Rolling stats

[Saltmarsh]

Hi all what's your preferred method for rolling stats ? Are you 3d6 in order or 4d6 drop the lowest dice , 3d6 reroll 1's .
One of my favourites is 3d6 roll then assign to a stat before you roll next stat, this gives some control of how the character develops but still leaves it a bit in the lap of the dice gods .

[Rosisha]

I like 3d6 in order because I feel like I'm "discovering" the character. Does that make sense? I have read a lot about "character builds" where people map out 20 levels of their character during creation, but that's not really how I like it.

Here are some examples! NOTE: ORDERING OF ABILITY SCORES IS NON-BFRPG STANDARD AS I USE THE 2E AD&D METHOD 1 APPROACH:

Character 1
Str: 8
Dex: 4
Con: 6
Int: 16
Wis: 5
Chr: 9

Obviously this is a wizard! But what an interesting wizard! High intelligence, but weak and clumsy. Obviously never going to be a war wizard. Yet, the low wisdom score is interesting too. Here is a person who can literally not afford to take risks - but probably will. They're smart, so they won't really risk themselves - they're aware of their limitations. But they'll push the limit when they can. They aren't wise enough to be cautious. This would be a fascinating character to play.

Character 2
Str: 13
Dex: 16
Con: 5
Int: 14
Wis: 6
Chr: 14

Pretty powerful, but the Constitution is a huge hamper. Would not choose a fighter for this character despite the Strength and Dexterity score. I'd probably go instead with a Thief or a Wizard. Not wise enough to be a Cleric. Now, above I described the low wisdom score as being a sign of a risk taker - someone willing to cast Fireball in an enclosed room. In this case, I see it more as laziness. They know they are strong, quick and intelligent. They can even be charming. Instead of using these skills to compensate for their lack of endurance, they instead use them to impress and then get others to do the work for them. Which I see as a thief mindset, but it could very easily be a wizard as well. Again, a fascinating character to play.

Character 3
Str: 16
Dex: 9
Con: 15
Int: 9
Wis: 6
Chr: 15

A brash and courageous fighter has entered our conversation. Strong and tough, this character is renowned for their bravery. More than once in Honeywood did this Character leap to the top of the barricade swinging a battle axe while screaming out "FOR KING AND COUNTRY!" A natural born leader, where they leap others follow, and they leap often - sometimes into some downright dangerous situations. They're impulsive and quick to charge. While a more cautious commander might look to probe an enemy line and seek out a weakness to exploit, our character says "The shortest line is a straight line between two points carved with my battle axe!" And then seeks to prove it, and can generally convince a whole bunch of people to go along with the plan - which usually gives them the victory because, as we all know, quantity has a quality all it's own.

Character 4
Str: 15
Dex: 4
Con: 13
Int: 8
Wis: 14
Chr: 12

A soft spoken scribe, slow in speech but passionate for the wisdom of the Gods. A cleric! They are in love with books and not the best at adventuring. They constantly drop things and are a bit of a klutz, yet, their knowledge and courage in the face of evil are without par. While they may not be the quickest - either in grace or glibness, they are well liked and try hard. They don't tire easily and have been known to land a telling blow at just the right time to turn a battle. Assuming things got desperate enough for them to waddle into the fight. Yet, when faced with battles you can't fight by sword alone - this character will be at your side armored in faith, and wielding divine light as a weapon that cares not for grace or intelligence, but instead for faith and humility.

--

For me, each of these characters were generated with 3d6 in order. I find each one of them awesome and interesting. With the right DM these characters should be able to shine and be enjoyable to play. In fact, I'd be willing to state that these characters are generally more powerful then most characters I've played. Apparently today was a good dice day!

This is, of course, just my opinion. I had fun doing this, but there are plenty of different and perfectly valid ways to have fun

[Solomoriah]

I don't like the 4d6-and-drop method in BFRPG because the stat tables are more generous than in the "advanced" game where I mostly see that done.

Instead, I use the "flip" method. Roll six stats, and add up the bonus and penalty values:

Code: Select all

10 +0
 7 -1
 9 +0
13 +1
 7 -1
11 +0
Total -1

If the total is negative, "flip" the numbers by subtracting ALL of them from 21:

Code: Select all

11 +0
13 +1
12 +0
 7 -1
13 +1
10 +0
Total +1

Generally this allows a character to be generated with just one set of rolls who will have at least as much in bonus as in penalty. 4d6-and-drop makes it too likely a character will never have a penalty, just a bunch of nice bonuses (unless he or she is just having a bad die rolling day, which my system actually rewards).

