It hasn’t been much of an issue the times I’ve run Mark of the Odd games (ItO, QZ, and EB specifically), but one possible solution is to steal from Traveller and let players pick which stat is damaged. Traveller also applies damage to stats, but players can pick which of the three physical stats (Strength, Dexterity, or Endurance) sustains damage from an attack.
Letting players pick the stat that sustains damage could de-emphasize STR while adding a simple yet interesting decision, but one obvious issue is that it theoretically triples the HP of the player characters (since players won’t willingly choose to have a stat hit 0).
I do agree with AwkwardTurtle’s post about balancing the stats, and it’s probably the best way without rewriting how damage works.
It hasn’t been much of an issue the times I’ve run Mark of the Odd games (ItO, QZ, and EB specifically), but one possible solution is to steal from Traveller and let players pick which stat is damaged. Traveller also applies damage to stats, but players can pick which of the three physical stats (Strength, Dexterity, or Endurance) sustains damage from an attack.
Letting players pick the stat that sustains damage could de-emphasize STR while adding a simple yet interesting decision, but one obvious issue is that it theoretically triples the HP of the player characters (since players won’t willingly choose to have a stat hit 0).
I do agree with AwkwardTurtle’s post about balancing the stats, and it’s probably the best way without rewriting how damage works.