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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DMZ2112" data-source="post: 8922215" data-attributes="member: 78752">I agree with this sentiment except that 'swinginess' doesn't belong.  Randomizing against a probability curve is interesting.  A system where the spread on the RNG has more weight than player choice calls the whole enterprise of "roleplaying" into question.The rules have to have meaning, and the results of actions should be unknown, but random chance has to be mitigated with a good curve, or at least balanced against strategy and tactics.Suit yourself, but for my part, I know my table better than any designer and much better than any set of bubble-filled plastic shapes manufactured by the lowest bidder, so I run my games -- they don't.If you want a cooperative fantasy adventure game without a dungeon master, I recommend Roll Player Adventures.  Good stuff.What matters is holding all players to the same standard.  If you're rolling, everyone rolls the same way.  If you're using point buy, everyone uses the same points and schedule.Still, at least when it comes to D&D, random ability scores were intended for a version of the game that no longer exists, and ignoring the fact that the rest of the rules that made random ability scores valuable have been gone for 20 years doesn't improve D&D5 in any measurable way.  But why change just because it's been 40 years, the norms of play are different, the game has been revised four times, the relevance of the actual ability score itself is largely deprecated, and even the core mechanic functions in a wholly different way.That's incredibly swingy.  Your argument is that we might as well be flipping a coin because the result is binary, which is the definition of swing in a game sense -- the RNG greatly outweighs player influence.  No one that I'm aware of is arguing that D&D is swingy in the traditional statistical sense, where extreme results disproportionately impact outcomes.I'll grant you that perhaps we should be using a different word, but this is a semantic argument.</blockquote>

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