Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5549329" data-attributes="member: 92305">Would it surprise you to know that, in my current campaign, I limited class choice to a single class?&nbsp; And, I gave the players a rough background of each of their characters--a solid foundation for them to build upon.&nbsp; I even gave each character a name.&nbsp; We don't pick our own names in real life.&nbsp; Our parents do.&nbsp; And so it is with the PCs in my campaign.&nbsp;It's up to the player to take what I've given them and make something great out of it.&nbsp;Random dice throws do something similar.&nbsp; They give you a skeleton to be creative upon.&nbsp;I find that, more often than not, point-buy characters are (forgive me, but the moniker seems to fit) &quot;cardboard&quot;.&nbsp; They're 2D.&nbsp; They don't feel like real people.&nbsp;With random roll, you get what you get, and then you start trying to figure why a character is like the way he is--and this usually leads to a lot of fantastic character development.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;One of my favorite chargen schemes is to allow a player to roll 4D6, drop lowest, for each stat.&nbsp; You might get something like this:&nbsp;STR 9DEX 15CON 16INT 18WIS 10CHR 15&nbsp;Then, I allow what I call &quot;The Slide&quot;.&nbsp; A character can change his stats, but he must keep them in the same order.&nbsp; For example, if he wanted that 18 in his STR because he was going to run a fighter, his stats would look like this:&nbsp;STR 18DEX 10CON 15INT 9WIS 15CHR 16&nbsp;If he wanted to run a thief, he might put that 18 into DEX, and his stats would look like this&nbsp;STR 16DEX 18CON 10INT 15WIS 9CHR 15&nbsp;This gives players a decent amount of choice with creating their characters while still keeping randomness involved.&nbsp;Plus, it avoids a &quot;dump&quot; stat, so that all your fighters don't always have low CHA or WIS scores.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Absolutely there is.&nbsp; I can see the appeal of point buy.&nbsp; Point-buy just seems to blow my suspension of disbelief.&nbsp; People are different.&nbsp; They look different.&nbsp; They're different sizes.&nbsp; Some will be stronger than others.&nbsp;If you give five people a point buy system and tell them to create a fighter, you end up with five very similiar fighters.&nbsp; If you have those same five people the task of creating a fighter from random roll--now we're talking about some diversity.&nbsp; We'll end up with five individual fighters.&nbsp;That's why I'm not too keen on point buy.&nbsp; I don't want all the PCs to be grown from the same slate.&nbsp; I'd like to be 6' 1&quot; and look like Brad Pitt, but I don't.&nbsp; I've learned to enhance what's special about me, socially.&nbsp; If life were a point-buy system, there'd be a lot more Brad Pitt's out there.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Thumbs up!&nbsp; <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"&nbsp; class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing&nbsp; &nbsp; :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Water Bob, post: 5549329, member: 92305"] Would it surprise you to know that, in my current campaign, I limited class choice to a single class? And, I gave the players a rough background of each of their characters--a solid foundation for them to build upon. I even gave each character a name. We don't pick our own names in real life. Our parents do. And so it is with the PCs in my campaign. It's up to the player to take what I've given them and make something great out of it. Random dice throws do something similar. They give you a skeleton to be creative upon. I find that, more often than not, point-buy characters are (forgive me, but the moniker seems to fit) "cardboard". They're 2D. They don't feel like real people. With random roll, you get what you get, and then you start trying to figure why a character is like the way he is--and this usually leads to a lot of fantastic character development. One of my favorite chargen schemes is to allow a player to roll 4D6, drop lowest, for each stat. You might get something like this: STR 9 DEX 15 CON 16 INT 18 WIS 10 CHR 15 Then, I allow what I call "The Slide". A character can change his stats, but he must keep them in the same order. For example, if he wanted that 18 in his STR because he was going to run a fighter, his stats would look like this: STR 18 DEX 10 CON 15 INT 9 WIS 15 CHR 16 If he wanted to run a thief, he might put that 18 into DEX, and his stats would look like this STR 16 DEX 18 CON 10 INT 15 WIS 9 CHR 15 This gives players a decent amount of choice with creating their characters while still keeping randomness involved. Plus, it avoids a "dump" stat, so that all your fighters don't always have low CHA or WIS scores. Absolutely there is. I can see the appeal of point buy. Point-buy just seems to blow my suspension of disbelief. People are different. They look different. They're different sizes. Some will be stronger than others. If you give five people a point buy system and tell them to create a fighter, you end up with five very similiar fighters. If you have those same five people the task of creating a fighter from random roll--now we're talking about some diversity. We'll end up with five individual fighters. That's why I'm not too keen on point buy. I don't want all the PCs to be grown from the same slate. I'd like to be 6' 1" and look like Brad Pitt, but I don't. I've learned to enhance what's special about me, socially. If life were a point-buy system, there'd be a lot more Brad Pitt's out there. Thumbs up! :lol: [/QUOTE]

Verification