Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How does your group determine ability scores?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Ondath" data-source="post: 8657521" data-attributes="member: 7031770"><p>Different ability generation methods implicitly push for different playstyles. I absolutely think rolling for stats is a legitimate way of having fun, but with a caveat: It should be roll in order, and everyone should agree it's an OSR-style game where you don't get attached to your character much anyway. That way, the true joy of rolling for stats reveals itself in giving in to randomness and making do with whatever gets put in your hand. It makes rolling for stats an "oracular" process as Matt Colville once put in a video, and it can allow you to play characters you never would've considered otherwise. Having the Fighter with 1 HP be the sole survivor in a grinder dungeon because the player played them smart is a kind of fun you can only have when rolling for stats (and HP) IMO.</p><p></p><p>But, this is absolutely <strong>not</strong> suitable for modern playstyles. People want to play capable characters whose character development is at least partially determined by them. They want to tell a specific story with a specific character, and they usually want that character to feel cool when it's their moment to shine. In order to have this in a group game, you absolutely need equitable (to use [USER=23751]@Maxperson[/USER]'s terms) ability scores, otherwise the person who rolled 2 18s and nothing below a 12 is going to do everyone's job, while the guy with 5 Constitution and no score above 14 will underperform (in a significant way, given how bounded accuracy makes even a +1 significant in 5E) in an unfun way. I absolutely despise rolling for stats when I'm a player, because my luck is not superb, and it feels like the kind of character I want to play is handicapped for no other reason than "because shiny math rocks deciding your character's baseline capability in an unequitable way is fun!". If unequitable characters in a gritty, hard-to-survive setting was what I signed up for, absolutely fine. But if I'm supposed to be wedded to a character for the upcoming 20-30 sessions and you will make everyone's capabilities swing by rolling for stats, that makes no sense.</p><p></p><p>That said, I think some methods of dice rolling can be equitable. I've found shared rolling systems where every player rolls one score and everyone shares the same scores to be fun while keeping the excitement for rolling. Similarly, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3Q__edyFEaE" target="_blank">the 3-Up, 3-Down method</a> presented by Jorphdan allows for variation in scores but mathematically ensures equitable results, so I think that's cool too. The stat draft presented earlier in the thread also seems like it would be fair. All in all, I think being equitable is really important in modern playstyles, so I usually just put standard array/point buy when I'm GMing, and insist on having some form equitable method when I'm a player.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ondath, post: 8657521, member: 7031770"] Different ability generation methods implicitly push for different playstyles. I absolutely think rolling for stats is a legitimate way of having fun, but with a caveat: It should be roll in order, and everyone should agree it's an OSR-style game where you don't get attached to your character much anyway. That way, the true joy of rolling for stats reveals itself in giving in to randomness and making do with whatever gets put in your hand. It makes rolling for stats an "oracular" process as Matt Colville once put in a video, and it can allow you to play characters you never would've considered otherwise. Having the Fighter with 1 HP be the sole survivor in a grinder dungeon because the player played them smart is a kind of fun you can only have when rolling for stats (and HP) IMO. But, this is absolutely [B]not[/B] suitable for modern playstyles. People want to play capable characters whose character development is at least partially determined by them. They want to tell a specific story with a specific character, and they usually want that character to feel cool when it's their moment to shine. In order to have this in a group game, you absolutely need equitable (to use [USER=23751]@Maxperson[/USER]'s terms) ability scores, otherwise the person who rolled 2 18s and nothing below a 12 is going to do everyone's job, while the guy with 5 Constitution and no score above 14 will underperform (in a significant way, given how bounded accuracy makes even a +1 significant in 5E) in an unfun way. I absolutely despise rolling for stats when I'm a player, because my luck is not superb, and it feels like the kind of character I want to play is handicapped for no other reason than "because shiny math rocks deciding your character's baseline capability in an unequitable way is fun!". If unequitable characters in a gritty, hard-to-survive setting was what I signed up for, absolutely fine. But if I'm supposed to be wedded to a character for the upcoming 20-30 sessions and you will make everyone's capabilities swing by rolling for stats, that makes no sense. That said, I think some methods of dice rolling can be equitable. I've found shared rolling systems where every player rolls one score and everyone shares the same scores to be fun while keeping the excitement for rolling. Similarly, [URL='https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3Q__edyFEaE']the 3-Up, 3-Down method[/URL] presented by Jorphdan allows for variation in scores but mathematically ensures equitable results, so I think that's cool too. The stat draft presented earlier in the thread also seems like it would be fair. All in all, I think being equitable is really important in modern playstyles, so I usually just put standard array/point buy when I'm GMing, and insist on having some form equitable method when I'm a player. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How does your group determine ability scores?
Top