5 Old School D&D Stat Rolling Methods

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Artist Thumbnail Credit: Gerald Brom
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#dnd #osr #sandbox #ttrpg #dungeonsanddragons
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[Marcus-kien]

Back in the 80's, I got hold of a copy of Basic Programming Language on a TRS-80. I wrote a program that generated characters and printed them out. Hundreds and Hundreds of characters. Then I would pour through them, highlighting the ones that showed promise. It was exhilarating at the time. My how things have changed.

[Terry_Pie]

When I started playing we only rolled five times (4d6 drop the lowest) and got a free 18. Our reasoning: we could declare the start of our stat rolling whenever we liked/discard statlines we didn't like. In those circumstances it was only a matter of time before we got an 18. So we may as well cut to the chase, give everyone an 18 and roll the rest.

[nathanaelthomas]

I’ve seen a fun method where you roll six sets of ability scores, using whatever method you prefer. Then you arrange the scores in a 6x6 grid and players can pick any column, row, or diagonal to be their scores and once one is picked, it is crossed out. I believe in this method, the order of the scores is set based on which score you pick as your starting point or something so you don’t get to just arrange all six however you like, but it gives you some freedom to go shopping for the character archetype you were hoping to play.

[wozar]

I run 3d6 down the line with one swap. I prefer not assigning freely because I feel that every class will consistently assign ability scores in the same way. For instance, a wizard will always have the highest int, then con or a fighter str, con, then 14 dex for +2 AC on medium armor. To me, this feels too "optimized." On the contrary, allowing no choice would make certain class choices suboptimal, which can be detrimental as the choice of class is the most important decision you make in character creation. Wanting to play wizard but having rolled high strength and low intelligence is not a good feeling. You can overcome this with allowing one swap and then swapping your highest ability score with your main ability. Then you avoid the consistent assigning of certain classes but you still get to pick the class you want and retain a high score.

[KraftyMattKraft]

A method I have used to create more average characters for mud & blood style games is 5d6. Drop the highest and lowest scores. Arrange as needed.

[strawberryhellcat]

Back when I first started playing (BECMI), we rolled 3d6 down the line...but we didn't specify where the line had to start. We'd roll until we got a 16-18 and then start counting the line. We were rolling dice all the time (even when not playing the game) and keeping the best lines for future characters! 🤣

[fleetcenturion]

*Roll 24d6...* (Still with me?) Discard the highest 2 rolls, and the lowest 3. Build your character however you like, using the remaining dice.

[cpcupcake]

I remember one which was in 2e where your stats started at 8, then you rolled 7 dice and could apply them as desired to your stats.

Kinda like a proto point buy.

[ajaxplunkett]

Gary Gygax's Unearthed Arcana for 1e AD&D had a Method V for rolling characters ( page-74) . Each class had dice from 3 to 9 and picked the best 3 for that ability.
But were ONLY meant for Human race Characters!!!

[WayneBraack]

Found the game in '81. We always rolled 4d6 discard lowest. I believe it also says in there that what you're really looking for is two stats of 15 or higher in order to be considered viable.

Generally speaking of someone didn't have a 16 or higher we rerolled. Also we played a greedy game so even doing this to ensure viability ended with the majority of our characters dying. 😂

[xaxzander]

I started with the Metzer Red box, and we quickly moved to Ad&d. The most common for us was the roll 4 drop the lowest. When I used to roll up NPC's I would roll 6 sets of stats and line them up, then you can choose to go top to bottom, bottom to top, or right to left, or even diagonal to choose the stats.

Now days I just made a NPC generator on my FG and roll 20 accounts which I roll till I like one.
I just started a game on FG using the 2nd ed. rules (They dont offer 1st) In that game we roll 4d6 reroll all 1's and drop the lowest. I let them choose where to place the rolls.

In my DCC game its 3d6 down the line.

[gurugru]

I'd be interested to watch a video from you about historical revisionism within the OSR.

[nutherefurlong]

I mean, the old old old rules didn't put as much of an emphasis on high abilities anyway. They were mainly about how fast the character would advance, as opposed to how they would perform in their immediate roles. I kind of like that since it puts emphasis on player choices instead of character abilities, but I guess over time the characters with the high stats will still outpace the others

I remember doing stuff other than 3d6 in order decades ago, in part because everybody wanted to the cool little point increases that were laid out. If someone insisted on 3d6 in order I might insist on XP bonuses as opposed to granular ability increases just to see how it felt.

The Dark Sun range is normal for that setting but a bit high elsewhere, just saying +2 instead of +4 might even things out a bit, even if it still skews a bit high. I always felt those other methods were too time consuming, I don't think I ever even tried them...

I guess I like being able to choose what stats get what because I find people often go into it with a class or concept in mind, especially newer players, so letting them bolster the stat most likely to be important for their character makes sense, with something a bit less forgiving for more experienced players down the line

[DM-H_og]

I am not sure where this came from, but when I played in the 80s after we rolled we could alter stats by subtracting 2 from one stat and adding 1 to whichever one we wanted to. I know it wasn't in the AD&D DMG, but can't remember where we got that from.

[pickpocketpressrpgvideos]

I like 3d6 down the line but if you dont get at least one 13 and one 15, you bump up any one or two scores to achieve that. Then, each level up, gain +1 attribute of our choice (max 16).

[yourseatatthetable]

Every now and then I like to suggest to people at my table that we try a short campaign where nobody has a stat abut 10, just to show what one can do with crappy stats if one is willing to work with 'em.

[retu]

I use d4+d6+d8, because a standard dice set now has 7 dice, only one of which is a d6. This also is very similar to 3d6.

[DungeonMasterQuest]

When I was young and playing 2nd edition, I would dread bad rolls. We would come up with all different methods of rolling to get better results, the dream would be to have a fighter with a str score of 18/00 :). Now I kinda like them, I do not mind at all playing a weak character, I dig it :)

[AshersAesera]

I like point buy. To me it's all player choice in how the stats are distributed.

[EriktheRed]

3d6 in order. If your bonuses and penalties added up are below zero, you may reroll. If you do not have one score of at least 13, you may reroll.

There are plenty of stat bonus fountains out there in this campaign, and they add more to people with low stats. Gauntlets of Ogre Power of course sets strength to 18, and are not that hard to come by, either. And you have a stable of up to five PCs, and can retire them to get a new one after a session (if they don't just get killed outright), so you're likely to get lucky on the initial roll at some point.