Real World Attribute Comparison

[EliBenedict]

Okay, so obviously, reality checking Palladium rules is a fool’s errand, but, just for funsies, I thought I’d check how the base eight stats compare to real-life. I’m taking the Rifts Ultimate Rules as my baseline.

Physical Strength:
Guinness lists the heaviest weight lifted by a human as 6,270 lbs by Paul Anderson, which would correspond to a PS of 157. With a maxed out PS (including compensation for low-attibutes, and all the physical skills) a normal human can get a PS of 52, about a third of that. So, this is an odd case where Palladium under-estimates the limits of what’s possible. Still, for gameplay, it’s a decent, realistic range. (Note that, in HU2, a “normal” human Physical Training character with the strength focus can rack up a super-human PS of 64, letting them lift 19,200 lbs, a little more than three times Anderson’s record. My suspension of disbelief fails.)

Speed:
Usain Bolt’s speed record is 27.33 mph, corresponding to a Spd of 41. A maxed out human could get a Spd of 56 (40% faster than Bolt) or 61 (62.5% faster than Bolt), if they get compensation for low attributes. I’d consider that pushing into the realm of the “superhuman but still cinematic-believable. (An HU2 Physical Training character with speed focus maxes out at 74, almost twice as fast as Bolt. Again, my suspension of disbelief fails.)

Physical Endurance:
Palladium’s standard line that a character can run at maximum speed for (PE) minutes doesn’t even pass the smell test. If you look a 100 meter, 400 meter and 800 meter sprint times, you’ll see that the 400 meter sprints are roughly in the same speed range as 100 meters, but 800 meters are significantly slower. So, we can guess a top level athlete can maintain maximum speed for about 40 seconds. Interestingly, if we amended the rules to state that a character can run full spelled for (PE) seconds, we’d be just about in the right range.

IQ:
Okay, so, leaving aside my tirade about how the modern IQ scale is, by definition an unscientific category error, and suspect gauge of intelligence under any circumstances, let’s just assess Palladium’s claim that a character real-world IQ is equal to 10 times their Palladium IQ score.

Marilyn vos Savant has the highest IQ on record at 228. This would actually work out pretty well with the old Palladium scale when you maxed out at 24. However, Savant’s score is based on the old IQ system, when it was just a raw score. The new system is defined as a statistical distribution with an average of 100, and a standard deviation of 15. Under the new system, with a world population of 8 billion, the highest IQ person in the world has, by definition, an IQ of 195. So that throws Palladium’s scale out the window.

However, since the new IQ system is defined as a statistical distribution, and the statistical distribution of different attribute rolls is known, you can easily map one onto the other. And you get:

Palladium IQ 3 = Real World IQ 61
Palladium IQ 4 = Real World IQ 69
Palladium IQ 5 = Real World IQ 75
Palladium IQ 6 = Real World IQ 80
Palladium IQ 7 = Real World IQ 85
Palladium IQ 8 = Real World IQ 90
Palladium IQ 9 = Real World IQ 95
Palladium IQ 10 = Real World IQ 100
Palladium IQ 11 = Real World IQ 105
Palladium IQ 12 = Real World IQ 110
Palladium IQ 13 = Real World IQ 114
Palladium IQ 14 = Real World IQ 120
Palladium IQ 15 = Real World IQ 125
Palladium IQ 16 = Real World IQ NA
Palladium IQ 17 = Real World IQ 126
Palladium IQ 18 = Real World IQ 127
Palladium IQ 19 = Real World IQ 129
Palladium IQ 20 = Real World IQ 131
Palladium IQ 21 = Real World IQ 134
Palladium IQ 22 = Real World IQ 136
Palladium IQ 23 = Real World IQ 137
Palladium IQ 24 = Real World IQ 138
Palladium IQ 25 = Real World IQ 139
Palladium IQ 26 = Real World IQ 141
Palladium IQ 27 = Real World IQ 143
Palladium IQ 28 = Real World IQ 147
Palladium IQ 29 = Real World IQ 151
Palladium IQ 30 = Real World IQ 154

I’ve left out compensation for low ability scores, as it includes an element of player choice, and therefore isn’t, strictly speaking, statistically based. But, just for reference, the odds that you could max out a character’s IQ at 39, if you wanted to, are 7.4128 in a million, corresponding to a real world IQ of 165.

Physical Prowess, Physical Beauty, Mental Affinity and Mental Endurance don’t have any associated real-world values they can be measured against.

[taalismn]

Physical Prowess, Physical Beauty, Mental Affinity and Mental Endurance don’t have any associated real-world values they can be measured against.

M.E. ---How many minutes you can watch The Bachelor, the Bachelorette, or Tucker Carlson without gagging. I regard that as a good RW test-scale of Mental Endurance.
(Duration watching of the Teletubbies is a good test of effective Horror Factor saves)

[EliBenedict]

Physical Prowess, Physical Beauty, Mental Affinity and Mental Endurance don’t have any associated real-world values they can be measured against.

M.E. ---How many minutes you can watch The Bachelor, the Bachelorette, or Tucker Carlson without gagging. I regard that as a good RW test-scale of Mental Endurance.
(Duration watching of the Teletubbies is a good test of effective Horror Factor saves)

I could see that. I've always assumed Teletubbies was actually a documentary of juvenile aliens being subjected to sociological experiments in an underground habitat at Area 51.

[guardiandashi]

pp actually does have a real world application but the best examples of high pp are a combination of high hand /eye coordination
for non combatant examples I would say olympic gymnastics, acrobatics and similar, another example would be high end "gunfighters/quickdraw" people

[EliBenedict]

pp actually does have a real world application but the best examples of high pp are a combination of high hand /eye coordination
for non combatant examples I would say olympic gymnastics, acrobatics and similar, another example would be high end "gunfighters/quickdraw" people

To be clear, I wasn't saying that PP, ME, MA and PB don't correspond to real-world qualities. Just that Palladium doesn't assign them any real world quantities they can be reality-checked against. This is in contrast with PS (maximum weight lift in lbs.), Spd (foot speed in yards/minute,) PE (maximum time running at full speed jn minutes) and IQ (IQ) (though as noted, IQ is something of a questionable quantity, and not properly a measurement.)

Because PP, ME, MA and PB have no assigned quantities, we can just arbitrarily declare them accurate: ME 3 corresponds to the weakest willed people alive, ME 30 corresponds to the strongest. Because, why not?

[Emerald MoonSilver]

Physical Prowess, Physical Beauty, Mental Affinity and Mental Endurance don’t have any associated real-world values they can be measured against.

M.E. ---How many minutes you can watch The Bachelor, the Bachelorette, or Tucker Carlson without gagging. I regard that as a good RW test-scale of Mental Endurance.
(Duration watching of the Teletubbies is a good test of effective Horror Factor saves)

I once went through a 2 hour teletubbie session with my baby cousins, so that means I have a a very high HF save or I'm not completely insane. Hmm.....I'll have to consult wiht all my other personalities and let you know which one is true...