If you lived in OD&D world?

[codeman123]

If you lived in od&d world what would you be here is me as an example.

Cody
Race/Class:Elf

Str:13
Dex:12
Con:13
Int:15
Wis:9
Cha:11

[Finarvyn]

An awesome topic. I used to sit down and try to stat out our gaming group, but seems like nobody but me was really interested. (Except the one time I got the whole group to give input, in which case it became a lot like the Baron Munchusen RPG where everyone kept trying to explain why their stats should be higher. "But I ride my bike a lot, so doesn't that make my CON and DEX higher?" or "I did martial arts back in high school for two weeks, so shouldn't I get at least one level in Monk?"

My "persona" changes throughout the years. In the 1970's I was "into" dwarves. In the 80's I was more of a paladin guy. Haven't played much in the 90's and 00's since I'm the DM most of the time, but now I lean towards elves. I'll have to pick something typical, however, so here goes....

Finarvyn (Human Paladin)
Strength = 12
Intelligence = 16
Wisdom = 12
Constitution = 13
Dexterity = 8
Charisma = 12

Hmmm. Maybe I should be a Magic-user......

[codeman123]

Yeah Fin you would make a better Mu but thats so od&d right..

[tombowings]

Fun topic.

Ian
Fighting Man
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 11
Intelligence: 14
Wisdom: 6
Charisma 14

[thegreyelf]

If I lived in OD&D world I would likely be a zero-level human and dead.

But if this is what you would LIKE to be....

Elf Thief
STR 10
INT 14
WIS 12
CON 13
DEX 16
CHA 12

[Haldo Bramwise]

Cleric

STR 9
INT 13
WIS 16
CON 9
DEX 15
CHA 11

[greyharp]

Fighting Man

STR 12
INT 16
WIS 11
CON 9
DEX 10
CHA 8

[aldarron]

Hmmm. I dunno, most likely an NPC, Sage prolly.

But if I had to pick a character,

Fighter (ranger type)

STR 14
INT 15
WIS 17
CON 17
DEX 10
CHA 10

[crusssdaddy]

Anyone play BTRC's game Timelords back in the day (late '80s - early '90s)? Your character was actually you, and it had all kinds of formulas for you to determine your in-game stats and skills. Never got around to playing it, but I must have statted myself up a dozen times...

Thief
STR 11
INT 14
WIS 7
DEX 15
CON 13
CHA 9
Starting Money: 5cp

[thegreyelf]

I had some friends who used Time Lord to stat themselves for a long-running Call of Cthulhu game.

[Deleted]

Indeed, a fun topic. So, here we go:

Lancinianus of the Southlands - Adept & Cleric of the Lawbringer

Alignment: Law
Armor Class: 6 (Leather & Shield)
Hit Points: 10
Languages: Common, Law
Level: 2
Movement: 12"
PR Bonus: +5%
Maximum # Hirelings: 3/Loyalty Base: -
Spells: Cure Light Wounds
Turn vs. Skeleton: T; Turn vs. Zombie: 7; Turn vs. Ghoul: 9; Turn vs. Wight: 11
XP: 1530

STRENGTH: 14
INTELLIGENCE: 10
WISDOM: 13
CONSTITUTION: 9
DEXTERITY: 9
CHARISMA: 7

DR/P: 11
W/P/P: 12
S: 14
DB: 16
S&S: 15

Encumbrance: 580cn
Equipment: 50' Rope, Club, Flask(s) of Oil (3), Helmet, Holy Canon (Clerical Spellbook), Iron Rations, Lantern, Leather Armor, Leather Backpack, Shield, Waterskin, Wooden Cross

[tavis]

On OD&D planet, my stats will naturally enough be the result of 3d6 in order:
Strength 8
Intelligence 10
Wisdom 12
Dexterity 11
Constitution 11
Charisma 7

Not so different from real life!

[codeman123]

It is kind of comical how much most of us would actually resemble an old school character in our perspectives.

[gloriousbattle]

Somebody always has to be the wiseguy on a topic like this, so I guess it will be me, but this is my honest answer.

I would NOT be an adventurer. The majority end up as some form of undead, or filling the orc's cauldron.

No, I'd rather be the duke back in his castle or, on a less lofty plane, the guy who owns the dry goods outlet back in town, who sells dungeoneering supplies to the adventurers.

