Pointbuy

>pointbuy
Why not just play a video game if you're not going to risk anything?

I know this is meant to be some sort of bait, but I'm just more confused than anything. I can't even begin to see how this is meant to make any sort of sense.

A question I genuinely ask whenever I encounter people extolling its "virtues".

>classes
Why not just play a video game if you're limiting yourself to predefined shit everybody else milked to death?

>Having a GM or rule system
Why not just play a video game if you're not going to use the depths of your imagination?

>he doesn't roll in videogames

Except it's a lie? The game still has dice in it, so there is still risk. You just actually have control over what you're putting at risk, rather than a randomly generated twit you've got no emotional investment in.

Player driven point buy character generation lets you build the character you wish to play. From a pure roleplay standpoint, of wanting to play a character and explore their story in an imaginary world this is an advantage, as it aids emotional investment and immersion by letting the character you play fit your vision for them as close as possible.

Yes, there's a different playstyle of rolling the dice first and making the character based on your rolls, but that's by far the minority, the standard playstyle of modern RPG's is going into the game with a character concept in mind, and using the mechanics of the system to properly represent that concept.

Randomised character generation is a niche trait of a particular playstyle that is not generally supported, and RPG's as a whole have moved away from it for good reason.

>rolling for stats
Why not just write a novel if you want one character to be the protagonist?

I don't want to be the protagonist. I want to be the comic relief.

Because there's no point in risk that comes with your shitty roll system. It's a handicap that half of the players don't ask for, and the other half won't agree for since why the fuck won't they use the same advantage everyone else is using.
> Why not just play a video game
Because it's linear. You baiting piece of shit.

This.

Here's what the stat spread was for a 4d6 drop lowest party in my most recent game:
11 14 15 16 17 18
10 10 10 11 13 14
9 10 10 12 12 14
6 6 9 12 12 15
8 9 9 11 12 14
The DM looked at what everyone rolled and decided to go with point buy instead.

Because I want at least some control over my character mechanically. Once gameplay proper begins the random hand of chance takes over and no matter how well thought out a backstory is to explain WHY a character can swing a sword well, dice determine if that's actually true.

Rolled 13, 15, 17, 2, 10, 1 = 58 (6d20)

Rolling for stats, Elf Bladesinger wizard

STR-DEX-CON-INT-WIS-CHA

Too bad, you rolled well so you're the charismatic mageknight.

>rolling the dice first and making the character based on your rolls,
Am I (and the dozens of play groups I've had) the only people to ever discover:
- Roll Six Random Stats
- Place said six numbers in the stat you want them in.

Whenever Pro point buyer downcry random rolling they only seem to think there is one way to do it.

nice ugly retarded wizard

>1
boy you dumb as shit

Yeah, that is a pretty known way to do it. Still don't see the advantage.

Is this a troll? Is it suppose to be a toll?

What if I agree? What then!? What do I do then!?

>it's the stat for CHA
One of you is dumb as shit, at any rate.

Just go further and say that GM may allow to reroll anything lower than a certain number. It just gets you closer to pointbuy in the end.

Rolled 15, 13, 2, 1, 1, 11 = 43 (6d20)

Rolling, Warforged Fighter

STR-DEX-CON-INT-WIS-CHA

>wanting a party full of underpowered and overpowered characters.
Yea no thanks

good job digging that up, it illustrates perfectly why rolling for stats is a shit way to introduce randomness in your game. But of course this is from a DM perspective and is a little biased because of it. Absolutely fuck me leading a campaign like that.

DESU if a DM is allowing stat rolling, I'd totally go for it just because i'm fine being "Throwing in the towel Tom" or Gaston. Writing characters based on stats can be fun too. But i'd only be able to handle one shots or short campaigns

You guys are all faggots. You should point buy or roll depending on the game you want to play.

>DM gives a story and general view of the game, asks you to make characters with background stories to fit in the narrative and wants a relatively serious storytelling game
Point buy. Because you can build your character how you want and invest in your character. Because everyone has fair characters and can equally contribute. You don't have one guy who rolls ridiculous high stats and becomes Luke Skywalker while the rest of the party is Biggs and Wedge. You don't roll a fucking 4 and now the Fighter you are playing is literally retarded or your Wizard isn't in a wheelchair.

>DM just wants some fun, casual game. Maybe the game is some dungeon crawler or a meat grinder style. More about having a blast and making shit up then getting personally invested in your character.
Roll. Play your literally retarded Fighter for shits and giggles. Go be amazed at how the guy with 18-17-16-13-14-16 is destroying everything. He'll probably die to some GM shenanigans anyway.

>roll for stats
Why not just play roulette if you're not going to have any input in the outcome?

Are you saying that people should simply have fun?

>Do what's appropriate for the situation and your group find fun

We don't tolerate that sort of controversial opinion around here.

>Character was talented and bright, had just finished their training to become a Wizard
>Due to an unfortunate combination of events had half their head lopped off
>Now has to do dirty low-key adventuring work killing rats in dungeons and the like, not really welcome anywhere
>Will probably just multiclass fighter or barbarian for good

So, a warforged working on a "hello world" processing power with no sensors and constantly breaks down when a too strong of a wind blows it's direction

nice

In have seen a campaign that used stat rolling once. One player rolled four 18s and two 16s in a row, in front of everyone else who just boggled at it. They went Paladin into Dragon Disciple (for wings) and became literal Superman.

It was meant to be a horror campaign.

No-one else used rolling ever again.

2 con fighter, just right to go with the 2 int wizard!

Both get racial bonuses though, but 3 isn't much better

>Are you saying that people should simply have fun?
He's not really.

First point is implied that only serious games can be played that way.

Second point implies that one can't get invested into random rolls and should only do lol-games with it.

