3d6 Six Times in Order is the Solution to Most RPG Problems

The RPGPundit is back with another video in his series on “Things They Taught You Wrong on Purpose”, this time on the topic of equal spotlight time for all players no matter what. He is absolutely correct that this is antithetical to the rpg medium. One thing I will add here is that the returning to “3d6 six times in order” for attributes produces a far better outcome at the table than going along with the conventional wisdom on this.

Here’s why:

When D&D is played this way, most people tend go with the class that has a prime requisite that matches their highest attribute. When combined with a challenging, high death scenario, this results in each character niche being frequently redistributed almost at random. People that would normally play a bombastic high charisma fighter end up playing a scruffy, sneaking thief with hilariously low hit points. People that prefer to play the stout, law-abiding cleric can very easily find themselves in a situation where they have the privilege of making that choice between Magic Missile, Charm Person, and Sleep for the party’s one and only spell!

It works. Over time, every one gets a chance to try each of the major archetypes. But for any given scenario, you won’t know which character class is going to be the most significant or relevant. One thing that happens with this is that the quiet person that always hangs back and goes along with whatever the group wants can find themselves in a situation where they have to make judgement calls that can affect the course of the entire adventure. In a continuing campaign, this is pure gaming gold, believe me!

But what happens when you give in and switch to “4d6 drop the lowest and arrange to suit”? Everyone’s going to pick some sort of weird specialty class like the Ranger or the Illusionist or maybe something offbeat like the Half-Orc Cleric/Thief. They totally have their hearts set on what they choose. If they die, they can just come right back as pretty much the same thing, so it doesn’t matter.

But then what do you do when Fred is hard core into playing druids and the adventure that the party chooses to pursue is set almost entirely underground? Do you improvise a wilderness segment where none exists just to throw him a bone? I hope not! Because if Fred wants to play something weird, he ought just deal with this. He could have persuaded the group to do something different, but couldn’t pull it off. If Fred is out of step with the party consensus, this is not your problem.

And there you are, sitting at that table. Two or three hours go by and you see Fred there having to lump being stuck doing nothing else but trying to come up with something significant with his 50′ of rope and ten foot pole or improvising conversation with some random non-player character in the dungeon. Honestly, that’s probably going to be ten times more fun than forty minutes of hand-tailored spotlight time in a situation that is rigged for Fred to show off all of his special Druidic stuff.

But most people most of the time…? They’re not going to trust the dice. They’re not going to trust the party’s consensus about what the most fun thing the party could possibly do. They’re going to be tempted to give in to Fred and try to make the game be what they think he might want. Player autonomy evaporates. Choices stop having natural consequences. The whole game would becomes noticeably more static.

And hey, I get it. You’re a champ at refereeing and every call you have ever made on this sort of thing was golden. You have the players eating out of your hand and people are banging down the door to sit at your table. You’re that awesome, I know. But my point here is… if you run with “3d6 six times in order”, you don’t have to be a genius to make this stuff work. You can just kick back, enjoy the game, and see what happens rather than feeling guilty about not serving up the perfect scenario that is rigged just so that everyone’s special snowflake class gets to do their thing equally.

Instead, the players will know they are getting whatever party mix the dice give them. And whatever plusses and minuses their characters end up having, it’s on them to figure out a way to make it work. The sooner everybody gets to that sort of gaming epiphany, the sooner everyone can get down to the business of “real” gaming. “4d6 drop the lowest and arrange to suit” is just a needless distraction that will slow you down!