{"id":31041,"date":"2021-05-31T23:30:29","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T13:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/?p=31041"},"modified":"2021-07-05T15:54:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-05T05:54:35","slug":"quintessentially-about-wealth-bc-jun-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/quintessentially-about-wealth-bc-jun-21\/","title":{"rendered":"Quintessentially, About Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ofdiceanddragons.com\/rpg-blog-carnival\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 2px solid #53411D\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-736\" title=\"rpg blog carnival logo\" src=\"http:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/images\/rpgblogcarnivallogo.jpg\" alt=\"rpg blog carnival logo\" width=\"155\" height=\"203\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Once again, the wheel of days has traversed the circle of time to Campaign Mastery&#8217;s turn at hosting the Blog Carnival, following on from Full Moon Storytelling&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/fullmoonstorytelling.com\/2021\/05\/01\/adding-festivals-holidays-and-birthdays-to-your-game-the-may-blog-carnival\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Festivals, Holidays, and Birthdays<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, I didn&#8217;t get a post up for that Carnival (sorry, Dave) &#8211; I had a post run over two weeks when it was originally intended for only one. But it&#8217;s spring in the Northern Hemisphere, a season of renewal, and so I&#8217;ll put that failure behind me and turn to this month&#8217;s subject instead.<\/p>\n<p>This month, the subject is Wealth &#8211; anything at all that you want to discuss that falls under that heading. Past Carnivals with similar themes have looked at Loot, Treasure, and Magical Treasures, and been quite successful.<\/p>\n<p>A couple of handfuls of the possible interpretations of the subject are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Unexpected forms of Wealth<\/li>\n<li>The Difference Between Wealth And Loot<\/li>\n<li>What Wealth Can Do For The PCs<\/li>\n<li>What PC Wealth Does To The GM<\/li>\n<li>Material Wealth<\/li>\n<li>A Wealth Of Information<\/li>\n<li>A Wealth Of Knowledge<\/li>\n<li>A Wealth Of Character<\/li>\n<li>A Wealth Of Connections<\/li>\n<li>A Wealth Of Reputation<\/li>\n<li>A Wealth Of Mistrust<\/li>\n<li>A Wealth Of Evidence<\/li>\n<li>A Wealth Of Allies<\/li>\n<li>A Wealth Of Potential<\/li>\n<li>A Wealth Of Targets<\/li>\n<li>The Possession Of Wealth<\/li>\n<li>How Do People Change With Wealth?<\/li>\n<li>Tales Of Wealth<\/li>\n<li>The Pursuit Of Wealth<\/li>\n<li>Aphorisms About Wealth<\/li>\n<li>Unusual Forms Of Wealth<\/li>\n<li>When Does Booty Become Wealth?<\/li>\n<li>Wealth In Your World<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>To participate in this month&#8217;s carnival, all you need do is write or record something on one of the subjects above, or any other interpretation of the term &#8220;Wealth&#8221; and leave a link to where it is freely available.<\/p>\n<p>I hope people find the diversity of interpretation to be both inspiring and fun to write about &#8211; I look forward to seeing the variety of subjects people come up with, I&#8217;m sure the above selection only scratches the surface!<\/p>\n<p>Make sure to drop me a note in the comments space below with a link to your submissions (pingbacks aren&#8217;t always reliable). As always, about a week after the Carnival moves on, there will be a round-up of your submissions.<\/p>\n<p>Technically, as an anchor post to the carnival, the above is all that&#8217;s needed, but I like to reward readers who stop by with something that&#8217;s worth their time, so this isn&#8217;t just the anchor post, it&#8217;s also the first post in the Carnival.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_31051\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-31051\" src=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/people-305836.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"390\" height=\"260\" style=\"border: 2px solid black\" class=\"size-full wp-image-31051\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/people-305836.png 390w, https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/people-305836-120x80.png 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-31051\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/clker-free-vector-images-3736\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=305836\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Clker-Free-Vector-Images<\/a> from <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=305836\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<h3>A Wealth Of Characters<\/h3>\n<p>Today, I&#8217;ll be looking at an item that isn&#8217;t even on the list above &#8211; A Wealth Of Characters.<\/p>\n<p>One way the inexperienced think that being more experienced as a GM is that they have accumulated a wealth of stock characters that can be pulled out of the &#8216;hat&#8217; at a moment&#8217;s notice as needed.<\/p>\n<p>Experienced GMs are actually less likely to resort to a stock character, because they become more skilled at compiling a unique and original character on the spur of the moment, and more confident about their capacity for doing so.<\/p>\n<h3>The Flip-Book<\/h3>\n<p>Let&#8217;s imagine a mechanism for character creation based on the metaphor of a flip book.<\/p>\n<p>How many leaves must a page be broken into for a full GM character creation schema?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Well, there&#8217;s going to be physical abilities, and possibly some relative indication of physical size.<\/li>\n<li>There are going to be stats for the non-physical abilities.<\/li>\n<li>There will be some form of a personality profile.<\/li>\n<li>There will be some form of racial profile.<\/li>\n<li>There will be some measure of capability.<\/li>\n<li>There will be some measure of resources that can be used in a confrontation.<\/li>\n<li>There will be some measure of resources that can be used outside of a confrontation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Random Numbers<\/h3>\n<p>Each of these can be represented by a random number table.<\/p>\n<p>With a flat roll, probabilities are inherently even, and are relatively easy to manipulate. If you start with a base level of 1 in 100, you can easily double or triple the chances of a more prevalent trait arising just by doubling or tripling the chance in 100 of that choice being selected.