Doesn't really matter to me. Roll 4d6 drop lowest. Standard Array. Point Buy. All accomplish the same goal.

You may use any of the three methods described in the PHB. Just pick one and go with it.

This game isn't starting anytime soon, so there is no need to feel rushed to quickly generate characters.

We're getting ready to roll into the holidays, which since everyone in this game has been around PbP for a bit...well, we know what happens to posting frequency during the holidays. Yeah, not really the greatest of times for PbPs.

I don't have a firm date in mind yet for when we might start, but my initial thoughts were it would make sense to get all character generation, etc. over the next month or so and then look to launch the game with the New Year.

I am not opposed to starting earlier, but my experience tells me it's not realistic to start games when people have other things going on.

Re: gaming groups...

That is pretty impressive to be playing with the same people for 25 years. I have moved around a lot over the years and as a result have gamed with lots of different people. New casts of players every 2-3 years.

Holy cow. Yeah, that's impressive. I've only ever been able to play a single live game on tabletop, and even that one I was just a guest that sort of 'crashed' the party; a group meets regularly at guild not too far from me, but they meet on Sundays and I always work those.

Oh yeah, I never said much about me. I don't care to share too much but why not I'll give it a go. I'm only 24, a college student who works at In-N-Out Burger. I recently got my first apartment, so that's pretty awesome.

Anyways, so a while ago I actually didn't work one Sunday, a rare blue-moon occurrence, so I decided to say 'screw it' and went. they were totally chill, the DM gave me one of the NPCs to play as and it was a blast; too bad I'll never get to do it again lol.

But, I'm trying to get a real-life game going soon with some friends. Actually, just yesterday the first of them came over for a few hours so I could explain the game to her and help her make a character. It was one of those funny things that I kind of called it beforehand; she's a young college kid like me, a vegetarian and kind of new-age hippie, so I thought, jokingly, that she'd be perfect for a druid.

I explain the races and classes and everything to her, one at a time. Certainly enough, she picked druid lol.

Anyways though, I'm pretty excited to be working towards my first IRL game.

That's cool that you are going to be starting up a RL game.  Also congrats on getting your first apartment.  Lots of exciting firsts!  :)

Some of you have expressed concern about ability score generation. I generally leave this decision up to players to determine on their own. The counter-viewpoint to this approach is it is possible for characters to not be "equal" to another from a mathematical standpoint.

For example, if Player A chooses to roll and rolls really well, Player B chooses Standard Array, and Player C rolls not as well...the theory is that Player C is now disadvantaged relative to the other two and will end up being sidelines/overshadowed by the mechanically superior A and B.

I haven't noticed any of these sort of imbalances due to ability scores before (only imbalances I have seen are due to rules mastery issues inherent to 3rd edition D&D, i.e., the game incentivizes min/max'ing through character optimization), but I guess it could happen.

As I mentioned in my introductory post, I am not into the mechanics of RPGs so I don't spend a lot of time thinking about these sort of issues. Mechanics are important to some players though and I want to make sure I understand everyone's viewpoint on the issue.

Are you fine with everyone choosing their own ability score generation method or would you prefer everyone start on an "even" playing field, with regards to stats?

For what it's worth, my prefered stat generation method is 4d6, because I like allowing the randomness of the dice to help shape my character. But I am not making any characters in this game, so my opinion is irrelevant :)

Please let me know what you guys want to do with this. We can leave that choice up to individual players or enforce the same stat method for everyone. It doesn't really matter to me either way.

Thanks,

Shane

This has always been a question in any of the games that I have played in.  I usually do the 4d6.  I had one GM that would give people the option of one stat reroll if it was under an 8.  If 3 stats were under 8 then he said just redo the character if you didn't want to play them.  Some people liked to play the disadvantaged characters, etc.   I am most unfamiliar with the point buy so can't say anything about that.

On another point.  I have my face to face gaming today so I won't be posting after 2 p.m..  It doesn't make much difference right now but I find it easier to remind my RPoL gamers when I have my face to face gaming so any writing partner I might be with aren't held up.  It's only every other Saturday and I can usually catch up on Sundays.

