On 11/8/2024 5:56 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
On Fri, 8 Nov 2024 05:23:14 -0800, Justisaur <justisaur@yahoo.com>
wrote:
On 11/5/2024 8:28 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:
In article <vf2p2b$cbs8$2@dont-email.me>, dchmelik@gmail.com wrote:
I've read about newer Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) dice rolling methods for >>>> character generation for ability scores, but now there's one using 5D6?! >>>> Maybe roll five and drop two? How is it anything other than Monty Haul?! >>>
I guess you're not familiar with the rolling method in the 1st edition
Unearthed Arcana.
9d6! The courageousness of it.
5e I think most use either point buy or the default array, so no rolling
at all. Really that's been true since 3.5e at least.
Our group was really lax with rolling methods, but that's largely
because we'd played together for so long and could trust each other
not to meta-game and rules-lawyer to the point it interfered with the experience. Generally, we 4d6'd and applied results where wanted,
except primary stats for characters were generally fudged in order to
reach the necessary minimums. Generally, we always created the
characters in our heads first and then tried to get dice rolls that
matched that ideal, and if the dice sometimes weren't entirely
cooperative, I allowed the tweaks. Sometimes we'd take points off one
roll and add it to another (at varying costs), or we'd just re-roll,
or I'd just give them the 16 or 17 they wanted.
But, like I said, we got away with this because the rules and rolls
weren't that essential to us. They were the necessary chaos that
ensured no one player -PC or DM- dominated the consensual
story-telling. And we all understood, too, how LOW stats could
sometimes be fun.
(Plus, I could be an absolutely brutal DM at times... and
over-powerful PCs were my favorite targets. And there are _so many_
monsters that drain attribute points! Fighter with STR 18/00, meet my
room full of Shadows ;-)
All the DMs in my area used 'practice' your rolls until the first one
was an 18, that's your first score, then 4d6 reroll 1s and 2s then drop
lowest. Everyone had at least 1 18 of course. Then roll and apply age modifiers too.
I was the hold out that only allowed re-rolling 1s and only the first time.
Say what you will, at least most characters were strong enough to
survive a little, and there was rarely someone with characters so poor
that the power gap was terrible between them.
It did happen on occasion, and I remember more than one person
committing suicide by monster/trap to roll up a new one.
I also tended to be what my players called a 'killer DM' so the high
stats helped. On the other hand I once got berated for not letting a particular character die. I was also told I should run CoC because of
the terrifying stuff I'd do to the characters. To which I'd reply "No,
can you imagine how terrifying that would be, it's already too terrifying."
--
-Justisaur
ø-ø
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