<\/p>\n<p>There are three problems that arise: (1) you need to associate that base chance with the rarest of outcomes, because there is no capacity for a smaller result on the simple table; (2) it&#8217;s very hard to produce anything approaching a natural progression; and (3) the consequence of (1) is that the more common results will chew up a large quantity of the potential space on the table, which limits the number of rare results that can be included. Before you know it, you run out of room.<\/p>\n<p>Every entry that is twice as frequently-occurring as the extreme of rarity represented by the baseline takes away the capacity for one such baseline entry. Every entry that is three times as frequently-occurring takes away two rare choices &#8211; and so on. Four entries that are, say, 16 times as likely as the base &#8220;rare&#8221; result consumes 4\u00d716-4=60% of the capacity of the table.<\/p>\n<p>And there&#8217;s a fourth issue, one implied by (2), that rarely gets thought about, because everyone is so focused on problems one through three: (4), plausibility often takes a back seat.<\/p>\n<p>To solve these issues, people with a little more experience usually resort to one of two answers, or some combination of the two: nested tables, or a bigger table.<\/p>\n<h5>A bigger table<\/h5>\n<p>Let&#8217;s look at this one first, because it&#8217;s by far the simplest one. What if, instead of rolling d100. or d% as it&#8217;s often abbreviated. you also rolled a d-whatever and read that as the first digit of a three-digit number?<br \/>\nd6d% means that your results now run from 100 to 699 &#8211; a total of 600 results to play with. or, using a d10, you end up with a d1000 (reading the 0 on the 10 as a &#8220;zero&#8221; and not a &#8220;10&#8221;. A d20 gives a d2000.<\/p>\n<p>This usually means that you have more than enough room on the table for every option, and for tweaking the allocations of chance for each option as much as you want. Doesn&#8217;t solve problems (2) and (4), though, but those problems are frequently ignored.<\/p>\n<h5>Nested tables<\/h5>\n<p>There are two approaches to this, but at first glance, they have a lot of commonalities. Individual tables are smaller, and results lead to a whole separate table with a separate die roll on it. d6 x d6 gives 36 possibilities. d20 x d20 gives 400. d20 x d20 x d20 gives 8000 &#8211; and the basic probability is still a completely flat curve. This is both good and bad &#8211; good because it makes assessment of chances easy, bad because it doesn&#8217;t solve problems (2) and (4).<\/p>\n<h5>Non-Linear tables<\/h5>\n<p>The other approach is to make some or all layers of the nest non-linear die rolls &#8211; 2d6 or 3d6 or 2d10 or whatever.<\/p>\n<p>Those involving two dice are inherently simpler because the probability curves are still straight lines. To see this, contemplate the possible results of 2d6: first, all the results with a &#8216;1&#8217; on the first die (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) and then all the results with a &#8216;2&#8217; on the first die (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8) and so on. Write these on a six-by-six grid and you&#8217;ll soon start to see patterns appear:<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" bordercolor=\"000000\" cellspacing=\"0\" background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/background_tile_1b1.png\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    2<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    3<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    4<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    3<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    4<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    4<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nNotice, for example, how the numbers in each column are the same as the numbers in the row of the same number? Notice how you get the same number repeating up and across?<\/p>\n<p>If you count up the number of rolls that yield each result, you get another pattern &#8211; the only number that appears in every row is a seven, and so that has a probability of 6 in 36. Six and Eight both appear in one less row than that, so they have a probability of 5 in 36. Five and Nine, 4 in 36; Four and Ten, 3 in 36; and so on. If you plot this on a graph, you get two straight lines &#8211; one going up to 7 and one coming back down.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\nI wasn&#8217;t going to do this, but it became useful to have on hand later in the article, so here&#8217;s a similar treatment of 3d6, with one d6 across the top and 2d6 down the left-hand side. The first column is the 2d6 result, and the last column is the frequency-of-result value determined above.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" bordercolor=\"000000\" cellspacing=\"0\" background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/background_tile_1b1.png\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    2d6 res<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <strong>1<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <strong>2<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <strong>3<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <strong>4<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <strong>5<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <strong>6<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <strong>2d6<br \/>\n    prob<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>2<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    3<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    4<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>3<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    4<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>4<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>5<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>6<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    12<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>7<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    12<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>8<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    12<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    14<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>9<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    12<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    14<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    15<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>10<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    