NPC random statistics roll chart?

[Dwarf99]

right, I was just Joshing you (I had capitalization because that's my actual first name) but I really hate that idiom it makes me angry...

I can't wait til you get a word document without the code boxes or perhaps a PDF of this thing

[Fish]

I'm debating at this moment whether to go for accuracy or for simplicity on some of the statistics.

Simplicity: I make one chart for Education, as it is now; everybody rolls against the same chart to determine whether he has a high school diploma, masters degree, bachelors, etc. Simplicity means fewer rolls and fewer tables, at the expense of verisimilitude.

Accuracy: Each ethnicity has its own chart for Education to determine whether or not they have a college degree; each ethnicity is also adjusted differently depending on the age of the character (because, for instance, black people graduate today at a higher rate today than they did in 1950; and black women are much more likely to attend college than black men). Accuracy means the charts better reflect reality, but it means more rolling and more tables.

[Gizensha]

Originally Posted by Fish

You roll some six-siders, but instead of adding them up, you use them in sequence. Three six-siders used as perhexile dice give results like

111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125 ... 663, 664, 665, 666.

It gives you 216 precisely equal probabilities, instead of a bell curve. It's like percentile dice in D&D (cent = 100) but instead it's perhexile (hexa = 6). It's not precisely a mathematical Base 6 result, since the dice are 1-6 instead of 0-5, but it's the same concept.

It can be read as base six by simply reading 6s as 0s, though.

[Ragitsu]

Originally Posted by Fish

I'm debating at this moment whether to go for accuracy or for simplicity on some of the statistics.

In this particular instance, I would favor Simplicity, but whichever you feels work best is ultimately the one i'll use ;-).

[capnq]

Originally Posted by Fish

You roll some six-siders, but instead of adding them up, you use them in sequence. Three six-siders used as perhexile dice give results like

111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125 ... 663, 664, 665, 666.

The "standard" gamer notation for that is "d666".

[Dwarf99]

BACK FOUL DEMON!

j/k, but I couldn't resist.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Ragitsu

In this particular instance, I would favor Simplicity, but whichever you feels work best is ultimately the one i'll use ;-).

Right now I'm thinking of four simple charts to cover education:

First, one that runs about 85%-15% graduated HS/didn't graduate. The roll can be adjusted upward or downward for age and ethnicity.

Second: for those who graduate, a simple d6 roll. On a result of 1, the character actually initially failed to graduate, but went back and earned a GED. (The true distribution is about 1 in 7, but 1 in 6 is close enough.)

Third: for those who didn't graduate from high school, there might be a simple chart for various disabilities or disadvantages explaining why, including dyslexia, low Will, low Perception, some neurological disorder, poverty, or maybe stuff like Ally (gang), Bully/Callous, or criminal history. I'll look into the statistics to see if there are any attributed reasons why people fail to graduate.

Last: a chart showing the distribution of possible degrees to earn. This will be a nice bell curve. I probably won't get too specific on the degree; it'll be hard to determine a fair distribution for whether the person has a Bachelor of Arts degree vs. business degree vs. science vs. nursing vs. every other specialty. It'd be easier to roll randomly for occupation and discard meaningless or improbable results (a doctor with no degree, a dropout teacher, a truck driver with a doctorate in English) than chart the proper correlations.

[Ragitsu]

There's also the biggie "Cannot Learn".

[Gizensha]

Originally Posted by capnq

The "standard" gamer notation for that is "d666".

It is? I thought d666 was a theoretical 666 sided die (And, presumably, rolled via a psudorandom number generator.)

[Ragitsu]

I wonder if there is a way to quantify the percentage of the population that X Appearance (Ugly, Attractive, Hideous, Very Handsome, etc).