What 5e got wrong
- Thread starter Einlanzer0
- Start date
NotActuallyTim
First Post
Also just an aside, guys... No need to get heated or laugh at each other. It's stat generation. Not politics or religion.
Stat generation is both politics and religion.
And more importantly, it's an internet argument! FLAMEWAR!
I read the quote as acknowledging a system the reader is probably aware of so it outlines the reasons for rejecting it in this edition before presenting appropriate alternatives for character creation.
No, what the section is saying is 3d6 is inappropriate, here are systems that are appropriate, the writer does not care which, if any, you choose to use in your game. Each is satisfactory and has advantages/disadvantages to the others. Pick one.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
Oooookay. I guess you don't understand what "alternative" means. If what you said is true and there is no default 3d6, then it's impossible for "alternative" to apply to any of the four methods.
TheWriterFantastic™
Explorer
No, what the DMG quote states is that it can be difficult to generate successful characters with the 3d6 default, and explicitly "suggests" 4 "alternative" methods. If any of the 4 listed methods were the default method, they wouldn't be indicated in the text explicitly as suggestions of alternative (not default) methods.
'Alternative' does not require a default: it requires other choices be available.
If I'm asked "What do you want for supper?" and I reply "I don't want steak, but spaghetti, pizza, penne, or linguine would be good." I have presented 4 alternatives. But that doesn't make steak the default. It makes steak a rejected option. There is no default in the list of Italian foods that appeal to me.
I agree there is no default method. 3d6 can't be default since it isn't presented as a method to use; it is presented as method to avoid.
The closest to default is 4d6 drop lowest because (1) it is listed first and people work that way, (2) it is referenced later in the book, and (3) it is by far the least cumbersome with minimal bookkeeping, requires the least analysis, and is fastest generation method presented.
Again, the reason Gygax treats it as a "default" is because he is writing the Advanced rule set for an existing game in which 3d6 is default.
He states that for advanced players the default method of D&D is apparently no good, and presents the methods he thinks would work best for AD&D.
He states that for advanced players the default method of D&D is apparently no good, and presents the methods he thinks would work best for AD&D.
Maxperson
Morkus from Orkus
You gave exactly 0 alternatives there. What you gave were 4 options, not alternatives, for dinner. Options =/= alternatives. The only way to provide alternatives is if there is something already offered up as the default. Here is a correct dinner analogy.
You: What's for dinner?
Wife: Steak
You: I don't want steak, but spaghetti, pizza, penne or linguine would be good.
There we have a steak default for dinner and you giving alternatives for what was already given. In 1e 3d6 is the default method, which allows for alternatives. If it wasn't, then...
This: "Four alternatives are offered for player characters:"
would have been...
This: "Four options are offered for player characters:"
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