12<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    14<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    15<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    16<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>11<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    12<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    14<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    15<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    16<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    17<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    <strong>12<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    14<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    15<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    16<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    17<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-green.png\">\n<p>    18<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/background_tile_8a.png\">\n<p>    1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nTo compile the probabilities out of 6\u00d736 = 216, start by listing the rows containing the results:<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" bordercolor=\"000000\" cellspacing=\"0\" background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/background_tile_1b1.png\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    3<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    4<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 2 + 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 2 + 3 + 4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 2 + 3 + 4 + 5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    12<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    14<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    15<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 9 + 10 + 11 + 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    16<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 10 + 11 + 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    17<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 11 + 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    18<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    = 12<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nThen replace each of those row values with the 2d6 probability in 36. Do the resulting math, and you get the chances in 216 of the result occurring on 3d6.<br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" bordercolor=\"000000\" cellspacing=\"0\" background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/background_tile_1b1.png\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    3<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 2<\/del> = 1 = 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    4<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 2 + 3<\/del> = 1 + 2 = 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    5<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 2 + 3 + 4<\/del> = 1 + 2 + 3 = 6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    6<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 2 + 3 + 4 + 5<\/del> = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6<\/del> = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = 15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    8<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7<\/del> = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 = 21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8<\/del> = 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 5 = 25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    10<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9<\/del> = 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 5 + 4 = 27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10<\/del> = 4 + 5 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 = 27<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    12<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11<\/del> = 5 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 = 25<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12<\/del> = 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 21<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    14<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12<\/del> = 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 15<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    15<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 9 + 10 + 11 + 12<\/del> = 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 10<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    16<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 10 + 11 + 12<\/del> = 3 + 2 + 1 = 6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    17<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 11 + 12<\/del> = 2 + 1 = 3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    18<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-1.jpg\">\n<p>    <del datetime=\"2021-05-31T12:21:03+00:00\">= 12<\/del> = 1 = 1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\nThere are even more patterns embedded in these results &#8211; so much so that digging out and analyzing them can become an addictive interest in and of itself. I won&#8217;t try to dig them all out, let alone explain why they are present or what they mean, but a few are noteworthy ones need commenting on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First, the pattern of results shifting up and across in the 3d6 table. This is obviously because the d6 across the top increments in results by 1 each time, as do the results down the 2d6 column.<\/li>\n<li>Second, notice how many rows contain a given result &#8211; at a 3d6 result of 8, we hit a peak of 6 because there are 6 columns in the 3d6 table.<\/li>\n<li>Third, notice the pattern in the listing of rows containing a given result &#8211; 2 &#8211; 2 &#038; 3 &#8211; 2, 3 &#038; 4, and so on. When we get to the peak number of entries, we start losing the leftmost entry to make room for a new entry on the right-hand-side &#8211; and when the rows reach 12, there are no more replacement rows, so the number of entries starts declining.<\/li>\n<li>Fourth, notice the pattern in the translation of those row results into a probability-in-36.