Sorry for the delay in posting this Friday's question, but I'm busy and distracted. Anyway, here it is: was your first character created "fairly," which is to say, without any fudging of any of its random elements? Obviously, this question only applies to people whose first games include random elements in character generation, but, if yours didn't, I would like to know what your first RPG was and how its lack of random elements in character generation has influenced your thinking about creating characters.
As usual, I'm offline for the day. Expect posts, email, and comment replies to resume over the weekend.
In d20 Star Wars I rolled really low for my 6 stats, so I played a force adept and was a sycophant to a sith in the group (it was a darkside campaign).
ReplyDeleteIt was rather fun to be evil and craven while weak.
Yes, I took the character stats as they were rolled. My previous gaming experiences were Monopoly, Sorry, Axis & Allies, and the like, and you didn't fudge numbers in those games, so why would you do so in RPGs?
ReplyDeleteOh wow. Can I even remember the first character? I'm fairly sure it was a fighter that died in the first room (black pudding).
ReplyDeleteI know that in the early days of playing a Holmes mash-up, rolls were fudged on occasion. By the time the hardcovers started to become available (c. 1979?), we were playing 1e(ish) and scores mattered more. We witnessed rolls, so they were more "honest." Our rolling method however was pretty liberal. 4d6 drop the lowest, re-roll ones, and arrange. Also, people could dump a set and re-roll all six if they wanted. As a result, most folks had at least one 18.
What can I say? We were 10-11 years old, learning the game on our own (no big kids). Nowadays, we have more fun with random/low scores.
I rolled up Elrond and Gandalf fair & square. (Note my subtle borrowing of names from obscure fantasy literature.)
ReplyDeleteMtbDM
My first game was West End Games' Star Wars RPG (d6 system). It was sort of a point-buy game, within set parameters based on the race of the character. As it was my intro to RPGs, I went into the hobby thinking *all* games allowed that same level of customization. I literally didn't understand when I met some D&D friends who were talking about "rolling up" a character. What did that mean, I wondered. Charming, right?
ReplyDeleteBack when I first started, we used characters as rolled BUT rolled 4d6 for all ability scores and dropped the lowest.
ReplyDeleteOne crazy house rule that was sometimes used (we were young and foolish) was that if all 4 dice came up with the same number, all 4 were totaled.
Merlin 2 the Elf Mage was kind of fair. It was a 2e game, and the GM let us arrange our stats as we wanted, but we still used 3d6, as I recall, and I'd rolled some terrible stats. Didn't matter, because he died in the first round of combat, which somehow got me completely addicted to the game.
ReplyDeleteYes, my first character was created fairly. It was a magic-user, and he survived the session. The game was some flavor of Basic I think, but I never saw the rulebook so I cannot say precisely.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of cheating came later in my AD&D 2e days.
I would note this: the more important stats are to character ability, or perceived balance between PCs during the game, the greater the incentive to use fudged rolls, liberal rolling methods, or point-buy.
I think "3d6 in order" works for OD&D (and to a lesser extent, in Basic) because stats aren't that important. AD&D makes them too important to leave to chance that way.
The very first RPG I ever played was in '81 or so, about 10 years old, a computer game called Eamon, a great little piece of free software way ahead of its time.
ReplyDeleteIt randomed genned the three stats on a rough 3-20 (I think): STR, DEX, CHA. Five weapon classes, and about three or four spells, I think.
My first character died in the Beginners Cave against a fellow named Heinrich (whom I later discovered was likely to be an ally if CHA was high enough and you didn't attack him first!)
D&D came very shortly on the heels of Eamon - and my first character was straight rolled in stat order, and, if I recall, very average and did not meet the minimums for what
I wanted to play (a dwarf, maybe?) so I ended up with a cleric, because I liked maces.
Died early in the moathouse near Hommlet against a caterpillar or something. I don't remember it very well, just that the group had a joke about getting killed by a caterpillar, and I think it was my guy. Memory's a foggy thing.
Yep. Margon the Mediocre. An Elf thief whose highest stat was a 14 in Dex, and that only because of the racial bonus given in 1E. Rolled 3d6 once for each stat.
ReplyDelete(Oddly, I'd only GM'd D&D before this. It was only with 1E that I actually got to be a player.)
As to how it affected my view of character creation, I'm not sure, but I've always been of the camp that playing "defective" characters can be a fun challenge.
