The ladder; traits approximating attributes, skills, gifts, faults, powers; and dice providing a  bell curve similar to 4dF.

MattyHelms wrote:

The ladder; traits approximating attributes, skills, gifts, faults, powers; and dice providing a  bell curve similar to 4dF.

Some of these seem extraneous - or rather, all of these seem extraneous, but not all simultaneously. The zero centered curve and unified ladder seem pretty core, but exactly which ladder is used for things seems like something that could be pushed around while remaining in Fudge territory - to the point of, say, a 1-8 system with no attached adjectives still being there*. Some sort of trait in the attribute-skill vein is likely necessary (though it's worth noting that attributes are basically just a second pool of skills acquired differently), but gifts, faults, and powers have never seemed all that core. For instance, there's Fudge on the Fly: It has no attributes, it has one fault and no gifts by default, and powers aren't part of the system. It's still identifiably Fudge.

*I personally really like the ladder as is and basically never modify it, but I'd mark it as core to me more than core.

Yeah, I meant to type "a ladder" rather than "the ladder."

And keeping up my trend of general unclarity, what you expressed about traits was what I was shooting for - some way of defining characters using a mix of the traits, possibly rated on the ladder. I've been toying with skills, gifts, faults, and powers using the VG Fudge ladder lately.