If you were going to Jihan canon build then I say it would be Wisdom since it is the ability on how to act thoughtfully. However, If you were using another system it would most likely to fall under Charisma. My personal preference for a Gamer system is Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Endurance, Charisma, and Luck.
The Gamer power, at the core, provides the following abilities:
Observe: I can grasp the essential use and nature of any item I look at, I can grasp the basic capabilities, identity, and life story of anyone that I look at, and I can objectively evaluate the 'power' of other people and entities relative to me.
Actually, that was a Skill Jihan developed. It is not part of the Gamer's abilities given. Other than that it, you hit everything spot on. Although you forgot one important thing on Skills, the ability to improve. I think even if you were in reality without the skills the world Jihan lived in you can still do amazing stuff without putting points into your states. For explain you gain a skill called splash, (Not the Pokemon move), for splashing others in a pool. Give it enough train and you could, for example, create a tidal wave with it.
The "mistake" Jihan does in the story is that after figuring out that he can train any attribute through repetition, and discovering how to train not just STR, CON, and DEX, but also INT... he still dumped most of his points in INT as he leveled up, rather than putting basically anything into the attributes he *hadn't* found a way to safely grind for. Like WIS, CHA and LUK. When he eventually does stick some points in WIS, IIRC he almost slaps himself for how stupid he was in not investing in that before, because WIS is what lets him figure out what to do to train other attributes.
So basically, what I'd be doing is I'd be training whatever attributes I could figure out a way to train for (again, STR, CON and DEX are easy, and INT apparently as well), and the moment I got a level up from something I'd be spending points in WIS, CHA and LUK, because those are the ones I can't figure out how to increase independently of leveling up. (Well, maybe I could increase LUK by rolling dice or something. Or playing online poker.)
As for what kind of build I'd go for... I don't know. The only stat I'm above average in IRL is probably INT, with CON being an absolute dump stat and the others being not much better. A LUK, CHA and WIS build would be kind of funny maybe. Or maybe CHA and CON.
Silly people. With the ability to make life easier, the first thing I would do is grind the procrastinate skill to it's complete absolute mastery. Then everything I do will always be at the last minute in the nick of time, thereby freeing myself from ever caring about deadlines. All the time in the world will be in my hands.
Honestly?
I would save my level up stat points, and forcibly grind as much as I can.
Hoo boy, would I grind.
First Skill I would work on is Speed Reading, and whip through books to grind INT.
Begin pondering my life's direction and research problems, solutions, and general goals to see if that grinds WIS.
Work out for STR gains, and keep mauling myself and healing with food to speed healing for VIT grinding.
Maybe see about gambling to grind LUK, steadily raising the stakes, but always leave enough to pick myself back up in case I lose.
its been a whie since i read the ggamer so i dont rember if there was ever a charisma stat if so thats whee i fcus, otherwise probibly luck, strength and dexterity as my main focuses in that order and int and wis on alternate level ups
I dunno, some of those early quests were pretty mundane. 'Go shopping' isn't some arcane trick.
I'd imagine that, since 'Quests' seem to be based on being asked to do something, that any given job could be used as a quest farm.
You wouldn't be able to enter a time-dilated dimension and kill artificial entities in order to skyrocket in level quickly, but a more modest growth curve could still be worked with.
Personally, if the world was anywhere near realistic, I'd try to balance Int, Wis, and Luck, as I feel like they'd open far more doors and opportunities than a physical build, and 'Is ludicrously smart' is harder to identify as being unnatural than 'Literally jumped 1000 feet into the air' is.
Luck would just crank up the plot-armor and deus-ex machina so that you're both not in danger, get out of danger, and get opportunities for everything including getting stronger handed to you.
Depends on the author, really. For me, specifically, I actually have luck be a minor boost in all areas except for Loot. When it comes to Loot, high Luck gets you more, and higher quality, loot from your opponents. And it'd be an adaptive system so that, rather than getting exactly what you don't want because your high luck makes it easier to get the rarer drops, you hone in on the drops you actually want the higher your luck is.
I also use something called Chance Points specifically to make Luck more useful for those that don't focus on it. Every 5 or 10 points of luck, you get a Chance point, and it can be spent pretty much to have a Plot Armor/Deus Ex Machina/Luck Did It! Moment, or to do something like a "Last Stand" kind of deal, boosting your stats for a time while at lower health.
I'm surprised by how few people have been willing to focus on Vitality/Endurance/Constitution/Stamina. Combined with Gamer's Body and the ability to restore HP via eating and sleeping, having super-high HP and stamina is as good as invulnerability and a healing factor. Perfect? No, but nothing is.
