Character Creation

``I am, in point of fact, a particularly haughty and exclusive person, of pre-Adamite ancestral descent. You will understand this when I tell you that I can trace my ancestry back to a protoplasmal primordial atomic globule. Consequently, my family pride is something inconceivable. I can't help it. I was born sneering. ''

- Pooh-Bah, "The Mikado", Gilbert & Sullivan

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Character creation is one of the most important aspects of the game, and as such much thought should go into just how it is accomplished. The most apparent first step is the determination of ability scores, and as such that is were I shall begin.

Ability Scores: There are many different methods for ability score determination. These are a few that I like and use. All of them are random dice methods, I make use of the optional subability rules and as such do not use a point system to determine abilities. This can lead to extreme overbalancing and rampant min-maxing.

	The standard method I use is the classic 4d6, drop the lowest, 6 times. It gives above average stats, but nothing godlike.
	If you are of the philosophy that player characters should innately have more skill than the "average" person in the world then you can use the 3d4+6, 6 times method, though I do not recommend this method if you use the subabilities rules.
	If however you like your characters to rely more on ingenuity than raw talent the 3d6, 12 times method gives rather average stats (with a few exceptions) but minimizes the chance that a player rolls hopeless stats.

A Few Words on Concepts: Many DM's allow and/or require their player's to come up with their character's background. This is not something that I personally agree with. The DM should hold sole dominion over his campaign's history. Therefore in my campaign I have my players create a concept. They tell me about their character's personality and based on this and the choices that the player makes during character creation I fit their character into my campaign's history.

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	Last updated September 23, 1999
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