Wednesday 1 June 2022

My Ability Score Generation Method - One 1 Once

Rolling up a character with the boys (they're impressed by my new method)

Everyone has a pet method for rolling ability scores, '3d6 in order' and '4d6 drop lowest - arrange to taste' are both very well known (I invite you to share your favored method in the comments under this post)Here's one I like to use and haven't encountered before. Therefore it's mine. I call it '3d6 - One 1 Once'.

Each player generates their ability scores in order using 3d6 - totalling them as usual. However, of these 3d6, two dice are the same colour and the third is of a different colour. This third die is your 'lucky die'. Whenever an ability score is rolled for and the lucky die results in a 1, it can be rerolled once - if it results in another 1 it cannot be rerolled again. Only the lucky die can be rerolled in this way. All ability scores are rolled for via this method, when complete, two ability scores may be swapped with one another. 

This method is fun enough, quick and does away with most (but not all) ability scores of 3 and can even turn 13's into 18's. The method results in similar average ability scores as rolling 3d6 alone does.



9 comments:

  1. No numbers. Give me one strength and one weakness, a professional or cultural background that shaped you, a desire and a lingering haunt.

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    1. Well, I don’t think I’d go full FKR but I certainly appreciate going minimal. I’m playing without ability scores currently via my hack of Searchers of the Unknown:
      https://foreignplanets.blogspot.com/2022/05/searchers-of-unknown-foreign-planets.html

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  2. For the conventional "six Score" games, I enjoy 3d6 in order...but the twist is the player can assign them either "down the line" or "from the bottom up." This provides a little variation/choice but still preserves that sense of playing the hand you're dealt.

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    1. That is a nice, fun and easy one. I'll have to try it.

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  3. I’m playing in an OSE game where the DM had us roll 3d6 in order three times, assigning one set as our PCs, one as the backup character, and discarding the last one. Gave us a fair amount of choice and had us thinking about keeping a stable of characters right away.

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    1. I like it. Made me think of allowing players to roll 12 ability scores and then freely assigning them to a starter PC and a back-up henchman. Players would have to weigh up having two balanced characters or having a starting PC with really good stats but knowing you’ll have a weaker henchman/back-up PC.

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  4. LFG does a "rolling roll" - my term, not theirs: that is, you roll stats in order, but pick where the first one goes - so, you effectively pick your high one, but the others are what they are.

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    1. Nice and simple, gives a modicum of control if you'd like to play a certain kind of character. Even if you roll a 10 it's still handy to pick a stat to be average at.

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  5. I prefer to skip rolling and provide an array.

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