One crazy house rule that was sometimes used (we were young and foolish) was that if all 4 dice came up with the same number, all 4 were totaled.
ReplyDeleteThat's actually kind of cool. There is a 1 in 1296 chance of a 24 (same for a 20). It also means the minimum stat is a 4.
I honestly don't remember how I rolled my first character. I'm sure at least discarding poor sets of rolls was pretty quickly adopted.
Frank
My very first RPG character was a Moldway basic set Magic User. Irolled 3d6 next to each ability, the highest score was a 13 next to INT. So an MU he was. Took me 1 1/2hours to complete. I was 13 or 14.
ReplyDeleteThat's tough...I spent the first many years of my life as a DM and did NOT roll up characters. When I started playing (and my friend took on DMing duties) my first "player character" was an NPC that had A) NOT rolled his ability scores, and B) was created to campaign with high level characters (in other words, he'd been assigned high ability scores).
ReplyDeleteThe first ability score I ever "rolled randomly" was when we got the Unearthed Arcana (1985) and all our existing characters had to add Comeliness to their stat line. My DM, maybe to be expedient, maybe to treat the stat different, had everyone roll 1D20 instead of 3D6 (re-rolling anything outside the 3-18 range). I STILL ended up with an 18 (after first rolling a "1" and a "20")...go figure.
My first game was AD&D, back in the summer of '79. I had no idea what I was doing, so I rolled the stats in order (the DM allowed us to rearrange stats, but I had no idea what that meant), and got a character best suited as a Magic User. The DM was crazy or sadistic, as the adventure he was running was Tomb of Horrors but he had me start at 1st level, while the other characters were in the 10-15th level range. I think I rolled 2 hit points.
ReplyDeleteMine was the only character to survive on the initial expedition to that deathtrap dungeon, because I was the only one who chose to spend most of my starting money on mercenaries, and I let those mercenary soldiers and the other characters do all the dirty work (hey, I had good cause to "let" them test everything, since they had better hit points and whatnot). In part, the DM's extreme inexperience with NPCs helped a lot, since I could tell the mercenaries to do any suicidal thing, and they would just do it rather than argue or discuss (or leave).
Ever since then, I have been especially interested in games which allow me to give orders to NPCs, run domains, and the like. My second Torg character was the Megacorporate CEO from the Nippon Tech sourcebook, because I wanted to play all that "High Finance" stuff. The game which took my fancy the most in that manner was Realms of the Unknown, an obscure little game in which the players took the roles of the leaders of various "cities" or "clans", and managed the resources and actions of those. To this day, I want to re-write it so that it works a little bit better from my point of view.
My very first character would have been for Holmes basic and In Search of the Unknown. It was a one off (and 32 years ago) so I don't remember; but I'm guessing we did not cheat.
ReplyDeleteThe characters after that, were for on going campaigns, and we had AD&D by then. We used the 4d6, drop one, if the stat was below 8 throw it out method. On top of that we used the Holmes rules of lower int 2 to raise strength 1 etc. We had not read all of AD&D yet and did not realize that was not part of the new edition. This resulted in characters with like 18 strength, dexterity and constitution, and like 9 in intelligence, wisdom and charisma. We did not fudge the rules we were using.
In 1982 I taught myself Traveller and it never occurred to me to fudge dice rolls. (I did sometimes use the "join the Scouts and hope to die" suggestion mentioned here yesterday, though...)
ReplyDeleteLater that year my first D&D was 1e and we rolled 3d6 in order, but I seem to recall that we might have re-rolled 1s or something similar. It wasn't until I picked up the DMG months later that we learned about "Methods" and then went to town making up crazy ways to do it for several years.
Yes, my first AD&D character was rolled fair and square. It's my second character, but I can't recall how I arrived at by first only Moldvay character's stats. The AD&D character was interesting because I really wanted to play a wizard. Having an 18 STR and only a decent INT didn't make me change my mind.
ReplyDeleteStarting in the late-80's, I switched to games where characters were designed rather than rolled, which has been pretty much how I've played ever since (Gurps, Storyteller, Buffy, D20 point buys, Risus).
We first played using the 'Holmes' rules... as I recall, we all sat down with pencil and paper and Bob (who was DM and the only one of us who had played D&D before) had us roll 3d6, total them for Strength, then 3d6, total them for Intelligence, etc.
ReplyDeleteMy re-reading of the rules at the time indicates that the stats seemed to have very little in game effect... but I remember in that early group there was one player who always seemed to roll an 18 for constitution when no one was looking. I think he wanted the bonus hit points.