<\/li>\n<li>Fifth and finally, notice how the dumbbell probability shape emerges and is defined by the components that make it up. At the start, each result is the sum of the previous line plus the result column in question &#8211; so the result for the second row is 1 (the previous row) plus 2 (for the second row) = 3. Even the first row obeys this rule if you assume that the &#8216;zeroth row&#8217; contains a 0 result. That means that the curve is continually steepening until we get to the eight result of 21. But from that point on, we&#8217;re losing a leftmost contribution to make room for a rightmost one, and the latter are getting smaller with each row &#8211; so the curve flattens out from this inflexion point.<\/li>\n<li>Oh, and a PS: the peak probability of 27-in-216 appears twice, telling me instantly that the average result is &#8220;something and a half&#8221;. But this is a theoretical number; you can&#8217;t actually roll it. So, like quantum phenomena and Schrodinger&#8217;s Cat, any real results have to &#8220;collapse&#8221; into one of the two integer results on either side of the average. Which is just a cool factoid in its own right.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Practical application: From the point of inflexion until its mirror-image on the far side of the probability curve (results of 8 and 13, respectively), individual results can be assigned meanings with some granularity, especially if the middle band (10 &#038; 11) are coalesced into a single outcome. This will make &#8216;average&#8217; outcomes FAR more probable than any other &#8211; 27+27=54, and 54 out of 216 is exactly 25% of the results.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to flatten the probability of extreme results a little, you need to combine two results together in a similar way, but combining two results other than the most extreme three always exceeds the probability of the next highest outcome &#8211; so a result of 15-16 is more likely to occur than a result of 14. Nothing wrong with that, but your results table needs to be reordered if that&#8217;s the structure you&#8217;re using. The alternative is to combine non-adjacent results.<\/p>\n<p>That gives a table with 9 entries:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<p>3, 5 = 7\/216 = 3.24%<br \/>\n4, 6 = 13\/216 = 6%<br \/>\n7 = 15\/216 = 6.9%<br \/>\n8-9 = 46\/216 = 21.3%<br \/>\n10-11 = 54\/216 = 25%<br \/>\n12-13 = 46\/216 = 21.3%<br \/>\n14 = 15\/216 = 6.9%<br \/>\n15, 17 = 13\/216 = 6%<br \/>\n16, 18 = 7\/216 = 3.24%\n<\/ol>\n<p>or, further collapsed a table with 7 entries:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<p>4, 6 = 13\/216 = 6%<br \/>\n3, 5. 7 = 22\/216 = 10.2%<br \/>\n8, 9 = 46\/216 = 21.3%<br \/>\n10, 11 = 54\/216 = 25%<br \/>\n12, 13 = 46\/ 216 = 21.3%<br \/>\n14, 16, 18 = 22\/216 = 10.2%<br \/>\n15, 17 = 13\/216 = 6%\n<\/ol>\n<p>or, still further collapsed, a table with 5 entries:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<p>3-7 = 35\/216 = 16.2%<br \/>\n8-9 = 46\/216 = 21.3%<br \/>\n10-11 = 54\/216 = 25%<br \/>\n12-13 = 46\/216 = 21.3%<br \/>\n14-18 = 35\/216 = 16.2%\n<\/ol>\n<p>[This 5-entry table is what I need for later in the article.]<\/p>\n<p>There are other ways of collapsing and coalescing results. Game designers love playing around with such geekery &#8211; if they are any good at it. But that&#8217;s as far off point as I need to stray, for now.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The more dice you have, the more sophisticated the resulting curve, until it becomes a very close approximation of what is sometimes called &#8220;natural&#8221; probability. And that&#8217;s very useful, because that means that you can map rare results to unlikely results with a very simple roll. This is the basic principle of AD&#038;D (and second edition D&#038;D) and the Hero System and all sorts of other RPGs that are dice based. It was D&#038;D 3.x that took such a system and (mostly) made it a flat roll using a d20 &#8211; something that I did for the Hero system a long long time ago (1981, to be exact).<\/p>\n<p>Using combinations of flat rolls and non-linear rolls, you can solve all four of the problems &#8211; but it&#8217;s a lot more complicated and a lot more work. In fact, most rule-writers start playing around with such systems without fully appreciating just how complicated they can get (If you&#8217;re interested in looking deeper into this subject, which is in danger of wandering off-topic here, you can look at my descriptions and analyses of the Sixes System that I created a while back &#8211; see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/series\/the-sixes-system\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">this series of posts<\/a>).<\/p>\n<h3>Connections<\/h3>\n<p>By the time you are experienced enough to really dig into the nuances of such systems of die rolls, and understand why something you&#8217;ve put together does or doesn&#8217;t work (or why it seems to work sometimes and not in others), though, you are already approaching the point of outgrowing such simple random tables.<\/p>\n<p>You start seeing connections between the content of different leaves of the flip-book and &#8211; usually &#8211; try to reflect those by incorporating the concept of modifiers, and by completely reorganizing the structure of the tables.<\/p>\n<p>For example, don&#8217;t you think that the selection of Species might have some bearing on the physical stats? Don&#8217;t you think that a high roll for physical stats like Strength would have a similar impact on the options available for personality profiles? How about the non-physical characteristics?<\/p>\n<p>You probably haven&#8217;t finished revising the pages of the flip-book when Confluences start showing up. Species may impact the physical stats &#8211; but won&#8217;t it also have an effect on the available personality profiles?<\/p>\n<p>Before you know it, your simple system is groaning under the weight of conditional modifiers and is so complex that it becomes a miracle if it ever works right. Realism is what usually suffers the most &#8211; problem (4) is back, and is often far more noticeable.<\/p>\n<p>Usually simultaneously with the above, you start trying to factor in regionality, and not just environment &#8211; so you might have a bonus for Elves to appear in a Forest, but that bonus would go WAY up if the Forest lay in Elven Lands. Every such refinement adds to the complexity and the difficulty of creation of a general set of pages for your flip-book, and increases the chances of some gross miscalculation.