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Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Shiningted, Nov 19, 2005.

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  1. whatsername74

    whatsername74 The Poison Woman

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    Yeah, I agree with that. It wouldn't be a very interesting topic if we were all just posting 8-10s for everything. I thought the point was to have fun with it and exaggerate a little.
     
  2. GuardianAngel82

    GuardianAngel82 Senior Member

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    Hmmm. I thought the complaint about me was that what I do makes your stats too high.

    Standard D&D player, male, in his 20's, not working out, 2 years of college, would probably run something like:

    Str 10
    Dex 13 (after minimal practicing)
    Con 8 (get off the computer a little bit, twice a week)
    Int 16 (easily, average people watch TV, not play games where you have to analyze and plan)
    Wis 12
    Char 11

    Working out, Str +2-3
    Running, Con +4
    Karate or a sport, Dex +2 and Con +2
     
  3. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    Exaggeration and fun is fine. It's the "I'm actually this way!" stuff creeping into it that gets a little silly.

    BTW, low (or realistically median) scores can actually be fun to play, as it gives the experience a meta-human cast and makes everything that much more of a challenge. I know it's no fun to miss-miss-miss in combat all the time (although the RNG, when it's feeling kind, seems to correct for that), but there's something about ubering out all your characters that leaves you equally hollow, IMO. It's like there's nothing left to strive for.

    Uber: Uber-Samson was equal to every task and conquered all his enemies without a scratch. The end.

    Normal: Normal old whatsername tried very hard and got surprisingly far but was killed in the end by an ettin in a surprise free-for-all down in the 3rd level of the evil temple.

    Which sounds more compelling?
     
  4. maalri

    maalri Immortal

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    OK GA I understand most of this-but a 16 on INT just for playing computer games? I thinks that is a bit high- and I disagree witht he Running adding to CON- it seems to make sense but in the DnD manuals it does put Stamina under the STR score, not CON, and I believe Stamina is really what would be gained from running not resistance to disease- maybe a +1 CON for general health boost, but certainly not a +4 and I would only give STR a +1 to +3 depending on if they are an infrequent runner like me (about 6 miles total a week) or a marathoner... Not sure I understand the high side of average score on WIS either as most "Book-smart" people tend to be on the lower side of Wisdom (as they tend not to have a lot of common sense and frequently disregard as false religious insight- the two traits most mentioned in the description of Wisdom)

    But if these were YOUR scores, I mean a specific person and not an average "gamer" then I dispute nothing :)

    I have posted MY scores above- but as has been mentioned in this thread recently exaggeration is fun- or maybe just wishful thinking?

    Anyway that being said I would like to list my LOWEST scores I think I have:

    STR 11 -I am definitely at least average
    DEX 9 - Thats a far cry from my 14 posted earlier but I can't juggle without a lot of practice first and my hand-eye coord is pretty good but not phenominal -I am fairly agile, but can be clumsy sometimes.. so lower avg here
    CON 9 -again a bit lower but not much- I think I used to be less healthy- but I got back in shape and that bumped me a point (see above) dang allergies bring me down a bit
    INT 13 - I have to go with this AT LEAST because I really do pick up things fast and retain a lot of things that I can put together at the right times...
    WIS 8 - I have less common sense than average I am told. but I disagree and life experience has helped me a bit.
    CHR 11 - I am a happy person that is kind and most people like me, but I don't always rub everyone the right way, and I am not a "looker"

    That all being said- I'd still take a mage class and boost my INT whenever possible.

    So- what are everyone ELSE'S LOWEST Stats? C'mon give it a try folks
     
  5. GuardianAngel82

    GuardianAngel82 Senior Member

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    Good grief! How can so many people say they have an IQ score of 140 and still think they are average? With an IQ of 130, which is 2 standard deviations above the mean (average) of 100, which means that only 2.3 % of the population is smarter than you. This is similar to the probability of rolling a 17 or an 18 on three dice.

    An IQ of of 130 is an Int of 16. Don't worry about people who say they have an IQ of 180. They are lying.

    Common sense, which is COMMON, is the stuff you learned as a kid. People who fail to display common sense about something are not thinking about that thing, for whatever reason.

    I can't say much about dexterity. If you practice something, you get better at it. And slightly better at similar things. Simply put, what are you good at? Dex is rarely innate.
    In GA training, we practice avoidance techniques. They have to be learned by practice.

    Your constitution is essentially your body's capacity for generating energy. You use it to run, or to fight off infection. (And to think.) Pretty much everything your body does uses energy. Aerobic training increases this capacity. I cannot say there is a direct connection with that and poison resistance, though.

    Wisdom is essentially accumulated knowledge and experience.The old YOU get the wiser YOU are. But 2 people of the same age are NOT the same wisdom. The 12 comes from the age being in the 20's. Remember, 10.5 is the average wisdom of an 18 year old. Now go back and edit your estimation, huh?

    I'm happy about the Intelligence. I think a Dexterity stat is hard to connect to reality. I think I'm on the right track with Strength and Constitution, though I'm not sure about the numbers. Stamina SHOULD be part of Strength, as well as of Constitution. Wisdom really IS just another word for experience. And I don't give a crap about Charisma.

    One last word on intelligence. Stupid people always think they are smarter than everyone else. And I've spent half my life trying to convince intelligent people they are smarter than they think. Like I am now. No lie, brother. ;)
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2009
  6. whatsername74

    whatsername74 The Poison Woman

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    Of course we must bring attention to the fact that there are many forms of intelligence. Being "booksmart" doesn't always mean that you are more intelligent than someone who may not be so strong in that department. Should we just assume that the Intelligence stat is a figure that takes all forms of intelligence into account?

