From: Yours truly (acb@duke.cs.duke.edu)
Date: Sat 18 Aug 1990 - 09:56:33 EEST
I disagree that complete separation is the way to go. Weight is in large part
a function of height, so taller people should be heaver. Perhaps the best
way to create PC humans is to use height as the basic measure, determine a
weight from that, and use an average when both stats are important. Height
should be less variable than RQ size, otherwise we'll often have people more
than twice the height of others. We can then use that height to generate a
weight size, and from there roll a build factor to get fat or thin people.
I prefer bell-shaped attribute distributions for height, as opposed to the linear form you proposed last ish. We'd want such to average around 5' 10" for males, 5' 5" for females (human, of course, different races would have different numbers). Perhaps from that roll 4d8, subtract 18, and add that number of inches to 5' 10". This gives a minimum male height of 4' 8" and max of 7' 2", use different dice if the extremes are too big or too small for your taste.
Based on the height, we then generate a basic weight related to almost the cube of the height. I will try to come up with one and put it in a later issue.
I allow PCs to pick their size anyway, but such a system is good for generating NPCs.
Small suggested rules mod: remove strength from the manipulation modifier. Picking locks, playing instruments, concealing objects, and palming things just isn't strength dependent.
Another rules mod: make throw an attack skill.
Yet another: Take strength over 10 as a modifer to range for thrown weapons and things such as "strength" bows. Thus an 18 strength gives you 1.8 times the range, which is fairly reasonable. I would also extend the short range and the like.
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