Is it ever acceptable, when converting a Multiverser character into another game system for the purposes of running a game world, to use the character's decimalized area bias to derive the value of a game system attribute?
I'm thinking not, if only because it would be difficult to convert it back if the game world attribute increased. Still, I'm left wondering what to do in a situation like this one:
The system has six attributes, four of which are fairly straightforward. Physical power, endurance and toughness are all wrapped up in Strength, coordination and agility are covered by Dexterity, and Knowledge covers erudition and breadth of experience. The fourth, Discernment, encompasses a great many things, including sensory perception, forensic investigation, stealth, leadership, bargaining, and resistance against many of those skills as well as against mind-affecting powers; it's effectively a blend of intuition and persuasion, a sort of sensory/cognitive attribute. These four are fine, converting readily enough with some thought and consideration. It's the last two attributes, the fifth and sixth, that cause trouble.
In this universe, psionics are ubiquitous and everyone is presumed to have a wide range of commonplace psionic skills. Two attributes deal specifically with psionic talent in a very broad way - Physic is defined as general facility with those skills which cause tangible effects, and Psychic is the character's aptitude for those skills causing intangible effects. Specific abilities and techniques are covered as individual skills, but the vast majority of advanced psionic skills are supported by one of these two attributes. (Many simple psionic applications are assumed by skills covered by other attributes - skill with ranged force-generative weapons is supported by Dexterity, for example, and if you're Bargaining without using empathic manipulation and suggestion you're not doing it right.)
What do I do with this? Our verser may have some psionic skills, but he's not steeped in a heavily psi-biased culture where a solid foundation in that area is assumed as a part of daily life. Even if my verser is heavily detailed, how am I to distinguish his talent from his skill, much less divide his talent into two spheres?
I could just grab his psi BRA and use that for both attributes. Intuition and Persuasion are both already covered, but Willpower is conspicuous in its absence; I could take that as a cue to use Willpower for both Physic and Psychic (willfully ignoring that several indigs have very different values for the two attributes).
Alternatively, I could try to derive a value somehow from the verser's psi skills. Physic skills primarily come from bias levels 4-7, 9, 10, 13, and 15; Psychic skills are mostly drawn from levels 1-3, 8, 11, and 12. Perhaps his highest SAL from each of those groups could be put through some sort of formula to produce a value for each attribute? A single high-level skill shouldn't skew the result, though, because these are meant to represent a broad array of ability; perhaps I could use the average of his highest SALs from each of five bias levels within those groups? (e.g., the character has 2@1 Mind Reading P1@1, 1@8 Thought Shield P2@1, 1@5 Mind Scan P3@9, 1@8 Interrupt Thought P8@1, and a 2@5 Danger Sense P12@1, so [97/5 = 19.2] we compare 1@9 to a special scale to determine his Psychic.)
Thoughts?
Oh, and as an aside, technological skills more advanced than spears and ramps are the province of a select few who closely guard their secrets and whose mastery of science is greatly respected and feared; their numbers are dwindling, though, and some don't even believe they exist. Their skills are covered separately, completely unsupported by attributes. However, partially to make up for that, all technological applications can be accomplished by one of three skills (or a combination of two or all three of those skills in conjunction): Power, Data, and Mechanism.
That's for contrast. I imagine that skill packages can handle back-conversion for these. I'm mostly interested in the psionic aptitude attributes, Physic and Psychic.
If it were me I would base it on the averages of your skills that fit into each area, but that's just me and I don't like doing math, so your mileage may vary.
There's no reason why you can't use the character's Psi BRA for both of those, and use it for the Discernment attribute as well if it happens that his highest relevant attribute is one of those (unless you've already decided to average his persuasion and intuition for that, which is also reasonable).
The potential problem arises if you've used the same Multiverser attribute for multiple game world attributes, and within the game world these rise at different rates. At that point you have to decide whether to use the highest or the average for the back conversion. You'll also want to note whether you in fact did use the same attribute for all conversions, since the problem does not arise if you used will power for one and persuasion for another. If it's likely that the character would raise the two psionic attributes unevenly, on the back conversion average the game world attributes and convert the new average back to the BRA, capturing the flavor that he got better at this attribute but not in every area. If I were doing this and used the same attribute also for Discernment, I would probably average the two psionic scores and then average that against the discernment (that is, weighting the discernment twice), because my feeling is that the psionic scores, at least from a verser perspective, are more closely related.
Did that answer the question?
Obviously you don't have to worry about the use of technology; the verser uses the tech skills he already knows under the rules that cover technology in that game world, and probably can't learn new tech skills except as permitted in that game world. But I think you got that.
--M. J. Young