My first character was an elf. I have his character sheet somewhere --- it has no score above 12 or so.
Pickpocket the Thief (I was 9 and had just seen the Oliver Twist movie) was rolled fair and square. He died in the Caves of Chaos. It was awesome. I have been hooked on D&D ever since.
ReplyDeleteIn generating my first D&D character, I rolled up a Thief with Strength 7, no fudging. He died to a white dragon - awesome. In my teens, greedy for power, I remember fudging some die rolls.
ReplyDeleteIn my most recent campaigns, I had the players roll up 5 characters using straight 3d6 in order. They could then choose the character they wanted to play. If that character died, they had to play another character from that same set of rolls, and so on. Most players chose the best of 5 and then tried very hard not to die, because they didn't want to lose the best stats they'd rolled. As a result one players has quite lousy stats as he is on his 4th character! Another player wisely started play with a weaker set of stats, and then later introduced his best stats, when most of the rest of the party was at 2nd level and better able to keep folks alive...
My best friend's mom was running The Keep on the Borderlands, I was coming in late so they let me take over an NPC (rolled fairly I presume). After a few unlucky rolls he was killed by kobolds in the Caves of Chaos. I too was hooked!
ReplyDeleteNewt Ralgud's highest was a STR 15 as I remember, rolled with 4d6 keep 3 and arrange.
ReplyDelete(Yes, Newt Ralgud. I eventually reskinned him as a Saxon warrior named Stansceaft, which in hindsight is actually a more embarrassing choice.)
My first character (Holmesian D&D) was handed to me by the DM, pre-named and everything. I had virtually no idea what anything on that sheet of paper meant, my first question was "What's a halfling?"
ReplyDeleteAlthough I have no way of knowing if he was fudged one way or the other initially, when I "upgraded" him to AD&D a few months later, his stats shot up somehow.
We didn't fudge the dice rolls in our first game. The entire party died in the very first round of combat with a bunch of common snakes, and to HP damage, not poison, off the wandering monster table. Years later I looked back at the rules and discovered to my shock that we had done everything correctly despite my assumptions. Would you like an argument against random stats? I have lived it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there's a method of character rolling I haven't used. My first was 3d6 in order though, and that set me up for the rest of my career. I personally like the randomness of groups like that. You never know how things will work out.
ReplyDeleteI remember my first D&D character, because after around 35 years I still use him as a major NPC in my games (not always around, but shows up in campaigns from time to time).
ReplyDeleteArcturus Grimm was a ranger. I rolled 3D6 in order, and nothing was below 15 I kid you not. Also had an 18 and a couple of 16's (didn't decide on a ranger until those stats). Never rolled anywhere near that good with any system ever again.
I should mention that nowadays I use 4 pick best 3, and generally allow an elimination roll if anything is under 8.
ReplyDeleteMy lucky early D&D rolls aside, I think totally random 3d6 without any other help tends to be good for OD&D, where the characters are Elmer Fudd's vs. the DM as Bugs Bunny. Sub par characters are fun in a jokey sort of way, for a game table where the group is yammering out Monty Python references ad nauseum, but if you want to run somebody capable (not necessarily a Conan, but at least above average) I think you should have that character. Some players/DM's like jokey games, some want to emulate heroic fantasy.
My first character was rolled 3d6 in order...and so was my Mom's. I had been turned on to the idea of D&D by (of all things) my teacher.
ReplyDeleteShe was a long term substitute, and the most attractive teacher I ever had (ah, Mrs. Hill); I was 11, but I knew hot when I saw it. She saw that I had few friends, and tried to "hook me up" with the class nerd (it was derogatory back then).
Anyway, the FLGS was called Stuff and Nonsense (great name), and the proprietor held weekly Saturday morning beginners sessions. My Mom wanted to know what I was getting into, so she took me....and took part.
After paying our 10 cents each (for the precious colored paper character sheets), we rolled up our PCs. I don't remember the stats, but I was a fighter. My Mom rolled up a Magic User.
It was a homebrew dungeon, but before we ever got close, we were jumped by a giant frog. One of the PCs ("coincidentally" the annoying little brat player) got gulped. Then...it happened. My Mom led the party in a maneuver where she blasted the frog in the face with Burning Hands, and the rest of us encircled it and cut it down.
