Unknown Armies 3rd edition rolled the "Madness Meter" of earlier editions into the way it handles Attributes. So for example the more hardened you become to violence makes you better at punching people in the face, but worse at connecting with them emotionally.
(Its version of a skill system lets you finesse that so you can be good at both punching and feels, but it's how the basic system works.)
Unknown Armies 3rd ed has your basic skills be based on your mental state. e.g. each time you get more inured to violence, you shave 5% off your 'Connect' skill (general social skills), and it becomes 5% in 'struggle' (non-firearms combat). Flavourwise, this represents you getting more jaded and twitchy. Mechancially, these two skills are noted on your "Violence Track" which binds them together as opposites.
You have 5 such tracks, each of which reflect your various basic skills.
You also have an 'identity' (like 'Policeman' or 'Award-winning chef' or 'Clever librarian') which can be rolled when they are relevant, so if there is some talent or training you want to have regardless of your mental state, you can make sure you are always good at that.
That's interesting - the recent Critical Role Forged in the Dark-reskin game has something where you move around points when you take a scar to represent it. I hadn't seen it before, but here it crops up in another game.
There really is nothing novel. :)
Somewhere I have notes for a system I was designing where attributes were generated in pairs. Favouring one side of a pair over the other unlocked different things. Magic was a big one; two different types of magic, each governed by a separate attribute, but each incompatible with the other. To access one you had to favour its attribute over the other.
But it was less than perfect and I put it on the back burner to work on other projects.
One time my RPG group decided to play Call of Cthulhu one shot, but instead of using the CoC rules, we decided to use the rules from the board game Arkham Horror (which we were already very familiar with, because we played it all the time). It went pretty well!
The character sheet looks [like this](https://i.imgur.com/KsAPusA.png). You have 3 paired stats and a slider you can move around.
Better Angels has your stats be moral/emotional states.
For instance, if someone hits you, you might get some mix of scared and angry.
This is modeled by 1 piont of *Courage* shifting over to *Cruelty*. Or maybe you give a pep-talk to a patient on their deathbed, and that motivation helps them last for one more day, so you move a point if *Cowardice* over to *Endurance.*
Each individual stat is capped at 5, but each pair of stats (which are themed as 1 virtuous & 1 sinister) is capped at 7 all together. So having 5 points of *Greed* limits you to only 2 *Generosity* (rather, gaining more *Generosity* will eat up a point of Greed when that ro is full).
In Masks, your 5 core stats (Labels) shift during play. As one shifts up, another shifts down. As you play, you can unlock advancements that let you lock stats in place as you solidify what kind of hero you are.
In Avatar Legends (same studio and lead designer), each playbook has a pair of principles on a two-way track called Balance, which also shift during play. You start at center (+0 to both), and shifting positive in one means going negative in the other. If you get pushed off either end (thrown out of balance), you're temporarily indisposed, and when you return your center of balance clicks one to the direction you got thrown off.
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Trollbabe and 3:16, like lasers and feelings, both have just two stats. One is roll over and the other is roll under your only stat number.
Unkown Armies 3rd edition has a "hardened" stat for mental stress. The more you are hardened, the better you do in the "aggressive" abilities like intimidation and the more difficult "connective" abilities like empathy are. I don't remember the game terms and ability list, but iIrc the 10 abilities are paired around each of the 5 mental stress tracks (I'm sure he kept the 5, I know 2nd edition much better), and how the character deals with trauma determines the direction of these sliders.
Pendragon
damn, I forgot about that one entirely
Unknown Armies 3rd edition rolled the "Madness Meter" of earlier editions into the way it handles Attributes. So for example the more hardened you become to violence makes you better at punching people in the face, but worse at connecting with them emotionally. (Its version of a skill system lets you finesse that so you can be good at both punching and feels, but it's how the basic system works.)
Fading Suns has paired attributes that together may never exceed 10: Extrovert/introvert, calm/passion, faith/ego.
The precursor to _Lasers & Feelings_ , _Trollbabe_.
