If I dumped you the player into my campaign how do you think you would stat out, what would you be, and why?
Some rules:
1. you are a human, but you can pick regular or variant.
2. You get to chose a feat if you can give a decent reason for it.
3. You get a background just explain why you think that one is best.
4. your limited to being L1 unless you can give us a good reason why it should be higher ( example: you have a black belt in a martial art -> Monk 3)
5. You can have up to 3 different classes if you can give reasons for them.
6. while you are limited to the number of skills and tools of the class(es) please give us a reason for additional skills you think you have that your character should have.
3 - None of the backgrounds come close. I'm pretty much like a Folk Hero that isn't a Hero. I'm just common folk.
4 - Level 1 is fine
5 - Under my circumstances, I'd pretty much have to be a Warlock, A Sorcerer, or a Wizard
6 - I've got nothing there
7 - I'm Disabled, both physically and mentally. It's a pretty big stretch to imagine someone like me as an Adventurer.
I walk with a cane. I can't travel for more than about 15 minutes before I'm in enough pain that I have to stop and rest. I suffer from Depression, the kind that anti-depressants don't seem to be of any use to treat, and I've been that way pretty much since birth.
Obviously, magic can fix all the physical problems, and maybe even the mental ones, but if that's going to be the case, it's not really me. I couldn't justify having any physical score over 10, and it's rather debatable having them that high. Mental scores, I'm ok with having a 14 to start out with, my Wisdom is probably my lowest score, and my Charisma is not exceptional. I have a couple years worth of college, it was a long time ago and I don't remember much that's useful. I'm no scholar so a Wizard would be kind of strange, but possible depending on the setting and how long it takes to learn a class. I'm not exactly young after all, and with scores like mine, I couldn't pull off a Charisma based character.
If we can bring over any of our gear from the real world, I'd pretty much need my cane, and that's a heavy reinforced metal one, the thing is probably closet to a Mace or at worst it's a Club, and as a Wizard, I couldn't be proficient in it's use. It's not like I'd want to be in melee anyway so it would be just for emergencies. I'd also bring along my Swiss Army Knife, because those are really useful, and I own what would be the equivalent of a Dagger, it's a pretty thick straight critter that curves up to a point and has a rope saw on the back of it, kind of like the knife you see in the movie Rambo, First Blood.
Let's see... It's hard to grade oneself without coming across as a narcissists or self-deprecating, but if we use vague metrics from the all knowing internet, then maybe something like this:
Race: Human (Variant) Racial Feat:Skill Expert Stats: STR (14), DEX (14), Con (12), INT (16), WIS (16), CHA (10) Class:Battle SmithArtificer (3) Background:Sage Skills:Arcana (Expertise), History, Investigation, Perception, Insight
The stat array is pretty optimistic compared to point buy, so it might help to rein those in with something more structured.
3 levels of artificer, because I have degrees in electrical and computational engineering, inventor credits on a few patents, and work as an engineering/intellectual property consultant for some pretty bleeding edge technology.
Expertise in Arcana, because "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
I might also claim proficiency in Survival due to extensive travel, living in a rural environment, and a casual obsession with being well prepared. (Not a prepper, just covering my bases.)
I'd also claim proficiency in Cook's Utensils, Brewer's Supplies, Cartographer's Tools, Carpenter's Tools, Jeweler's Tools, Painter's Supplies, Smith's Tools, and Tinker's Tools.
Edit: Kevinhaw link stats - STR(16) DEX (17) CON (14) INT (17) WIS (17) CHA (16) yikes. That seems overly generous...
Stats (per KevinHaw.com) because I don't trust my own self eval Race: Human Stats: STR(9) INT (15) WIS (14) DEX (12) CON (11) CHR (14) Class: Bard 2 Background: Entertainer Skills: Insight, Performance, Religion (been a church musician for around 7 years now)
Level 2 Bard because I have a couple of degrees in Music. The entertainer background is from around 10 years of pro and semi-pro playing for multiple ensembles, as well as teaching and writing. Additionally, I have had pieces I've written played outside of my home state.
I grew up in a cabinet shop, but always had a love for metal and thus am now a smith. I've played around with leather and love to cook (hence the background and feat). I kinda' love pulling pranks which requires a fair amount of stealth and insight. Besides that, I'm great with animals, adore history, and went to school for medical massage... and rangers are more about exploring, learning, and tool use than the others (other than Artificers), and it fits me best.