Now, that might sound cool, but you have to understand; my Mom is a simple-minded ignorant conservative who, despite seeing the good fun and camaraderie at the game, proceeded to oppose my playing of it to THIS DAY.
So, I don't know who I was with that Saturday in 1981, but it sure wasn't the Mom I've known my whole life......but it was pretty cool.
No. I wanted to be a "wizard" and so the DM just assigned me a high intelligence and charisma (cause you know we all wanted to be good-looking) and really bad scores to everything else. He gave me leather armor, too.
ReplyDeleteRules-lighght!
It was in the 2e PHB (about 10 years later) that I first came across the idea that there was any appeal in "3d6 in order".
My first, first character ever in the history of Time was rolled with the 4d6, drop the lowest method. I was a precocious little kid who had begged my brother to let me play. He had me eaten by wolves in my sleep the first night camping down. Pretty sure he just wanted to get rid of me.
ReplyDeleteI cried to my parents until they made him have a passing villager drag me to town and have me resurrected. But I didn't want to play any more until I was a lot older.
But as far as rolling goes, I like point-buy or at the very least the roll-and-assign-the-numbers-as-you-choose method. Players tend to balk at the idea of the game choosing who they are - they want to envision a character and tailor their stats to match. The dice just make it fun - we'd all get sick of playing with nothing but 18s all the time. Games are about overcoming challenges, and the weaknesses we enter life with are the biggest challenges of all.
I think our group started playing one of the Basic sets around '79 or '80 and I just can't remember any of those early characters. My gut feeling is though we fudged like thieves. It wasn't until a year or so later I started to "get serious" about the game after picking up the AD&D books and I made everybody roll according to one of the methods in the DMG. Still not strict 3d6 per specific ability, but legal. I don't think the charm of strict ability rolls really dawned on me until much later in adulthood.
ReplyDeleteThese responses make me think another good question would be: what was the first game you played and in what year?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cusick, cheating on ability score rolls is more likely in games where these rolls are more important.
ReplyDeleteWhen I started out I cheated like crazy. It was pretty ridiculous. I've also seen players who fudge their later rolls, for things like saving throws and such.
It's also very common, in more comlpex games where you have lots of modifiers, to roll and then declare a higher total than you should have gotten. In effect, you're lying about how much of a bonus you get. Although this will eventually come around if the DM asks for a list of bonus sources.
These days, haha, not at all. As a referee I roll all my dice out in front of everyone (except monster HP rolls, so they don't know how many HD or HP a creature has). And I think referee impartiality is the way to go.
Actually I just wrote a blog post about this.
I was in kindergarten and couldn't read yet so my brother helped me roll my first two charachters a MU and the Thief (Moldvay basic), both rolled straight 3d6 in order. because that's how my brother told me too.
ReplyDeleteMan I wish I still had those charchter sheets.
I am certain that my first character was BD&D, circa 1980. I can no longer remember who he was, but I know we did roll 3d6, no arranging. Until we got to AD&D and high school, and the "we need a cleric, someone has to get a high Wisdom" kicked in.
ReplyDeleteYes, and he sucked. My friend's brother was teaching us Marvel Superheroes and I rolled an energy body but couldn't fly or shoot stuff. I was just....energy. And a low powered one at that.
ReplyDeleteAfter that, I just picked the powers but started them low.
I can't recall what the rolls were, but they were better than my friends. He got in a snit and wouldn't play for the next few games because he rolled some pitiful scores.
1d30:
ReplyDeleteI've also seen players who fudge their later rolls, for things like saving throws and such.
Worse cheating I've ever come across was when a friend said she caught someone using shaved/loaded dice in her local game.
Whatever happened to "it's just a game?
Yes, we had no idea what the stats would mean in play, so we had no motivation to cheat. So it was 3d6 in order and off we went, even if it meant a STR 12 fighter or WIS 10 cleric. I don't think we used the rule about trading one score for another either.
ReplyDeleteThat was OD&D; next up was Traveller where the temptation to cheat (in particular, to fudge a death during generations) was much higher.
When AD&D came along I don't think we cheated on the individual scores so much as pushed mediocre characters down the stairs and rolled new ones.
My first character was an AD&D Assassin, rolled up under the guidance and supervision of my DM. So he was totally on the level.
ReplyDeleteMy SECOND character, however, was a Ranger whose stats were somehow all 17s and 18s. I may have ignored a result or two where the dice were tilted slightly askew, thus clearly calling the results into question.