I would start off by grinding stats as high as I could easily, and when I need to dump the built up Stat points I'd put them in END for my first dump. Not only does Jee-Han's HP scale with level, but it also scales with his VIT stat, which is why we see him with 200HP and 100MP at level 6, even though he has 9 VIT and 8 INT at the time.
He also has a Physical Resistance skill, which decreases the damage he takes from physical attacks by 1% per level. And I forget whether VIT also has a passive healing factor like the WIS MP recovery rate, but if it does... or if it has a state of being like Mana Manipulator when it passes the 100 value...
It would be very difficult to kill or seriously injure you. And as long as you're alive, you can potentially win. Need more offensive power? Miles Hundredlives, The Masked Man of Alloy of Law demonstrates how nasty a healing factor can be by use of such tricks as blowing up a stick of dynamite in his hand at melee range, or jumping off a building and recovering instantly from the fall (he doesn't fall on anyone, but it's an idea to attack or escape).
Once that was done, I'd go for either DEX (to dodge) or WIS as my next most important stat. WIS would depend on how easy it was to grind WIS up; STR, DEX, & VIT can all be increased on their own via physical fitness training, and INT can be increased through reading and studying. I don't know how WIS or LUK are increased - Meditating and Gambling, perhaps - but I'd use my first few levels to experiment with grinding each Stat as well to see which ones were the easiest or hardest to raise.
I'm surprised by how few people have been willing to focus on Vitality/Endurance/Constitution/Stamina. Combined with Gamer's Body and the ability to restore HP via eating and sleeping, having super-high HP and stamina is as good as invulnerability and a healing factor. Perfect? No, but nothing is.
These can be raised absurdly high by training (Without point-buy, in other words), given the mechanics of the Gamer skill.
Also, while a tank build might be useful in a fight... I don't think most of us intend to go out and get into a bunch of fights in the first place? Sure, being able to explode a stick of dynamite in my hand and survive it might be cool, but how often am I going to actually use that capability?
Meanwhile, say we grind ourselves a high level set of 'Programming', 'Design', and 'Crafting' skills while at the same time putting a balanced number of points into Int, Wis, and Luck. Being clever and lucky is always useful, whether you're in an unexpected fight or just doing day-to-day business, and has good synergy with skills that are highly valuable in the real world.
Yeah, but it's boring if every gamer fic uses variations on the same int-wis-whatever build. Show me the guy that can decapitate a mountain in a single swing and make THAT interesting.
You'd need to have a setting where decapitating mountains is a thing that you could plausibly need to do in order to justify a build that involves decapitating mountains.
Like, don't get me wrong, I'm sure that a version of The Gamer taking place in a high fantasy setting where the MC would conceivably have to face dragons and giants and such in single combat would justify pouring points into a superman build, but in an otherwise modern setting the ability to destroy a small island with a single punch is not really of much benefit.
You'd need to have a setting where decapitating mountains is a thing that you could plausibly need to do in order to justify a build that involves decapitating mountains.
Like, don't get me wrong, I'm sure that a version of The Gamer taking place in a high fantasy setting where the MC would conceivably have to face dragons and giants and such in single combat would justify pouring points into a superman build, but in an otherwise modern setting the ability to destroy a small island with a single punch is not really of much benefit.
Like, don't get me wrong, I'm sure that a version of The Gamer taking place in a high fantasy setting where the MC would conceivably have to face dragons and giants and such in single combat would justify pouring points into a superman build, but in an otherwise modern setting the ability to destroy a small island with a single punch is not really of much benefit.
True, but I remember someone bring up a similar point before. I am going to say this on the subject, If you don't see the benefit of the the state build then that is you. Other people would have different ideas, which is part of exploring the ideas of different stat builds. Personally I do not see the benefit myself in a modern world without the supernatural elements. However there might be someone out there that can see the benefits.
I'd probably try to get all five stats high, maybe with some focus on Dexterity and Wisdom. Going to learn martial arts, and hopefully be better than everyone at everything so that I don't have any weaknesses and thus become invincible. As for Luck, Luck isn't real. It's just a fancy word for factors outside our control that people blame their results on. I mean, that's just one way of thinking, but worst case scenario, if it's an actual thing, I can just punch it very hard.
I mean, that's certainly how I feel in real life, but when you've got a magical set of game mechanics imposed upon your life and they include a luck stat, I'd sort of lean towards 'This is an actual thing with a genuine impact on how things work' rather than 'Oh, so the magic reality warping power included something that doesn't really exist among my list o' powers?'