For Background none really apply so I chose custom "2 skills + 2 tools", I chose Investigation and left everything else blank. I can be quite good checking things out and finding out things, and while I'm ok at some others like Medicine or Nature - it wouldn't be right to consider myself proficient: I have no training in such things. I'm not unskilled, just my skills don't really correlate to D&D skills. I could customise these proficiencies perhaps with something modern but unsure if we're allowed in this exercise.
If dumped into a world with wizards I would definitely aim to become one, so I guess 1 level of Wizard? But if the idea is choosing a class you would already be: well, none. I can't fight, I can't do magic, I suck outdoors, etc.
If this is more of a "in this new world what would you learn to be or do", I could make better choices in proficiencies.
Hardest choice would be what spells and cantrips would I learn if I did get to become a wizard. Do I choose based on what I want in real life, assuming I could get back home, or for being in this new D&D esque world, assuming I'm stuck there? O.o
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1. There were a series of books back in the late 70s/early 80s that followed a group of DND players dumped into the game.
think I remember them- wasn’t one of the characters a mage and he brought a trunk full of spell components and supplies and spell books and it all was ruined-basically happened to everyone
Might have been the ones I remember their DM was actually the BBEG and he dumped them in with almost nothing. In my case I had only the clothes on my back, which just happened to include a Buck knife in my hip pocket.
My longest running game was like that, based on the real world undergoing a semi-apocalyptic transformation. It was nice being able to use Google Earth as our map, including saving popular locations and measuring distances accurately for teleportation and the like.
Here is me - yes its in the sig but this is the reasoniing and story behind the start of that ridiculous character
Stats: S) 15, D) 15, C)17, I) 15, W)14, Ch) 12 at the time I was 24 6' tall weighing about 150 and could lift 150 lbs over my head. I had very fast reflexes and had learned how to roll as Judo student as a kid then learned about jumping over etc running hurdles in Junior High. As a modern human with all the vaccinations and an athletic lifestyle the DM ruled I had a 17 Con. As a grad student with High SAT/GRE scores (>1300 SAT, >1400 GRE) he ruled I was well above average in Intelligence (I've since taken IQ tests several times with scores in the 140-160 range so a 15 seems reasonable). As we talked history he felt that I had a fairly high wisdom as I had avoided a lot of dumb decisions that could have ruined my life. and a 12 Charisma because he fould me to a fairly likeable fellow :>~. At that point I had taken 18 months of Judo, a year of boxing, a year of White crane Kung Fu, a year of Chinese Kempo, 2 years of American GoJu, a year of Shotokan Karate, and 18 months of Tai Chi, and was taking Some Hung Gar Karate so he said I was a L3 Monk. Included in this was some basic training wiht the staff, Nunchaku, Shurikens, and Katana. I first started camping with my family at age 5 traveling across the US and camping out at night using 2 clear plastic sheets as a ground cloth and "tent" I had learned to fish when we had a forest and stream in our backyard from 8-10 and then again from 13-16, at 18 I had started studying living off the land and had taught classes in it by 20 while doing some "survival" camping with friends (basically going out with a case of beer and a knife and hachet and living off the land for a week or so). As a geology student I had learned to do some rock climbing to get up cliffs to get samples etc. so he declared me a L3 Ranger as well. The DM at the time waqs a SCA weapons trainer and he tried me out and decided I had basic proficiency with weapons. I played that "me" up to L20 and then to survive a confrontation with Lolth in the Demonweb Pits had to roll 10 criticals in a row and somehow pulled that off so the DM agreed I must have some sort of psionic/telekinetic power and allowed me to switch classes again to become a Psion.
As a variant Human I would get the Alert feat (I had been a bullies target in elementary and junior high and had learned to see them before they saw me.
Skills: Perception, Nature, Survival, Stealth,
Other skills: Jeweler - as a birthday present for my 18th birthday my mom gave me a course in lapidary work and I also took a basic course in Silversmithing. Chef: I initially learned to cook from both my parents then took a gourmet foods course in HS and later worked as the 3rd "chef"/prep cook & chief dishwasher in a French resturant for a year. Musical Instrument: Flute - I had flute lessons from grade 4 to 12
Since then the character has reallyt been more of an NPC in my own campaigns as its really too rediculous an ego trip to haul out and play.
This is a fun thread, but it's really amazing how high people put their scores. There's only been a couple of us who have scores approaching what would be an "average" human. I never really pictured the people who play D&D as being all that heroic in real life, and while I'm sure the people with those high scores are perfectly justifiable, I've never met such a large group of heroes.