I've preferred the point buy methods because I don't like the randomness of the dice rolling methods.  Point buy gives everyone the same base "stuff" with which to shape the ability scores.  I will abide by whatever consensus is reached on method, however.  Being a numbers guy probably shaped my opinion on the matter ;)

Been trying to get to this for a bit. Not sure how many people voiced their opinion on the matter to the DM, but I don't mind saying that I'm one of them. I've been playing 5e for quite a while, and truthfully in the majority of games I've played in most of the players rolled in a narrow spectrum and there were no issues. Given the laws of probability however, I've played in just enough games with statistical outliers now that I'm leery of offering dice rolling in games that I may GM from now on. Its just my opinion of course and I'm happy to abide by the group consensus, but speaking from my own experiences I think point buy (either standard 27 point system, or some variation depending upon how gritty or heroic a feel you're going for) makes the most sense.

Just my two coppers.

I'm with Rob on this one (as I have found that I usually am, over the years). Plus, when dealing with numbers, trust your numbers guy. :)

As Rob has said, using the Point-Buy (or Standard Array) gives everyone a level playing field --you don't see substantially over-powered or under-powered characters.

Plus, from a personal point of view, I don't like rolling for either original Attributes or later-level Hit Points on the RPoL Dice-Roller.  I know that it is supposed to be entirely random, but the damned thing never seems to like me on these sorts of rolls (or, maybe it senses that I don't like it). Whatever the reason, it generally rolls low for me.

That said, it wouldn't bother me if other folks really wanted to have the option to roll -- just as long as *I* don't have to.

PS. I really like Caduceus's idea of sweetening a Point-Buy by using more than 27 points, in order to generate more heroic characters. And as long as everyone starts out with the same number of points to "spend", it's all good, right? :)
This message was last edited by the player at 13:05, Sat 05 Nov 2016.

Tancred will verify that the dice roller on RPoL doesn't like me...most of the time anyway.  Still it might be interesting to do a point buy system.  I like the extra points, of course, because I think PCs are always more heroic than the regular folk otherwise we'd all be hobbits and halflings and stay home in the shire.

Yeah, I'm a tiny bit ashamed to admit that Cadaceus is probably thinking of my game as one of his examples of the rolling taking a turn for bad. It's the one thing about that game (the first real game I've ever really run) that I wish I could have changed.

But, it's a good learning experience. One of the characters in particular rolled crazy well on their stats (two natural 18s, and nothing under 14) and most others rolling average or below-so to the point that the one character often seems a head above the rest, even in areas where the others would normally be better. The group barbarian has expressed to me that he feels overshadowed as a tank for example... by a wizard.

don't get me wrong; it's still a fun game and I love it to death. But in the future, I'll be sticking to standard array or point-buy.

I'd suggest as much for this game as well. It's just best in my opinion to start on even ground in terms of what we're good at and what we're bad at.

I would also be interested in an adjusted point-buy system. I've often wondered about this before and would like to see it in action.

Just so everyone's clear, my goal for this game is to play it pretty much under default assumptions, i.e., I am not looking to create/adopt house rules to modify systems that are built into the default game, etc.

5th edition went through an extensive open playtest and my assumption is the designers used that feedback to put together a game that should be fun/balanced out of the box. This should mean that the ability score methods offered in the PHB are good-to-go.

In my experience, modifying core assumptions opens up a host of other issues down the road and it's generally not worth the hassle. Ramping up starting character strength usually corresponds with ramping up opponents' strength by either buffing them up on the fly or throwing more numbers at the issue. This makes for more work for the DM, who already has a ton of stuff to manage without having to crunch numbers to ensure the game runs smoothly.

In the end, even if the DM puts in the required numbers crunching, this power escalation is a zero-sum gain. The only thing that changes is the numbers added to the dice.

On the flip-side, if the DM does nothing to compensate for the power increase, the game becomes too easy because the default games assumes a certain power level.

