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How do you create your characters?

I noticed that when rolling stats 95% of the permutations on 3D6 will be below the exceptional line. You can very easily end up with a very unimpressive character.

I would think a better way would be to use the quick roll rules. This guarantees one exceptional stat and a fairly good chance of rolling up 1-2 more exceptional stats.

Example: your roll is 40-51% Physically strong character. You have a PS of 19+1D6 and PE of 15+1D6 ( in this case 2 exceptionals right off the bat) and quite a few other stats that require high rolls on one dice: SPD 11+1D6 ( so a 30% chance to be exceptional), PB 12+1D6 (50%), PP 12+1D4 (25%), PB 12+1D6 (50%), and MA 10+1D6 (17%). Only IQ and ME cannot be exceptional.

You go from and average 0-1 exceptional stats rolling straight dice ( if the dice are fair and truly random) to having very good odds of getting 5-6 exceptional attributes.

The only downside is not getting the extra 1-2 1D6 rolls for each exceptional stats. But that is playing to poor odds 5% for the exceptional stat. 17% to roll a 6 on a D6.

I just tried to whip up 10 pregens last night. My girlfriend and I rolled stats for all 10 and...wow, they sucked. Really bad. I couldn't even meet the Prerequisites on a few of the OCCs I was planning to use.

(Keep in mind, the book says roll 3d6 in order, so there's no shuffling around.)

Then, I looked to the Quick Roll rules, and decided that I'd just roll a few times on there for the characters whose OCC Prereqs I couldn't quite hit. Once I did that for maybe 2 or 3 out of the 10 characters, I realized I was getting considerably better characters. Not min-maxed or uber-powerful, simply competent at their chosen field, with midling stats otherwise. I don't know if it was luck or the nature of the Quick-roll stats, but I didn't get anything below a 10, I don't think, whereas on my standard-roll characters I got many 5s and 7s, and even a single 3.

So, ultimately I settled on using the Quick Roll rules for most of the characters, and maybe one or two of the sets of standard rolling that I did, because they came out interesting (while one featured a 25 in one stat, it also had a 5 and a 7). That left me with characters who were all at the very least competent in their profession if not excellent at it, and one or two characters with a few clear flaws. Considering anything below a 16 doesn't actually have much mechanical impact (outside of P.E.'s influence on Hit Points), I feel like this methodology made for interesting characters that won't necessarily die right away, and will have a few chances to show off the couple of high stats among them. Which is great for me.

This is why I tend to view the creation rules as more guidelines. Because the zombies are so stupidly overpowered, I don't care if the PCs are also a little min maxed.

There is nothing wrong with 'normal' stats. It makes a lone zombie THAT MUCH MORE SERIOUS instead of 'its just one'.

No matter how bad your 3d6 are you can usually get the 'running' and 'athletics' skills to up your speed and get away, which is probably the most important thing.

I find that these House rules helps break alot of problems when it comes to stats.

http://dagwood.sandwich.net/house_rules.html

4d6, reroll 1s, drop the lowest die, 9 times drop the lowest. Mix and match as wanted.
IF a roll is over 15 roll a bonus die. (do not reroll 1s)
If the bonus die is a 6 roll another bonus die.
If that bonus die is a 6 roll another bonus die. (do not reroll 1s, max of 3 bonus die)
Even with this only 660 out of 3082 were greater than 15 for 21%. Multiple runs always produce close to 20%+ or minus 1%
If your character is female you may choose to move a point from any of the other stats to IQ, PP or PE each may receive only one point and the points taken may not come from the same attribute.

Zer0 Kay wrote:4d6, reroll 1s, drop the lowest die, 9 times drop the lowest. Mix and match as wanted.
IF a roll is over 15 roll a bonus die. (do not reroll 1s)
If the bonus die is a 6 roll another bonus die.
If that bonus die is a 6 roll another bonus die. (do not reroll 1s, max of 3 bonus die)
Even with this only 660 out of 3082 were greater than 15 for 21%. Multiple runs always produce close to 20%+ or minus 1%
If your character is female you may choose to move a point from any of the other stats to IQ, PP or PE each may receive only one point and the points taken may not come from the same attribute.

Thats exactly how i do it too

Snake Eyes wrote:

Zer0 Kay wrote:4d6, reroll 1s, drop the lowest die, 9 times drop the lowest. Mix and match as wanted.
IF a roll is over 15 roll a bonus die. (do not reroll 1s)
If the bonus die is a 6 roll another bonus die.
If that bonus die is a 6 roll another bonus die. (do not reroll 1s, max of 3 bonus die)
Even with this only 660 out of 3082 were greater than 15 for 21%. Multiple runs always produce close to 20%+ or minus 1%
If your character is female you may choose to move a point from any of the other stats to IQ, PP or PE each may receive only one point and the points taken may not come from the same attribute.

Thats exactly how i do it too

So in games with other non-created (i.e. NOT zombies, mummies, vampires, etc...) being can they be exceptional too, or just humans?
I say humans only is bubkis
All stats are listed
like 1d6 and may have multipliers or bonuses 1d6x5+1 so NdSxM+B where
N is the number of dice rolled
S is the number of sides on each dice
M is a multiplier and is never zero, normally mathematically equal to 1
B is the bonus

So for me all creatures get treated the same about 1s and swapping if they are the fairer member of the species. In our case women in an evolved bird males.
The stats cant be swapped unless the N and S are the same and the multiple and bonus don't move.
A bonus die of whatever S is may be rolled if the roll, before applying the multiple or bonus is greater than NxS-N (e.g. humans are 3 for N and 6 for S so 3x6-3=15 so must roll 16 or higher OR above a 15)
And if the bonus die equals S an additional bonus die may be rolled. (e.g. humans use a d6 so the first bonus die must be a 6 to get an additional bonus die)
A number of bonus die may be rolled upto a max of N. (e.g. humans are listed as using 3d, obviously not including the extra that gets cast out, so may have a total of 3 bonus dice. The first achieved by rolling a 16 or higher and if that one is a 6 2nd one is rolled and if that is a 6 a 3rd but even if the 3rd is a 6 no more may be rolled)
Of course this results in exceptional characters of any species being able to be twice as strong as an average character.
Some have said this would be broken but I ran it in Excel with 10d6 the highest I got was 1 in 6000 that had 8 bonus dice
which had to be the same 1 that had the only 7th bonus die and 6th
2 in 6000 had a 5th bonus die
6 had 4
37 had 3
200 had 2 (that's 3.33%)
and
1,276 or 21% had the first bonus die
it isn't broke
and if you see all your players getting 10 bonus die... they're all cheating. Heck same goes for 3-9 for that matter. figure with 10 players ONE should only have a 3rd of a chance of getting a second bonus die and only two should get one.
MIND that all that is for a single stat so the chances are 8 times better.

Use Cyborgs, only attributes you actually have to roll are IQ, ME and MA. Everything else can be purchased

When I make my pregens i don't roll. I use a specific set of number. I use 18, 14, 12, 10, 10, 10, 10, 8. That's it!