Important Information

[kenada]

Rolling the campaign-specific trait might work. It would have to be done at the same time as ability scores though, in order to guide character creation instead of getting in the way. Still, I'm not sure what a barbarian would do with the "infamous actor" trait.

That is part of the reason why I was leaning against requiring campaign traits to be rolled. The other part is that its taking too much control away from the players. The thing I like about my ability score generation method is that it balances things that are out of your control (i.e. the capabilities you were born with) with those that you can shape (i.e. your capabilities after grew up and became an adventurer).

Both are valid choices, and offer different benefits. Straight rolling will negatively impact our survival, but could create RP choices, while half-or-better means more resources - thus less likely to die - but also that our characters aren't as desperate for money.

I was considering the same method that I’m using for HP: roll twice and take the average (round down). This skews the distribution towards average (rather than above average) while still providing the opportunity to start out wealthyy (or poor). For example, a fighter would receive floor(^10d6∕₂) × 10 gp at first level.

The following table summarizes the results from 30 1,048,576 test rolls using each method. The tests were done in Excel, so I don’t have the raw numbers available. I’m inclined to go with the “roll twice, take average” method. I like the extra variability, and that it doesn’t concentrate all of the wealth at the high end. I’ll wait for feedback before updating the OP later today.

	Standard method	Half max + half random	Roll twice, take average
Minimum	50	175	60
Maximum	300	300	300
Mean	175	238	172
Median	180	235	170
Mode	170	235	170
Std. Dev.	38	19	27

Whatever you decide, you should put a lock on rule changes at some point. Say, this Friday, which would be a week before the game starts. Then only change them as the game requires.

I have a few more things in mind, but I’ll make Friday the freeze for substantive changes.

Edit: For reference, I did 30 tests using the standard method listed in PFRPG.
Edit 2: Updated table with new test results.

[kenada]

I wanted to note that the shape of the distribution for my new method is the same as the standard method’s. Its benefit is that the standard deviation is smaller (~27 vs ~38, tested using 1,048,576 random rolls each). I have updated the table in my previous post to reflect this testing.

[kenada]

I got no replies, so I updated the front page to reflect the revised method for determining starting wealth.

[BobChuck]

Sorry. Like I said, there are benefits and drawbacks to any method, whether it be rolling, taking average, half or better, or a weighted roll.

Ultimately, it's not all that important, as long as everyone works the same way.

[kenada]

I’d like to note that I will be handing out XP at the end of the session. If people level up, they should level up their character between sessions except for rolling for HP. HP will be rolled at the start of the next session.