5 ms·

Note that it's not because the game was designed this way, but because the Dungeons and Dragons system was designed this way. It's not optimized for first-time

by dozzie 9y ago

Note that it's not because the game was designed this way, but because the Dungeons and Dragons system was designed this way. It's not optimized for first-time and impatient computer players, but for roleplayers.

rodgerd 9y ago
It's not really inherint to role players. Plenty of popular RPGs had radically different (and often non-chance based) character generation systems, ranging from the sublime (doling out combinations from a pool and trading strengths and weaknesses, like GURPS and Shadowrun) to the ridiculous (Traveller, where your character can die before the start of the game).
- Semaphor 9y ago
  To be fair, in some games, Hackmaster for example, your character dying during char creation can give benefits to your next character. But then that game also had you roll a D10,000 for critical hits ;)
ggggtez 9y ago
It's not really a fair defence, because D&D also had rules for point buy (limited points to add to stats). They just choose not to use it. Planescape, from the same era, used point buy instead of random rolls. (Which fixes the pointless rerolling until you get stats you want, but not the part about making important decisions before the game starts)
- dri_ft 9y ago
  Yeah, Planescape pretty much got it right, as far as I'm concerned.
  - jrs95 9y ago
    Planescape effectively changed the impact of all of those stats on the game as well though. Personally I preferred Baldurs Gate.
SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago
D&D didn't allow rerolls except for the "no stat above 13" and "total modifiers 0 or less" situations. If you complained to the DM (and/or bribed him) you might get another chance, but no one would sit there and wait for you to roll more than 2-3 times.
e12e 9y ago
The difference is that it can be fun to role-play a weak warrior, a stupid mage or a clumsy thief - or disagreeable bard. No computer game come close to that kind of storytelling / social / intelligent interaction though. The second best thing is stuff like Moria/Angband where each stat has a clear use and game effect - and of course in such games some form of re-roll/prioritization makes a lot of sense (the automagic re-roll based on min-stats targets (I need at least 17 dexterity) introduced in some version of Angband is probably the best if you want player-visible stats).

by dozzie 9y ago

rodgerd 9y ago

It's not really inherint to role players. Plenty of popular RPGs had radically different (and often non-chance based) character generation systems, ranging from the sublime (doling out combinations from a pool and trading strengths and weaknesses, like GURPS and Shadowrun) to the ridiculous (Traveller, where your character can die before the start of the game).

Semaphor 9y ago
To be fair, in some games, Hackmaster for example, your character dying during char creation can give benefits to your next character. But then that game also had you roll a D10,000 for critical hits ;)

ggggtez 9y ago

It's not really a fair defence, because D&D also had rules for point buy (limited points to add to stats). They just choose not to use it. Planescape, from the same era, used point buy instead of random rolls. (Which fixes the pointless rerolling until you get stats you want, but not the part about making important decisions before the game starts)

dri_ft 9y ago
Yeah, Planescape pretty much got it right, as far as I'm concerned.
- jrs95 9y ago
  Planescape effectively changed the impact of all of those stats on the game as well though. Personally I preferred Baldurs Gate.

SAI_Peregrinus 9y ago

D&D didn't allow rerolls except for the "no stat above 13" and "total modifiers 0 or less" situations. If you complained to the DM (and/or bribed him) you might get another chance, but no one would sit there and wait for you to roll more than 2-3 times.

e12e 9y ago

The difference is that it can be fun to role-play a weak warrior, a stupid mage or a clumsy thief - or disagreeable bard. No computer game come close to that kind of storytelling / social / intelligent interaction though. The second best thing is stuff like Moria/Angband where each stat has a clear use and game effect - and of course in such games some form of re-roll/prioritization makes a lot of sense (the automagic re-roll based on min-stats targets (I need at least 17 dexterity) introduced in some version of Angband is probably the best if you want player-visible stats).