My Life As A Gamer: AD&D1e Character Generation, Part One (Generating Attributes)

(The following will refer to the Player's Handbook (PHB) and the Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1st edition.)

For a player, entering a campaign will involve playing a character. This character is generated, not built; this reflects the fact that a proper RPG campaign shares roots with Rogue (and thus with all Rogue-likes), and thus the character is not a purpose-built machine for a player to pilot as if it were a robot.

A generated character requires that the player takes what is issued to him and make the most of it, a process further constrained by any campaign-specific considerations. While the PHB and DMG provide a framework, the specifics of this procedural framework are distributed between the two manuals

The Dungeon Master (DM) has some leeway within this framework; this will be noted as we go through the procedure. In practice, a player entering a camapaign should ask the DM what the specifics are before going through the procedure. The first time, for a player that has never done this before, will be slow; it will speed up with repetition, and players will find that they will repeat this procedure several times over the course of a campaign.

The procedure goes through the following steps:

• Generate Attributes
• Choose Race
• Choose Class
• Determine Alignment
• Determine Hit Points
• Character Establishment

Attributes

The PHB does not dictate a default generation method. The player must ask the DM what method is allowed.

Gygax comments that a strict 3d6 in order--Strength (STR), Intelligence (INT), Wisdom (WIS), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), Charisma (CHA)--works, but most such characters are going to be challenged to survive actual play for long. He recommends the following options to consider (DMG p.11):

1. Roll 4d6. Drop the lowest die; add the sum of the remainder together and record the score. Do this six times. Assign the scores to the attributes as the player desires.
2. 3d6 are rolled 12 times. The six highest scores get retained and are assigned as the player desires.
3. Each attribute is determined in order. For each score, roll 3d6 six times; the highest score gets recorded.
4. Roll 3d6 in order to generate 12 characters. The player selects the character with the desired scores as the player character.

Note that the DMG does not dictate any of these methods. This is left to the discretion of the DM. Do not proceed without confirmation from him that what you do is valid.

Example: I join a campaign. The DM is available via Direct Message on Twitter, so I do so; he sends me a link to a Google Document, which I follow and read.

I find that the DM opts for Method 3, so I roll 3d6 six times for each attribute in order. I get the following scores: STR 14, INT 14, WIS 15, DEX 12, CON 16, CHA 15.

I note that already a few class options are eliminated. I cannot choose to play a Monk, Illusionist, or Paladin as I lack the required attribute scores to qualify. As I cannot play a Paladin, I am now open to playing a demihuman character as multi-class options are now appealing.

But first, I need to choose a race. This is not the slam-dunk step that many assume, so it gets its own post. Come back tomorrow.