The Five Elements

Here are some of the rambling thoughts I've had about characters.

To keep things simple I'll dispense with the usual skills and boil things down to just five ratings represented by the elements: earth, air, fire, water, and wood. Each character gets the numbers 1 through 5 to assign to the elements and that will determine their ratings.

The focus of the game is going to be action, so I started by saying all characters are more or less equally skilled at fighting. There's no need for a number to say how good a character is at fighting because that number would be the same for every character. Instead, the element system tells you how a particular character approaches fighting. What's their style?

Earth is body - Strength and endurance.
Air is motion - Reflexes, agility, speed, reaction, gentleness, delicacy.
Fire is power - Courage, bravery, resolve, grit, inner strength.
Water is mind - Knowledge, wisdom, perception, reflection, depth, subtly.
Wood is life - Spirit, energy, qi.

You could work up a zodiac of types based on the top two picks. Earth + Fire is the Tiger. Water + Wood is the Dragon.

Characters will probably have an aspect that goes along with each of their elements as well. Something that elaborates on how exactly that facet of the character is expressed.
Not all Fire has to be loud and obvious. Some characters might "Burn with an inner hatred of orcs," for example.

Oh, and the five elements would look awesome arranged in a circle in the middle of a character sheet.