In a previous post I described a method for rolling RPG ability scores that always add up to the same number. It assumes that there are six ability scores.

Games such as Into the Odd, and those derived from it, such as Mausritter and Cairn, have three ability scores: STR, DEX, and WIL. Can we do something similar? I found a method, but it is not nearly as elegant.

The Method

Step 1: roll

Roll four six-sided dice and arrange them into a line.

For example:

Step 2: sum the first three dice

\[\mathsf{STR} = 5+4+2 =11\]

Step 3: sum the backs of the last three dice

\[\mathsf{DEX} = 3+5+4 =12\]

Step 4: sum the remaining faces, plus 4

Two faces haven’t been used yet: the back of die 1 and the front of die 4. Sum these two faces, then add 4 (chosen because the average d6 roll is 3½).

\[\mathsf{WIL} = 2+3+4 =9\]

Result

In this example, the ability scores are:

Notice that the sum of the three scores is 32. It will always be 32.

A Modification (for more randomness)

We can add even more variety by not always going in the order STR, DEX, WIL. Notice that STR and DEX are more tightly linked than either is to WIL (they share two dice).

There are exactly three ways to meaningfully reorder the scores, determined by which score gets the +4 (like WIL above).

Therefore you can roll a d6 on the following table to randomly pick an ordering of the scores: