Cognitive Science in Character Creation

Integrating cognitive science into character creation is tough. And I haven't figured out how to handle personality or magic, which are two of the more interesting things to me. But here's a good start to what setting-abstract character creation could look like, focusing on how creatures (or at least creatures with cognitive systems analogous to Terran life) really specialize when interacting with the real world. 

The realism could improve; I haven't put work into figuring out whether this is supposed to represent a dynamical or computational model of cognition. It's just an information delivery and task completion system. I suppose it's somewhere between dynamical and computational, because the players have explicit goals and tend to investigate the environment through the GM, asking him for information directly relevant to their goals. the GM has represented the world more computationally than they have, and will give them their relevant information.  

Characters have 5 stats: Senses, Language, Activity, Magic, and Character. Tiers of these stats allow gated, asymmetric knowledge to be distributed among the players. (I've only written the rules for the first three-- would LOVE ideas for the last two).

Level 1 skills are foundational. Level two skills stem from level one skills, Level three skills from level 2 ones, etc. Some higher-level skills don't stem from lower level ones (e.g. the specific source skills in the senses). Level 1 skills cost 1 point, level 2 cost two, etc. Creatures start out with a lot of points, because points don't buy much. They gain points by using their skills in novel ways, training new ones, etc.

The game system is as follows: if you want to do something, you have to say what Sense, Vocabulary, or Activity you're using. If it's a gimme, you do it. If it's difficult, you roll a bigger and bigger die to accomplish your goal. Hindrances reduce die size, advantages increase it. Default task difficulty is d6 for a Level 1 skill with no hindrances. Dice go from d4-d6-d8-d10-d12-d20-d100.

(This system has the obvious problem that you have to count up all your relevant Skills, hindrances, and advantages. This system's more of a thought experiment anyway, and I've seen other systems be playable despite that fact. I think it's better than adding more dice.)

The perfect neuroscience art-- it's vaguely mystical, it features the human head, and it's completely semantically meaningless!

Senses

Senses are technologies. 5 senses: Sight, Hearing, Touch, Taste, and Smell. Someone who is not skilled in one of these is sense-blind: they cannot see/hear, etc. Being skilled at noticing things with your senses does not mean you are skilled at communicating them. By default, Level 1 Sight (for example) means you can see any element of sight, but level 2 proficiencies make you especially capable at noticing that feature of Sight. Level 3 Sight Proficiencies are either constraints you're good at overcoming or specific discriminations you're good at making.

The following Level 1 & 2 Skills are constant for humans, but there's probably other divisions of the senses that are possible; the Level 3 ones are examples. If you can come up with higher level skills, and want them, you can have'm.

Note: these are human senses. Dogs can smell 3D; snakes have some semblance of infrared vision. Other creatures might have sensory modalities similar to ours, but more complex in certain ways. Kinesthetics have interesting  If you're making other species, don't assume they have the same senses. In fact, I'd love to see some cool species with alternate Level 1 vocabularies, senses, activities, etc.

1. Level 1: Sight
2. Level 2:Shape, Color, Illusion, Size, Motion, [Level 2 Touch]
3. Level 3: 
1. Shape: Dimensions, Congruence, Parallelism, etc.
2. Color: Color:Blue-Purple, Color:Red-White, etc.; 
3. Illusion: [specific illusion]; 
4. Size: [specific constraint, like partial obscuration], Length, width, height
5. Motion: Direction, Velocity, Location in [specific time interval]
6. Specific classes of visual phenomena. Trees, Birds, Skin Tones, Weaponry, etc.
7. [Level 3 Touch]

Note: "In the Dark" is a Level 3 skill that can stem from any level 2 one.

