I find the label the most coherent of the bunch to indicate innate capabilities like intelligence, bodily strength, etc. I know Gurps and Shadowrun use it, but don't know if they were the first.

Interesting question. Looking at my older RPGs, D&D has abilities while Traveller and RuneQuest have characteristics.

Despite starting with Moldvay Basic, I do have a tendency to use attributes regardless of the game I am playing. I did run a lot GURPS in the '80s, so that might be where I picked it up. Of course, that was a descendent of The Fantasy Trip, which use the same term. That came out in 1977. Can anyone find it in an earlier game?

The Fantasy Trip (1977) calls them Attributes (and uses them as the main measure of character ability and progression, with no levels). I started with TFT and didn't realize D&D called its attributes something else.

Gamma World (1978) , and the Morrow Project (1980) both use Attributes. Looks like TFT was first though. EPT, and Runequest uses characteristics, Warlock! and Metamorphosis Alpha,  uses abilities just like D&D.

RuneQuest uses Attributes to describe those things derived from Characteristics.

Quote from: soltakss;990909RuneQuest uses Attributes to describe those things derived from Characteristics.

And now things get complicated.

Tunnels and Trolls?

I looked that up. It calls them Prime Attributes.

Been checking out all my old games. Arneson's First Fantasy Campaign uses the term Characteristics in a general sense as does Grasstek's Game of Dungeon ('74), although that game doesn't really have ability scores. The oldest character sheets we have, from Blackmoor, list ability scores as "Personality" which is probably a result of where they originally were derived. Note that Arneson's list of ability scores also included skills, such as Woodmanship. Arneson's Adventures in Fantasy also uses Characteristics.

Empire of the Petal Throne uses the strange term "Basic Talents" in both the '74 and '76 version.

Looks to me like "Ability Scores" is a Gygax invention and that "Characteristics" is a more common and more general purpose term (the characteristics of a magical sword forex).

Personally, I favor the term Characteristics as I mainly played Runequest and Champions back in the day. I had to retrain myself to say "ability scores" when talking to OSR types.

Some games use ability to refer to one thing and attribute to refer to something else, or swap in stats, characteristics, etc.

Monsters Monsters! and probably its predecessor 1st ed T&T both use the term attribute circa 1976 and 75 respectively.

Melee and Wizard are both board games first, but they do use the term attribute AND ability for the same thing. Circa 77.

Personally I like the term Stat. Im used to calling them ability scores from BX and Star Frontiers, and attribute scores from Gamma World.

Vampire: The Masquerade had 'Attributes' and 'Abilities'. Not sure what was first though.

Quote from: soltakss;990909RuneQuest uses Attributes to describe those things derived from Characteristics.

Quote from: ChristopherKubasik;990919And now things get complicated.

And then BESM came and called their feat-equivalent "attributes", while the three basic attributes/abilities were "stats"...

I'm pretty sure none of the early proto-RPGs like Chainmail, En Garde, or Kriegsspiel had anything that we'd recognize as attributes, so we're looking at a timeframe between D&D and TFT ('74 to '77). Anyone have an original Bunnies and Burrows to check?

Quote from: Willie the Duck;991448I'm pretty sure none of the early proto-RPGs like Chainmail, En Garde, or Kriegsspiel had anything that we'd recognize as attributes, so we're looking at a timeframe between D&D and TFT ('74 to '77). Anyone have an original Bunnies and Burrows to check?

B&B calls them "characteristics". (EDITED TO ADD: Technically, "primary characteristics".)

I think in terms of meaning "attributes" and "characteristics" both have a closer connotation for things like strength, intelligence, etc. I think "abilities" implies more broadly things that you can do - which is different than mostly-innate qualities like intelligence or charisma.

I always thought it was Runequest, although they use the term slightly differently.
I normally call them "stats" but can't remember where I picked that up from.