For the longest time I was a fan of 4d6 drop the lowest. But now I swear by the Standard Array method. It makes people make tough decisions on their stats, and completely eliminates cheating without me needing to watch everyone roll their dice.
Does that method include putting the scores where you want them or is the order set?
Cheaters notwithstanding, there's also something to be said for eliminating improbable luck. One long-time friend of mine always seems to end up with an array like [18, 16, 14, 14, 13, 12] when we roll the standard way. He's definitely not cheating -- it's antithetical to his nature, and in any case he's rolling in plain sight or even having the DM do the rolling -- but nevertheless, every time, instant demigod.Eliminating cheaters from my table is also a solid choice.
[MENTION=6789971]bedir than[/MENTION], I was trying to picture your method and I find it is not much different than picking the stat array in the book, but I could see it getting interesting if everyone took the array that was 'rolled' and even more interesting if they took it in order.
4d6, drop the lowest, 6x. Repeat so you have two independent sets of 6 scores. Keep whichever set you prefer, arranging them in any order you wish. Or throw both away and roll a third set that you must use (again, in any order).
I do a roll-around. The player to my left rolls 4d6 (drop lowest) and records the entry on a 6x6 grid. Then the next player rolls. Then the next, until each of the 36 squares is filled in.
Then, once the grid is full, each player chooses a column, or row, or diagonal array of 6 numbers. They may not select the same array, so once it's claimed its gone.
With these numbers, you put your stats in order, you may then swap two numbers.
Anyway. It sounds complicated, but we roll together as a table, then individualize the results.
11 | 9 | 12 | 10 | 12 | 9
13 | 15 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 11
10 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 13 | 13
15 | 11 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 11
7 | 18 | 13 | 13 | 13 | 16
12 | 16 | 14 | 9 | 10 | 14