<\/p>\n<h3>Generalities<\/h3>\n<p>Often, the next stage of expertise achieved by a GM involves generalities, which are attempts to simplify the whole process. For example, you might dedicate a full third of your racial outcome probabilities to &#8220;the same as the last encounter&#8221;. You might dedicate half of that amount to &#8220;natural enemies of the race previously encountered&#8221;, and another third of that original amount to &#8220;species closely associated with the species previously encountered&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>In effect, this extracts specific general cases from the master table and sets them aside as a simplified subsystem relating to one key parameter of the leaves of the flip-book.<\/p>\n<p>Another way to look at it is to create customized character generation systems for each general representation on the list of entries pertaining to your key parameter. That could be environmental &#8211; a purpose-built set of tables, if not a whole different sub-system of character creation, for Urban Communities and Settlements.<\/p>\n<p>Or is that Urban Communities and Settlements of a particular population level?<\/p>\n<p>Or <em>Forested<\/em> Urban Communities and Settlements of a particular population level?<\/p>\n<p>Or <strong><em>Forested in Elven Lands<\/em><\/strong> Urban Communities and Settlements of a particular population level?<\/p>\n<p>How finely do you differentiate?<\/p>\n<p>By now, the trap and flaw with this system is obvious &#8211; it&#8217;s either too blunt a weapon, or too much work, or both. I can easily envisage a situation in which you need 120 or more character generation systems to accommodate all the local variables &#8211; and even if those are all variations on the one set of master tables, the results are so much work that its almost impossible to do adequately. By the time you got half-way through, any enthusiasm for the project would have well and truly dissipated &#8211; and there&#8217;s always the possibility that your differentiation isn&#8217;t specific enough. And, worse still, 90% (at least) of this work will never be used, and that means that you&#8217;ve diverted time to the project that could have been used more productively.<\/p>\n<h3>Interpretation<\/h3>\n<p>Most GMs make a start down this dead-end, discover the trap, and start looking for a different solution. Either on their own, or as a gift from some other sympathetic GM, they find themselves pursuing the path of Interpretation.<\/p>\n<p>This generalizes the whole process all the way back to the original flip-book concept, does away with the whole concept of connections (but probably keeps the nested tables for their realism value). One system for all.<\/p>\n<p>But consulting the flip-book is now just the first or second step in a process. Each sentient species now comes with a set of guidelines for interpretations, and a general cultural description. If you get a result on a subsequent leaf of the flip-book, you can either interpret it &#8211; or flip at random to a different leaf and see if that fits any better.<\/p>\n<p>Once you have a characterization, you then refine it for locality, sub-culture, and circumstances, as you see fit.<\/p>\n<h3>Simplification, Generalization. Abstraction, and Deeper Interpretation<\/h3>\n<p>A successful result or two sets your GMing feet on a continual process of simplification and generalization as you discover more and more that doesn&#8217;t need to be explicitly stated and can be left out and generated <em>at need.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The more practice you have, the more comfortable you become at refining and interpreting a generalized or abstract characterization into an individual, on the fly, and the more you simplify the character generation process.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, you may even discard the entire (metaphoric) flip-book in favor of some more abstract process.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve offered several such abstract processes here at Campaign Mastery. The &#8216;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/blogdex\/bdx-08-characters\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Characters<\/a>&#8216; page of the Blogdex contains more than 100 links to past articles, with more to be added.<\/p>\n<p>In particular, I should direct attention to <em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/backstory-boxes\/\" title=\"The Backstory Boxes \u2013 Directed Creativity\">The Backstory Boxes &#8211; Directed Creativity<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/creating-alien-characters\/\" title=\"Creating Alien Characters: Expanding the \u2018Create A Character Clinic\u2019 To Non-Humans\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Creating Alien Characters<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/the-wellspring-of-euonyms\/\" title=\"The Wellspring Of Euonyms: Name Seeds\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Wellspring Of Euonyms<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/the-shameful-secret\/\" title=\"What matters to your character: the value of the shameful secret\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">What matters to your character &#8211; the value of the shameful secret<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/break-through-writers-block-3\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Part 3 of the series on Writers&#8217; Block<\/a>, which deals with characterization<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/negative-space-in-rpgs\/\" title=\"Leaving Things Out: Negative Space in RPGs\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Leaving Things Out: Negative Space In RPGs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/3-feet-in-someone-elses-shoes\/\" title=\"3 Feet In Someone Else\u2019s Shoes: Getting in character quickly\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">3 Feet in Someone Else&#8217;s Shoes &#8211; getting in character quickly<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/atgm30-seasoning-the-stew\/\" title=\"Ask The GM: Seasoning The Stew (making races feel distinctive)\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ask The GMs: Seasoning The Stew (making races feel distinctive)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/principle-cause-course\/\" title=\"Principle, Cause, and Course \u2013 Complexities In Motivation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Principle, Cause, and Course &#8211; complexities in motivation<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/into-character-1-npcs\/\" title=\"Getting Into Character pt 1: NPCs\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Getting Into Character Part 1<\/a><\/li>\n<li>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/series\/the-characterisation-puzzle\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Characterization