One problem with having a built based on anything other than INT is that the Gamer comic and most fanfics based on or inspired by it are set in a modern world.
Any place technological enough to have video games will also be of the sort where mental abilities are more useful than physical ones.
A job in the real world that benefits from STR is rarely as good as one that benefits from INT. Manual labor is rarely seen as a good thing.
Ifor Gaia is going to kill you for not keeping a low profile becoming an athlete is out.
The only other useful built would be one centred around CHR and social skills.
That being set I remember a recent fic about a homeless guy in Worm who naturally was inclined for a more physical built initially due to his experiences.
One problem with having a built based on anything other than INT is that the Gamer comic and most fanfics based on or inspired by it are set in a modern world.
Any place technological enough to have video games will also be of the sort where mental abilities are more useful than physical ones.
A job in the real world that benefits from STR is rarely as good as one that benefits from INT. Manual labor is rarely seen as a good thing.
Ifor Gaia is going to kill you for not keeping a low profile becoming an athlete is out.
The only other useful built would be one centred around CHR and social skills.
That being set I remember a recent fic about a homeless guy in Worm who naturally was inclined for a more physical built initially due to his experiences.
I mean, part of it is that technology seems to even out advantages from personal strength, whereas mana multiplies it. In real life, reaching human limits wouldn't be that useful against a group of people with guns, not to mention armies and organizations and missiles and tanks and nukes and such, which means that personal power is less important than power over other people and resources. Meanwhile, in fiction, the strongest people can destroy cities and teleport and ignore attacks from people who are weaker and so on. Though yeah, you don't need nearly the same amount of INT to become successful.
And the premise seems to be about the Gamer power itself, not including Gaia.
The most optimal build of the standard system is focusing on personal buffs and martial arts. Basically making yourself Goku. Anything else should be utility.
I'm like not sure how it works in most cases, but I had a thought about the Luck stat. So like, what if the Luck stat determined your average luck and it worked on a spectrum and the main bennnie to bumping Luck is that you don't get shit on all the time? Its prolly garbage but i had to get this thought out or it'd drive me mad
So like, what if the Luck stat determined your average luck and it worked on a spectrum and the main bennnie to bumping Luck is that you don't get shit on all the time?
Not all the time. Sometimes luck is putting you through a situation that sucks, but make you stronger in the end. The problem with luck is that it's mainly a plot device. Used only to making the silver lining possible in the worst situation. That is what luck is mainly used for now and days. There are characters who luck is powerful, like that of Domino from X-Men or a character from Ringworld, that can be used to help the character. (Note: I refuse to say their name to avoid spoilers.) It just depends on the imagination of the author.
I mean, in RPGs, Luck just determines loot drops and crafting success and critical hit rate. It doesn't actually affect the plot or such. RPG characters can be perfectly fine with Luck as a dump stat.
I would love to see a scifi space gamer fic. No magic, no instant dungeon, just skills and abilities. I think it could work well because one of the greatest bonus of the gamer ability is that you no longer have to worry about 'use it or loss it'.
In real life if you don't use a skill it atrophies but the for the gamer it doesn't. So you can study one thing and then go study another and then go back without loosing anything. For a space fic thats OP as hell.
I mean, in RPGs, Luck just determines loot drops and crafting success and critical hit rate. It doesn't actually affect the plot or such. RPG characters can be perfectly fine with Luck as a dump stat.
Unless you decide to play an older RPG like Fallout 2 where there are critical failures with consequences. For example with luck 1 (out of 10) you could end up with a broken arm on a critical failure melee attack. Dropping your weapon could also happen (more often). Or loosing all your ammunition in your current weapon forcing you to reload. And if you couldn't save/load out of something like that then you are in trouble. Good skills and other stats can only help you so far. The RNG will cause you to fail eventually and with low luck the failure can be very painful.
But on the other hand, absolutely everything changes if I find myself with the Gamer ability in another world, where it is possible to learn things such as magic, psionics, ki abilities, or what have you. In that case, I would almost certainly focus my build on whatever learned supernatural ability I had access to, just because it would give me that many more options. Magic will almost always have much greater power scaling than my mundane skills, unless The Gamer can make even my mundane abilities into abstract supernatural powers (a la the Solar Exalted).
Certainly.
(Well, almost certainly - some settings' supernatural powers rely on demonic contracts and the like, and I'd rather not have to mess with anything similar.)