Most of the people I have met playing D&D are a little overweight, and in poor physical condition. They a have high intelligence, reasonably high wisdom, and a debatable charisma. Being "nice" would be about a 10. Very nice would be a 12. Extremely nice would be a 14, and unbelievably nice would be a 16. an 18 would be at the Rock Star level, the kind of person who is loved by millions.
Apply the same rule to all scores. If you're good at something, you'd have a 10, very good is 12, extremely good is 14, unbelievably good is 16 and 18 is godlike. Same thing with skills. A high school equivalent gives no bonus. I think half-proficiency would be a trade-school degree. A BA or AS would give be Proficient, a full degree would be expertise, and a Doctorate would have to be expertise in as skill and in a specific sub-type of a general skill. A PHD would be Expertise in a general skill and two of it's sub-categories. It's kind of like how Slight of Hands is the skill you use for picking a lock, and you can have expertise in that, and you can also have Expertise in using Thieves' Tools. A Rogue with a PHD would have Expertise in Slight of Hands, Thieves' Tools, and Picking Pockets.
I'd have to say that nobody should start out at higher level than 1st, because no matter how skilled you were, once you entered into a world with magic in it, the very laws of physics your knowledge was based on no longer may apply. It would take time (in terms of leveling) to figure out all the changes.
(1) Threads like this have a lot of participation bias. "Average" people don't have much to gain from declaring that they're average, so we'll mostly see responses from those who see themselves as "Above Average", and a smaller number of people who see themselves as "Below Average".
(2) With the popularization of 5e, the "average" D&D player is quickly changing from the old stereotype. For many unconventional groups, such as Hollywood actors and professional bodybuilders, D&D is a fashionable thing. D&D is also popular within the military, so you might see a lot of "Adventurer's Guild" types who later leave the service and stop daily exercise and training.
(3) The larger the population you can draw from, the more selective you can be. If you play in a relatively small town, you're going be be playing with a limited pool of "public" players. Whereas in cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, you'll find many overlapping groups based on other interests, such as "Young Professionals D&D", "Broadway Actors D&D", etc...
(4) Having 6 attributes describe the mess of human potential is extremely oversimplified. Without any practical metrics, estimated results are going to vary wildly. A Gym Rat who can bench press 400+lbs might skip "Cardio" and "Leg Day", which would leave them terrifyingly strong, but wildly unqualified to engage in day-to-day feats of strength. It's just not practical to score them without a dozen other qualifying statements.
Race: Variant Human Stats: STR 10, DEX 12, CON 15, INT 14, WIS 8, CHA 10 Class: Bard 1 Background: Hermit (Social Outcast) Skills: Perception, Nature (Half Proficiency)
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All stars fade. Some stars forever fall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Homebrew (Mostly Outdated):Magic Items,Monsters,Spells,Subclasses ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
This is a fun thread, but it's really amazing how high people put their scores. There's only been a couple of us who have scores approaching what would be an "average" human. I never really pictured the people who play D&D as being all that heroic in real life, and while I'm sure the people with those high scores are perfectly justifiable, I've never met such a large group of heroes.
Most of the people I have met playing D&D are a little overweight, and in poor physical condition. They a have high intelligence, reasonably high wisdom, and a debatable charisma. Being "nice" would be about a 10. Very nice would be a 12. Extremely nice would be a 14, and unbelievably nice would be a 16. an 18 would be at the Rock Star level, the kind of person who is loved by millions.
Apply the same rule to all scores. If you're good at something, you'd have a 10, very good is 12, extremely good is 14, unbelievably good is 16 and 18 is godlike. Same thing with skills. A high school equivalent gives no bonus. I think half-proficiency would be a trade-school degree. A BA or AS would give be Proficient, a full degree would be expertise, and a Doctorate would have to be expertise in as skill and in a specific sub-type of a general skill. A PHD would be Expertise in a general skill and two of it's sub-categories. It's kind of like how Slight of Hands is the skill you use for picking a lock, and you can have expertise in that, and you can also have Expertise in using Thieves' Tools. A Rogue with a PHD would have Expertise in Slight of Hands, Thieves' Tools, and Picking Pockets.
I'd have to say that nobody should start out at higher level than 1st, because no matter how skilled you were, once you entered into a world with magic in it, the very laws of physics your knowledge was based on no longer may apply. It would take time (in terms of leveling) to figure out all the changes.