Then I allow the player to arrange stats as desired.

I'm more strict in Iron Falcon...

[Rosisha]

I totally understand what you're doing with the roll flipping, but I still think the first set would be an interesting character to play. I'd either try this as a wizard or a slightly more intelligent fighter who focuses on logistics/engineering. I wouldn't be a front line fighter, but I'd hang back and help protect the more fragile party members, and focus on pulleys and levers. Could be a really fun approach - especially with that wisdom score.

I could see a situation where the player decides to set up a rock fall as a defense, but decides to "go hard or go home" and destabilizes a major load bearing wall. Instead of fleeing the dangerous lich the party is now fleeing the lich AND a collapsing dungeon. Even better it "Works" in that the targeted ceiling comes down trapping the lich on the other side. However, as the character is grinning... cracks start forming in the rock above... time to run Indiana Jones style. Just good fun all around. If you like chaos.

[Solomoriah]

Waitaminit here, Rosisha... what are you talking about?

Assuming the stats are used in order:

Str 10 +0
Int 7 -1
Wis 9 +0
Dex 13 +1
Con 7 -1
Cha 11 +0

There's no way I'd play this as a fighter, and the character isn't smart enough to be a magic-user. I'd assume you shuffled the stats, but then if you did, why say "especially with that Wisdom score"?

I'm afraid I don't get it... can you illuminate me?

[Rosisha]

EDIT TO NOTE: I was first brought into RPGs through 2nd Edition, and the ordering of the stats in 2nd Ed is as below. From the 2e PHB:

Method I: Roll three six-sided dice (3d6); the total shown on the dice is your character's Strength ability score. Repeat this for Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, in that order. This method gives a range of scores from 3 to 18, with most results in the 9 to 12 range. Only a few characters have high scores (15 and above), so you should treasure these characters.

Essentially I've always used 2nd Ed AD&D Method 1 Character Generation for my characters. Everyone seems to love Method V (roll 4d6, drop lowest, any order) and 5e seems to have normalized point buying which was introduced in the Player's Options series. They did modify it though.

A few more edits cause I'm typing this while working on sound editing, so random things are jumping at me as I pause. I prefer using SDC|IWCh because it groups the abilities in a way that makes sense to me: Physical Attributes | Mental Attributes.

While I appreciate BFRPG is different and you're the author, that's just my personal preference and I see no game mechanic issue with my ordering of the stats. And I did label my scores in my four sample characters above, so I had taken your scores and applied them to my ordering. Just my personal preference for how I build and talk about characters is all.

[Dimirag]

If the games use classes with high Ability Score requirements I like to use what I call "Roll to fill", its basically 3d6 in order, but if you roll lower than a required score that rolled value goes to the available one (as long it respects its required score)

For random but equal creation I have a random array, lets say the games uses 16, 15, 14, 13, 11, and 8.
Grab 6 equal papers and write the numbers, then you pick each paper randomly and use the value as the scores in order, then roll 2d6 each individual die indicates what ability loses a point, roll again and but adding a point.
I have another method that rolls the 5 different dice and uses a kind of elimination sequence.

Random Array Table.jpg (236.2 KiB) Viewed 476 times

[Saltmarsh]

I like the way you describe the stats you rolled Rosisha, and I like what you did I try to do much the same with my system but it allows a little control if players want to play a certain class but doesn't give complete control as I've seen on meny occasions the person who wants to play a thief for example and rolls a 14 which they put in to dex only to have the next rool be a 16 , or the reverse they hold out hoping for a good roll only to miss putting the 14 in to a prime requisite and ending with an 8 .

[daryen]

Eh, I just give up and do 4d6 drop one; any order. I don't want the characters (either mine or my players as a GM) to have all those sucky stats. It just isn't fun for me. In fact, I'd actually be willing to play with 2d6+6 just to directly eliminate the chance of those extremely low stats.

I'd rather have character do something stupid because the player did it directly, not because they force the situation because the character's Int is 4. I'd rather have the character fumble because of a bad roll, not because they had no chance in the first place with a Dex of 5. I'd rather have the character tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail because of what the player had the character do, not because the character's Cha is 3.

I'd also rather let the player pick the class they want, rather than haven them see that their highest stat is a Con of 12 and figuring they might as well be a fighter so they can die and get a new character more quickly.

[Solomoriah]

A character Int of 4 (or a Wis of 4, for that matter) does not force the player to do anything. It does limit what their character can do, but not what the player can think up. Ability scores "forcing" a player into an action is a "new school" thing.