"Black Dougal gasps 'Poison!' and falls to the floor. He looks dead."

Thursday, February 28, 2013

B/X Cover to Cover - B5

A short post...

Thoughts while I read page B4 - How to Create a Player Character:

  • A nice clear and concise step-by-step guide to making a character.
  • I always used blank sheets instead of a Dungeons & Dragons Character Record Sheet. I do not think I ever saw that product for sale in a store back in the day.
  • "2. Roll 3d6 (for a result of 3-18) for each ability..." - it doesn't say anything about in order. I presume that someone could say prior to each roll which of the abilities that roll would be for.
  • "4. ... Magic-users and elves should choose one spell..." - the first hint of my strict reading of how magic-user and elf spell books work.
  • For years I modelled my character sheets after the one used for Borg the Fighter.
  • Not too sure why they felt the need to include an even more condensed 7 step version.

3 comments:

  1. I have tons of those Steno notebooks filled with Borg-like character sheets dating back to 1983.

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  2. I remember various sheets (orange and so on) and my brother made a custom one and had it copied at a local copy place, but a hand written notebook paper character seems to work better - put what you want where you want it and pay attention while writing. My second favorite is a simple notebook-like ready-made sheet without a lot of clutter.

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  3. "2. Roll 3d6 (for a result of 3-18) for each ability..." - it doesn't say anything about in order. I presume that someone could say prior to each roll which of the abilities that roll would be for.

    Or you do it Yahtzee style and declare after each roll but before the next one. For example, I want to roll a MU:

    I roll a 7 (and I want an MU) so I'll make that strength.

    Okay, now I roll a 14 so I'll make that CON.

    Next roll is a 12 so I'll make that WIS.

    Damn, 8, so that's DX.

    Okay, a 13...I want a higher IQ but I'll take it in case of another 8.

    Finally, now I get a 17 and all that's left is Charisma.

    Actually, I like that. There is a tension about taking a moderate value now versus holding out for something higher which could easily wind up with high dump stats :)

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