I'm not disagreeing with you - I think how I got stated out is probably a bit high and now -41 years later IRL I sure don't have the same stats :> however back 1e/2e there were actually some rules of a sort for stats that I think my DM made some use of (the strength and Intelligence at least). I would probably argue a bit on the skills as I think proficient has a much standard than than your setting it at - my basic standard is "Can you make money doing it" and I have made money doing a lot of different things over my life. Think handyman - he is trained (somewhere) to do most of what a carpenter, plumber and electrician can do - he has proficiency but even a journeyman plumber does a better job (for more money) - that would be expertise. Its not in the rules but some one like a Master Electrician I would give double expertise too in their field. same kind of thing in geology - a decent rockhound has proficiency, a trained geologist (BA/BS) has expertise. A PhD has expertise as well as proficiency with a bunch of specialized tools we are probably better off asking if our skills would match a professional from the late 1800's than to look at today's (super) experts.
As for magic fouling up your expectations - sort of perhaps but I ran across a way of looking at magic that solves that problem - magic is a force that permeates all of the multiverse but is not bound by the rules of any individual universe. when you tap into it you can briefly manipulate the specific laws or pass around them but the laws still hold for anything not directly affected by magic that is acting in this way. so falling, the physics of a bow or the chemistry of cooking, etc is what you would expect (and since the worlds are more or less based on our world and our expectations of how the world works) we can use physics and chemistry etc to understand what is happening in the D&D worlds we play in - it is actually required to be able to play sanely. Magic of any sort is Supernatural, physics etc is Natural.
I'd been noticing how high the scores people had were. "Average" in D&D is a 10. The scores got for 3 to 18, and the middle of the bell curve is 10.5, and I round down. That's a "Commoner". What kind of set me off was when Wi1dBi11 said that a "fairly likeable fellow" and thus got a 12 Charisma. Was that really justified? So I considered how I'd judge the Charisma score. "fairly" You start out at a 10, and you move up. I go up by 2 points each time because that's how much it takes got get a higher bonus. The way I have it figured Fairly Nice would be an 11, because it's between just nice and very nice. The system I evolved then got applied to all scores.
As Memnosyne said, there are lots of people in this world, and few who are below average will admit it, most are proud of themselves and like to think they are and when there's enough people you can ask, which is in the millions potentially, there's going to be a ton of people who really are above average. I'm fine with that. There are only 6 scores in the game, it's true that's very rough. Strength and Dexterity are both a function of the two different types of muscle fibers, red and white, are in the individual muscle, and since there are lots of muscles in the human body, the proportion of those can vary with each and every one of them. That's just Str and Dex. Con is impossible to really figure out. What metric do you use? Same thing with all of them. Only 6 scores and we have to deal with them in the game, so that's what we use.
Next came skills. Again, very rough, but I think my system works about right. Obviously, I'm predisposed to like my own system, but outside opinions are useful. I'll try to figure it out. If you want to go by how much money you can make, it is apparent that you can make money at all levels of skill. It can be a function of Charisma. You might cheat someone. You might Persuade them or Intimidate them or Deceive them to convince them to pay you more. You might have no idea what you are doing and get paid a lot for screwing up the job if you're Charisma is high enough, even if you didn't mean to screw up. So how much money you make doesn't tell you a thing.
Now on to character level. I started out with the idea that in the real world when you are playing a fantasy game magic would make it so that the game world and the real world have almost nothing to do with each other and nobody would start out higher than level 1. The game is a rough simulation, and in some cases, it is very rough indeed. You can't judge it at all by time, because there's no xp system in the real world. People do get experience, but there's no system to judge how much they get beyond the way I did the skill system. So lets try a different idea and see how that works. If you go by the metric of how skilled you are, by that metric, you would be at zero level until about when you graduate from high school. It takes 2 years to get a BA or an AS or a Trade-skill Degree. Call that first level. Four years to get a full degree, that's 2nd, four more gets you a Doctorate, so that's 3rd. I guess 4 more would be a PHD? I've got no idea on that one really, but that would be 4th level. Age has no gaming effect, so how much time it actually took in the real world doesn't matter, but I am willing to admit that my complaint about magic isn't valid, so people could be as high as 4th level at the point where they entered the game. If you have a PHD, then welcome to the tail end of Tier 1. That works for me. People with more than one PHD would be higher. but I really think that however minor the difference between the real world and the fantasy world is, it would be hard to go past that point, you would need an awful lot of practical experience in the game world to get that high, and I can't say I like the idea of skipping Tier 1 entirely. That wouldn't be fun to me.
