Rolling D&D Stats in Aging Groups

This was originally part of another post that I'm working on. That post is already pretty long, though, and this material stands on its own. It was written with OD&D in mind, but it should work with most retroclones.

The idea here is to follow a character's growing process (through their stats) instead than rolling the stats all at once. Hopefully, the interplay of die rolls and player decisions will help form a narrative about the characters journey from birth to adulthood.

In this system, stats are rolled in three phases.

Phase 1: Birth

This phase is where the person has the least control. It represents what they're born with.

Roll 1d6 for each stat, in order:

• Strength
• Intelligence
• Wisdom
• Constitution
• Dexterity
• Charisma

Phase 2: Childhood

This is the stage of life where a character is starting to develop their own interests and personality. Yet, as a child, there are still decisions being made that are beyond his control.

Roll 1d6, and pick the stat you want to assign that roll to. Once a roll is assigned to a stat, it's locked in place, and can not be changed.

Repeat the same process five more times, until all 6 stats have been assigned

Phase 3: Adolescence

The character is rapidly approaching adulthood. He is the master of his destiny, if the dice are willing.

Roll 6d6, all at once. Assign each die to the stat of your choice.

Example

James is sitting down to make a new character. He's hoping to play a fighter named Jackal. Let's see if the dice agree!

Jackal's Birth

James picks up the d6 and records the results:

STR: 5
INT: 3
WIS: 6
CON: 4
DEX: 2
CHR: 2

Jackal is strong and wise for his age, but clumsy and has a bad disposition.

Jackal's Childhood

James will be rolling 6 times, making 6 decisions.

His first roll is a 2. He doesn't want to drive down his already low Dexterity or Charisma, so it won't go in either of those. He's hoping for a high Strength, so he rules that one out as well. He doesn't need a high Wisdom, so he's going to put the 2 there.

His next roll is a 1. Ugh. Following the same logic as above, he chooses Intelligence and hopes that the rest of the rolls will be higher.

Third roll is a 6--he was hoping a six would come up. Without thinking twice he puts it into Strength.

Fourth roll is also a 6! James pats his lucky dice. Constitution, Dexterity, and Charisma are left. While a high Constitution would be nice, he's worried about having a low Dexterity, so he puts it there.

Fifth roll--a 4. Pretty middle of the road. He could use it to bring his charisma up to normal levels, but he decides to play it safe and put it into Constitution. "Charisma is a dump stat, anyway," he says.

The last roll is a 1. No decision to make here, it has to go into Charisma. He's not happy about the 3, but he's relived that it didn't end up in Constitution.

Here's how things are looking:

STR: 5 + 6 = 11
INT: 3 + 1 =  4
WIS: 6 + 2 =  8
CON: 4 + 4 =  8
DEX: 2 + 6 =  8
CHR: 2 + 1 =  3

At this stage, a 2-4 are low, 5-9 are average, and 10-12 are high. Jackal is strong, a bit on the stupid side, and not very likable at all. James decides that Jackal was born with a unsightly facial defect (hence the low Charisma at birth). During childhood the other children of the village would bully him, making him anti-social. The bullying led to frequent fights, where is superior strength made him feared by the others.

Jackal's Adolescence

James feels like he's getting a good grip on the character. He rolls the last 6 dice: 5, 5, 2, 1, 1, 4.

He's going to use the 5's on Jackal's Strength and Dexterity. The 4 will bring Intelligence close to average. The low rolls get put into Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma.

Str: 11 + 5 = 16
INT:  4 + 4 =  8
WIS:  8 + 1 =  9
CON:  8 + 2 = 10
DEX:  8 + 5 = 13
CHR:  3 + 1 =  4

James is pretty happy with the character. He would have preferred a better Charisma, for sure, but he knows that the low score can be a catalyst to tell interesting stories about his character.

Optional Weirdness

Instead of using d6's, use a d4 in Phase I and a d8 in Phase 3. This still gives a range of 3-18, with an average of 10.5.