Well, you asked.

[bluskreem]

I'd probably be a specialist NPC, maybe an Engineer, or Sage. If I had to be a PC, I'd guess a Hobit fighter (because I'm a homebody.) A Dwarf Fighter (Due to me interest in geology.), or M-U (Because I'm curious.)

Str: 10
Dex:9
Con: 11
Int: 12
Wis: 8
Cha: 12

[doc]

I actually got a chuckle out of how many people give themselves so many high abilities (14+). In truth, I think that 98% of us would have stats exclusively between 8-13. If any of us had a stat over 15 we would be exceptional examples of humanity achieving something truly monumental in life.

For my own stats, I would say

Doc (Illusionist)

ST: 10
IN: 13
WS: 11
DX: 12
CN: 14
CH: 11

And, I might add, I am being generous with myself due to my own sensitive ego.

If I were to pick a race for myself besides human, I think I would be a gnome.


Doc

[Arminath]

Hmm...

Me (Human Magic-user)

Str: 10
Int: 13
Wis: 9
Dex: 12
Con: 10
Cha: 10

Yeah, I'm pretty average. Smart as whip, but not very wise...sometimes I just don't get it...

[geoffrey]

I'd be a 0-level human who NEVER left town. My abilities would each be in the 9 to 12 range. I'd hope to be lucky enough to be a scribe, rather than a farmer, ditch-digger, or some other hapless person who had to do back-breaking work.

That's me being realistic. If I could be anything in D&D Land, I'd be a high-level illusionist with a plentiful supply of longevity potions.

[Random]

Okay, I'll participate (with horrible grammar for your enjoyment):

Random, Normal Man
Str: 11 (not weak for sure, but still fairly average)
Int: 15 at least (mathematics grad student, and smarter than virtually everyone I encounter)
Wis: 7 (ideas are outrageous and seldom realistic, and everyday life befuddles me)
Con: 10 (healthy and tough, but could stand to shed twenty pounds)
Dex: 13 (play drums, but am not awesome)
Cha: 12 (funny and people generally like me, but am blunt and sometimes offend)

[jjarvis]

Averaging the scores of the test at www.kevinhaw.com/add_quiz.php and www.angelfire.com/dragon/terragf/

I get these stats:
STR- 14
INT- 15
WIS-13
DEX-13
CON-11
CHA-12


I'd be a farmer like 90%+ of the other people in society.

[vladtolenkov]

Here are my stats:

Lvl 1 Magic User/English Professor

STR:12
INT:15
WIS:13
DEX:7
CON:9
CHR:12

AC: 10
HP: 4

Spells:

Magic Mechanical Pencil
Cloud of Chalk Dust

Equipment:

Notebook
Battered Copy of The Gods of Mars
AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide by Gary Gygax
Backpack filled with ungraded essays.
Waterskin filled with Sprite or Orange Crush

[murquhart72]

The Matt Jon
Class: Normal Man (some training in sword, spear and magic)

Strength: 12
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 16
Constitution: 14
Dexterity: 9
Charisma: 7

Gold: Whatever I can scrape together
Alignment: Law (good)

[isomage]

Mar 27, 2010 22:54:53 GMT -6 doc said:

In truth, I think that 98% of us would have stats exclusively between 8-13. If any of us had a stat over 15 we would be exceptional examples of humanity achieving something truly monumental in life.

If one assumes that humanity in general is modeled by rolling 3d6 for each stat, then about 68% of all stats would be in the 8-13 range, about 10% of people would have all six of their stats exclusively in that range, and about 25% of people would have at least one stat greater than 15.

Of course one might not make that assumption, and indeed some folks don't -- a different notion of how stats are distributed in the general population would obviously lead to different results.

[makofan]

Hmm - I'm not particularly strong, but I can pull my own weight. For Int, I just divided IQ by 10 (probably too high, really). Wis is not my strong point or I'd have finished my degrees and be running a physics chair somewhere. Good Dex as I ran track and played shortstop. Low Con as I get sick more than others, but not pathetic as I now run 6 km per day. Need that +1 CHA bonus as I always seem to end up leading the groups I am in.

Mage is too studious for my nature, but my temperament and skill set suits being a scout, and of course I'm an elf!