All this to say, the only ability generation options on the table are the three listed in the PHB.

That's totally fair. I would personally suggest sticking with the 27-point buy or the standard array.

Having both works right? Isn't the standard array a potential purchase of the 27-point buy?

I got home early from gaming.  Our host got sick so we will pick up next week.  That gave me time to work on my character and I think that I'll use the 27 point buy system.  Haven't used that before so it will be interesting.  :)

Yes. One could allocate their 27 points and end up with the standard array (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8).

Okay. I think I have seen enough input to make a decision. We'll use the Customizing Ability Scores variant as described in the PHB, p. 13 (p. 8 of the Basic D&D rulebook for those who don't have a PHB).

This will allow everyone to control their stat allocation and mitigate any potential issues associated with outliers.

I will update the character creation thread accordingly.

In reply to DM Shard (msg # 67):

That sounds fine, Shane.

Will we be using the rule for "Variant Human Traits" (+1 to two ability scores, the PC gains a proficiency in one additional Skill, and one Feat instead of +1 to all ability scores) that is contained on p. 31 of the PHB?

Thanks.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:59, Sun 06 Nov 2016.

Sure. Go for it.

Assuming the Optional Feat rules are used, the Human variant would allow a 1st level Human character to select a Feat at 1st level, right? All others could select Feats in lieu of ability score increases at 4th level, correct?

That is my understanding. I don't know that any of my PCs in my other 5e games have made it to 4th level, but that's the way that the rules work. :)

Got back tonight but pretty exhausted after a very fun weekend. I likely wont get to this until tomorrow :)

In reply to Morgrim Ironhammer (msg # 71):

Welcome back Brother.  Rest while you can.  there is plenty of time.

In reply to Tancred (msg # 68):

I'm tempted to just run the stock human feature of +1 to every attribute.  I don't think feats are listed in the downloadable rules set.

Shane, are you wanting for us to choose backgrounds, etc?  Looks like background choices give additional skill proficiencies.

In reply to Thane Harkensen (msg # 73):

Yes. Please choose a background.

Wanted to talk to everyone about one potentially problematic aspect of 5th edition, with respects to its disruptive impact on the PbP format: interrupt type reactions.

The most common one is opportunity attacks (OAs), but I know there are some spells that have a reaction element as well. There might also be feats and class features that do this as well.

Basically anything that allows a player to pre-empt a triggering action are problematic in PbP. What I want to avoid is having to go through either a "Mother May I" situation during combat...where there is a lot of back-and-forth between DM and player to determine whether a player will use their reaction in response to an enemy action; OR the equally problematic issue of having me post a round, only to have a player use a reaction after-the-fact and cause a messy edit situation where I have to go back and re-accomplish posts while taking the player's reaction into account.

Opportunity attacks are fairly easy to handle. I can handle all OAs under general conditions. For example, unless a player indicates they are saving their OA for a specific condition to occur, I can roll all OAs as they occur and narrate results in my posts. I know there are sometimes tactical considerations that go into deciding whether to take an OA, but for simplicity's sake, it's probably best for all involved if we forego the back-and-forth necessary to make that possible. As a DM, I will use my best judgement in these cases and won't use dummy movements to suss out less than optimal OAs from players. Does that sound fair?

For your other reactions, I will probably need to tell me what type of reactions your characters are capable of doing, so I have an idea of when these things will be triggered and can plan accordingly.

I only bring this up now because this was a major point of frustration for me when I ran 4th edition D&D via PbP when I had some players who built what I call "gotcha" characters. I don't know if such a thing is possible in 5th edition, but I wanted to bring it out for conversation.

What are some of the interrupt type things in 5th edition I need to be aware of?
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:48, Tue 08 Nov 2016.

Shield spell is the most common defensive reaction.

Hellish rebuke is the most frequent offensive.

Lore Bards gain Cutting Words at level 3 which can be used as a reaction to make an enemy fail their roll.

Pole arm master, Sentinel and Mage Slayer feats all interact with attacks of opportunity.

More as I think of them :)