Puzzle<\/a> Series<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/the-ubercharacter-wimp\/\" title=\"The Ubercharacter Wimp: Plotting within your PCs limitations\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Ubercharacter Wimp<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/look-beyond-the-box\/\" title=\"Look beyond the box: a looser concept for NPCs\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Look Beyond The Box &#8211; a looser concept for NPCs<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/the-3-minute-npc\/\" title=\"By the seat of your pants: the 3 minute (or less) NPC\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">By The Seat Of Your Pants &#8211; the 3-minute (or less) NPC<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/using-ad-hoc-statistics\/\" title=\"By The Seat Of Your Pants: Using Ad-hoc statistics\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">By The Seat Of Your Pants: Using Ad-hoc statistics<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/inversions-attract\/\" title=\"Inversions Attract: Another Quick NPC Generator\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Inversions Attract: Another quick NPC Generator<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/creating-partial-npcs\/\" title=\"Creating Partial NPCs To Speed Game Prep\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Creating Partial NPCs to Speed Game Prep<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/the-flunkie-equation\/\" title=\"The Flunkie Equation \u2013 quick and easy Hors d\u2019Combat\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Flunky Equation &#8211; quick and easy Hors d&#8217;Combat<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/i-see-with-my-little-minds-eye\/\" title=\"I see with my little mind\u2019s eye: The power of Visualization\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I See With My Little Mind&#8217;s Eye: The Power Of Visualization<\/a>, and finally,<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/ten-tips-for-npc-creation\/\" title=\"Ten Tips for NPC Creation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ten Tips For NPC Creation<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>The inaccurate presumption<\/h3>\n<p>Having charted the evolution of technique that most GMs experience, it&#8217;s time to look back at the original proposition with a more critical eye.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<em>One way the inexperienced think that being more experienced as a GM is that they have accumulated a wealth of stock characters that can be pulled out of the &#8216;hat&#8217; at a moment&#8217;s notice as needed.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Anyone who has this impression is mistaken. If anything, experienced GMs rely <em>less<\/em> on an accumulated stockpile of characters than they do their ability to improv and interpret abstract characterizations.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\n<em>Experienced GMs are actually less likely to resort to a stock character, because they become more skilled at compiling a unique and original character on the spur of the moment, and more confident about their capacity for doing so.<\/em>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&#8230;as I said.<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s review the flip-book to see this in action:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Physical Abilities, and possibly some relative indication of physical size.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Physical Abilities aren&#8217;t really needed. A relative indication of physical size (taller, shorter, fatter, or thinner than average) might be useful but can often be implied by characterization. So this entire set of leaves can be left out.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There are going to be stats for the non-physical abilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Again, this is not needed, because personality and competence are enough to indicate the contents, and in a more directly useful way.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There will be some form of a personality profile.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now, this is something that&#8217;s always useful &#8211; but what&#8217;s desirable is a more abstract system that permits interpretation. I know I&#8217;ve mentioned it before, but somewhere in my voluminous accumulated notes I have a personality generator that takes a small number of d20 rolls and selects, menu-style, from a list of personality traits. There are no indicators of how these traits fit together or how they express themselves or their causes or even the underlying psychology &#8211; that&#8217;s all interpretation. When, eventually, it surfaces, I&#8217;ll be posting it here at Campaign Mastery.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There will be some form of racial profile.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The creature&#8217;s write-up in the Monster Manual (or equivalent) is ample for this purpose. In fact, it&#8217;s more than enough; distilling the entries for each sentient species that might be encountered down to a single paragraph as a ready-reference for the busy GM, in order of encounter likelihood, would be a far more beneficial use of time than creating a whole character generation system.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There will be some measure of capability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When I originally listed this, I was thinking in terms of D&#038;D character levels or the character-points base from the Hero System, and I suspect that most readers would have assumed those are the sort of things I was referring to. But that&#8217;s more detail than needed. Instead, I would use two 3d6 rolls and a far more abstracted results matrix &#8211; I&#8217;ll present one at the end of this section.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There will be some measure of resources that can be used in a confrontation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>And, with such a 3d6-by-3d6 matrix, this becomes somewhat superfluous &#8211; if someone is &#8216;highly capable&#8217;, that carries certain implications in terms of the resources that they have available. Again, see below.