Randomness during character creation – such as for example rolling for your base stats – is a very old concept in RPGs and has been around for quite a while.
But while I personally like the idea quite a bit, I never quite figured out why such a thing was introduced in the first place… Most RPGs allow for a huge number of individual characters to be created, thus I don't see a need for randomness additionally increasing the variety. On the other hand players with bad rolls might feel disadvantaged. So is it just that the authors liked to gamble with their character stats?
I am wondering..
- What was the first RPG to use randomness during character creation?
- Why was this mechanism introduced?
Best Answer
Depends on how you define 'roleplaying game'. For example, as described in Playing at the World p. 438-439, the pre-D&D Hyborian wargame run by Tony Bath had a random personality creation method for the player characters, which would put it around 1968-1973. But that was played by post and was an outgrowth of the Diplomacy variant campaigns.
On the other hand, around that same time Dave Arneson's Blackmoor also had character personalities that may have been randomly selected during creation, possibly via 2d6. One surviving character sheet lists Brains, Credibility, Looks, Sex, Strength, Courage, and Horsemanship, among other stats. By the time the original version of D&D was published in 1974, these had been condensed down to the six abilities we know today, determined via 3d6. (PatW, p. 369)
In both cases it was probably a development from the wargaming that originally inspired the games.