What mechanic do you use to determine ability scores?

[Crothian]

Wow. That is *evil*. Yes, evil. I mean, you are automatically burdening your players' conscience.
"Shall I take an 18 on my casting stat? And perhaps a 14 in Dexterity? Or is that too much. Strength 7? Nah, that's cliché and doesn't hamper me, anyway. 7 Wisdom. Yeah, I guess."

Seriously, I couldn't make characters with that system. I'd be so anxious not to overpower my character I could think of little else

Using this system I have yet to have a player choose to have an attribue of over 16 or lower then 10. It is tough for them but it allows them to design the character they want. Plus is shows a lot of trust between DM and PCs; and PCs and PCs. I have found the with the proper group it workd great.

 

[Gothmog]

Other- I roll 4d6, drop lowest for 6 sets of ability scores, then arrange the scores in a 6 x 6 matrix, as illustrated below:

12 14 9 11 16 13
11 17 12 12 9 7
15 11 14 10 9 18
9 13 16 15 15 14
17 12 7 15 8 16
14 13 13 15 17 9

Each player must pull his ability scores from the matrix using one continuous line of numbers. The orientation of the numbers doesn't matter on the matrix, but they must be put in order in the ability scores, in the order of Str, Dex, Con, Int, Wis, Cha. For example, lets say I wanted to make a fighter that had a high Str, Con, and Cha. I could chose to use the following combinations to achieve this:

3rd line across- S 15, D 11, C 14, I 10, W9, Ch 18
5th line backwards- S 16, D 8, C 15, I 7, W 12, Ch 17
5th column reading up- S 17, D 8, C 15, I 9, W 9, Ch 16

Once a particular column or line is chosen, the numbers cannot be arranged. I have found this gives players general control over the strengths and weaknesses of their characters, but manages to avoid the munchkining of stats that occurs with straight point buy. In addition, there is no need to reroll a really low set of scores, since the lines and columns can be read in a variety of ways. It allows for more organic character generation, with characters that have some more believable strengths and weaknesses.

 

[sparxmith]

IMC, I wanted to create super human characters so I allowed 100 pt of attributes with no stat being above 25 and no stat being below 8 prior to racial mod's. It worked out according to plan. The characters think that they are overpowered (which they like), but in actuallity, I've just bumped their ECL by 2 without telling them so they get less XP for encounters that are GENUINELY more difficult.

The other DM in our group uses 7 sets of 4d6 dropping lowest die and lowest overall roll. Furthermore, you do this 3 times choosing the the column with the highest stats, then you can rearrange at will.

Just my two sparx,

Sparxmith

 

[Grishnak]

My group and I don't like point buy systems, so we always use 4d6-lowest, and put them where you want.

Ditto for me but my group like point buy which I refuse outright! Prefer the randomness of the roll, after all your char can live and die with randomness so why not make them that way!

 

[The Kender]

Other- I roll 4d6, drop lowest for 6 sets of ability scores, then arrange the scores in a 6 x 6 matrix, as illustrated below

Consider this stolen

I'll try it out in my next campaign. My players like bingo, its kinda like that, if you think about it...

 

[The LMS]

4d6 7 times..drop lowest die and score. Assign as you wish.

 

[diaglo]

OD&D rules. almost.

3d6 six times in order
str, int, wis, con, dex, cha

choose class.

adjust 2 pts from one stat for 1 for prime req score. no adjustment below avg ... 9.

so fighting man has str as prime req stat.

if he rolled 12 and wanted to adjust it to 14. he could take 4 pts from int if his score didn't dip below 9 in int.

edit: the only variation from OD&D really is the player rolling instead of the referee.

 

[RedShirtNo5]

another card draw

1. Make a deck of 24 cards: four aces, four 2s, four 3s, four 4s, four 5s, four 6s.
2. Shuffle and deal into 6 stacks of 4 cards each.
3. Turn over in ability score order, taking best 3 of 4.
4. Swap one pair of ability scores if desired.

Provides a tight distribution equivalent to 27-29 point draw, but with a good degree of randomness. And by swapping, you can almost always play the class you would be interested in.

-RedShirt

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

Here's what I use:

4d6, re-roll all 1's, keep 3 highset.

Roll 6 times, arrange as desired.

This leads to PC"s with well above average stats, I'm aware of this & set my game accordingly.

Actually, I started using this method when running my 2nd ed FR games where powerful stats were the norm & stat increases were hard to come by.

So, I'm re-thinking my stat generation method. But, my players like occassionly running in an Uber-Stat game.

Later

 

[Kichwas]

I'm actually shocked that in -this day and age- somebody would do a poll like this without even mentioning some version of point-buy.

I would wager that some value of it is the second most used methodology, and in some communities the primary one.

Depending on which set of regulars are actively posting here - it will either be the only thing considered -with flame wars over how much, or a major faction - with flame wars over random v design.


EDIT: I see you did mention it now, but misnamed it.

All games I either run or play in use 28 point buy.