S..I was playing Texas Hold 'em on my DS and I got an inpiration for a charcter generation concept for D20 using playing cards(although it could certainly be modified to work for any sort of Stat based gaming). Tell me what you think

Players must pick their character class first before generating stats.
Players stats all start @ Base 8

J=4
Q=6
K=8
A=10

Deal each player 1 card and then place 2 cards face up as common cards. The players have to place one stat (equal to their Base 8 + card value), either from the pool or their hand,  before they are dealt another card. Each player can only use a card once(and each player can use the common cards once). They are dealt only four cards. Players should try not to reveal which card they've placed to one another until character generation has ended.

I think this would be very thematic for Western themed games, Spy games (a la James Bond), or perhaps for certain luck based character types.

I also think it would be a fun gamey way to generate characters anyway...being especially better at the beginning of play, having everyone gathered around and fucking up the odds for each other.


So...whaddya think?

This is the card based chargen I've been pimping on various forums, along with the "why" of how I came up with this method with observations of the results:

The Why
I do not like the dump-statting and repetitive build habits that point gen permits. Thus, I strongly prefer rolling to point buy of any sort.

If I do roll, I like the matrix method or a method where you allocate dice to different stats (by player choice or by table according to race/class) and THEN roll and keep what you get.

But I find that rolling can lead to too high a variance. I find that rolling methods need a little conditioning to keep the spread of player power small.

Thus, I came up with this system. I had toyed with some systems like this for a while, but getting my games ready for GenCon, it all crystallized. I was prepping a Spycraft game (which had a point gen system) and a D20 Mars game (which uses a highly variant diced stat variant.) Both of these had basic system that would produce a baseline average of 13.5 if the character stats.

I came up with a little system that tried to live up to the dual goals of variety and PC equivalence by using cards. Thus I present to you...

Caesar Slaad's D20 System Game Card Generation Method

1) Get a deck of standard playing cards. Take the 4-9 cards of two suits out of the deck. This should give you 12 cards, 2 of each numbered 4-9.

2) Shuffle the deck. Deal them out in pairs. Flip them over. This gives you 6 numbers that can range from 8 to 18.

(If you are happy with this, just allocate these scores to the 6 stats at the player's discretion. I, however, was shooting for a slightly higher average to match the assumptions of Spycraft 2.0 and D20 Mars, and I wanted to avoid 8's, so I added this step.)

3) Sort the pairs from highest to lowest. Add 1 to the 2nd, 4th, and 6th highest numbers. Allocate statistics to ability scores to taste.

Note:
In Spycraft, to compensate for the fact that some players have more odd scores than others, I allow players to subtract 1 from two odd scores in exchange for 1 bonus feat, similar to the Modular campaign quality.

In D20 Mars, you get more frequent attribute boosts than in standard D20 games, so odd scores are less of a "sunk cost."

Example

The cards are shuffled and dealt, resulting in these pairs...

6, 5 ( = 11)
9, 4 ( = 13)
7, 7 ( = 14)
5, 9 ( = 14)
6, 4 ( = 10)
8, 8 ( = 16)

The scores are ordered, and 1 is added to the 2nd, 4th, and 6th highest
16
14 + 1 = 15
14
13 + 1 = 14
11
10 + 1 = 11

Resulting in
16
15
14
14
11
11

Comments on method

Having been using this for a bit, I have observed a few properties that differ here from random dice rolling.

Obviously, by intent, the spread between PC power is much less than random, but unlike point-buy, you don't see pattern builds and a flurry of ugly fighters and you don't see the big point cost hit for higher stats.

While dealing the cards to make scores, it's psychologically a different experience than rolling. If you roll a crappy score using a dice method, there's the definite feeling that you have been set back, because you can't expect the rest of your scores to make up for it. When using the card method, you deal out some low cards, you know a good score is coming, because those cards are out of the deck.

The main randomization between characters is that some characters will have higher peak stats than others. But that's okay by me. I find forcing a spate of hyper-optimized characters is detrimental to character variety. By giving the player a higher score, you force them to consider credible sidelines. It sort of adds some variety to character design.

That's actually pretty ingenious! Although what's the point of adding +1 to three of the numbers?


This is giving me an idea for a game where all the different character types are made through different card-based variations!
Like yours could be used for Magic users (you'd lay it out like a Tarot spread).

Quote from: KrakaJakThat's actually pretty ingenious! Although what's the point of adding +1 to three of the numbers?

As is actually noted above after step 2 , Mars D20 and Spycraft assume a 13.5 average; I wanted to match that average. You could skip it is 13 average is good enough for you.