Creating Characters

I read a little discussion on creating new characters today at Trollhalla. There are, of course, many, many ways of going about this.

When I first played Tunnels & Trolls, I always rolled 3d6, first for STR, then for IQ - I worked my way through the attributes in strict order. If you rolled a weak character, well - you made it a dwarf or an elf!

It was, for a short time, a delving landscape devoid of humans. Oh well, never mind! I wanted to play a Lord of the Rings-Norse Myths game, not a real world with magic version. Then I remembered Conan and needed a change so...

I introduced a table so you rolled for kindred on 2d6 and it was weighted towards humans. We played lots of weak human and lots of the died - quickly.

In more recent times, although I very much enjoy games with low level characters, I have often wanted to begin with stronger characters so that I can dip into more of the magic of the game. So, we have used different methods of character creation.

The point here is the plural - not just one - horses for courses. Some won't allow for TARO and specialists - fine, we won't always use them.

First cab off the rank was letting players roll eight sets of numbers with 3d6 and then let them assign them to an attribute as they saw fit. Players tend to enjoy that one.

Then there is the method of setting a point total and letting players distribute them as they see fit (NO TARO here). Ken did this in the 'Seven Challenges' of 2012 (his limit of 80 was rather stingy but suited the adventure). I have found this to be less popular with players because there is no dice rolling. It is easy using this method to generate a party of a particular level by putting an upper level on any one attribute. This irons out the dwarf/elf superiority effect because the selected attribute numbers are not modified.

Another method I have used is to assign particular numbers of d6 to particular attributes. You don't get any TARO but you do get dice rolling and players seem to get a buzz from the 'advantage' of rolling say 5d6 for STR or whatever.

This week, where I wanted a bunch of wizards of particular levels created, I decided on a total number of d6 rolls for each level - to create a Level 13 wizard, I gave 120d6 for players to distribute amongst the eight attributes as they saw fit. You need to allocate 3d6 for the laws of probability to get you up to each level - 3d6 should get you 10.5 and that's is Level 1 on a relevant attribute for the class; 6d6 would get you 21 and give a L2 attribute so for L13 you would need to assign 3d6 x 13 = 39d6 of your total of 120d6 to be statistically likely to have the relevant attribute bringing you L13 status - leaving 81d6 for the other attributes (suddenly doesn't seem such a generous award). If you don't like rolling dice that much (saddo!), no problem! Just substitute 3d6 for each d6 you don't want to roll. For your L13 wizard, you could allocate 39d6 to INT and decide to roll just 2d6! The first 37 give you 3.5 times 37 = 129.5 so you only need 0.5 (half!) on those 2d6 you actually roll to reach your target of 130. Or you could roll 39d6.

There is no method I would always use and that, quite simply, is what I would recommend to you, dear reader.

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls: dynamic, flexible, whatever...

or

Deluxe Tunnels & Trolls: whatever you need to make it fizz!