Still a fun thread. :-) Nothing personal to the people I disagreed with. I had to give the names just for the sake of clarity.
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If I dumped you the player into my campaign how do you think you would stat out, what would you be, and why?
Some rules:
1. you are a human, but you can pick regular or variant.
2. You get to chose a feat if you can give a decent reason for it.
3. You get a background just explain why you think that one is best.
4. your limited to being L1 unless you can give us a good reason why it should be higher ( example: you have a black belt in a martial art -> Monk 3)
5. You can have up to 3 different classes if you can give reasons for them.
6. while you are limited to the number of skills and tools of the class(es) please give us a reason for additional skills you think you have that your character should have.
7. this is just for fun so please be honest.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I walk with a cane. I can't travel for more than about 15 minutes before I'm in enough pain that I have to stop and rest. I suffer from Depression, the kind that anti-depressants don't seem to be of any use to treat, and I've been that way pretty much since birth.
Obviously, magic can fix all the physical problems, and maybe even the mental ones, but if that's going to be the case, it's not really me. I couldn't justify having any physical score over 10, and it's rather debatable having them that high. Mental scores, I'm ok with having a 14 to start out with, my Wisdom is probably my lowest score, and my Charisma is not exceptional. I have a couple years worth of college, it was a long time ago and I don't remember much that's useful. I'm no scholar so a Wizard would be kind of strange, but possible depending on the setting and how long it takes to learn a class. I'm not exactly young after all, and with scores like mine, I couldn't pull off a Charisma based character.
If we can bring over any of our gear from the real world, I'd pretty much need my cane, and that's a heavy reinforced metal one, the thing is probably closet to a Mace or at worst it's a Club, and as a Wizard, I couldn't be proficient in it's use. It's not like I'd want to be in melee anyway so it would be just for emergencies. I'd also bring along my Swiss Army Knife, because those are really useful, and I own what would be the equivalent of a Dagger, it's a pretty thick straight critter that curves up to a point and has a rope saw on the back of it, kind of like the knife you see in the movie Rambo, First Blood.
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Let's see... It's hard to grade oneself without coming across as a narcissists or self-deprecating, but if we use vague metrics from the all knowing internet, then maybe something like this:
Race: Human (Variant)
Racial Feat: Skill Expert
Stats: STR (14), DEX (14), Con (12), INT (16), WIS (16), CHA (10)
Class: Battle Smith Artificer (3)
Background: Sage
Skills: Arcana (Expertise), History, Investigation, Perception, Insight
The stat array is pretty optimistic compared to point buy, so it might help to rein those in with something more structured.
3 levels of artificer, because I have degrees in electrical and computational engineering, inventor credits on a few patents, and work as an engineering/intellectual property consultant for some pretty bleeding edge technology.
Expertise in Arcana, because "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
I might also claim proficiency in Survival due to extensive travel, living in a rural environment, and a casual obsession with being well prepared. (Not a prepper, just covering my bases.)
I'd also claim proficiency in Cook's Utensils, Brewer's Supplies, Cartographer's Tools, Carpenter's Tools, Jeweler's Tools, Painter's Supplies, Smith's Tools, and Tinker's Tools.
Edit: Kevinhaw link stats - STR(16) DEX (17) CON (14) INT (17) WIS (17) CHA (16) yikes. That seems overly generous...
Race human varian
feat:tavern brawler
Stats:good mental stats (espically intelligence),mid dex,and low con and strength.
Class:level 3 artificer (artelerist or with homebrew,my trapsmith subclass)
Background:folk hero or sage.I'm a bit of local legend,so folk hero makes sense,I also am pretty serious academia so sage also make sense.
Skills:arcana,insight,sleight of hand,stealth
As you can tell,I don't really have the best build.
Check out my homebrew subclasses spells magic items feats monsters races
i am a sauce priest
help create a world here
Commoner
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
There is a lot of that going around 😁😜🤪
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Stats (per KevinHaw.com) because I don't trust my own self eval
Race: Human
Stats: STR(9) INT (15) WIS (14) DEX (12) CON (11) CHR (14)
Class: Bard 2
Background: Entertainer
Skills: Insight, Performance, Religion (been a church musician for around 7 years now)
Level 2 Bard because I have a couple of degrees in Music. The entertainer background is from around 10 years of pro and semi-pro playing for multiple ensembles, as well as teaching and writing. Additionally, I have had pieces I've written played outside of my home state.