I brought him to a game at my FLGS (my first experience playing with anyone besides that first DM) and got The Look from the teenager running it. But he allowed the character in.
My brother and I created scads of Holmes characters, all per the rules and no cheating. I also created tons of LBB Traveller characters, no cheating.
ReplyDeleteI think my first real character (still no cheating) was a dwarf, part of an endless succession of them (they died off pretty quickly). He got his nose bitten off by a wolf, and had to wear a nose-patch.
Bok Rediron was a dwarf, in 1984 -i was 12. I had to search words in a french-english dictionnary, because I wasn't yet studying english at school, but it look more cool in english.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember the stats, but I rolled them as it was explained in the Red box. I didn't finsihed to read the book, just was still in the first pages - and was puzzled by the savig thrown, which are explained leter in the book?
I don't think I ever played it. It was so hard to find players, during that times, that we used with my neigbour, to roll teams of 12 or more characters for one player. Enough to attack a dungeon... only later we cwent to individual characters.
Yes. But as it was original D&D before Greyhawk, the characteristics had a negligible effect on the game. Beyond essentially determining your class (prohibiting some and preferring others). I was lucky enough to get a 16 Intelligence for my magic user.
ReplyDeleteOnce Greyhawk appeared, things (carefully phrased wishes, magic items, and divine intervention) that boosted the ability scores became rather more popular, and a characteristic race did set in. Especially for fighters seeking the elusive 18 (00) Strength.
But as a rule in most games with random characteristics the fun was in playing with what you got. Then again, most of our games we didn't start out as heroes (or villains), but became them in play.
Although that being said, I was quite happy to have rolled an 18 SIZ for my long-running Runequest character (and 10 INT and 8 CHA => instant Storm Bull), and rather concerned when a Traveller character mustered out after only one term. Still, in a Universe of old guys on the look-out for the next illicit load of anagathics, playing a young punk who thought he knew everything but patently didn't was quite refreshing). <grin>
I got started latest it seems as I was introduced with 2e. We rolled up the characters up using usual dice but 2 stat lines we could chose from. Sadly I missed out on an 18 strength on my fighter because one person wasnt at the table...
ReplyDeleteMy first character was Retnur (sort of my middle name, Hunter, backwards) the Dwarf. I wanted to play a half-elf, but was misunderstood by the DM who told me that Halflings weren't any good. Then after I was "encouraged" to roll up a dwarf, I think I used 3d6 in order, but since my strength was low, the DM gave me a 16.
ReplyDeleteThen, after we survived Keep on the Borderlands (almost certainly after significant massaging of the dice), I was told that we were switching to AD&D and was "encouraged" to play a paladin. So my charisma was raised to 17, my race changed to human, and the DM allowed me to "trade in" my flaming sword +1 that I found in B2 for a +5 Holy Avenger.
This was in the party where the DM played Tenser from the Rogues Gallery and another guy played Serten. At the end of each dungeon, Tenser would use his Staff of the Magi with infinite charges (because the RG didn't say it had a specific number) to teleport all the critters we missed into the sky so they could be shot with a giant fireball so that we could get all of the experience from killing them.
So, the short answer is that I don't think I ever had an "honest" character until I started playing D&D again in 3.5/4E with point buys.
My first character was a Paladin. I rolled the stats and my teacher (we had a 2 hour AD&D class once per week in elementary school, it rocked!) said I had to play a Paladin. I recall now, though may be imagining it, that she said I would likely never get the chance to play another one.
ReplyDeleteI died in the first combat. At least it was a brave and glorious attempt as I held the rear guard. I was 9 years old and haven't stopped playing since.
My very first character was a fighter by the name of Noven. I don't play or even have the PC sheet anymore, but for my own bit of amusement I re-christened him as a minor demi god in my world who's admired from the grandest of hero's to adventures too maimed and crippled to go dungeon delving anymore.
ReplyDeleteOh, the stories one can hear from the one legged ex warrior as he waits outside at the shrine of Noven for one of the god's kindly priests to poor a bowl full of soup to him and others of his kind...
The 1st charcter I played in a stripped down 1e AD&D game was a thief, having taken over from another player I didn't get to roll a new one. So I looked forward to making my own when the thief died. The 1st that was mine alone was Sine the Fighter, STR 18,INT 6 etc - the DM gave me the completed character sheet, he'd named him, generated everything and assigned equipment. He did this for every character so we were all archetypes - I didn't know better so I didn't mind !
