One of the tradeoffs in designing RPG characters is how powerful they can be. Super-powerful characters are more fun to play than weaklings, but when they come up against less-powerful fellow PC's (whether in direct combat or even in dueling plans for the future shape of the world), it can get darn frustrating to the other guy. Also, in most RPG's, as a character develops and gains experience, they tend to get more powerful...if you're already practically a god, how can you grow in abilities as the story goes on?
I think we need to define more concrete rules than "try to talk Mlle into it" for how powerful a character can be. Sure, thy can be, for example, a tough physical fighter or a powerful alchemist, but they can't be powerful in all ways. Being insane AND afraid of the dark are both examples of compensatory weaknesses, but if your character is both magically powerful AND immortal, I think you need a few more weaknesses.
In the Tech Infantry RPG that I used to play in, we used these rules:
www.geocities.com/tictionary/rules/chargen.htmlThere were five basic stats each character had, each rated on a scale of 0 (no real ability to speak of) to 10 (one of the best in the galaxy at that skill).
Combat: Physical combat, hand-to-hand fighting, as well as marksmanship, being calm under fire, and everything else involved in actual fighting and warfare. The Slicer/#48 brothers, Al, Hughes, and Hawkeye all would have high stats, while someone like Winry would have a lower stat (but she's still darn accurate with thrown wrenches).
Strategy: The ability to plan and organize such things as fleet maneuvers in space combat, troop deployment and maneuvers in ground combat, as well as non-combat strategy such as planning a dinner party or a political campaign. Earlier versions of the TI rules combined this stat with Combat to get the "Warfare" stat. Whomever is controlling the Homunculi in that elaborate plan to get a Philosopher's stone probably is a 10 in Strategy, top military leaders like Roy, Basque Gran, and such would also have high stats in this area, while Hughes gets a low score for stupidly going alone into what he knew was a trap and letting it get him killed.
Magic: Magical ability, for Mage characters, or a measure of your supernatural or alien-biology abilities for characters who were vampires, werewolves, Horadrim (insectoid aliens who could take human form), and so forth. Unawakened humans such as my last two characters had a zero for this stat. In FMK terms, if you are an alchemist of some sort, you'd have a non-zero stat here, but if you didn't have alchemical ability, it would be a zero.
Homunculi, who can't use real alchemy but have othr super-human abilities, would also have non-zero scores in this stat. Envy's shape-shifting abilities, Roy's flame-throwing abilities, Ed's circle-less alchemy skills, and so forth would all take very high Magic/alchemy stats. Gluttony's eating abilities, Lust's extendable fingers, and Al's traditional alchemy would be medium-level stats, while a novice state alchemist would have a low score. One could even make a case for giving Winry a couple of points for her automail wizardry, although that would more properly fall under intelligence.
Social: Your ability to influence and persuade other people. This stat measures you ability to get other people to do what you want, whether it's leading men in battle, talking a cop into not giving you a speeding ticket, hitting on a cute chick in a bar, or giving a speech in Congress. Moody loners like Scar would have a low Social stat, while Bradley or Lust would probably have a 10.
Intelligence: Not just basic intelligence as in having a good memory and a good grasp of logical thinking, but also education and training in technical fields get measured by this stat. Scientific or medical knowledge, engineering or technical skills, and ability to do alchemical research would all require a high intelligence stat. Sheska, Winry, and Pinako would all have high intelligence scores, while Barry the Butcher, Armstrong, and Gluttony would all have fairly low stats.
In addition, we had a substantial list of Merits and Flaws.
Merits are additional abilities and background details that made your character more powerful, such as monetary wealth, powerful friends in high places, powerful magical items or weapons, followers or employees who will do your bidding, and so forth. Ed's huge research budget that frees him from having to hold down a job to feed himself or pay for his travels would be a good merit, as would Roy's network of fellow soldiers who have promised to support him in his quest to become Fuhrer.
Flaws are negative traits that cost a negative number of points, and thus give you additional points to spend on other positive stats or merits. These would be things like blindness, physical handicaps of other types, powerful enemies in high places, outstanding arrest warrants on your criminal record, personality quirks that limit your range of actions or serve as vulnerabilities, allergies to common substances, illnesses, or other weaknesses. al's lack of a body, Bradley's lack of visual depth perception, Ed's short stature, Winry's compulsive tinkering with anything mechanical, and the fact that Scar has a price on his head and is the sworn enemy of the entire Amestrian government all are good flaws.
Each character has a set number of points to spend on stats and such at the start of the game to build up the character, and over time in the game, they earn additional points from experience that can add to the stats and make them more powerful as time goes on and they learn new skills and so forth.
However, the way those experience points are spent must be justified by story events. A character who adds to their combat stat, for example, should have been in several fights and thus gained combat experience, or at least been seen occasionally practicing their combat skills. A character adding to their intelligence had better been at least occasionally seen reading a book or taking a course in night school. A character spending experience points to add to their wealth should have gotten a job or won the lottery or at least be seen buying shares in the Central stock market and reading the Wall Street Journal to see how their investments are coming along.
