts. If adding values seems a bit rigid I apologize, but don't think people are going to be allowed to just dominate others simply because their strength is higher and what not. It does mean, though, that you can't be highly skilled in too many things without creating weaknesses too. I find all too often that we are pretty optimistic about our characters, bulking them up as needed more often than not. This should help with that. 

That said, I'm down for the group deciding what's reasonable after the fact. I like nothing better than to see the group reviewing one another's character sheets!