ReplyDeleteOi... too late to join this thread, but I like there being a consolation prize for low stats.
ReplyDeleteMy consolation prize of choice is XP. If you got all 12s and 13s, you should be happy, right? Mr. Above-Average. So take
=max(75-(sum of stats)*100, 0)
as your starting XP.
I pulled out my binder of ancient D&D papers. I was the DM in those days, so didn't have an actual character. Of the two surviving characters from the earliest games (both theoretically still living, and both of whose players I can still find 35 years later), one would appear to have had some help on stats or had them bumped up for survival when we converted to A&D in 1980. The other is "Onikan the Oak", with numbers of 12,12,10,9,14,9, which would strongly suggest that he was rolled 3d6 straight across.
ReplyDeleteThis is going to end up with me playing game...
I was around 8 or 9 when I made my first D&D character. It was for 1e, and I really didn't understand most of it. I was playing in a group of 13 year old. My mother and two of there's mother were friends, and I was dropped off to be looked after for the day. I don't remember much of this character but what I do remember is this:
ReplyDeleteI think his name was John, and I know he was a fighter. I know I rolled him 3d6 and in order of the stats. I remember I rolled an 18 with high percentile for strength, and a high charisma.
I remember that because when the game started others asked the brother who helped me roll this character if he had let me cheated in rolling the PC up. He didn't. I remember my charisma was high because I was told when rolling up the character that this score means I'm very good looking. And this brother drew me a picture of him in my picture box. I was expecting something very professional looking since the example character sheet looked professional. My fighter in his drawing looked like E.T. wearing chainmail. I was upset since he said my PC was good looking, but he didn't look good looking in this drawing! I re-drew him in a sinister looking helmet.
Funny thing is I kept dropping my weapon in combat thinking I was too strong to use a weapon because I was so strong, and kept trying to put monsters in headlocks, including a dragon. They handled it well. They would treat my hand-to-hand combat as if I was still using my weapon. Why complicate things. Yup, John the Strong :)
My first characters were under OD&D and were rolled using 3d6, with no fudging. As were the next couple dozen or so until AD&D came along with the radical idea of rolling 4d6 and rearranging our stats.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of 'fudging' character creation never entered my mind as the point was to play what the dice wrought not to play some pre-conceived character concept.
And, to be honest, many of those characters were far more memorable than the carefully constructed characters of later editions. (Despite which, I continue to play one of those later editions.)
Carl
I did use my character as rolled, which was a fighter whom I named Conan (yes, a very original name choice). For me, Conan is what got me interested in Fantasy RPG's (having been a huge fan of Bond initially, I preferred espionage)and who I wanted to be, so to speak. He had a 17 strength, which was pretty damn good. Played him for several years using BECMI, until I switched to AD&D 1e/2e in 90.
ReplyDeleteMine was an elf fighter in 2nd ed.. He was fairly created using a house rule (I think it was a house rule, it's been a while).
ReplyDeleteStr: 15, Dex: 18, Con: 9, Int: 15
Wis: 7, Cha: 17
It was great. Learnt to roleplay pretty quickly. A nimble fighter (high dex), with a cronic illness (I didn't realise a Con of 9 wasn't far off average) and a propensity for rushing in when he really shouldn't (Wis 7). Oh, and a lady's man (Cha 17).
I’m sure I didn’t fudge on the first character I created, which would’ve been Moldvay Basic Set. Can’t remember the first PC that actually made it into play.
ReplyDeleteI don’t ever recall fudging on character creation. Although, in my AD&D days, we used a very liberal method, but it was the rule for the group. I don’t remember the specifics, but it involved rolling 3d6 36 times...and wasn’t exactly any of the DMG methods.
I’ve always felt that as referee you should institute a method that won’t generate hopeless characters the way you play. There’s nothing wrong with 2d6+6 or 12 + the lower of 2d6 or whatever if that’s what your game requires. (Although, personally, I go more for trying to ensure that PCs with low scores aren’t hopeless.)
The first character I rolled up was for the Blue Box Basic set, which I believe I got for Christmas 1977, had scores ranging from 6 to a mighty high of 11. Back then we wrote our characters up on 3x5 index cards - ah, for the simple days when a full character fit on a 3x5 card! My second character was a dwarf with a strength of 13(!) and an intelligence of 3. His claim to fame is that he never once failed his roll to open a door.
ReplyDeleteIt would never occur to us to fudge a stat roll for about 3 years or so...