I was wondering what was the opinion of everyone out there about how they think would be a good stat system during character generation.
Examples as:
1) An auto roll system that the user sees
2) An auto roll system hidden from user
3) A Base set of stats everyone gets, then enhanced
3a) By answering certain questions
3b) By getting xx amount of points to add or remove from base count.

Just some ideas. I am trying to figure what kind I would like to implement into my mud design.

P.S. My mud type will be RP enforced system.

I find that randomly rolled characters are a bit silly on most MUDs given that there's nothing stopping someone from simply continually re-creating until they get the stats they want. If they don't continually re-create, they risk having hobbled themselves by comparison to other players who did spend the time to re-roll over and over for the best stats they can find.

Far better, I think, to give people a standard set of stats to begin with, or allocate them X points to spend as they wish on stats.

--matt

Lots of RP muds require char applications. If that's the case, and it doesn't show stats until after acceptance, you don't need to worry about peeps rerolling.

I prefer being able to allocate points as I see fit (that's also my favoured approach for tabletop roleplaying games). You might want to place certain restrictions (eg perhaps each player can only have one 'super stat', and maybe there are minimums for certain stats), but overall I think it's nice to allow that sort of customisation.

Randomisation can work okay if implemented in a balanced way - for example, if everyone has exactly the same stat total, but their individual stats are distributed randomly based on certain criteria, with each stat being of equal value.

The "roll 3d6 for each stat" approach tends to result in people rolling, and rolling, and rolling, until they get decent stats. I've seen muds which didn't reveal this information until a certain level, and that simply resulted in the hardcore players creating and discarding characters until they got what they wanted.

Even if you were able to stop people scrapping and rerolling characters, you'd still end up with situations where some players get "lucky" starting characters and others get really bad ones (even in an application-based system, such characters are likely to have "unfortunate accidents" so that the player can reroll).

Aside from min/maxing, some stat randomisation systems will also blocking people from playing the sort of character they want to play. If you roll a strength of 3, then you're going to have to revise your "exiled knight" idea. Intelligence 3 as well? There goes that "eccentric Alchemist" concept. Charisma 3? Goodbye "corrupt politician" concept. Even many hardcore roleplayers are going to be put off if they log on to your game and find that the only character type they qualify for is "village idiot" (it might be amusing for a short while, but the novelty would soon wear off).

I myself was leaning more to a set of base stats for everyone then depending on something they chose it enhanced them.
Example:
All base stats start at 20.
Question: Is your character disfigured?
yes: charisma add (2d4)
Question: Is your character muscular?
yes: add (1d4)
no: subtract (1d8)


I just need base ideas of choices that would change the base stats other than race.

Then at the end of the selection process you remind them of their answers to the questions and say they should base their description on their answers.

One possibility is random stat caps rolled at creation (not displayed to the player). I think The Inquisition uses a system like this.

However while I'm not fond of randomization dictating your character's abilities either, I think some randomization is good for variety; perhaps you could modify the above in a couple of ways:

1) roll stat caps randomly, then weigh each cap based on character's chosen race and class, and answers to questions such as: "were your parents gentry/laborers/slaves", "as a child did you play outside/read".

2) of course the total sum of stat caps is the same for each character.

3) characters can increase stats past the cap, but must spend xp to do so; prior to the cap stats can increase with use or xp spent through trains.

I just had another thought... AIME uses inclinations....

Inclinations are used during the initial login for new players. It permits builders to define and players to select certain inclinations for the race. For instance, in the elven race, most would not be exceedingly strong but amidst the elves you would find those that are stronger than most and those that are even more dexterous than others. Inclinations could include musclebound (stronger but stupider than most), scholar (more intelligent but weaker and clumsier), and on and on. Inclinations only define offsets, meaning how much the attributes increase or decrease. This means that a dwarf who selects musclebound inclination is going to be much stronger than the elf who picks the musclebound inclination. Builders should take care when developing inclinations so that one is not more advantageous overall than others or players will discover and continually select that inclination. Balance is the key. Inclinations are maintained in the inclinations area. Loading this area will allow a builder to modify, add, or delete inclinations. If you do not wish inclinations to be availble to the players, just delete all inclinations in the inclinations area and the players will not be asked to select an inclination.

Inclinations
StrOffset: The strength offset, whether positive or negative, to apply to the player for this inclination

DexOffset: The dexterity offset, whether positive or negative, to apply to the player for this inclination

ConOffset: The constitution offset, whether positive or negative, to apply to the player for this inclination

IntelOffset: The intelligence offset, whether positive or negative, to apply to the player for this inclination

Description: A description of this inclination. This can be viewed by the players when they are selecting an inclination. It should describe the advantages and drawbacks to this inclination

What we do in Ilyrias is to give each race a set of base stats, and then everyone gets X points(same for everyone) that they can allocate themselves. We also have a natural max of 18 on any stat, so people can't just put all points into one stat. Incase you messed up, you do get one stat re-allocation after creation in the same manner many games allow you to change race once.

During game play people can also get up to three adjustments, -1 here +1 there, but again still limited to the 5-18 range for all stats.


We went with this method because we have a heavy focus on character customization, but at the same time wanted to keep things fair and balanced.

Baram brings up a good point, it's a nice feature to be able to adjust your character's setup after creation (after creation and before some milestone). I don't know how many muds do this already but I don't think it's that many, I'd like to see more of it.

We got around the problem by having no stats. Everything is an ability and trainable. It's been well accepted.

Fern said
Can you explain in more detail?

There's no rolling involved in our system.  If you want to be stronger and carry more or wield heavier weapons, train carry strength.  If you want to hit harder, train hit strength.  If you want to hit faster, train hit strength etc etc etc (the term 'train' at LoK is equivalent to 'practice' elsewhere).

As far as the 'no opinion but you have an opinion because it is no opinion' - I suppose that is one way to look at it.  But the upside is that we don't have people spending hours in autorollers trying to roll a beautiful starting position.  I know how addictive that is - heck, I've done it myself on other games.

I also know that that time spent rolling is just time not playing the game for all its worth.

I disagree with that.

Our system is also classless, so while there may be a popular archtype, there really is no perfect stats for them as you may choose one or two different skills.

You also have to factor in what the stats do in order to choose a system that's good for you. In our case things like HP/MP are not determined by a single stat, instead it's two stats that play into it(with different weights). But each stat also has another effects, for example Con and Agility factor into HP. Con also can help with things like elemental damage and poison resistance, where Agility can help you be faster and dodge more blows. It's a trade off, do I want more Con so I get big HP and some decent resistance, or do I want to put more into Agility to get a smaller boost to HP but a higher rate of dodge. If balanced right, both are an equally good choice, it's up to you're play style. Obviously if you want to be a ranged combatant you probably don't need the dodging effect, but if Agility also factors into how fast you can shoot your bow... well then you're back to equally good choices.

But you are right, it's really up to you with your mud. What system do you think you're perspective players will enjoy? We choose ours based on the fact that we want things in Ilyrias to be as open to customization as possible, without becoming unbalancing. Whats the goal for your game?