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>There will be some measure of resources that can be used outside of a confrontation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even more than the confrontational resources, this is implied by the combination of personality traits and the matrix result. However, recasting this as a more abstract indication permits the readout from the matrix to be the input (with one of the two previous 3d6 results) to nuance the outcome.<\/p>\n<p>In summary, what we have left is a characterization, some racial profile notes, and some abstract indicators of capability and resources. Almost everything else can be generated on the fly.<\/p>\n<p><em>Almost<\/em> everything else. Clearly, I think that there&#8217;s something missing, and that this was missing from our original flip-book model to start with, no matter how complete it may have seemed.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ll deal with that in just a moment, too.<\/p>\n<h3>A Demonstrated Capability Matrix<\/h3>\n<p>To a certain extent, it doesn&#8217;t matter how skilled or capable a character is, potentially; other characters can&#8217;t see potential, they can only objectively measure actual results. However, some characters can promise much and under-perform &#8211; or be an armchair expert with no field expertise at all. So the distinction can be important.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Achievement level relative to opportunities:<\/strong><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/3d6.png\" alt=\"3d6\" width=\"103\" height=\"40\" style=\"border: none; margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 0\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/3d6.png 273w, https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/3d6-120x47.png 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 103px) 100vw, 103px\" \/><\/p>\n<table border=\"1\" bordercolor=\"000000\" cellspacing=\"0\" background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/background_tile_1b1.png\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-red.png\">\n<p>    <strong>Opportunities [3d6]<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-red.png\">\n<p>    <strong>Achievements [3d6]<\/strong><\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-red.png\">\n<p>    <strong>Interpretation<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"5\" background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-pale.jpg\">\n<p>    3-7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    3-7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    very few opportunities, all wasted<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    8-9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    very few opportunities, not exceptional<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    10-11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    very few opportunities, did okay, local craftsman<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    12-13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    very few opportunities, did very well, needs support<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    14-18<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    very few opportunities, did exceptionally well, improved circumstances will follow<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"5\" background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-pale.jpg\">\n<p>    8-9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    3-7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    limited opportunities, substandard performance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    8-9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    limited opportunities, inexperienced performance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    10-11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>     limited opportunities, performed adequately<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    12-13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    limited opportunities, did very well, needs practice &#038; training<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    14-18<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    limited opportunities, did exceptionally well, apprenticed to a master<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"5\" background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-pale.jpg\">\n<p>    10-11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    3-7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    typical opportunities, wasted them, a failure<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    8-9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    typical opportunities, substandard performance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    10-11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>     typical opportunities, workmanlike performance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    12-13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    typical opportunities, shows promise, needs more experience<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    14-18<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    typical opportunities, did exceptionally well, regional respect<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"5\" background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-pale.jpg\">\n<p>    12-13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    3-7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    ample opportunity, under-performed badly<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    8-9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    ample opportunity, made sloppy mistakes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    10-11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>      ample opportunity, a professional but no genius<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    12-13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    ample opportunity, did well, able to tackle any job<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    14-18<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    ample opportunity, did exceptionally well, national respect<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"5\" background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-pale.jpg\">\n<p>    12-13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    3-7<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    privileged beginnings, wasted every opportunity<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    8-9<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    privileged beginnings, unskilled