Generating Stats: Fool's Roll

The fastest and simplest way to generate stats, but also the most risky.

Roll 6d20 in order.

That's it.

It's quick, it's easy, and it's a gamble. There's no bell curve buffering to protect you and while you might get a 16 to 20, you stand an equal chance of rolling 1 to 4.

It's stupid and fun. Godspeed.

Generating Stats: Narrow Band

This method of generating stats has a linear probability and uses padding to guarantee the values rolled fall within a smaller range than the normal d6 bell curves would produce. It has two variations for a low band or high band.

Low: Roll 6d8 and add 7 to each value. Produces stats between 8 and 15.

High: Roll 6d8 and add 10 to each value. Produces stats between 11 and 18.

You can fiddle with the die size or number added to shift the band around, but a d8 gives the most interesting spread of values while staying within the common 3 to 18 range for stats.

Generating Stats: d6 Bell Curves

Rolling a handful of d6's to generate stats with probabilities on a normal distribution is the classic method. Effectively the oldest way of rolling stats in RPGs and the most common. What I'm interested in is all the variations on "roll Xd6" that have accumulated over the years.

When you pick up your fistful of dice chances are you're using one or more of these: 3d6, 4d6, drop lowest, drop highest, reroll 1's, in order.

*2d6 is used to generate stats too, but it's not technically a bell curve/normal distribution so I'm not including it.

Stats put a character in context with the game world, so tweaking the probabilities of your stats definitely has an effect on how challenging the game will be. Here's how each of these variations alter where the peak of the bell curve falls:

"In order" doesn't do anything to change probabilities, it just requires you to be more creative(?) about the character you're making. You've got fewer options when the stats you're rolling have to be used in sequence so you either run with it or reroll. It's a purely flavor modifier.

3d6 is the plain standard with the highest probability of rolling a 10 or 11. It's why 'average' in D&D is a 10. 4d6's distribution skews higher, with the highest probability rolls in the 13 to 15 range and a much lower chance of rolling single-digit values.

"Drop lowest" is almost always paired with a 4d6 roll and bumps the peak of the bell curve down a little to the 12 to 15 range. A 3d6 drop lowest has 8 to 10 as its most common rolls. It's not an extreme effect on the basic Xd6 rolls.

"Drop highest" on the other hand… It moves the peak of a 4d6 curve way down to the 7 to 9 range, and a 3d6 curve to 4 to 6. It's merciless. I've never played a character made with drop highest rolls, but it sounds fun.

"Reroll 1's" also has an extreme effect on the roll. It pushes the peak of the curve towards higher numbers. On a 3d6 roll the highest probability becomes 11 to 13, a 4d6 drop lowest is 13 to 15, and a 4d6 is 15 to 17. It does exactly what you'd think it would, just by more than I expected.

With those ranges in mind, the order of common d6 roll combos from average lowest to highest is:

1 3d6 drop highest (4-6)
2 3d6 drop highest, reroll 1's (5-8)
3 4d6 drop highest (7-9)
4 3d6 drop lowest (8-10)
5 3d6 drop lowest, reroll 1's (8-11)
6 4d6 drop highest, reroll 1's (9-11)
7 3d6 (10-11)
8 3d6 reroll 1's (11-13)
9 4d6 drop lowest (12-14)
10 4d6 (13-14)
11 4d6 drop lowest, reroll 1's (13-15)
12 4d6 reroll 1's (15-17)

If you want check out the probabilities, here are the calculations I used on anydice to visualize all this.

For 3d6 calcs y = 2, x = 3. For 4d6 calcs y = 3, x = 4.

Plain:
output xd6

Drop lowest:
output [highest y of xd6]

Drop highest:
output [lowest y of xd6]

Reroll 1's:
output xd{2..6}

Drop lowest, reroll 1's:
output [highest y of xdxd{2..6}]

Drop highest, reroll 1's:
output [lowest y of xd{2..6}]

Matrix Rolling

I've said that rolling stats is an important part of character creation, but the actual process of rolling takes time. Not a lot, but in a high-lethality game where you're regularly making new characters (often mid-session) the time spent rolling stats can become a bottleneck.

I use matrix rolling to avoid that delay.

Normally when creating a character you roll 3d6 or 4d6 six times and move on. With matrix rolling you roll 36 times and place the values in a 6x6 grid (aka a matrix).

This gives you 12 possible stat lines to choose from, 6 vertical and 6 horizontal. Whenever you make a character, pick one of the 12 lines and cross it off. Then, when that character meets their horrible end, go back to the grid and pick one of the remaining lines to use in making your next character.

It takes a little extra time to generate the matrix when you start, but it's worth it to be able to jump back into the game faster after being dispatched messily.

This is what a "roll X in order" matrix looks like:

The inner square (blue) is the pattern to fill the grid in; starting in the upper left and going down, wrapping around to the top of each column until you reach the bottom right. The outer numbers (red) are each of your possible stat lines, and the stat names for keeping track of "in order."

Here's an example of how it plays out. I rolled this grid:

Looking at what I got, I'd start by picking the third horizontal row. Cross that line off and make a beefy fighter, Gerald.

After Gerald's tragic demise (eaten by a grue) I decided to play someone brainier who won't bumble alone into the dark, so I grab the sixth vertical row for my new wizard.

(The last 14 is used by both lines. That's fine. Crossing a line off means you can't use that complete set of 6 numbers again. You can still use the individual numbers where different lines intersect.)

And so it goes until all 12 of your pre-rolled stat lines have been used, then you generate another grid's worth. (And wonder why your game is so incredibly lethal. Maybe it's you.)

Thinking About Stats

Most RPGs use stats. They're usually the first thing you do when creating a character and so common that you don't even think about it. When I stop and consider the role stats play in the fabric of an RPG it breaks down to three main things:

Stats are important as benchmarks.
Stats connect a character to the game's world by providing a context for how their skills and abilities fit into that world. RPGs are about having fun while interacting with a fictional world, and stats are the reference point that helps you determine what shape that interaction takes. They guide how your character might face a problem, what sort of solution they would come up with, and how well it would work.

Stats should be random.
Rolling for your character's stats creates challenges for them and sets them up to develop through play. If you wanted to play a wizard but rolled a low INT you have a choice: Reroll your stats until you get a set of numbers you like, or use the low INT and run with it. Be a sadsack wizard who's questing to become more powerful and focus on raising that stat throughout the game. Those decisions can't really come up if you use a non-random method like point buy to generate your stats. Randomness creates more interesting options to play with.

Higher stats aren't better.
Most folks assume players will choose higher stats for their characters if given the opportunity and that higher equals better, but high stats can be boring. Taking risks is part of playing games and where's the risk when you know your rolls will succeed because of your good stats? It's usually more fun to have a solidly mediocre statline and let RP carry the game, abysmally low stats the require extreme cleverness, or a wildly inconsistent assortment of high and low than it is to have high stats across the board.

Tiny Coffins Challenge: December (bonus!)

 Welcome back! This final prompt is:

"undeniable beauty in desolation"

Ice storms are an annual event around here. They're destructive as hell. Freezing rain that coats everything it touches in a glaze of ice. The extra weight breaks trees and pulls down power lines. The ice covering every flat surface makes roads impassable and footpaths a hazard. But when the sun comes out and sparkles through the branches of the trees that are still standing and makes the world look like it's plated in silver, it's still beautiful.