Alternative Characteristic Rolling Techniques?

[loudriver23]

I was just wondering what the consensus was on how you allow your players to roll their characteristics.
The 2d6 6 times can be a bit brutal and lead to some seriously low scores. Are you okay with having a character with several characteristics from 2-5?
In any case, here are a few mods that I've either thought about, or have read about.
1: Roll 2D6 10 times and pick the best 6 results
2: Roll 1D6+6 6 times
3: Roll 3D6 and drop the lowest die.

Does anyone have any other methods that have worked well? Does one method lead to a more, or less, "pulpy" game?
Thanks,
Louis

 

[aramis]

I allow rerolling 2 dice during CGen. Could be one attribute in total, or twice using 1d on one of the two dice of an attribute, or on process rolls (survival, Promotion, etc), or even benefit rolls.

But, yes, I'm fine with PC's with bad scores.

 

[BillDowns]

Personally, I don't have an issue with rolling 2d6 x 6.

I'll see what my son's college friends think about it when we start a game after an upcoming business trip of mine. They were weaned on D&D 4.

 

[steventirey1985]

D&D is about sending high-powered, heroic (usually inexperienced) characters on heroic adventures. High stats are more important.

Traveller, at least in my opinion, is more about normal characters*, doing relatively normal things. Trading between worlds, exploring lost ruins or new worlds, small mercenary actions. No saving the world on a weekly basis, no killing gods, etc. More average characteristics. And as most Traveller characters are experienced, high characteristics aren't needed as much.

Still, a really low score could be a bit of a problem. I prefer rolling 2d6 7 times, and dropping a score of the players choice (doesn't have to be the lowest one, but it usually is).

*As much as a group possibly consisting of a retired Army general, Naval admiral, Imperial Duke, and Vargr pirate could be considered normal.

 

[loudriver23]

So, if you had a pulpy game where the characters were involved in more combat, and world saving on a more regular basis, would you at that point look to enhance the characteristics to better suit the campaign? I personally would.

 

[Leitz]

Sometimes 2d6 and re-roll 1s, or 1s and 2s if it's just a couple players. I like letting the characters have the advantage as the DM has a lot more monsters than they have body parts...

Leitz

 

[Dragoner]

Often to avoid one characteristic being too bad, I'll let them roll up all six at once 3-4 times and let them pick the best set out of all.

 

[far-trader]

I've toyed with what I call a Nature and Nurture option to allow some customization and (usually) avoidance of those annoying 2's.

Nature: Roll 1D6 per characteristic in order. This is what you were born with.

Nurture: Roll 6D6 and assign as desired to the characteristics. This is what your upbringing focused on.

Generally allowing only 1D6 assigned per characteristic but optionally no restrictions to permit padding desired characteristic(s) at the expense of settling with just the rolled 1D6 for some.

It's still pretty quick, maintains the standard 2D6 range (as long as the option is ignored), but allows closer to the character desired by the player.

I've also occasionally done averaged dice: All 1's are 2 and all 6's are 5 (or all 1's are 3 and all 6's are 4) but that's never been very satisfying. I more often use it for quick NPCs. It avoids the issue of low characteristics but at the cost of not getting high characteristics.

 

[loudriver23]

I think you may have something interesting there Far-Trader. I kind of like the idea of the nature + nurture.
Although, I think for this next game I want to run, I need to have a talk with the players and get an idea for the flavor they would like to see.
If it's to be the standard traveller campaign then it's 6X 2d6. Maybe reroll 1's
If they are hoping for a crazy romp akin to Starship Troopers, then perhaps I'll to the 3d6 and toss the lowest, or the 1d6+6 option.

 

[VonPickles]

I've always gone with the 3 sets of stats, choose the best (depending on what career the player wants I sometimes allow a single swap within a set)

 

[opritche]

The average roll on 3d6 keep the highest 2 would be a 9 (16.67% of the time) as opposed to a 7 on the normal 2d6. 73.15% of all rolls would fall between 7 and 11 inclusive.

A 2 would occur 0.46% of the time and a 12 would occur 7.41% of the time.

See this cool site: http://anydice.com/program/17a9

Here is the breakdown

2 -- 0.46%
3 -- 1.39%
4 -- 3.24%
5 -- 5.56%
6 -- 8.80%
7 -- 12.50%
8 -- 15.74%
9 -- 16.67%
10 -- 15.74%
11 -- 12.50%
12 -- 7.41%

 

[robject]

I let my players bump up a character's characteristic by one point in exchange for adding a year to its age, before or after chargen, with career access and/or aging penalties applying as written.

 

[Uriel]

I quite like the Nature/Nurture idea Far-trader. I'll have to try that.

