Character Generation

[ffilz]

Start talking about your characters here.

Campaign ID is 959.

[ffilz]

To start rolling, roll 4d6k3 for each of

STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, WIL, CHA, ALT

For each of those also roll 1d6 and 1d4. The higher of those is added to the attribute to get the potential value.

Then roll 4d4 for SIZ, the actual SIZ is the roll - 10 + average of STR and CON potentials.

Then roll 6d6 for MP

Once you have the 3 sets I’ll offer suggestions.

[jemmus]

Please disregard my reply to your PM. I sent it before I read this.

[ffilz]

You might want to roll the attributes using [_4d6] instead of [4d6k3] to see all the dice in case all 4 come up 6. To ha try gives you a 19. Additionally if you roll at least 3 sixes you reroll all the dice that rolled a 6 and add 1 for each due that rolled a 6. Keep rerolling each did that rolls a 6.

[jemmus]

Could I get the Campaign ID to create the PC?

[ffilz]

Could I get the Campaign ID to create the PC?

I knew I forgot something…

Will get that out in a bit. Can’t log into dice roller to do that from my phone.

[ffilz]

Could I get the Campaign ID to create the PC?

I knew I forgot something…

Will get that out in a bit. Can’t log into dice roller to do that from my phone.

OK, campaign ID 959 (added to the first post also, I will always add chargen resources to that first post as well as mentioning them inline).

[jemmus]

Here are the rolls.
[4d6]=11[4d6]=13[4d6]=14[4d6]=21[4d6]=16[4d6]=16[4d6]=12[4d6]=10

[1d6]=6[1d4]=4[1d6]=5[1d4]=2[1d6]=1[1d4]=3[1d6]=6[1d4]=1
[1d6]=3[1d4]=3[1d6]=2[1d4]=2[1d6]=1[1d4]=1[1d6]=6[1d4]=1

[4d4]=9

[6d6]=17

STR 11+6=17
DEX 13+5=18
CON 14+3=17
INT 21+6=27
WIS 16+3=19
WIL 16+2=18
CHA 12+1=13
ALT 10+6=16

SIZ =9-10= -1 (17+17)/2 = 17 -1+17=16

MP 17

Not sure if I understood the SIZ calculation correctly.

[ffilz]

Oops, I didn't explain well enough...

The attributes are rolled on 4d6k3, but rolling 4 sixes is different than rolling 3 sixes, so the [_4d6] let's you roll 4 dice and see all 4, you pick 3 sum manually, but you can note if 4 sixes happen to be scored.

For the values you noted, the SIZ calculation is correct.

And gosh, even on 4d6, those are somewhat mediocre attributes...

I'm madly working on weapons and skills... I might post something today, more likely Monday evening... And at that, I'm skipping most of the weapons, I've got swords (and knives), spears (and javelins), naginata, and bows mostly ready to go (need to finalize some prices)...

In the meantime, roll up another set using either 4d6k3 (and ignore the fact that any 18 rolled MIGHT have been 4 sixes (or heck, if you actually get an 18 out of 4d6k3, just roll another d6 and see if it also comes up 6...) or with the [_4d6] and do the summing yourself. Or maybe for simplicity I should just stick with 4d6k3 and and 18 just generates 3 sixes to try exploding...

[jemmus]

Got it, I'll fix the rolls. I was kind of familiar with the "k3" macro, I should have spotted what we were doing. I hope to do that during lunch break tomorrow. No hurry setting up on your part. One good thing about PBP is everybody has time when they need it.

[Marullus]

Hey, I noticed the site was created!

Here's my guy.

STR [_4d6]=(2+3+1+1)=7[1d6]=4[1d4]=4 DEX [_4d6]=(1+5+2+3)=11[1d6]=3[1d4]=4
CON [_4d6]=(1+1+3+1)=6[1d6]=3[1d4]=4 INT [_4d6]=(3+5+3+2)=13[1d6]=5[1d4]=1
WIS [_4d6]=(5+6+5+3)=19[1d6]=2[1d4]=1 WIL [_4d6]=(6+5+4+3)=18[1d6]=1[1d4]=2
CHA [_4d6]=(2+4+1+5)=12[1d6]=1[1d4]=4 ALT [_4d6]=(4+1+2+6)=13[1d6]=6[1d4]=1
SIZ [_4d4]=(3+3+2+1)=9 MP [_6d6]=(4+6+4+5+5+3)=27

STR 10
DEX 14
CON 9
INT 16
WIS 18
WIL 17
CHA 15
ALT 18

Size: 9 (9-10+((10+9)/2))
MP: 27

[ffilz]

Edited to reflect original and potential on the attributes...

Hey, I noticed the site was created!

Here's my guy.