The real answer is Point buy if you find that fun. Random if you find that fun. The style of game is independent of that see as people have been successfully mix matching both for years.

Rolled 5, 11, 12, 1, 14, 16 = 59 (6d18)

Hey guys! I really want to play a charismatic Bard. He's a former professor of a college that decided to take up adventuring after getting tired of his teaching life. I'm hoping for him to have high Cha, mid-high Int, and mid-high Wis that is fitting to be his background. He can have low Str/Dex as he never really was a athlete. I hope those rolls won't fuck me in this department though.

...

At least you got your main stat right.

Intelligence-wise this one fits nicely alongside the fighter and the wizard.

retarded robot made of wet cardboard paper

That's how every IRL playgroup I've played with did it. If someone rolls really well they can pick a class that will use those good scores instead of a Fighter with 15 Wis, 14 Cha and 16 Int and avoid the reverse with a low stat Paladin or Monk.

> get on the stage
> "Roll to remember a song. Any song."

Alright motherfuckers stand the fuck back. I'm rolling a Gary Stu. His name is Kiritio and he is a literal god. Hexblade Warlock coming right in faggots. Omae wa mou, Shindeiru

Rolled 18, 6, 12, 18, 14, 4 = 72 (6d20)

Rolled 5, 4, 4, 3, 1, 2, 4, 3, 4, 2, 4, 1, 1, 3, 3, 2, 2, 6 = 54 (18d6)

Rolling down the line for a dwarf fighter.

Str: 13
Dex: 6
Con: 13
Int: 7
Wis: 9
Cha: 8

Rolled 6, 1, 4, 3, 6, 6, 1, 1, 4, 1, 5, 6, 5, 1, 2, 3, 6, 1 = 62 (18d6)

Watch this mother fuckers, main character coming through.

>It's a literal glass cannon

Oh shit, I'm not the only one that likes Nekrogoblin

This is why we don't pick our class before rolling our stats.

>not just rolling 3d6 6 times and applying those to the stats you want
What's the point of rolling if you're just going to make your character have all OP stats anyway?

>People that can can deal with random rolling
Presumably they can handle point buy as they get exactly what they want out of it.

>People that can't handle random rolling.
Well they can only do Point point, and will like have reasons why they only way they can play is 'better.'


Regardless of which one is better, clearly one type of player is more skilled at this game than others.

...what exactly do you "risk" in a tabletop game that you don't risk in a video game, anyway? The only thing you can lose in either is time.

Rolled 6, 4, 13, 12, 10, 18 = 63 (6d18)

The only way to do it right

So you're ignoring all the grogs who flip their shit at the idea of pointbuy and claim it's universally badwrongfun?

I'm, just here because comfier board of Veeky Forums

If there's one thing that Veeky Forums threads have shown, it's that there absolutely are people that can deal with random rolling but cannot handle point buy.

>Using rulebooks
Why not just play a video game if you're gonna limit yourself to rules?

literal peasant

More like "This is why we normally don't roll for stats".

I like rolling for stats for some games and not others. For D&D I don't because it's supposed to be power fantasy fun. But for WFRP I love it because the whole schtick of the game is how life isn't fair. Hell, even if you roll well, your character will probably still die.

Rolled 1, 18, 6, 6, 1, 12 = 44 (6d18)

choo choo Mary Sue coming through.

Rolled 17, 2, 17, 1, 14, 11 = 62 (6d18)

Have fun playing your cowardly Gilderoy Lockhart.

This frail old cripple is actually the best pickpocket in town.

Rolling for stats is perfectly reasonable, if that's the sort of game you want to play. But you can't go into it with a firm idea of what you want to play, especially not if you're rolling straight down. This is why certain classes used to have stat requirements back when rolling for stats was the standard form of character generation.

Rolled 19, 16, 1, 4, 9, 10 = 59 (6d20)

Floran bessst D&D character in hisstory!

Floran won't ssuferr from low consstituion if no one sees floran coming!
maybe floran should be on the sun more often...

>I wanna make my exact speshul snowflake mary-sue!
>I want to explore their story of never failing and being awesome from the get-go!

This dude is called Mus, because "Muscle" is to complex for him.

>19 Str
>1 Con

What would this character look like? Some guy with ripping arms but the body of a starving African child because he skipped out on doing anything but lifting dumbells?

Sage, report, hide.

>What would this character look like?
Like Rob Liefeld drew him. Muscles for days but a spine that clearly doesn't connect to anything.

Yeah, no. I want the freedom to make my character the way I want to. That includes the freedom to choose their flaws, weaknesses and restrictions, because I'm interested in participating in a compelling story and doing so requires those things, along with the chance of failure.

If you need random number generation to force your players to have weaknesses, you just have shitty fucking players.

He looks pretty buff, but suffers from something like haemophilia.

>phoneposter
Opinion discarded.

>snowflake mary-sue!
Except the fact that people who point-buy usually stat dump, which is why GMs hate it. How the fuck is my 8 Int and 10 Wis Fighter a Mary-Sue when enemy casters are going to fuck him over?

>I want to explore their story of never failing and being awesome from the get-go!

See above.

Using roll stats is the only one you will create your 18-16-16-14-12-12 Mary Sue.

>Using roll stats is the only one you will create your 18-16-16-14-12-12 Mary Sue.

While I do agree, none of the people who rolled in this thread have come close so far.

Rolled 17, 13, 17, 15 = 62 (4d24)

They didn't exactly do the actual 4d6, drop lowest.

We can actually try it right here. Let's assume a party of 5 people. 4 people reply to mine after this one.

And honestly. Even if we don't get a Mary Sue faggot, you know how players are. There's going to be that guy who rolled like a 6 and a 8 in stats and feel unhappy with his character. But let's try it. I want to play a Bard.