On the old site, I ran an RP I called A Grand Adventure. It was supposed to add game aspects to an other-wise normal RP story, making it more fun and interesting. I let that fall apart since the old site started having issues, and I regret and apologize for this. Part of the reason I had given up on it was related to all the work I had to put into managing player statistics and ability scores and rolling and... it was a lot of mental work.
So, I have been thinking about it and I have thought about using a system of measuring a pony's ability based almost entirely on Fallout's SPECIAL. For those who don't know, SPECIAL stands for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. These seven attributes should represent a character's natural and trained ability. In creating a character, a player would assign points to the seven attributes, where 5 in any given score is average, 1 is close to nothing, and 10 is almost perfect. Players get 40 points to spend in total, each of the attributes can go no higher than 10 and cannot go lower than 1.
SPECIAL should describe how skilled a pony is in those general areas. They are not a true reflection of a pony's personality or individual specialties. Similar to D&D, these would be taken into account when the dice start rolling, to make a character more likely to succeed at overcoming an obstacle that they would find easier because of their abilities. This is pretty much it. They change randomness in a way that is quantifiable and focused in specific areas.
In relating back to A Grand Adventure. If players created their own SPECIAL representation of their character, it would simplify a lot of the game, keeping the randomness in the game, and giving players more control over what defines their character.
What do people think? I feel like there's something missing, but I don't quite know what.
Spoiler: Mane 6 test/examples