At the risk of giving away state secrets, that's exactly what I did for my PbEM game. There are stats, but I'm not telling anyone about them. I'm not even sure how much I'll rely on them. They exist, as you suggest above, primarily to create play balance.
But "play balance" is a bit of a weird concept. My mechanics are heavy on what I decided to call "resource points", and in the mid-1800s, as now, the resources are not exactly "balanced". Some people have a LOT more power than others. I've tried to keep it a bit more balanced between PCs, but clearly some are in positions of privelege and some are not. This is far from being a mathematical exercise, as these imbalances are a integral part of the theme of the campaign.
Okay, I'm going to stop before I give too much more away. But more power to the "hidden variables" theory of gaming.
no subject
But "play balance" is a bit of a weird concept. My mechanics are heavy on what I decided to call "resource points", and in the mid-1800s, as now, the resources are not exactly "balanced". Some people have a LOT more power than others. I've tried to keep it a bit more balanced between PCs, but clearly some are in positions of privelege and some are not. This is far from being a mathematical exercise, as these imbalances are a integral part of the theme of the campaign.
Okay, I'm going to stop before I give too much more away.
But more power to the "hidden variables" theory of gaming.