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<blockquote data-quote="Shiroiken" data-source="post: 7984568" data-attributes="member: 6775477">A lot of it is system dependent. To use D&amp;D as an example, I usually offer point buy or rolled; after the roll you can choose to take the standard array. This prevents &quot;useless&quot; characters, since you can choose to take the array, or you can not take the risk of rolling, using point buy to make the exact character you want. Personally, I'd much rather offer several arrays, basically premade point buys that prevent mix/max nonsense, but my players much prefer rolling.A good system that splits the difference was the original Deadlands. You randomly generated your ability scores by drawing cards, then you get a number of points to buy advantages, skills, or increase your ability scores. The lower the ability score, the cheaper it is to raise, so if you draw badly, you can forsake some of your skills to raise key abilities. Another option involves having less of a range on the ability scores. For example, in the AEG version of Legend of the Five Rings, everyone started with a 2 in each ability, and normally gained +1 in two different ones. You could spend points to raise them, but the cost was exponentially expensive. Thus some characters might get a single ability to 4, but most would rather have more 3s, since the 1 extra die rolled and kept was better over multiple abilities, and a single one.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Shiroiken, post: 7984568, member: 6775477"] A lot of it is system dependent. To use D&D as an example, I usually offer point buy or rolled; after the roll you can choose to take the standard array. This prevents "useless" characters, since you can choose to take the array, or you can not take the risk of rolling, using point buy to make the exact character you want. Personally, I'd much rather offer several arrays, basically premade point buys that prevent mix/max nonsense, but my players much prefer rolling. A good system that splits the difference was the original Deadlands. You randomly generated your ability scores by drawing cards, then you get a number of points to buy advantages, skills, or increase your ability scores. The lower the ability score, the cheaper it is to raise, so if you draw badly, you can forsake some of your skills to raise key abilities. Another option involves having less of a range on the ability scores. For example, in the AEG version of Legend of the Five Rings, everyone started with a 2 in each ability, and normally gained +1 in two different ones. You could spend points to raise them, but the cost was exponentially expensive. Thus some characters might get a single ability to 4, but most would rather have more 3s, since the 1 extra die rolled and kept was better over multiple abilities, and a single one. [/QUOTE]

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