Attribute Arrays for HU

[Mediapig71]

Has anyone ever used an "Array" system to generate attributes for HU, or any other Palladium game? If so, what score range did you use?

[Slight001]

I'll admit I have no idea what you are even talking about,

[drewkitty ~..~]

Has anyone ever used an "Array" system to generate attributes for HU, or any other Palladium game? If so, what score range did you use?

Do you mean like the optional stat rolls in RT2? where they favor one stat over the others.

[Mediapig71]

Sorry guys, I meant like D&D 4e, where instead instead of rolling for stats, each character chooses form a set "array" or pre-rolled stats, and arranges them how they see fit.

The idea being no one character can dominate the game due to lucky rolls, as each characters have the same basic stats, just arranged differently.

[flatline]

We did something like that when we were playing competitive games (mutant olympics, that sort of thing), but never for any other kinds of games.

--flatline

[Mediapig71]

We did something like that when we were playing competitive games (mutant olympics, that sort of thing), but never for any other kinds of games.

--flatline

Do you recall what range of stats you used?

[Glistam]

I have had good luck using the "quick character generation" method of stat rolling as presented in Robotech. You select which of the 8 attributes you want to be the character's main "focus" or ability, and that is the highest number while the other attributes fan out logically. You generally end up with an exceptional attribute between 18-25, with one or two others in the 14-18 range and the rest in the 9-12 and 10-14 range.

[flatline]

We did something like that when we were playing competitive games (mutant olympics, that sort of thing), but never for any other kinds of games.

--flatline

Do you recall what range of stats you used?

I do not. Sorry.

--flatline

[Mediapig71]

I have had good luck using the "quick character generation" method of stat rolling as presented in Robotech. You select which of the 8 attributes you want to be the character's main "focus" or ability, and that is the highest number while the other attributes fan out logically. You generally end up with an exceptional attribute between 18-25, with one or two others in the 14-18 range and the rest in the 9-12 and 10-14 range.

This sounds good... do you roll these attributes, or are they pre-assigned?

[Glistam]

They're rolled. By the book each category (Brainy, Stong-Willed, Charismatic, Physically Strong, Fast Reflexes, Great Endurance, Beautifl/Pretty Boy, and Fast as Lightning) rolls all these slightly differently with slightly different spreads, minimums and maximums. If you don't have access to that, then rolling these and assigning them smartly would give you something similar:
19+1D6, 14+1D4, 13+1D6, 10+1D6, 10+1D4, 8+1D6, 8+1D4, 8+1D4.

Or you could do a point buy, maybe something like so:

125 points for Humans to buy stats up from 0.

To purchase a stat in the range of 1 and 15: 1 point per point in the stat.
To purchase a stat in the range of 16 and 18: 2 points per each point in the stat above 15.
To purchase a stat in the range of 19 and 24: 3 points per each point in the stat above 18.
To purchase a stat in the range of 25 and 30: 4 points per each point in the stat above 24.

You decide what the "minimum" should be. If it's 8 (like in D&D), then just say all stats start at 8 and reduce the starting points by 64 (8 points × 8 stats × 1 for the point cost), down to 61. Minimums of 3 should reduce the starting points to 101 (3 points × 8 stats × 1 for the point cost). Etcetera.

I don't know, see how that looks to you. Having an "array" would be difficult to balance without a lot of work because of skills, powers, and power categories which all give stat bonuses.

[Mediapig71]

OK, so by the average, that would give players an array of:

24, 17, 17, 14, 13, 12, 11, 11

and I could further adjust those up and down to give a couple different options.

Thanks!

[Glistam]

I made a spreadsheet with that point-buy system I put up in my previous post. The more I play with it, the more I like it: Palladium Human Stats Point Buy

[Damian Magecraft]

I made a spreadsheet with that point-buy system I put up in my previous post. The more I play with it, the more I like it: Palladium Human Stats Point Buy

Works well for settings that use the standard 3d6 for each stat.
Have you worked on a variant for races that have different stat dice? (IE: Elves, Dwarves, etc...)

[Glistam]

I made a spreadsheet with that point-buy system I put up in my previous post. The more I play with it, the more I like it: Palladium Human Stats Point Buy

Works well for settings that use the standard 3d6 for each stat.
Have you worked on a variant for races that have different stat dice? (IE: Elves, Dwarves, etc...)

I've been thinking about it... The first thing to decide is how the "exceptional attribute" rolls should be considered - if at all. The other major consideration is that each race would basically have their own system that has to be used. There are some shortcuts and thumbrules that could be considered which would help mitigate that but I'm still basically brainstorming.

EDIT: Oh, I see Palladium Fantasy answers whether or not exceptional attributes are considered. So that's one hurtle handled.

[Iczer]

I like the array idea in concept, but I found it was fairly unfair the whole way round, and prone to massive mismanagement and rules abuses. Plus the actual arrays were highly unprobable.

Batts