[PnP] noob questions part IV - Bride of Noob Questions

[Albert Sales]

Scott M <scottee.mac at gmail.com> wrote:    ok, starting to wrap it up here I think, but a few other questions:

1) Do any of you use variations of character generation? I love the
complete randomness of it and I like that everybody usually gets
something about their character they don't like but have to role play
around. Yet occasionally, someone wants to make some kind of magic
user and gets a 3, 4, 5 in Intelligence, Will, and Empathy
respectively. Have you guys had a lot of problems with over powered
characters if, for example, you allowed your players to swap one score
with any other score? Or allowed two sets of rolls and allowed them to
choose the better?
  I used to keep a notebook of characters my players made for that game with dragons in an enclosed environment, that, as defined by the rules, where "Hopeless".  Everytime I played (as a player), I selected one from this and used it, adding lots of color to the game.  I ended up putting one in there myself, because my dice went crazy on high rolls.
     For PnP, I have played with builds, roll 12 and remove any 2 (not often the lowest 2, you kept the order in which they fell), use 2d6+4 for each stat, a percentage system, and a "Roll 1d10 for each, but add (Multiplier+1)x2 as the second die.  Anything the referee allows will fly, and if I understand, you are the referee.  I once ran a game where natives were 2d6, and all multipliers were 1.5.  Points gained through play could increase this, however (char after max).
      One of the favorite casters in a PnP game had an incredibly high Agility, Fair will and Empathy, and a somewhat low Intelligence.  They maxed the caster abilities first, learned the Sidh path (having good Currents for a starting druid), and then grew as a warrior.  Everybody loved Sazagi; he had good magic at first, which became non-combat support later, an excellent bow (backed by Sidh Magic), and a very unique style.  Even lowish casting natives do not bar one from magic.  (Sazagi was, of course, elvish.)
    2) When creating magic users, as they buy their initial spells, do
they buy that at the "instructed" rate or the "alone" rate? Oddly, the
book does not specify. On the one hand, characters would start with a
whole lot of spells if they bought them all at the discount rate, yet
the apprenticeship does seem like the very definition for instructed.
So I'm curious what you all are doing.
  Almost always instructed.  The only time I would apply alone to the characters is if they actually had no training (a natural purchasing spells, but not getting trained; happened once), or their choice was unfitting (a Bhamotan Chaos wizard).  I once had a character describe in heir history that they lost their teacher early, and so was able to learn half their magic at trained, and the other half untrained.  Because they did this to themself, I gave them a few minor perks.
    Thank you all for your continued support of the Noob Questions
franchise. We hope to have a television series soon complete with a
tasty cereal line and Hallmark cards.

Scott M

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