Str: 10
Int: 16
Wis: 6
Dex: 13
Con:7
Cha: 13
Elf Thief

[jacar]

From kveinhaw.com
str 7
int 13
wis 14
dex 12
con 10
cha 13

From the angelfire site character test
Dwarf Cleric which oddly matches up with the first stats!

[jblittlefield]

"Normal Man" ... let's be real, 99.9% of us are.

[premmy]

Mar 27, 2010 22:54:53 GMT -6 doc said:

I actually got a chuckle out of how many people give themselves so many high abilities (14+). In truth, I think that 98% of us would have stats exclusively between 8-13. If any of us had a stat over 15 we would be exceptional examples of humanity achieving something truly monumental in life.

Quoted for truth.


People, please:

- Only give yourself an INT of 15+ if you have at least one patent in the patent office, at least one highly cited article in your discipline of choice, or at least one semi-important scientific discovery to your name. Having a PhD only "guarantees" INT 14 at best.

- Only give yourself a physical score of 15+ if you are a professional athlete. Not necessarily Olympic-level, but at least national league. "Being on the sports team" or "hardly ever beings sick" is around 13-14, no higher.

- If you have to admit you're "sickly", "rather clumsy" or "frequently prone to social faux pas", don't give yourself a 7 or a 8. That's "slightly weaker than average". A definitive weakness is a 5-6.


So, based on these guidelines and by the power vested in me as an opinionated jackass, I hereby annul and disqualify most of the entires so far on grounds of fraudulency.

[Thorulfr]

Apr 21, 2010 7:10:10 GMT -6 premmy said:

People, please:

- Only give yourself an INT of 15+ if you have at least one patent in the patent office, at least one highly cited article in your discipline of choice, or at least one semi-important scientific discovery to your name. Having a PhD only "guarantees" INT 14 at best.

I have to disagree. In the AD&D PHB, it describes the INT score as being roughly IQ/10.
If we assume that the population resembles a 3d6 distribution (granted, a shaky assumption), 9.25% of the population will have a score of 15 or greater. The percentage of people in the US (according to the Census Bureau) who have Masters degrees is about that level. The percentage of people with PhDs is less than 1%. The percentage of people with an IQ of 150 or greater is less than 1%.
I think that the levels of achievement you describe are more appropriate for 17+ (1.8% of the population.)

[isomage]

Apr 21, 2010 11:34:34 GMT -6 Thorulfr said:

If we assume that the population resembles a 3d6 distribution (granted, a shaky assumption), 9.25% of the population will have a score of 15 or greater.

That's the probability of rolling 15 or greater on 3d6. The probability of doing so at least once in six rolls, however, is about 44%.

17+ (1.8% of the population.)

As above, that's the probability of rolling 17 or greater, but the probability of doing so at least once in six rolls is about 11%.

Edit: Sorry, I misinterpreted -- if you're just talking about Int (or any single particular score) as it seems clear you were, then you're totally right.

[Thorulfr]

Apr 21, 2010 14:04:15 GMT -6 isomage said:

Edit: Sorry, I misinterpreted -- if you're just talking about Int (or any single particular score) as it seems clear you were, then you're totally right.

Yes, I was referring to his comments about INT, but they could be extended to STR as well. I don't think that 9.25% of the population is on a national league-level professional sports team.

That said, I wholly agree that there is going to be a tendency toward overly-optimistic scores. On the other hand, D&D players as a general rule, especially those of us who got in during the early days, had a noted tendency toward above-average intelligence, sedentary lifestyles, and lower-than-average social aptitude. I would expect to see a lot of magic-users and thieves, and very few paladins and bards (though I would be willing to bet there are slightly more than average number of people who play musical instruments to some degree or other.)

I wouldn't know where to begin with rating myself - while all through school I was never notably "strong", a couple of years ago I had a rather strange experience: I was helping some friends move, and aside from me, the only other help they had were a couple of missionaries from the Mormon church to which the wife belonged: your basic, average, early 20-something males. Pretty soon, it was obvious that I was "the strong guy", and if something heavy needed to be lifted, moved, or pulled apart, I was the one to do it. I would have rated my STR as something like 8, but that experience with moving my friends would argue something more like 12.