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<blockquote data-quote="Sojourn" data-source="post: 6226480" data-attributes="member: 6750311"><p><strong>Stats</strong></p><p></p><p>I used to let players roll 4d6, drop the lowest. </p><p>Then it was 4d6, reroll 1's ONCE, drop the lowest.</p><p> [with the horrifying 'yahtzee' experiment- if you rolled 4 of a kind, you kept that score. That was retired the 2nd time a player rolled all 6's]</p><p>Then it was 2d6+6, for the longest time. </p><p>Finally, I've stuck with: </p><p>d10+8 for all normal PCs. </p><p>d8+10 for Paladins & Samurai. </p><p>3d6 for any evil or monster PC. </p><p></p><p>Players hate PCs with low stats. I think they should be playing heroes, and their stats should reflect that. Just because I'M man enough to play a PC with abysmal stats, doesn't mean anyone else likes to. </p><p></p><p>The different stats for Paladin/Samurai/Jedi, and evil/monsters is of course to encourage players to pick one and discourage them from playing another. Changing the stat rolls has been a better discouragement than my previous page-long "here's why you don't want to play evil or a monster/freak in my game" warning label. </p><p></p><p>I used to ignore the +1 stat every 4 levels rule in favor of my own system, because chances are most pcs would be dead before 8th level, so the +1/4 levels wasn't a great incentive. </p><p></p><p>System 1: every time you gain a level, you pick a stat and roll d20, if you roll over, +1 to that stat, roll under, get nothing, roll a 1 and you lose a point from that stat, roll a 20 and get +2. </p><p>Then the 20 became "you get a bonus roll on any stat". </p><p></p><p>System 2: instead of every level, it became every game because I was trying to encourage regular attendance. Doesn't work: if you have to start bribing players to show up, the game is lost. And the regular players who were going to show up anyway will soon be playing Titans, while the players who missed a game or 2 because of work or gf, or had a couple of bad rolls, become discouraged and their attendance becomes even dicier.</p><p></p><p>Along with this, in system 2 I also implemented "Hero" & "Gimp" stats: A dwarf has Con as a hero stat, Chr is his "gimp" stat. When rolling to improve stat, Hero is on d24, Gimp is on d16. </p><p>Another hint: if you start using non-standard dice (d24, d30, d16, d7) buy lots of extras. </p><p></p><p>And we come to System 3, which I have just started using, so I haven't seen all the flaws yet: </p><p>1) roll stats as given, above, no racial adjustments </p><p>2) when stats are assigned, the player has the option of taking -2 on his gimp stat for +2 to his hero stat, or +1 to any other stat. He can do this several times if desired (-4 for +4 or -6 for +6). </p><p>3) When racial adjustments are done the PC gets 5 points + alignment modifier to distribute to his stats any way he likes, this replaces the +1/4 levels. (essentially getting 20 levels worth of adjustments at 1st level). </p><p></p><p>A player who doesn't like the randomness of rolling can use the Point-buy method out of the DMG (all stats are 8's, 25 pts to distribute) in that case Gimp stats cost double, Hero stats cost 1/2. </p><p></p><p>One thing I've discovered is that stats don't mean that much when it comes to roleplaying. High stats are pretty, but poor decisions and bad dice rolls kill everyone, regardless of stats. And it helps to have curses and monsters that feed on stats.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sojourn, post: 6226480, member: 6750311"] [b]Stats[/b] I used to let players roll 4d6, drop the lowest. Then it was 4d6, reroll 1's ONCE, drop the lowest. [with the horrifying 'yahtzee' experiment- if you rolled 4 of a kind, you kept that score. That was retired the 2nd time a player rolled all 6's] Then it was 2d6+6, for the longest time. Finally, I've stuck with: d10+8 for all normal PCs. d8+10 for Paladins & Samurai. 3d6 for any evil or monster PC. Players hate PCs with low stats. I think they should be playing heroes, and their stats should reflect that. Just because I'M man enough to play a PC with abysmal stats, doesn't mean anyone else likes to. The different stats for Paladin/Samurai/Jedi, and evil/monsters is of course to encourage players to pick one and discourage them from playing another. Changing the stat rolls has been a better discouragement than my previous page-long "here's why you don't want to play evil or a monster/freak in my game" warning label. I used to ignore the +1 stat every 4 levels rule in favor of my own system, because chances are most pcs would be dead before 8th level, so the +1/4 levels wasn't a great incentive. System 1: every time you gain a level, you pick a stat and roll d20, if you roll over, +1 to that stat, roll under, get nothing, roll a 1 and you lose a point from that stat, roll a 20 and get +2. Then the 20 became "you get a bonus roll on any stat". System 2: instead of every level, it became every game because I was trying to encourage regular attendance. Doesn't work: if you have to start bribing players to show up, the game is lost. And the regular players who were going to show up anyway will soon be playing Titans, while the players who missed a game or 2 because of work or gf, or had a couple of bad rolls, become discouraged and their attendance becomes even dicier. Along with this, in system 2 I also implemented "Hero" & "Gimp" stats: A dwarf has Con as a hero stat, Chr is his "gimp" stat. When rolling to improve stat, Hero is on d24, Gimp is on d16. Another hint: if you start using non-standard dice (d24, d30, d16, d7) buy lots of extras. And we come to System 3, which I have just started using, so I haven't seen all the flaws yet: 1) roll stats as given, above, no racial adjustments 2) when stats are assigned, the player has the option of taking -2 on his gimp stat for +2 to his hero stat, or +1 to any other stat. He can do this several times if desired (-4 for +4 or -6 for +6). 3) When racial adjustments are done the PC gets 5 points + alignment modifier to distribute to his stats any way he likes, this replaces the +1/4 levels. (essentially getting 20 levels worth of adjustments at 1st level). A player who doesn't like the randomness of rolling can use the Point-buy method out of the DMG (all stats are 8's, 25 pts to distribute) in that case Gimp stats cost double, Hero stats cost 1/2. One thing I've discovered is that stats don't mean that much when it comes to roleplaying. High stats are pretty, but poor decisions and bad dice rolls kill everyone, regardless of stats. And it helps to have curses and monsters that feed on stats. [/QUOTE]
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