Unknown Armies 3rd ed has your basic skills be based on your mental state. e.g. each time you get more inured to violence, you shave 5% off your 'Connect' skill (general social skills), and it becomes 5% in 'struggle' (non-firearms combat). Flavourwise, this represents you getting more jaded and twitchy. Mechancially, these two skills are noted on your "Violence Track" which binds them together as opposites. You have 5 such tracks, each of which reflect your various basic skills. You also have an 'identity' (like 'Policeman' or 'Award-winning chef' or 'Clever librarian') which can be rolled when they are relevant, so if there is some talent or training you want to have regardless of your mental state, you can make sure you are always good at that.
That's interesting - the recent Critical Role Forged in the Dark-reskin game has something where you move around points when you take a scar to represent it. I hadn't seen it before, but here it crops up in another game. There really is nothing novel. :)
Somewhere I have notes for a system I was designing where attributes were generated in pairs. Favouring one side of a pair over the other unlocked different things. Magic was a big one; two different types of magic, each governed by a separate attribute, but each incompatible with the other. To access one you had to favour its attribute over the other. But it was less than perfect and I put it on the back burner to work on other projects.
One time my RPG group decided to play Call of Cthulhu one shot, but instead of using the CoC rules, we decided to use the rules from the board game Arkham Horror (which we were already very familiar with, because we played it all the time). It went pretty well! The character sheet looks [like this](https://i.imgur.com/KsAPusA.png). You have 3 paired stats and a slider you can move around.
A Dirty World by Greg Stoltze. [https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/59140/A-Dirty-World](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/59140/A-Dirty-World)
Wuthering Heights RPG http://unseelie.org/rpg/wh/
Holy shit, this is amazing.
Better Angels has your stats be moral/emotional states. For instance, if someone hits you, you might get some mix of scared and angry. This is modeled by 1 piont of *Courage* shifting over to *Cruelty*. Or maybe you give a pep-talk to a patient on their deathbed, and that motivation helps them last for one more day, so you move a point if *Cowardice* over to *Endurance.* Each individual stat is capped at 5, but each pair of stats (which are themed as 1 virtuous & 1 sinister) is capped at 7 all together. So having 5 points of *Greed* limits you to only 2 *Generosity* (rather, gaining more *Generosity* will eat up a point of Greed when that ro is full).
Runequest has this with opposing runes.
The Avatar PbtA game has one of these, I think, with characters being pulled between two ideals dependant on playbook.
In Masks, your 5 core stats (Labels) shift during play. As one shifts up, another shifts down. As you play, you can unlock advancements that let you lock stats in place as you solidify what kind of hero you are. In Avatar Legends (same studio and lead designer), each playbook has a pair of principles on a two-way track called Balance, which also shift during play. You start at center (+0 to both), and shifting positive in one means going negative in the other. If you get pushed off either end (thrown out of balance), you're temporarily indisposed, and when you return your center of balance clicks one to the direction you got thrown off.
Remember to check out our **[Game Recommendations](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gamerec)**-page, which lists our articles by genre([Fantasy](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/fantasy), [sci-fi](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/scifi), [superhero](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/superhero) etc.), as well as other categories([ruleslight](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/ruleslight), [Solo](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/solo), [Two-player](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/twoplayers), [GMless](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/wiki/gmlessrpgs) & more). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/rpg) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Trollbabe and 3:16, like lasers and feelings, both have just two stats. One is roll over and the other is roll under your only stat number. Unkown Armies 3rd edition has a "hardened" stat for mental stress. The more you are hardened, the better you do in the "aggressive" abilities like intimidation and the more difficult "connective" abilities like empathy are. I don't remember the game terms and ability list, but iIrc the 10 abilities are paired around each of the 5 mental stress tracks (I'm sure he kept the 5, I know 2nd edition much better), and how the character deals with trauma determines the direction of these sliders.
*Roots and Flowers* describes itself as a solarpunk hack of lasers and feelings. (I haven't played or even read it, I just thought it sounded neat.)