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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 7990854" data-attributes="member: 6779310">One of the key elements of random gen old school games, especially Traveller and BX/BECMI, is figuring out who the character is via play.While I've not played AW, I've run Sentinel Comics which is grounded in the same basic approaches. System mastery does matter in play ... but it's a different skillset from trad games.In trad games, it's about knowing your odds, knowing the rounding points, knowing your character abilities, and knowing the rules well enough to make informed decisions.In SC, system mastery is based on the knowing of how to describe so you get to use the best stats. It's much less mastery of the rules and more knowing the thresholds of the GM and other players. That's a lower bar than in, say, BX, where knowing the spell list is a highly useful skill for players... even non-wizards benefit from judging NPCs by the spells they cast.Ah, the Dark Sun rolling method... I've seen players literally photocopy their character sheet, and when the character died, simply pull it out, transcribe it on a new sheet, and change only the name.It's not that the characters are the same across the group, its that the individual has ONE character they play, and they use it each and every time they play game X.In one case, I was watching a 2E S&P D&D campaign, full point buy. Player's character died before level 2. Player erased the name, wrote in a new one, changed one language.Many games (not AD&D) are roll  stats in order.D&D BX is roll in order, and only 3d6. But if you have a high score in an att other than your prime, you can trade 2 points from non PR for 1 point to the PR attribute.D&D 3 draws far more from the AD&D side than the BX/BECMI/Cyclopaedia side...Because the roll in order hands you a character with only some elements  Actually, it's very easy to scope a random gen for it... you only got halfway to looking at it.1 point in each as a base. Grab 5 coins. toss them. each head adds 1 to presence, each tail to brawn. 15 seconds to random character... but that's also automatically keeps it within the 7 point scope of starting PCs. A hybrid of random and deterministic.</blockquote>

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