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View Full Version : [Reign] Niftiest random chargen ever



Kiero
2007-08-12, 02:50 PM
Normally, I hate random elements in chargen. Hate them with the burning passion of a thousand suns. But there is one I actually like, that used in Greg Stolze's Reign (http://www.gregstolze.com/reign/index.html), a One Roll Engine (ORE) game.

You can see a fair chunk of how you do it here (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=271802), and there's actually an online generator (http://www.peccable.com/roleplaying/onerollchar.php) if you'd rather avoid the hassle.

Thing I like about it: the randomness is purely optional, and doesn't give you any better or worse results than using the point-buy option. There's none of this "I rolled high" or "I rolled low", just "I rolled different". You can mix and match how much random and chosen you use, too. I like to use it just to help me generate character concepts.

ORE itself is free in one incarnation, that of NEMESIS (http://www.arcdream.com/dennis/NEMESIS.pdf), a game of action-horror.

Beaudoin
2007-08-12, 07:56 PM
Gods yes. I badly want my roommate to start up his planned Reign game, largely because I want to see what kind of character comes my way.

I will warn, however, that although it is an 85 point buy character, your result will likely be nowhere near optimized.

Edit: For anyone wondering how random occurences work, the "Random occurrence" tables are sorted more-or-less like this: A is the most realistic occurences (being robbed of a significant portion of your wealth, was a professional fighter, etc.) Chart B is slightly more bizarre (stolen birthrights, vengence quests, etc). Chart C provides the wildest past history (the mountain expedition, star crossed lovers, and His Majesty's Personal Cobbler ftw) You are not required to pick from all the charts (and I'd probably limit myself to at most one thing from Chart C).

Skjaldbakka
2007-08-12, 08:35 PM
1C Raised Wild
Perhaps you were abandoned in the woods as a child and were nursed by wolves (or a bear, or an ape, or whatever). Maybe primitives who have no real language of their own raised you. Whatever it was, you're used to living on the edge.
+3 Hearing +2 Sight
+3 Language +2 Expert: Throwing
+2 Endurance


2x3 Street Entertainer
+2 Perform +2 Fascinate
+1 Jest

3x4 Canny Tradesman
+1 Language +2 Lie
+3 Haggle +1 Student of Navigation
+2 Advantage: Possession (pick a form of transport) +1 Advantage: Wealth

6C Saved Someone's Life
That's got to feel good, huh? How'd you do it? Cure the fever no one else could? Pull her from in front of runaway horses? Swim him to shore? Scare off the wolf pack? Whatever it was, you've got a friend for life. And your friend is a good friend to have!
+5 Advantage: Patron

2x8 Squad Leader
+1 Fight +1 Ride
+1 Tactics +2 Inspire

9B Survived Hideous Occult Ritual
Blasphemous religious ceremony? Arcane experiment? Whatever it was, it went really, really wrong. Really. The question is, were you performing it, or just there to be sacrificed?
+2 Counterspell +3 Eerie


10C His Majesty's Personal Cobbler
You made the most beautiful, most comfortable, most durable shoes in the entire kingdom, and as a result you are one of the relatively few people to have seen the monarch barefoot. Do you still have this exalted position? If not, what happened? If so, where'd all your money get to?
+4 Student of Cobbling + MD


My results. Wow, that is a tangled web to weave.

Bosh
2007-08-12, 09:57 PM
Hmmm I just ended up with a bardic, thieving gladiator cobbler who had been involved in a mountain expedition. Waaaaaaaa?

As for random but balanced chargen try this for D&D:

1. Choose a point buy value.
2. Roll 4d6 and drop the lowest five times and add up how much those are worth according to point buy. For scores lower than 8 you subtract a number from your point buy equal to the amount that the score is lower than 8.
3. Set a value for the 6th stat so that your total basket of stats is equal to your desire point buy.
4. If you can't get the right total point buy by adjusting the 6th stat, adjust the 5th by a bit.
5. Either assign the values to the stats or choose which roll goes to which stat as you roll.

For example:

I want a random 28 point buy character

Rolling 4d6 drop the lowest five times:
7
11
16
16
13
That's a total point buy of 29 (would be 28 but the 7 makes it 29) so I put a 9 in my 6th stat.

So I could either assign them or end up with stats for a pretty good wizard if I take them as they land.

Dausuul
2007-08-13, 10:31 AM
As for random but balanced chargen try this for D&D:

1. Choose a point buy value.
2. Roll 4d6 and drop the lowest five times and add up how much those are worth according to point buy. For scores lower than 8 you subtract a number from your point buy equal to the amount that the score is lower than 8.
3. Set a value for the 6th stat so that your total basket of stats is equal to your desire point buy.
4. If you can't get the right total point buy by adjusting the 6th stat, adjust the 5th by a bit.
5. Either assign the values to the stats or choose which roll goes to which stat as you roll.

That's a fairly good method; only problem is that some players will still have an advantage due to rolling all even numbers, since odd-valued stats are usually considered wasteful. Perhaps you get an extra stat point for every two odd-numbered stats?

Bosh
2007-08-13, 09:57 PM
Right, its not perfectly balanced but close. Also odd stats can be useful since they can be bumped up easier. For example I'd rather than a 17 than an 18 in my primary stat since I save a good number of points that way and I can bump it up at 4th level. Also a lot of odd-numbered stats let you qualify for feats.

Kiero
2007-08-14, 04:07 AM
Difference there though, Bosh, is that whether you use the random or point-buy in Reign, you are still using the same resources. They're equal from a meta-resources point of view.

Closet_Skeleton
2007-08-14, 04:18 AM
As long as it doesn't have a random siblings generator...