The Baseline Is Mediocrity

In standard Fudge, the default trait levels for attributes and skills are Fair and Poor respectively, but I ask you: Are most people really of Fair intelligence, physical fitness, or charm? Or are they, in fact, Mediocre? Fair can generally be assumed to mean "good enough," but in my observations of the world, I think it's more accurate to say that the general pattern of human behavior is Mediocre, or "needs improvement." "Good enough" is rarely achieved without effort or luck. Mediocrity, in reality, is the baseline.

If the baseline of attributes truly is Mediocre, can the same be said of skills? Skills are a more complex matter as their difficulty varies, and I doubt there is any system that can accurately reflect all the factors involved in measuring them, so I think it is more useful to frame the question not in terms of what is most realistic, but rather what is more consistent with the genre or medium of inspiration. The baseline of skills in a fictional work tends to be Mediocre or Nonexistent. Either a character has no chance of practising a skill, or the character can just muddle through with a possibility of doing well enough to pass for success. A trait level of Poor or Terrible is reserved for those who have a notable deficiency beyond the human average.

If both attributes and skills have the same default trait level of Mediocre, what is the point of differentiating them? In my opinion, there is none. I fold them both into plain traits or descriptors. Others, however, may prefer to distinguish between the two in terms of how they are acquired and the method by which they can be improved. At any rate, I think Mediocre is the proper baseline. It reduces unnecessary complexity and facilitates more interesting play. And it does so without altering the standard trait ladder. Just drop the average by one rung. Problem solved.