OH MY A CHANCE TO SHARE MY OPINION CAN’T LET THE CHANCE ESCAPE!

So let’s talk about what stats do for a moment. 

The point of having stats is to measure a character’s ability to do something. This is usually helpful in DnD campaigns or other structured forms of roleplaying where you want to quantify a characters stats. It also forces players to chose their strengths instead of just being a god at everything. A strong, durable barbarian is probably not smart as an example. Stats allow the player and GM see how a character is and decide on the likelihood of an action being successful or not. 

Does this work? Well enough. If we look at Trixy’s stats, we know she’s average at everything but really excels at AGI. This makes her an accurate sniper and lets her move around swiftly. Amaryllis is a physical monster, but is a bit of a glass cannon. In this sense, the stats do their job of indicating what a character can do. And in PvE situations, the 30+ stat gap between Penny and Deni/Connie hasn’t really posed an issue.

But what makes stats a problem isn’t how they work when interfacing the GM, it’s how they function when interfacing other players. Even if there isn’t a lot of direct PvP in this RP, there are plenty of times when characters do something that contests another one. Does Trixy or Amaryllis get to the button first? Does Regina’s curse affect Penny? Stuff like that. This has a tendency to prevent players from engaging with those who are considerably stronger then them. An example of this is how Plat keeps insisting that Deni isn’t strong enough to do anything, and how a few players feel miffed that they will never be as strong as some of the old faces. And when you have a gap that’s 30+ points wide, it’s understandable.

Do stats actually give bonuses in RP though? It has always been Ari’s stance that stats are more indicators of a character’s power spread rather than something that relates to other girls. But Ari is also the one that said “The minion perk for horror girls scales with MAG” and “If your MAG is high enough, null field can be shaped the way you want it.” And that does not really agree with what Ari has stated earlier. Don’t quote me on this, but I thought Ari said that normal horror minions consisted of auto 1-hit monsters like goblins, and if you had 20 MAG you could control things like gorelions, which were a boss in season 1. I was also told that Amber’s magic had to fail against Janet because there was a 3 point difference in their MAG stat. It makes it sound like the only way to make the most out of certain character abilities is to have the right stats.

I’ve recently created Oros, who has a rather even 12/12/11 stat spread across her STR/AGI/VIT. I was PMed by several GMs asking if I inflated the numbers and even had a player accuse me of power gaming. But here’s the funny thing about Oros. On one hand, she is totally dwarfed but Penny’s 20/20/20 stat set up. On the other, she is considerably higher than characters on the lower end. Even though stats ”don’t mean anything,” I know that Oros will inevitably get auto parried by Amaryllis and Deni won’t be able to have a romanticized duel between with a fellow katana weilder. When either of those things happen, everyone will point their fingers at the almighty stat block. Which is a shame, because I think it would make for a better story if these characters could fight on even footing.

To fix stats the first thing that needs to happen is the GMs need to decide what the frick they even mean. They are either a hard representation of one’s power in the RP or are soft guidelines for an individual character’s power spread. Once that has been decided, steps can be taken to make sure that older players don’t have such an edge over newer players to the point where it feels insurmountable. 

A few suggestions. you probably don’t want to use all of them, and some are more work than others:

~Newer CHARACTERS have higher starting coinage, with the understanding they can’t pool it all on their primary PC

~Stat advantages are added to normal and DMGs to make up for the stat gap caused by monster girls using the DMG module + mutations.

~Catch up mechanics so that newer players can EVENTUALLY join the ranks of the veteran players. I love flexing on noobs, but let’s give them an incentive to stick around.

~Make stats something that everyone can freely allocate and is the same for everyone. You get more as the seasons go on, etc.

~As an aside, I think the max stat cap is a good idea. But I was the one who suggested it so that shouldn't surprise anyone.

[hr]

Also, people were talking about other uses for coins than boosting stats. Here are some ideas for that:

~Make coins required for organizations/groups: Might be fun to create a new sub system where players can get bonuses by creating a “guild.” Coins could then be used to make the organization stronger and gain additional benefits. If the Sakura gang gets enough coins together, everyone gets bikes. ETC.

~Make it so that you can buy plot stuff with coins: It might be interesting to let player buy their own “character arc” for the RP. This would give players a reason to try to earn the coins of other players so that they could enact a scheme or complete the final steps of their magical girl journey. It won’t be for everyone, but it creates a need and possibly an "economy."

~Make it so that you can “bid” for change: We seem to enjoy debating shit. Might be interesting to involve coins with it somehow. If you want a change so bad you’re willing to part with coins for it, clearly you want it more than all the tight purses right?