 

[BytePro]

I just say re-roll the lot till you find one you can live with. <shrug>

Some players have a particular 'character' in mind they are shooting for, others may just hate playing 'weak' PCs... I don't want to spool their fun, but still like to keep the spirit of the random chargen.

I've found that while chargen presents a fun little mini-game and its good for the players to go through the process... computer generated lists of characters to pick from go over real well too. Players enjoy the random elements, but also the choice of which one to pick, without the tedium of pen-and-paper chargen. (But, I don't really play campaigns - so my Players are used to starting over fresh with each new adventure...)

 

[CosmicGamer]

Traveller, at least in my opinion, is more about normal characters*, doing relatively normal things. Trading between worlds, exploring lost ruins or new worlds, small mercenary actions. No saving the world on a weekly basis, no killing gods, etc. More average characteristics.

Going with trying to have adventurers who are at least average, I've seen an option where if the total of all characteristic DMs is negative you can reroll the character - usually just once and you can go back to the first char if the second is even worse.

 

[saundby]

I do pretty much what Aramis does with rerolls as well (two die rolls may be redone, if the player whines enough and either showed up on time or let us know they'd be late before the game. )

Also:

I allow players to treat any failed survival roll as death. (New character.)

Exceptional failure on a survival throw is death. (New character.)

Personal Development table rolls. Plus, I allow a roll against a generic personal development table of each of the six stats instead of the listed one. MGT makes Edu, for example, too hard to obtain for many, many careers. Even if the stat they get isn't the one they want, it may enhance the character enough to be interesting.

Rolls of 6 on a mustering out benefits can be converted to stat increases of +1. Max 3 increases.

Note: I find that many of the "expanded" character classes outside the core book don't give very focused sets of skills. Engineers end up as xenologists who can't fix a drive, frex. Require players to use the core book or Spica books only for at least the first 3 terms.

Also, players coming from other games tend to put everything they can into physical stats when they find out that's their "hit points", using Edu as a dump stat, with weak Int and/or Soc. Let them know they need to look at the stats their intended career uses for survival and advancement. They're probably going to want at least one high non-physical stat. Plus, Edu is not the one to use as a dump stat.

It's worth noting that we regularly have low-stat characters, but players new to Traveller are often scared to play them. So I try to accommodate them until they're ready to place a "Deuce."

 

[Shonner]

If I were to roll a certain way other than the ruled way, I'd use Method I from AD&D and roll 3D6 (and remove the lowest die value) for each attribute.

 

[Shonner]

The average roll on 3d6 keep the highest 2 would be a 9 (16.67% of the time) as opposed to a 7 on the normal 2d6. 73.15% of all rolls would fall between 7 and 11 inclusive.

A 2 would occur 0.46% of the time and a 12 would occur 7.41% of the time.

See this cool site: http://anydice.com/program/17a9

Here is the breakdown

2 -- 0.46%
3 -- 1.39%
4 -- 3.24%
5 -- 5.56%
6 -- 8.80%
7 -- 12.50%
8 -- 15.74%
9 -- 16.67%
10 -- 15.74%
11 -- 12.50%
12 -- 7.41%

My Python code shows the same thing pretty much. Note the bell curve that's added:

 

[McPerth]

Personally, as I understand Traveller as being more skill focused than stats focused (unlike D&D, and, as an aside, that's one of the reasons I didn't like T4 and I guess I will have the same problem with T5, for what I've read) I always had more problem with low stats than for lack of high ones.

So, I allowed my players to choose among rolling 2d6 per stat or 4d6 and forsake the higher and the lower, so rolling for more average stats.

Nature: Roll 1D6 per characteristic in order. This is what you were born with.

Nurture: Roll 6D6 and assign as desired to the characteristics. This is what your upbringing focused on.

While the idea is sound, if you allow me to suggest an ammendment, I'd left Soc out of this system, as is the stat less likely to have strong changes (aside from those represented by skills or mustering out).

 

[far-trader]

While the idea is sound, if you allow me to suggest an ammendment, I'd left Soc out of this system, as is the stat less likely to have strong changes (aside from those represented by skills or mustering out).

I'm open to suggestions, and appreciate the feedback

I think I see what you're saying. That nurture really won't much affect one's Soc. Yes?

I'd have to disagree if I've got the gist of your reasoning. Those high born (from a 5 or 6 by Nature) are the ones who may go on to greatness through hard work (by adding a 5 or 6 through Nurture). Or they may just be 7th sons and daughters of big wigs well removed from the title inheritance (by only adding a 1 through 4 for Nurture). Even by doing little or nothing they have a comfortable place in society.

Conversely the low born (with just 1 or 2 by Nature) will probably never be great figures (even adding a 6 won't mean much, not without years more of work through career Soc bonuses). They would be the classic self-made man, starting from nothing and becoming Someone.