Race: Human Variant
Stats: STR (10) DEX (14) CON (16) INT (14) WIS (13) CHA (8)
Class: Ranger 1
Background: Clan Crafter (Smith's Tools)
Skills: Stealth, History, Insight, Animal Handling, Medicine
Feat: Skilled (Cook's Utensils, Woodworker's Tools, Leatherworker's Tools)
I grew up in a cabinet shop, but always had a love for metal and thus am now a smith. I've played around with leather and love to cook (hence the background and feat). I kinda' love pulling pranks which requires a fair amount of stealth and insight. Besides that, I'm great with animals, adore history, and went to school for medical massage... and rangers are more about exploring, learning, and tool use than the others (other than Artificers), and it fits me best.
I used the Kevin Haw link SpectrTheron gave and got the following,
STR: 6 | INT: 17 | WIS: 15 | DEX: 7 | CON: 7 | CHA: 12
I would probably go regular human so +1 to all stats
STR: 7 | INT: 18 | WIS: 16 | DEX: 8 | CON: 8 | CHA: 13
For Background none really apply so I chose custom "2 skills + 2 tools", I chose Investigation and left everything else blank. I can be quite good checking things out and finding out things, and while I'm ok at some others like Medicine or Nature - it wouldn't be right to consider myself proficient: I have no training in such things. I'm not unskilled, just my skills don't really correlate to D&D skills. I could customise these proficiencies perhaps with something modern but unsure if we're allowed in this exercise.
If dumped into a world with wizards I would definitely aim to become one, so I guess 1 level of Wizard? But if the idea is choosing a class you would already be: well, none. I can't fight, I can't do magic, I suck outdoors, etc.
If this is more of a "in this new world what would you learn to be or do", I could make better choices in proficiencies.
Hardest choice would be what spells and cantrips would I learn if I did get to become a wizard. Do I choose based on what I want in real life, assuming I could get back home, or for being in this new D&D esque world, assuming I'm stuck there? O.o
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Assume your stuck in the new world.
this thread is based off of two things:
1. There were a series of books back in the late 70s/early 80s that followed a group of DND players dumped into the game.
2. My DM At the time did the same to me when I annoyed him getting too rules lawyerly as a beginning player.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
think I remember them- wasn’t one of the characters a mage and he brought a trunk full of spell components and supplies and spell books and it all was ruined-basically happened to everyone
Guide to the Five Factions (PWYW)
Deck of Decks
Might have been the ones I remember their DM was actually the BBEG and he dumped them in with almost nothing. In my case I had only the clothes on my back, which just happened to include a Buck knife in my hip pocket.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
My longest running game was like that, based on the real world undergoing a semi-apocalyptic transformation. It was nice being able to use Google Earth as our map, including saving popular locations and measuring distances accurately for teleportation and the like.
Anyway … back to who you would be…
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
Here is me - yes its in the sig but this is the reasoniing and story behind the start of that ridiculous character
Stats: S) 15, D) 15, C)17, I) 15, W)14, Ch) 12
at the time I was 24 6' tall weighing about 150 and could lift 150 lbs over my head. I had very fast reflexes and had learned how to roll as Judo student as a kid then learned about jumping over etc running hurdles in Junior High. As a modern human with all the vaccinations and an athletic lifestyle the DM ruled I had a 17 Con. As a grad student with High SAT/GRE scores (>1300 SAT, >1400 GRE) he ruled I was well above average in Intelligence (I've since taken IQ tests several times with scores in the 140-160 range so a 15 seems reasonable). As we talked history he felt that I had a fairly high wisdom as I had avoided a lot of dumb decisions that could have ruined my life. and a 12 Charisma because he fould me to a fairly likeable fellow :>~.
At that point I had taken 18 months of Judo, a year of boxing, a year of White crane Kung Fu, a year of Chinese Kempo, 2 years of American GoJu, a year of Shotokan Karate, and 18 months of Tai Chi, and was taking Some Hung Gar Karate so he said I was a L3 Monk. Included in this was some basic training wiht the staff, Nunchaku, Shurikens, and Katana.
I first started camping with my family at age 5 traveling across the US and camping out at night using 2 clear plastic sheets as a ground cloth and "tent" I had learned to fish when we had a forest and stream in our backyard from 8-10 and then again from 13-16, at 18 I had started studying living off the land and had taught classes in it by 20 while doing some "survival" camping with friends (basically going out with a case of beer and a knife and hachet and living off the land for a week or so). As a geology student I had learned to do some rock climbing to get up cliffs to get samples etc. so he declared me a L3 Ranger as well.