STR [_4d6]=(2+3+1+1)=7[1d6]=4[1d4]=4 DEX [_4d6]=(1+5+2+3)=11[1d6]=3[1d4]=4
CON [_4d6]=(1+1+3+1)=6[1d6]=3[1d4]=4 INT [_4d6]=(3+5+3+2)=13[1d6]=5[1d4]=1
WIS [_4d6]=(5+6+5+3)=19[1d6]=2[1d4]=1 WIL [_4d6]=(6+5+4+3)=18[1d6]=1[1d4]=2
CHA [_4d6]=(2+4+1+5)=12[1d6]=1[1d4]=4 ALT [_4d6]=(4+1+2+6)=13[1d6]=6[1d4]=1
SIZ [_4d4]=(3+3+2+1)=9 MP [_6d6]=(4+6+4+5+5+3)=27

STR 6/10
DEX 10/14
CON 5/9
INT 11/16
WIS 16/18
WIL 15/17
CHA 11/15
ALT 12/18

Size: 9 (9-10+((10+9)/2))
MP: 27

Wow, that's particularly horrible... That's almost the "+1 farmer" we used to joke about back in the day. He would make an OK Gakusho. If you want to keep that set of rolls, honestly I'd let you almost completely re-arrange. Optionally, make two more sets of rolls and see if you get something more interesting (and one of these days I'll figure out a better way to roll characters more reliably, or figure a point buy, though that would almost eliminate the possibility for something like Zandar from here that I rolled up as part of a chargen challenge (but haven't finished):

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w3l ... sp=sharing

Oh, and welcome aboard. I wasn't sure if we still had you on.

[Marullus]

And gosh, even on 4d6, those are somewhat mediocre attributes...

I wanted to evaluate this statement. So, I made a spreadsheet laying out the total population of probabilities for [4d6k3] plus the better of [1d4][1d6]. This let me do the initial statistical analysis.

Code: Select all

Average	16.16
Median	16
StDev	3.16
	
Quartiles	
0	4
1	14
2	16
3	18
4	24

So, it is a highly-centralized distribution with 50% of all values falling between 14 and 18 with a median of 16. Anything outside of that is skewing towards the tails.

The possibility of exploding dice is an exciting, but extremely low probability event. (Perhaps worth considering over the number of rolls in a full campaign, but not in the eight rolls that make a character. It is so rare that it is an anomaly.)

Using this lens to consider the two characters rolled so far:
Jemmus: 5 average rolls (central 50%), 1 below average roll, 2 above average rolls
Marullus: 6 average rolls (central 50%), 2 below average rolls, 0 above average rolls

...so far this has built characters right where the math says it should build them. Remember not to let the excitement of the possibility of an anomalous exploding die color your expectations of what is actually going to be normal results.

I will redo the rolls and see if it is a better character, though.

[ffilz]

Oh, I know the exploding rolls are a rarity. Over all my running Cold Iron, I've probably only seen it a handful of times. What is the math for the average of [5d6k3] plus the better of [1d6][1d4]?

One thought I had was to borrow from the attribute rolling for Dream Along With Me, an obscure RPG I bought off someone who was a Wild Hunt or Alarums & Excursions contributor. His system doesn't use xDyKz but has a re-roll system. You assign 3 re-rolls before you roll any dice, and get one after the fact. If you spend one re-roll on an attribute, you are guaranteed at least average. Two gets you average +1, three gets you average +2. You re-roll until you get that minimum or better. If I used something like that for Cold Iron, I wouldn't do any re-rolls on the potential dice, but would apply a minimum of 3, 4, 5.

Ultimately I think it's easier to just allow rolling several sets of attributes and picking one, allowing an extra or two if someone actually manages to roll horrible for all three. That keeps the rare characters still actually rare.

I was also considering one attribute swap after the rolling is done.

[Marullus]

I used a brute force method (creating calculations to actually populate the entire distribution over several thousand cells) to ensure I didn't make an error since my statistical analysis is a little rusty. I can't do a "drop two" calculation without a total do-over, so that's not an easy answer. (I do have SIPMath tools to create a Monte Carlo style simulation that combines the probabilities in the way you desire, but I haven't done it in a few years... this not wanting to make an error or sink extra time.)

What I CAN say:
Adding extra dice to a distribution increases the centralization around the mean. So, a 5d6 instead of a 3d6 increases the percentage of things that fall in the average range rather than the tails. Flatter distributions allow the extremes to happen more often, bigger pools make it less likely you roll low but also less likely you roll high.

A "drop the lowest" results in a right-skewed distribution. In the quartiles above, you can see the bottom 25% of rolls are stretched across 10 points (4-13), the central 50% is across five points (14-18) and the top 25% are across five points (19-24).

I THINK (again, brain rusty) that a 5d6k3 will result in the median skewing upwards slightly, and the probability shifting more results into the middle range (since the max-value is fixed, the above-average range has to shrink, as well, as the median moves up). Since your dice explode, the chances of having three 6s on five dice is better than having three 6s on three dice, too.

[ffilz]

Yea, let's just stick with the 4d6k3 with rolling several sets and pick one, and then swap two attributes. If that really doesn't generate good looking stats for the type of character you want to play, then we'll either play with the rolls made so far, offer a re-roll or two, or roll an entire new set or something. I think 3 sets SHOULD come up with a decent character. And I'm trying to let go of the expectations that developed over years of play in college to have sort of awesome characters. You want a decent enough character but the idea of rolling random stats is that not every fighter has optimal strength and dexterity...

