Attribute rolling

From MegaTravellerWiki

The basic scheme in the Player's Manual is to roll 2d6 "straight", six times, to determine the player's Universal Personality Profile. Here are some alternative systems:

Contents 1 Safe Range 2 Average Range 3 Best Six of Eight 4 Best Six of Seven 5 Limited Rearrangement 6 Full Rearrangement 7 Pick and Choose 8 Limited Rearrangement + Best Six of Eight 9 Limited Rearrangement + Best Six of Seven 10 Fudged 2d6 11 Best 2d6 in 3d6 12 Worst 2d6 in 3d6

Safe Range

Roll 2d6 once for each attribute, in order, with no rearrangement allowed. Total the six rolls. If the total is less than 39, allow the player to roll all six attributes again from scratch if the player so wishes. The player may continue rerolling as often as desired. This prevents players who have a particularly bad run of luck from being forced to play a poor character, while still allowing particularly lucky players to enjoy the spoils.

Example: The player of Jackson Smith rolls {5, 6, 8, 3, 5, 10} for his attributes. The rolls look a little low compared to the average {7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7} for his attributes, and when they are added up it turns out that the average is only 37, less than the minimum acceptable of 39. If Jackson's player wishes, he or she can discard those rolls and start again from scratch.

Optional Rule: If a player sticks with a character with an attribute total less than 39, award the character an additional roll on the Mustering Out Table of the player's choice (still subject to the three-roll limit on the Cash Table, however).

Average Range

Roll 2d6 once for each attribute, in order, with no rearrangement allowed. Total the six rolls. If the total is less than 39 or if the total is greater than 45, the player must roll all six attributes again. This discourages incidences of superhumans as well as handicapped characters—both presumably eliminated due to the wide genetic diversity of Humaniti.

Example: Tom Cruz (or Penelope Cruise, whichever makes you giggle a little more) rolls {4, 4, 8, 5, 11, 2} which is a staggeringly low total of only 34. The player rolls again, this time coming up on the rolls of {7, 8, 4, 8, 9, 12} — an exceedingly fortunate roll of 48. The player rolls yet again at the wishes of the referee, this time coming up on {10, 8, 6, 4, 5, 7} on an acceptable roll with a total of 40 — slightly less than the average total of 42, but perfectly playable. The player scrawls "A86457" for the UPP.

Best Six of Eight

Roll 2d6 a total of eight times and discard the two lowest rolls (from left to right if more than one roll is equally low). The remaining six rolls apply to the attributes in order, with no rearrangement allowed.

This system produces player characters who are generally superior to the average person and helps to eliminate the extreme lows of poor rolls that occur sometimes, putting all of the player characters on more-equal footing. This system is also ideal for some politically-important NPCs, as these NPCs would not have gotten into the positions they have if they were not "a cut above".

Example: Jorje W. Busch rolls 2d6 eight times, achieving the rolls {8, 9, 10, 5, 4, 4, 10, 4}. The lowest rolls are the three fours. The first two fours are discarded, producing the quite impressive set of {8, 9, 10, 5, 10, 4}. Jorje's player writes "89A5A4" for his UPP.

Best Six of Seven

Exactly similar to Best Six of Eight, except you roll only seven times and discard only the lowest die.

Limited Rearrangement

Roll 2d6 once for each attribute, in order, with no rearrangement allowed. If the player is satisfied with these values in the order presented, the player may say "I do not want to rearrange" and may then copy down the rolls onto his or her character sheet. If the player is not satisfied with the rolls in the order presented (for instance, the player had a different character in mind, the player must roll 2d6 two additional times. The highest two rolls of the existing and the newly-rolled values are discarded, and the player may then arrange the remaining six rolls in any order desired. The player is allowed to "go back" to the ordered rolls if the player does not like the final resulting set of values for rearrangement.

This system penalises players for choosing to rearrange their attributes (transitively rewarding players who take the rolls in order), but allows players who are convinced they want a specific character type to be able to arrange their attributes to best suit that character type.