The DM at the time waqs a SCA weapons trainer and he tried me out and decided I had basic proficiency with weapons.
I played that "me" up to L20 and then to survive a confrontation with Lolth in the Demonweb Pits had to roll 10 criticals in a row and somehow pulled that off so the DM agreed I must have some sort of psionic/telekinetic power and allowed me to switch classes again to become a Psion.
As a variant Human I would get the Alert feat (I had been a bullies target in elementary and junior high and had learned to see them before they saw me.
Skills: Perception, Nature, Survival, Stealth,
Other skills:
Jeweler - as a birthday present for my 18th birthday my mom gave me a course in lapidary work and I also took a basic course in Silversmithing.
Chef: I initially learned to cook from both my parents then took a gourmet foods course in HS and later worked as the 3rd "chef"/prep cook & chief dishwasher in a French resturant for a year.
Musical Instrument: Flute - I had flute lessons from grade 4 to 12
Since then the character has reallyt been more of an NPC in my own campaigns as its really too rediculous an ego trip to haul out and play.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
This is a fun thread, but it's really amazing how high people put their scores. There's only been a couple of us who have scores approaching what would be an "average" human. I never really pictured the people who play D&D as being all that heroic in real life, and while I'm sure the people with those high scores are perfectly justifiable, I've never met such a large group of heroes.
Most of the people I have met playing D&D are a little overweight, and in poor physical condition. They a have high intelligence, reasonably high wisdom, and a debatable charisma. Being "nice" would be about a 10. Very nice would be a 12. Extremely nice would be a 14, and unbelievably nice would be a 16. an 18 would be at the Rock Star level, the kind of person who is loved by millions.
Apply the same rule to all scores. If you're good at something, you'd have a 10, very good is 12, extremely good is 14, unbelievably good is 16 and 18 is godlike. Same thing with skills. A high school equivalent gives no bonus. I think half-proficiency would be a trade-school degree. A BA or AS would give be Proficient, a full degree would be expertise, and a Doctorate would have to be expertise in as skill and in a specific sub-type of a general skill. A PHD would be Expertise in a general skill and two of it's sub-categories. It's kind of like how Slight of Hands is the skill you use for picking a lock, and you can have expertise in that, and you can also have Expertise in using Thieves' Tools. A Rogue with a PHD would have Expertise in Slight of Hands, Thieves' Tools, and Picking Pockets.
I'd have to say that nobody should start out at higher level than 1st, because no matter how skilled you were, once you entered into a world with magic in it, the very laws of physics your knowledge was based on no longer may apply. It would take time (in terms of leveling) to figure out all the changes.
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(1) Threads like this have a lot of participation bias. "Average" people don't have much to gain from declaring that they're average, so we'll mostly see responses from those who see themselves as "Above Average", and a smaller number of people who see themselves as "Below Average".
(2) With the popularization of 5e, the "average" D&D player is quickly changing from the old stereotype. For many unconventional groups, such as Hollywood actors and professional bodybuilders, D&D is a fashionable thing. D&D is also popular within the military, so you might see a lot of "Adventurer's Guild" types who later leave the service and stop daily exercise and training.
(3) The larger the population you can draw from, the more selective you can be. If you play in a relatively small town, you're going be be playing with a limited pool of "public" players. Whereas in cities like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, you'll find many overlapping groups based on other interests, such as "Young Professionals D&D", "Broadway Actors D&D", etc...
(4) Having 6 attributes describe the mess of human potential is extremely oversimplified. Without any practical metrics, estimated results are going to vary wildly. A Gym Rat who can bench press 400+lbs might skip "Cardio" and "Leg Day", which would leave them terrifyingly strong, but wildly unqualified to engage in day-to-day feats of strength. It's just not practical to score them without a dozen other qualifying statements.
Race: Variant Human
Stats: STR 10, DEX 12, CON 15, INT 14, WIS 8, CHA 10
Class: Bard 1
Background: Hermit (Social Outcast)
Skills: Perception, Nature (Half Proficiency)
All stars fade. Some stars forever fall.
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Homebrew (Mostly Outdated): Magic Items, Monsters, Spells, Subclasses
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If there was no light, people wouldn't fear the dark.