[Marullus]

Second try at the character "Cold Iron Joe"....

STR [_4d6]=(4+4+4+4)=16[1d6]=5[1d4]=2 DEX [_4d6]=(1+2+1+2)=6[1d6]=1[1d4]=4
CON [_4d6]=(2+1+3+3)=9[1d6]=5[1d4]=1 INT [_4d6]=(5+2+2+2)=11[1d6]=5[1d4]=1
WIS [_4d6]=(3+3+2+5)=13[1d6]=5[1d4]=2 WIL [_4d6]=(6+6+1+4)=17[1d6]=5[1d4]=4
CHA [_4d6]=(3+1+4+2)=10[1d6]=5[1d4]=3 ALT [_4d6]=(6+4+3+5)=18[1d6]=1[1d4]=2
SIZ [_4d4]=(4+4+1+4)=13 MP [_6d6]=(4+5+6+3+2+6)=26

STR 17
DEX 9
CON 13
INT 14
WIS 16
WIL 21
CHA 14
ALT 17

Size: 15
MP: 26

Two low, one high, five average, so that's an improvement.

...I wouldn't know what to swap, as I don't really know what these attributes do in your system. (Also, what's ALT?)


...and just for fun, since I have the cut/paste ledger open: Try #3.

STR [_4d6]=(4+5+5+5)=19[1d6]=5[1d4]=4 DEX [_4d6]=(1+4+2+3)=10[1d6]=2[1d4]=4
CON [_4d6]=(6+1+1+3)=11[1d6]=3[1d4]=3 INT [_4d6]=(6+6+3+2)=17[1d6]=2[1d4]=3
WIS [_4d6]=(1+2+2+2)=7[1d6]=5[1d4]=1 WIL [_4d6]=(2+2+6+6)=16[1d6]=3[1d4]=1
CHA [_4d6]=(2+3+3+5)=13[1d6]=1[1d4]=2 ALT [_4d6]=(1+1+1+2)=5[1d6]=3[1d4]=1
SIZ [_4d4]=(4+4+4+2)=14 MP [_6d6]=(5+5+5+4+4+2)=25

STR 20
DEX 13
CON 13
INT 18
WIS 11
WIL 17
CHA 13
ALT 7

Size: 20
MP: 25

[ffilz]

Better...

Second try at the character "Cold Iron Joe"....

STR [_4d6]=(4+4+4+4)=16[1d6]=5[1d4]=2 DEX [_4d6]=(1+2+1+2)=6[1d6]=1[1d4]=4
CON [_4d6]=(2+1+3+3)=9[1d6]=5[1d4]=1 INT [_4d6]=(5+2+2+2)=11[1d6]=5[1d4]=1
WIS [_4d6]=(3+3+2+5)=13[1d6]=5[1d4]=2 WIL [_4d6]=(6+6+1+4)=17[1d6]=5[1d4]=4
CHA [_4d6]=(3+1+4+2)=10[1d6]=5[1d4]=3 ALT [_4d6]=(6+4+3+5)=18[1d6]=1[1d4]=2
SIZ [_4d4]=(4+4+1+4)=13 MP [_6d6]=(4+5+6+3+2+6)=26

STR 12/17
DEX 5/9
CON 8/13
INT 9/14
WIS 11/16
WIL 16/21
CHA 9/14
ALT 15/17

Size: 15
MP: 26

Two low, one high, five average, so that's an improvement.

...I wouldn't know what to swap, as I don't really know what these attributes do in your system. (Also, what's ALT?)

That could make a decent Gakusho. ALT is Alertness (perception). If you took this one as a Gakusho, I'd swap INT and DEX unless you really didn't want to be not-book smart (a big thing I haven't figured out yet is how non-combat skills work, I've never been really satisfied with them in Cold Iron), that low DEX would mean you wouldn't dodge so well... Optimizing for most effective caster would probably swap WIS and WIL.

This could also be a reasonable, if fragile, Bushi if you swapped WIS or WIL with DEX. To a non-caster, WIL will mostly be used to save against mental spells.

This set of stats could be a good basis for more extensive re-arrangement. The best you could do with order as you please with these rolls is either a pretty good fighter who has one other decent attribute (depending on what you felt most interested in from a non-combat perspective) or a more tuned caster of either flavor.

[jemmus]

[4d6k3]=15[4d6k3]=14[4d6k3]=10[4d6k3]=9[4d6k3]=11[4d6k3]=14[4d6k3]=15[4d6k3]=12
Does this look right? I'm new to this macro.

[ffilz]

[4d6k3]=15[4d6k3]=14[4d6k3]=10[4d6k3]=9[4d6k3]=11[4d6k3]=14[4d6k3]=15[4d6k3]=12
Does this look right? I'm new to this macro.

Yep, that works. Then you need to roll [1d6][1d4] for each attribute to be added to the base attribute for it's potential.