Ability Score Breakdown by Population?

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I remember reading something (I think it was from 2E) that gave ability score breakdowns by population. Something like a city will have three people with an 18 Int, 2 people with 19, 1 person with 20, etc.

Does anyone know the source?

 

[Storyteller01]

2nd ed 'Player Options' (I believe that's right). Gave global breakdowns. 18's were olympic level ability, or near so; 1 in 1,000,000 or so were the odds.

I'm operating purely on memory, so don't shoot me if I'm wrong.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

That sounds exactly like what I remember reading. I'll look it up. Thanks!

 

[Storyteller01]

No sweat...

 

[Conaill]

If you assume the general NPC population has 3d6 stats, there's a 1 in 216 chance of getting an 18 for each stat, a 1 in 72 chance of getting a 17, etc. Considering every NPC has 6 stats, that means about 1 in 36 has an 18 in *some* stat, and about 1 in 12 has a 17 in some stat.

Beyond that, you'd have to look at the effect of racial modifiers, age modifiers, distribution of NPC levels (+1 every 4 levels!) and ratio of PC versus NPC classes.

 

[Storyteller01]

If you assume the general NPC population has 3d6 stats, there's a 1 in 216 chance of getting an 18 for each stat, a 1 in 72 chance of getting a 17, etc. Considering every NPC has 6 stats, that means about 1 in 36 has an 18 in *some* stat, and about 1 in 12 has a 17 in some stat.

Beyond that, you'd have to look at the effect of racial modifiers, age modifiers, distribution of NPC levels (+1 every 4 levels!) and ratio of PC versus NPC classes.

Just one catch: NPC's are assumed to be the average of 3d6. Exceptional individuals (assuming 'exceptional' can also mean 'exceptionally inept') are the only ones who get the chance to roll.

So you figure 5 out of 100 (my own rule; basic party of four plus the BBEG) people get the chance to roll. NOW figure in your stats...


My view anyway...

 

[orsal]

Just one catch: NPC's are assumed to be the average of 3d6. Exceptional individuals (assuming 'exceptional' can also mean 'exceptionally inept') are the only ones who get the chance to roll.

So you figure 5 out of 100 (my own rule; basic party of four plus the BBEG) people get the chance to roll. NOW figure in your stats...

My view anyway...

The underlying idea is that for an NPC of marginal importance, it's not worth the bother to roll stats, so just treat them as average. But ideally, the population has 3d6 distribution. At least that's how it was originally intended. If you want to run a bizarre world in which almost all individuals are thoroughly average by virtue of the fact that nobody is playing them, go ahead, but I'm not going to try to rationalize it.

According to 3d6, the probabilities are:
3,18: 1/216
4,17: 3/216
5,16: 6/216
6,15: 10/216
7,14: 15/216
8,13: 21/216
9,12: 25/216
10,11: 27/216

 

[Storyteller01]

Can't answer that without going into debate mode. Already in the middle of one as it is, and it won't help Ogrork any. Besides, average runs from 9 to 12. Plenty of variance without too much hassle. You could probably fit this in a standard point buy.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Then how do you rationalize 1-in-216 people having a stat of 3? Isn't that a bit high?

 

[Celebrim]

I do mine by distribution according to a point buy now. I use something roughly like the following:

10% of the population: Point buy less than 13 (
80% of the population: Point buy 13-17 (ordinary folks, thugs, mooks)
9% of the population: Point buy 18-22 (important NPC's)
0.9% of the population: Point buy 23-27 (PC's allies, sub-bosses)
0.09% of the population: Point buy 28-32 (PC's fall here, PC peers and mentors)
0.009% of the population: Point buy 33-37 (BBEG)
Point buys of 38 or higher are vanishingly small percentages of the population (1 in a million or less), to the point that it is rare for them to ever meet each other - much less be friends and go on adventures together. Legendary people in background thier should the PC's ever become legends in thier own right.

All the above assumes stats at adulthood. Aged and children would obviously be lower on average.

I think DM's should experiment with creating alot of 'ordinary' folks with point buys of 17 or less - even for characters of 2nd or 3rd level. It bugs me to see lots of 20+ point buy NPC's. There is alot of flexibility in the character creation process to create any number of non-heroes by which the PC's can recognize that they are heroes. High point buy for the NPC's just makes the PC's less important.

For example, some 15 point 'ordinary' arrays:

18 8 8 8 7 7
17 10 8 8 8 8
16 13 8 8 8 8
15 14 9 8 8 8
14 14 11 8 8 8
14 13 12 8 8 8
13 13 13 8 8 8
13 13 12 9 8 8
13 12 12 9 9 8
12 12 12 9 9 9
12 12 11 10 9 9
12 12 10 10 10 9
12 11 10 10 10 10
11 11 11 10 10 10
14 10 10 10 10 9
14 12 10 9 9 9
14 12 10 10 9 8
14 12 10 10 10 6
14 12 12 10 8 6
14 14 12 8 8 6
14 14 13 8 6 6
14 14 14 6 6 6
16 15 8 6 6 6

Remember, if 10.5 is an average score, then alot of people are going to have scores below 10.