Mike Mearls Games
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Char Gen and Stupid Dice Tricks
🕑 Added 2025-01-25 16:07:27 +0000 UTCWork has been very busy lately. Over at Chaosium, we're pushing our new game over to a closed beta, so it's been keeping me busy this week. But, I had time to put together the basic equipment rules and the rules for creating ability scores.
I'm also behind on comments and will catch up on the monk discussion over the weekend.
I've always loved the idea of random character creation, even if my rational side tends toward point buy. On the other hand, I love random equipment. Equipment is a temporary state in RPGs, so I enjoy starting out as a fighter with crappy armor and a sharp spoon. Maybe its the 1980s CRPG player in me, but the rush of that first weapon or armor upgrade will always be with me.
I also hate asking players to shop for gear when making a character. Shopping is fun when it's a group activity in the aftermath of scoring a huge treasure cache in play. In character creation, it's a giant barrier to entry.
For Odyssey, I've tried to combine random equipment tables and random ability generation. Here is my stupid die trick: each table uses a different die type. That means you can take a giant fistful of dice, roll, and have your starting abilities and gear. Since each table uses a different die type, you don't have to worry about confusing which die goes to which table. I also specifically gave each class the same starting gear option, so you can roll first then decide your class. Classes that need specific gear, like a thief's tools, get that in addition to their random rolls.
You might also note that I added ability modifiers into the score generation step. It feels much easier to handle all of that stuff in one step.
Comments
Ryan Linderman
I really like Untrained Vs Trained. I think it's easier to understand than proficiency. I also like rolling for ability scores, but it seems like current DMs want point buy or standard array. The 6d6 system looks really interesting. I need to try it out to see what kind of results I get. Since I learned from 1e, I'm curious if rolling 3d6s will be mentioned.
Tb2
Perhaps I am a different duck, but I like the ability scores & modifiers as I use them for my home-brew as attributes to roll under. (it splits the modifier to have two level ups before it adds an addition. +1) I would really like to see a game that respect TIME. players in dnd can level up to 20 nearly in a month. I would like to see a LIFETIME rpg. To grow your character throughout life. that's me though lol