I'm not disagreeing with you - I think how I got stated out is probably a bit high and now -41 years later IRL I sure don't have the same stats :> however back 1e/2e there were actually some rules of a sort for stats that I think my DM made some use of (the strength and Intelligence at least). I would probably argue a bit on the skills as I think proficient has a much standard than than your setting it at - my basic standard is "Can you make money doing it" and I have made money doing a lot of different things over my life. Think handyman - he is trained (somewhere) to do most of what a carpenter, plumber and electrician can do - he has proficiency but even a journeyman plumber does a better job (for more money) - that would be expertise. Its not in the rules but some one like a Master Electrician I would give double expertise too in their field. same kind of thing in geology - a decent rockhound has proficiency, a trained geologist (BA/BS) has expertise. A PhD has expertise as well as proficiency with a bunch of specialized tools we are probably better off asking if our skills would match a professional from the late 1800's than to look at today's (super) experts.
As for magic fouling up your expectations - sort of perhaps but I ran across a way of looking at magic that solves that problem - magic is a force that permeates all of the multiverse but is not bound by the rules of any individual universe. when you tap into it you can briefly manipulate the specific laws or pass around them but the laws still hold for anything not directly affected by magic that is acting in this way. so falling, the physics of a bow or the chemistry of cooking, etc is what you would expect (and since the worlds are more or less based on our world and our expectations of how the world works) we can use physics and chemistry etc to understand what is happening in the D&D worlds we play in - it is actually required to be able to play sanely. Magic of any sort is Supernatural, physics etc is Natural.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I'd been noticing how high the scores people had were. "Average" in D&D is a 10. The scores got for 3 to 18, and the middle of the bell curve is 10.5, and I round down. That's a "Commoner". What kind of set me off was when Wi1dBi11 said that a "fairly likeable fellow" and thus got a 12 Charisma. Was that really justified? So I considered how I'd judge the Charisma score. "fairly" You start out at a 10, and you move up. I go up by 2 points each time because that's how much it takes got get a higher bonus. The way I have it figured Fairly Nice would be an 11, because it's between just nice and very nice. The system I evolved then got applied to all scores.
As Memnosyne said, there are lots of people in this world, and few who are below average will admit it, most are proud of themselves and like to think they are and when there's enough people you can ask, which is in the millions potentially, there's going to be a ton of people who really are above average. I'm fine with that. There are only 6 scores in the game, it's true that's very rough. Strength and Dexterity are both a function of the two different types of muscle fibers, red and white, are in the individual muscle, and since there are lots of muscles in the human body, the proportion of those can vary with each and every one of them. That's just Str and Dex. Con is impossible to really figure out. What metric do you use? Same thing with all of them. Only 6 scores and we have to deal with them in the game, so that's what we use.
Next came skills. Again, very rough, but I think my system works about right. Obviously, I'm predisposed to like my own system, but outside opinions are useful. I'll try to figure it out. If you want to go by how much money you can make, it is apparent that you can make money at all levels of skill. It can be a function of Charisma. You might cheat someone. You might Persuade them or Intimidate them or Deceive them to convince them to pay you more. You might have no idea what you are doing and get paid a lot for screwing up the job if you're Charisma is high enough, even if you didn't mean to screw up. So how much money you make doesn't tell you a thing.
Now on to character level. I started out with the idea that in the real world when you are playing a fantasy game magic would make it so that the game world and the real world have almost nothing to do with each other and nobody would start out higher than level 1. The game is a rough simulation, and in some cases, it is very rough indeed. You can't judge it at all by time, because there's no xp system in the real world. People do get experience, but there's no system to judge how much they get beyond the way I did the skill system. So lets try a different idea and see how that works. If you go by the metric of how skilled you are, by that metric, you would be at zero level until about when you graduate from high school. It takes 2 years to get a BA or an AS or a Trade-skill Degree. Call that first level. Four years to get a full degree, that's 2nd, four more gets you a Doctorate, so that's 3rd. I guess 4 more would be a PHD? I've got no idea on that one really, but that would be 4th level. Age has no gaming effect, so how much time it actually took in the real world doesn't matter, but I am willing to admit that my complaint about magic isn't valid, so people could be as high as 4th level at the point where they entered the game. If you have a PHD, then welcome to the tail end of Tier 1. That works for me. People with more than one PHD would be higher. but I really think that however minor the difference between the real world and the fantasy world is, it would be hard to go past that point, you would need an awful lot of practical experience in the game world to get that high, and I can't say I like the idea of skipping Tier 1 entirely. That wouldn't be fun to me.
Still a fun thread. :-) Nothing personal to the people I disagreed with. I had to give the names just for the sake of clarity.
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