D&D General What Method(s) did you use to roll ability score when you first started D&D?

[Tony Vargas]

The very first time, I've no idea - dice were rolled, yes, for everything, level included.

Then, I, like, tried reading the rules, myself.

4d6, in order, was what I seemed to use most often once a clue was had.

As a DM I tried a lot of things. One of the oddest was a pool of 24 dice, roll as many as you like, in order, keep the highest 3 each time.
Don't run out.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

3d6, roll 7 times, pick the best 6 and assign to what ever character class that could be made work. If you had no bonuses the DM would usually let you reroll the lot.

 

[jodyjohnson]

Roll 4d6 drop anything over 18 was what we used for years in AD&D. And we still TPK'd between 5-8 level.

 

[Li Shenron]

When you first started D&D what was the ability score generation methods you used as DM and/or player?

My FIRST time was BECMI in the early 90s, not sure I remember exactly but something like this :

- roll 3d6 in order
- can swap any 2 scores
- can trade 2-for-1 point between scores, but with restrictions (no changes allowed to Con and Cha, and Dex can only increase)

The last bit I'm not sure... maybe it was "no changes allowed to Con and Dex, and Cha can only increase".

It didn't matter tho, I got crap rolls and couldn't qualify for almost any class (there were minimum score requirements) no matter how I turned the scores around, and I could only play a Dwarf.

 

[Eltab]

3d6, use in order.

The first time I thought about alternatives was when I wanted to play a Paladin (just read the new rulebook with them in it) but actually got stats good for a Ranger.

BTW, Classic Traveller still takes the cake - you have to roll to Survive multiple times during chargen and can in fact fail.

 

[The Hierophant]

3d6 following the rules in Tom Moldvay's Basic Rules was where I started.

Then in we played AD&D and used most of the methods in the DMG.

 

[TwoSix]

2E, 4d6 drop the lowest, arrange to taste.

 

[Dausuul]

I think I started with 3d6, arrange as you like. When I joined my first long-term group in college, it was 4d6 drop lowest, and the DM would let you reroll if you rolled like crap.

 

[Keldryn]

I started with the Mentzer Basic Set, and we followed the default 3d6 in order method. Mostly. It was more like "3d6 in order, reroll or ignore anything below 10 unless the DM was watching that roll."

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

3d6 in order. That was great if you didn't have a particular character concept in mind but if you did, it was tough. It's hard to play a wizard with 3 INT.

I had a buddy who wanted to play 'yoda' - maybe a psionics handbook came out?

He rolled 3 pages of stats - like, 30 character's worth of stats - until he got the perfect combo he wanted. Then it came time for rolling hit points since we always rolled at 1st level. He rolled a 1.

He spent most of 1st and 2nd level unconscious.

Finally our DM got rid of that and set the 'power level' which would range from +6 to +8 total bonuses. And we just picked whatever stats we wanted but three stats had to be odd and three even.