    [EDIT]How ironic :p
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2009
  7. GuardianAngel82

    GuardianAngel82 Senior Member

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    I'm not sure there IS such a thing as pure intelligence. There's no doubt that people who are smart in one area are not necessarily smart in another area. However, I've noticed that people who are curious, who expend time and energy investigating new things, tend to be pretty sharp overall.

    This is one of the reasons I'm crazy about kids. They are little learning machines. And a lot of fun. :joy:

    "Booksmarts" represents knowledge gained in a classroom or from a book. It means the person has chosen to benefit from the knowledge of those who have gone before, instead of learning everything the hard way. By ending up old, with no one listening to you.

    To answer your question a little bit. No. I think it's a number, like an IQ test score. But we use it in a game of numbers as a general indicater of intelligence.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2009
  8. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    That's the second smartest thing I've read in this thread. Girls for the win!
     
  9. Scryler

    Scryler Night's Wordsmith

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    Wisdom, imo, is not relegated solely to older individuals.

    I has to do more, I think, with the amount of experience one has had. I've
    met young people who had tremendously wide experience...and wisdom. And older people
    who had very little, on both counts.

    And, of course, there are those who don't seem to learn from their experience, either.

    I'm interested in your opinion of intuition. What is that? How does it figure in stats?
     
  10. GuardianAngel82

    GuardianAngel82 Senior Member

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    Intuition is definitely part of wisdom, as is insight.

    There is a lot of thinking that is done on a somewhat subconcious level. Your mind will sort a few things out while you are not actively paying attention to them. Then, when the the issues come up again, you are presented with something of an epiphany.

    I'm a firm believer in sleeping on an issue if I'm not sure of it, but not in worrying over it instead of sleeping.
     
  11. whatsername74

    whatsername74 The Poison Woman

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    Bear with me here, I'm feeling "philosophical." :smoke:

    This is certainly true. Having worked in a daycare with kids from diapers to middle school, one thing I learned is age (experience) may lead you to go against intuition. The younger children, having no understanding of what society's standards are, always act in agreement with what their inutition dictates--they have no other information to base their actions and deductions on. So how large a part of wisdom is inuition? Because then you could even argue that aging may sometimes detract from wisdom scores. (Maybe a temporary dip in the adolescent years?)Or does it not really matter: just because you aren't acting on your intuition doesn't mean that it isn't there...

    Ohhh boyyy. This making sense to anyone else? Lol.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2009
  12. Emirkol the Chaotic

    Emirkol the Chaotic Proud Polytheist

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  13. GuardianAngel82

    GuardianAngel82 Senior Member

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    Since intuition is where you instantly come to a conclusion without any preceding contemplation of the issues, it's possible. But I'm not sure how much is not just impulse.

    A small child who's never seen a cat before, sees one and calls it a dog, is displaying a very high intellect. He has gone through his limited set of patterns and has selected the most appropriate one. He doesn't wait to be told. This is wisdom and intelligence working together.

    Unfortunately our wonderful soul-crushing, mass-production, destroy the deviant educational system has beat most of the curiosity and spontaneous learning out of the children by the time they've gotten to the good stuff. They are allowed to learn, but only what we dictate they may learn. (Sorry, I've obviously got issues.)

    Teenagers actually have increased mental capacity, but at the price of a temporary loss of previous cognitive abilities.

    It's hard to say what causes loss of wisdom. In me, it's intellectual inflexibilty and laziness. ;)
     
  14. Scryler

    Scryler Night's Wordsmith

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    I think you've made a lot of sense...and I for one agree with it. Not sure that it is necessarily experience per se that negatively impacts intuition, but the forms that our society puts on what we 'have' to learn that does. Longer you live, the more you mold to the form. So, in a sense, both you and GA82 are right, imo. Such as it is.
     
  15. Gaear

    Gaear Bastard Maestro Administrator

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    I'm not so sure that wisdom and intuition are related. When I think of wisdom I think of an even-temprered older person (not necessarily old, but not young) who has learned many of life's lessons and has had time to integrate them into his or her way of life. This sort of understanding can only occur over a period of years or even decades, imo. That's not to say that young people can't learn lessons, but they haven't had the necessary time to fully assimilate them. So they may have the roots of wisdom at a younger age (what you might call, in certain contexts, 'street smarts') but they're not yet truly wise. They can still be laid low by unexpected events that they don't yet have the wherewithal to deal with in the best fashion.

    When I think of intuition, on the other hand, I think of, let's say, a woman who avoids getting on an elevator alone with some guy because something tells her she shouldn't. That's not necessarily based on life experience, because you don't have to have been raped by a creepy guy in an elevator to get that feeling, nor do you have to know somebody else who did. Something just tells you not to, and that something is intuition. I suspect at heart that it may be some long dormant or unacknowledged-by-modern-man form of information gathering. Maybe the guy was giving off subtle visual signals that he was nervous, or maybe he was emitting some nasty pheremone. Whatever it is, it is perceived in fairly rapid fashion so as to allow for a behavioral decision to be made in one's best interests - all behind the scenes and probably quite unconsciously.

    So you don't necessarily know why you did a thing but you did it anyway, and whatever you based the action on was right, despite the fact that it can't be quantified. Maybe the guy wouldn't have raped you, or maybe he would, but by listening to the inner voice and taking the avoidance action, you eliminated the possibility.
     
    Last edited: Apr 7, 2009
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