performance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    10-11<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>      privileged beginnings, barely adequate performance<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    12-13<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    privileged beginnings, lived up to expectations, administrator<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.jpg\">\n<p>    14-18<\/td>\n<td background=\"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/parchment-blue-2.png\">\n<p>    privileged beginnings, exceptional performance, famous or will be so<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/em><br \/>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nThis table presupposes that a privileged starting position or natural genius will equate to roughly the same level of opportunity to demonstrate competence. While the dominant thought in constructing it used the paradigm of a builder or architect, the general pattern will apply to everything from swordsmen to accountants, from beekeepers to lawyers, from factory workers to research scientists. The &#8220;big&#8221; contracts (a relative term) will go to those in the top two tiers, and the top three results within those tiers &#8211; or, if a local contract, to the top two results of the middle tier.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s lots of scope for interpretation, depending on context. In D&#038;D, for example, the bottom result of the top tier could represent the thumb-fingered son of a local noble, taken on to keep a patron happy. In any setting, but especially in more modern ones, it represents an incompetent who survives due to inherited wealth or position, or corrupt business practices. The result above may represent someone who&#8217;s just not very good, or someone who has abilities but has poured them down a bottle, or who has made a massive mistake in the past and is now trying to rebuild a shattered reputation.<\/p>\n<p>From these results and their interpretation, you can determine what level of resources the character has available to them &#8211; one result fits several possibilities. You could roll randomly, but the results are likely to be inconsistent with the characterization; it&#8217;s better to determine the latter and then interpret the confluence of personality, opportunity, and success.<\/p>\n<h3>The Relationship to Career<\/h3>\n<p>Race and stats and level of success and capability and the difference between resources earned and resources expended are all well and good, all useful in their own ways &#8211; but our original flip-book concept left aside entirely the whole question of what the character does. Is he a priest, a preacher, a scribe, a butcher, a general, a librarian?<\/p>\n<p>This was left off for good reason. If you have a defined personality, who has done well, you can select a career that is appropriate for that personality. If they have not done so well, you can choose a career to which they are not so well suited, or apply some other reason for the failure. Without both personality and the above Demonstrated Capability Matrix, you can&#8217;t select a career appropriately.<\/p>\n<p>If, on the other hand, you have a particular profession as the defining characteristic of the NPC you are creating, the Demonstrated Capability Matrix defines the suitability of the personality to that role &#8211; again, without it, you can&#8217;t determine the relationship between profession and personality.<\/p>\n<h3>The X-factor<\/h3>\n<p>One further level of abstraction is possible, and that is to take the entire question out of the in-game realm entirely and employ a metagame generation principle &#8211; a Concept. Think about which characters will advance your plotline. From amongst those, pick the one that is most interesting, or will generate the most entertainment. Take that central concept and make it plausible, make it believable. That will select a personality profile for you, and replace the die rolls on the Demonstrated Capability Matrix with a deterministic outcome &#8211; and, as I&#8217;ve pointed out already, from those fundamental basics, the entire character can derive.<\/p>\n<p>How much of that derivation can be done on the fly is a function of experience. It&#8217;s always preferable to do work in advance if you can do so; but if you need something improvised, such a concept will steer you in the right direction. It&#8217;s an entirely acceptable compromise to gave generated the concept in advance &#8211; and to have left it at that.<\/p>\n<p>When you dig right down into all those past articles and techniques, they are all methods for generating the seed of a character concept. They just hide that truth to a greater or lesser extent.<\/p>\n<p>The same is true of the Demonstrated Capability Matrix offered above, and of all similar game aids relating to characterization: they are, ultimately, all supports and seed-generators, or at their best when used in that way. Master the principles and techniques of character generation, and you too will have a Wealth of Characters &#8211; without going to all the trouble of generating and stockpiling them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once again, the wheel of days has traversed the circle of time to Campaign Mastery&#8217;s turn at hosting the Blog Carnival, following on from Full Moon Storytelling&#8217;s Festivals, Holidays, and Birthdays. Unfortunately, I didn&#8217;t get a post up for that Carnival (sorry, Dave) &#8211; I had a post run over two weeks when it was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[64,67,70,288,74,89,91,95,96],"tags":[322,163,155,111,116,319,172,218,137,146,165,232],"series":[],"class_list":["post-31041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-beginners","category-dnd","category-gm-ing","category-metagame","category-mike","category-npcs-etc","category-plans-and-prep","category-tools","category-write","tag-blog-carnival","tag-cultures-societies","tag-dd","tag-encounter-design","tag-game-mastery","tag-metagaming","tag-npcs","tag-pathfinder","tag-plausibility","tag-running-encounters","tag-tools-techniques","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1toiD-84F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31041"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31041"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31533,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31041\/revisions\/31533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31041"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=31041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}