1. Level 1: Hearing
2. Level 2: Pitch, Volume, Location, Rhythm
3. Level 3: 
1. Pitch: Note; very deep; very high-pitched (lets you accurately discern the content of noise even if its high-pitched)
2. Volume: very faint; very loud
3. Location: X axis, Y axis, Z axis
4. Rhythm: silence intervals; triplets, duration of notes, etc.
5. Source: specific classes of auditory phenomena. Bird noises, land animal calls, languages (not the words, the name of the language)

1. Level 1: Touch
2. Level 2: temperature, moisture, texture, hard/soft, slip, dimensions
3. Level 3:
1. temperature: temperature differences on object; on vs off object; extremely hot/cold; etc.
2. moisture: liquid dispersion (where is it wet, how much does the moisture adhere); extreme dryness (can identify moisture at very low levels); extreme wetness (can identify dry spots in extremely wet surfaces)
3. texture: bumpiness, groovedness, perforatedness
4. hard/soft: suppleness, 
5. dimensions/shape: taperedness, # of facets, etc. shape of region with [Level 2+ Touch]

Note: This is one area I feel I'm certainly missing things. Textures like furry, waxy, leathery, corneous, fleshy, and papery aren't easily categorized. Also, bumpiness and groovedness are way too vague: hooves are dimpled on their "smooth" surface, as is cold skin; both the brain and one's fingerprints are grooved. I could put "fine" and "coarse" as level 4 texture Touch skills, but I don't think that cuts it because of how wide the spectrum is, especially when creatures with glabrous surfaces of different sizes/sensitivities are considered. 

1. Level 1: Taste
2. Level 2: Umami, Sweet, Salty, Sour, Bitter, Disgusting
3. Level 3:
1. Specific classes of these kinds of foods.

1. Level 1: Smell
2. Level 2 (One Level gives you d4 of the following): Fragrant, Fruity, Citrus, Woody and resinous, Chemical, Sweet, Minty and peppermint, Toasted and nutty, Pungent, Decayed
3. Level 3: specific items/item groups with that specific scent. 

1. Level 1: Body Sense
2. Level 2: Interoception; Kinesthesia; Proprioception; Vestibular Sense
3. Level 3:
1. Interoception: Hunger; Thirst; Temperature; Fatigue; Sleep Levels; Muscular Burnout; recognizing stress or the fear response
2. Kinesthesia: [specific body part]; X axis, Y axis, Z axis
3. Proprioception: Muscular Flexion; [specific body part]
4. Vestibular Sense: Balance; Stillness; Object tracking

Vocabularies

Vocabularies are psychotechnologies. Having No Language means you cannot communicate without inventing a language as you go. Level Zero language is familiarity with basic, catch-all terms; you’re like a poorly educated adult, minus any language proficiences they gain from their profession. Level one vocabularies are any broad term is a set of things you’re adept at describing, which have direct contact with people in the world-- things which at first glance seem obvious to reference, like Christianity or cars. Level 2 vocabularies-- or Proficiencies-- are either classes of terms within vocabularies, or abstractions from your level one vocabulary. Level 3 vocabularies are specificities or abstractions from level two vocabularies, and so one and so forth. Other cultures, species, or individuals may not be able to learn your vocabularies, no matter how adept you are at explaining the concepts in them. I haven't figured out how I'd want to establish limits to one's ability to comprehend others' vocabularies given their explanations of it. Maybe you and they need to have enough common vocabulary elements; maybe there are personality trait stats which regulate this. Also, not every vocabulary has an obvious abstraction or specificity. If you can’t think of one, your character can’t learn it.

Examples:

Level 1: vehicles, animals, [sense], [activity], your religion,

Level 2: land vehicles, flying animals, sight:shape, religion [as a phenomena] Level 3: chariots, principles of flight, Body Sense:Kinesthesia:Legs, Buddhist Theory

Activity

One’s body is a technology for interaction with and activity within the world. Tier 1 Active Skills can be any specific method of activity. Boxing or swordplay, but not fighting; freestyle swimming, but not water mobility; rope climbing or bouldering, but not climbing. Tier 2 Active Skills can be a specificity or an abstraction, and so on/so forth in later tiers. Magic and Character might come later. Character covers social norms-- what social strategies do players use? I think it will be difficult to abstract this from the human species. Magic covers-- well, magic. I anticipate magic starting off as very niche spells and increasing a spell's efficacy as you go, with gaining more spells costing more and more points. You can improve the spells you have by using them and training them, and you can learn new spells from people who have similar relevant vocabularies to you.