pming
Legend
Hiya!
My "Wheel of Pain" method. It's hard to explain, but basically draw a clock-face without numbers. Now, going around the table, starting at a random person (and then going around the table), roll 4d6, keep highest 3, until 6 numbers of 10+ are generated...placing the first 10+ at "12 o'clock", the next at "1 o'clock", etc. If a roll is 9-, it goes at "6 o'clock", then "7 o'clock", etc. If you run out of high or low numbers, then any 'high' or 'low' number is ignored (as they are all filled up). Eventually you will have 12 numbered "opposite pairs" of numbers...one high, one low (e.g., "12 o'clock pairs with 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock pairs with 3 o'clock, etc").
Now the players decide which 'pairs' they want as a group. EVERYONE gets those stats for their character, but the player's can place them where they want. The DM (me) makes a note in my books about what the "stat pairs" are, and any new characters use these as well.
This has basically killed the problem that could crop up with one player rolling really well, and another rolling really bad. It has also added even more of a sense of "group" to the, er, group. Everyone feels like they are part of an adventuring party, in stead of a bunch of random strangers who go into dungeons, kill monsters, take their treasure, and get naked together (...c'mon, at some point in the game, every PC will be naked at the same time in the same area...fireball spells, freezing waters where everyone needs to huddle together by a makeshift fire to keep from dying, being captured and stripped, etc).
Anyway, my "Wheel of Pain" is my preferred method nowadays.
^_^
Paul L. Ming
My "Wheel of Pain" method. It's hard to explain, but basically draw a clock-face without numbers. Now, going around the table, starting at a random person (and then going around the table), roll 4d6, keep highest 3, until 6 numbers of 10+ are generated...placing the first 10+ at "12 o'clock", the next at "1 o'clock", etc. If a roll is 9-, it goes at "6 o'clock", then "7 o'clock", etc. If you run out of high or low numbers, then any 'high' or 'low' number is ignored (as they are all filled up). Eventually you will have 12 numbered "opposite pairs" of numbers...one high, one low (e.g., "12 o'clock pairs with 6 o'clock, and 9 o'clock pairs with 3 o'clock, etc").
Now the players decide which 'pairs' they want as a group. EVERYONE gets those stats for their character, but the player's can place them where they want. The DM (me) makes a note in my books about what the "stat pairs" are, and any new characters use these as well.
This has basically killed the problem that could crop up with one player rolling really well, and another rolling really bad. It has also added even more of a sense of "group" to the, er, group. Everyone feels like they are part of an adventuring party, in stead of a bunch of random strangers who go into dungeons, kill monsters, take their treasure, and get naked together (...c'mon, at some point in the game, every PC will be naked at the same time in the same area...fireball spells, freezing waters where everyone needs to huddle together by a makeshift fire to keep from dying, being captured and stripped, etc).
Anyway, my "Wheel of Pain" is my preferred method nowadays.
^_^
Paul L. Ming