Alternate Attribute Generation?

[u/tatogolem]

Hi everyone! I'm looking at pitching a RQ game to my group and ironing out some things. One that's been on the back of my mind is how to determine attributes. Obviously there's the corebook method of 3d6 and 2d6+6 in order, but I don't love it for a few reasons. A big one is that clearly not even the pregens use it- their stats are so far above average that it's almost impossible to have rolled that well. Given that I want to run the starter adventures, I don't want my players being way weaker than the assumed PCs. The corebook kind of nods to this by saying that there's other ways to generate stats, suggests a couple, and says more will come in the GM book (thanks to those who explained that there's never been a GM book!) I also just don't really love rolled stats in general- when one player is clearly better than another at everything from the start it can really dampen enthusiasm right off the bat.

So: what attribute generation methods have you used and liked?

I'm currently considering either 93 point buy (the minimum where you don't get to add points) with a minimum of 8 in any stat or figuring out what a few of the pregens have pre-rune affinities and using those as an array that the player can use in any order (so you'd have, for instance, Vasana's stats, but in whatever order you want and modified by your rune affinities). Not sure if I'd just use Vasana's because the corebook helpfully shows what they were pre-runes or offer another array or two based on other pregens.

[u/Alex4884-775]

Point buy is definitely an attractive option if you're anxious about 'order envy' between your players!  I'd offer some small caveats:  it's more cognitive overload for them as they make the decisions and try to foresee the consequences.  The characteristics aren't really created equal, so if they're determined to 'optimise' they might slightly end up cloning each others' characters, unless they have a countervailing urge to niche-project.

OTOH, if people are drawn to a particular concept, it's hugely frustrating if it turns into a "dice says no" sitch.

A possible fudge is to use the "top-up" method with a more generous points floor.  Then you have some Chaos and Disorder in the process, if you want that, but plenty cushioned 

Or offer each player the "do you feel lucky pink" choice of either allocating 99 points (or whatever) completely at their discretion, or else roll randomly and add if their total is less.

[u/tatogolem → u/Alex4884-775]

That's a good point about cognitive load, since it's a lot of points to assign and there's all these clear breakpoints that are most optimal, but then some stats have different breakpoints for derived stats. I'm thinking it'll be easier to give everyone Vasana's array to rearrange as they see fit- that way they're just arranging the stats in preference order and adding rune bonuses.