Lanefan
Victoria Rules
What does force non-rolling char-gen methods is AL, which seems to be how a lot of people are entering D&D these days; and I suspect we might be seeing the results of this long-term influence.
D&D 5E Point Buy vs Rolling for Stats
What does force non-rolling char-gen methods is AL, which seems to be how a lot of people are entering D&D these days; and I suspect we might be seeing the results of this long-term influence.
Tony Vargas
Legend
Yes. Really, they're a step above dictators, wielding not only absolute but unlimited power within the confines of their imaginary domains.
The only question is whether they are benevolent dictators.
It's not been a very long term if we only consider AL, but Encounters goes back to 2010, and with 3e having such a heavy player-side 'build' emphasis, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of groups eschewed random generation for various buy schemes, to just further deepen the system mastery aspect at the cost of the luck aspect...
...IDK what stat generation methods LFR, or the other RPGA 'living' campaigns before it used, though...
Oofta
Legend
Yes. Really, they're a step above dictators, wielding not only absolute but unlimited power within the confines of their imaginary domains.
The only question is whether they are benevolent dictators.
It's not been a very long term if we only consider AL, but Encounters goes back to 2010, and with 3e having such a heavy player-side 'build' emphasis, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of groups eschewed random generation for various buy schemes, to just further deepen the system mastery aspect at the cost of the luck aspect...
...IDK what stat generation methods LFR, or the other RPGA 'living' campaigns before it used, though...
Living City goes back to 1987 (I think), they used a point buy variant. Well, at least since 1993 when I joined.
Tony Vargas
Legend
Now that sounds like long-term influence. Thanks.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
When this topic comes up again in 6-8 months we'll have to start a what do you prefer poll.
Come up again? The way this thread is going it will still be around.
Start the poll now.
Hussar
Legend
Not really though. I linked to an En World poll above from 2005 where point buy was more common than die rolling. That predates AL by about a decade. But, yeah, I wonder if things like Living City and whatnot, which have been around for a LONG time, have had some impact.
Probably. A lot of people will prefer the method they learned to play the game with, whether that is rolling or point buy. It's what you are used to, and you know what to expect.
I started of learning with rolling and didn't really consider any other method. Then dropped out of the hobby for several years and came back with the advent of D&D 3.0 and started playing Living Greyhawk - which was point buy only. Learned to to play with lower stats, slow progression, and really cash poor characters. And realized I enjoyed it more than I did rolling stats and playing really powerful characters at low levels.
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Arial Black
Adventurer
I agree. I never even considered using any point-buy method I saw in a D&D book, until I was 'forced' to use one when I played Pathfinder organised play, and now AL for 5E.
Point-buy is 'better' than rolling when playing in a competitive environment, but my previous such experience offered no such 'make your own PC but use point-buy' option. Instead, such environments provided a selection of pre-gens and you had to choose one.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Not being able to roll stats is one of the main reasons I refuse to play AL.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
I wonder how much "market" there'd be for a less buttoned-down version of something like AL - organized play, yes, but run with a bit more of an 'anything goes' vibe to it; more like a home game would often be. Roll 'em up any way the DM decides for that table. House rules OK. And to prevent abuses, no transfer of characters from one table to another. Join a new table, roll up a new character.
Lan-"just wondering"-efan
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