Creating the Player Character

Each participant in the campaign created by the referee must create one or more game personas. The game persona of each participant is called the player character in order to differentiate it from personas created by the referee, called non-player characters. The Dungeon Master is advised to limit player characters to one per participant at commencement of the campaign, though as play progresses, additional player characters may be added in a judicious manner. Each player develops the abilities of his or her character through random number generation (by means of dice rolling) to determine the basic characteristics of the persona, the abilities. The player then decides what race the character is, what the character’s class is, the alignment of the character, and what the character’s name is to be. The character will speak certain languages determined by race, class, and alignment. He or she will have a certain amount of gold pieces to begin with, and these funds will be used to purchase equipment needed for adventuring. Finally, each character begins with a certain number of hit points, as determined by the roll of the die (or dice) commensurate with the character’s class. Class determines the type of die (or dice) rolled. All characters begin at 1st level. All of this is completely explained in the following paragraphs.

Generation of Ability Scores

As [1.25] is an ongoing game of fantasy adventuring, it is important to allow participants to generate a viable character of the race and profession which he or she desires. While it is possible to generate some fairly playable characters by rolling 3d6, there is often an extended period of attempts at finding a suitable one due to quirks of the dice. Furthermore, these rather marginal characters tend to have short life expectancy—which tends to discourage new players, as does having to make do with some character of a race and/or class which he or she really can’t or won’t identify with. Character generation, then, is a serious matter, and it is recommended that the following systems be used.

Step 1

Ability Scores rolled are according to each ability category, Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma.

Four alternatives are offered for player characters:

Method I. All scores are recorded and arranged in the order the player desires. 4d6 are rolled, and the lowest die (or one of the lower) is discarded.
Method II. All scores are recorded and arranged as in Method I. 3d6 are rolled 12 times and the highest six scores are retained.
Method III. Scores rolled are according to each ability category, in order, Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma. 3d6 are rolled 6 times for each ability, and the highest score in each category is retained for that category.
Method IV. 3d6 are rolled sufficient times to generate the six ability scores, in order, for 12 characters. The player then selects the single set of scores which he or she finds most desirable and these scores are noted on the character record sheet.

Further Define the Character

[Campaign Rules Follow.]

[Step 2

Determine your character “concept”. What sort of character do you want to be, taking into account your base ability scores. Based on this concept, read the section on Character Races and select a race and gender. Adjust your ability scores accordingly, based on your race keeping in mind minimum requirements and maximums listed. If you do not meet the minimum for the race, you must select another race; If your score would be raised beyond the listed maximum, reduce the score to the maximum. Write down all special abilities gained from your race and note bonuses or penalties for high or low ability scores.

Step 3

Based on your concept, race, and ability scores, select a class in which you meet the minimum requirements. Write down all special abilities gained from your class including starting spells known. If a fighter (or fighter sub-class) and your Strength is 18, you may roll for Exceptional Strength.

Step 4

Determine your primary characteristics: age, height, weight, and secondary skills.

Step 5

Determine the number of hit points your character has by rolling the appropriate type of hit die (as mentioned in the character class description). Record the number in a special area marked hit points or hp. Include bonuses or penalties from your Constitution ability score.

Step 6

Your character is unusual, exceptional as compared to the norm. This applies to abilities and funds as well. Thus, he or she will have a large supply of coins with which to purchase equipment and supplies to begin adventuring. The possible number of gold pieces with which a player begins depends upon the character class.]

Characteristics for Player Characters

Use of the NPC personality traits and characteristics for player characters is NOT recommended. The purpose of [1.25] is to allow participants to create and develop interesting player characters who will adventure and interact with their surroundings. If personality traits are forced upon PCs, then participants will be doing little more than moving automatons around while you, the DM, tell them how their characters react to situations. It is therefore absolutely necessary for you to allow each player the right to develop his or her character as he or she chooses!

This is not to say that some of the information used for development of NPCs cannot be used for PCs. If a player asks to have you make certain determinations for his or her character, you may do so if you believe that the player will be able to properly act the part as dictated by the dice rolls. Height and weight should be randomly determined for each PC, and the height and weight tables are useful in this regard. However, these tables do not actually give sufficient variation in upper limits of height and weight of humans, so you might find it necessary to allow the following height and weight variations for human player characters:

Human Male: Height +2-20”; Weight +10-200#
Human Female: Height +2-12”; Weight +10-120#

Keen Hearing Ability

Some individuals possess “keen hearing” and gain a bonus of +1 or +2 in 20 (+5% or +10%). The DM should use the chance of hearing a noise (percentage) to determine if a character is keen-eared the first time he or she listens at a door, and if it is indicated, the DM will ask the player to note the fact (and the bonus) for his or her character.

Non-Player Characters

You should, of course, set the ability scores of those NPCs you will use as parts of the milieu, particularly those of high level and power. Scores for high level NPCs must be high—how else could these figures have risen so high?

Determine the ability scores of other non-player characters [before any other adjustments] as follows:

General Characters: Roll 3d6 for each ability as usual, but use average scoring by considering any 1 as a 3 and any 6 as a 4.
Special Characters, Including Henchmen: Roll 3d6 as for general characters, but allow the full range (3-18) except in the ability or abilities which are germane to his or her profession, i.e. Strength for fighters, etc. For all such abilities either use one of the determination methods used for player characters or add +1 to each die of the 3 rolled which scores under 6.

1. [Ed.: Adapted from Dungeons and Dragons® Basic Rulebook. (Tom Moldvay, 1981, p.B5).]