[Thugs and Thieves] The case of the unwilling players

[David Chunn]

These sorts of ability problems often come down to rather dull semantics issues.  I've dealt with players before who might have complained about your abilities, but if you renamed Physique to Athleticism and Toughness to Health without changing anything about how they work they would have been delighted.  I find it frustrating, and when I designed a game with a friend a few years back, it seems like we spent as much time hashing out what to call things as we did any system mechanics.

As far as practical advice goes, I'd do this.  If people playtest and seem bothered by the abilities, ask them if they'd still be bothered if you changed the names of them.  If that fixes a bunch of people's perception problems, well, it's an easy change to make.

Your abilities system, the division of them, and the relationship between is solid, workable, and sensible.  IMO