Example: Elle Fearsonmac rolls {5, 4, 10, 8, 7, 12} for her rolls—a very good roll indeed! However, Elle wants to be a Flyer, which requires high Str and Dex for enlistment; her existing rolls of 5 and 4 give her no DMs to the enlistment roll and she doesn't want to be drafted into a different service, since flying fighter jets has been a Fearsonmac family tradition for three thousand years ever since the advent of fighter planes on Terra. She rolls 2d6 an additional two times to produce rolls of {10, 11}, which when added to the existing set produces the values {5, 4, 10, 8, 7, 12, 10, 11} — discarding the two highest rolls then gives her {5, 4, 10, 8, 7, 10} to choose from: she rearranges her attributes to produce the UPP "AA4578", giving her a nearly guaranteed 3+ throw to enlist into the Flyers and a 4+ throw for commission due to her Edu-7. She doesn't have the book learning necessary to gain a DM +1 to promotion, unfortunately, having kept her Soc as high as possible at Soc-8.

Note that if Elle did not choose to rearrange her attributes, she would have been able to be a Baroness for the Fearsonmac family, thanks to her Soc-12. She would've been able to gallavant around with her millions of credits and her yacht, flying all the fighter craft she wanted... but she would not have the skill, and it would be a farce.

Full Rearrangement

Roll 2d6 six times to produce a set of six attributes. The player may assign these six rolls in whatever order desired.

Generally, this system allows for abuse and I don't recommend it. Even if you do decide to use it, I strongly recommend against using it in combination with the Safe Range system.

Pick and Choose

Roll 1d6 twelve times to produce twelve different rolls. The player can pick any two of these rolls for each attribute in any order desired.

This allows even greater min/maxing than the Full Arrangement system and can thus be even more game-breaking. However, it is also very flexible and can be useful for the referee when creating custom-tuned specific NPCs.

Limited Rearrangement + Best Six of Eight

Roll 2d6 eight times. The player then has two choices: he may discard the two lowest rolls and take the rolls in the order presented, or he may discard the two highest rolls and arrange the remaining rolls as desired.

Example: Parker Peterson rolls {4, 5, 8, 9, 7, 6, 6, 11}. This allows him two possibilities. The first is discarding the two lowest rolls of 4 and 5 and taking the remaining rolls in order: {8, 9, 7, 6, 6, 11}. The second is discarding the two highest rolls of 11 and 9 and being freely able to rearrange the other rolls as desired: {4, 5, 8, 7, 6, 6}. Parker would almost certainly do better to take the much-more-favourable higher set of rolls unless he had a specific character in mind.

Limited Rearrangement + Best Six of Seven

As above, but using the Best Six of Seven system. Roll only seven times. Discard the lowest die if you accept the rolls in the order given, or discard the highest die if you wish to rearrange the rolls. This produces less extreme results than the Limited Rearrangement + Best Six of Eight system.

Fudged 2d6

For every attribute, roll 2d6, add 1d6, and subtract 1d6. Re-roll (or optionally cap) all values less than 2 or exceeding 15. This is most easily accomplished by rolling two dice of different colours — e.g., red and white. Roll both dice simultaneously the first time and add up the numbers to get a number from 2 to 12. Roll both dice simultaneously a second time and subtract the red die from the white die to get a number from -5 to +5, adding this result to the first roll. Repeat this process for all six attributes, with no rerolls or rearrangement allowed.

Example: Dustin Foreprince rolls for his first attribute, rolling 2d6 and achieving an 8. He then rolls both dice again and achieves a 6 on the red die and a 1 on the white die. He adds this result—-5—to the first roll of 8 to give this attribute a paltry value of 3. He then rolls for the second attribute, achieving 7. The adjustment results in a 1 on the red die and a 1 on the white die, which does not affect the value.

This system produces higher highs and lower lows and is better for generating "eccentric" or "savant" NPCs who excel in certain fields but are somehow unfit for ordinary life in most other regards.

Best 2d6 in 3d6

For every attribute, roll 3d6 and discard the lowest die. Apply the rolls in order. This produces characters tending towards the upper range of attributes. This is generally not ideal for PCs, because it produces superhumans, but it is good for high-ranking officials, powerful sophont aliens (which are hopefully the enemy), and so on.

Worst 2d6 in 3d6

This is the functional opposite of best 2d6 in 3d6 and is good for producing misfit, geriatric, young, or other types of disadvantaged NPCs—or PCs if you or your players are feeling particularly cruel.