Languages in OSR games

Languages are something I've rarely seen used in OSR games, either ran by me or others... More often than not, these rules were ignored. Either because the game was played with humans only and then game location was not too relevant (and so the common tongue) - or more often, because it was more interesting to allow comunication than block it because of the languages.
I believe this is not typical - probably some of you or many of you actually use the rules for languages, and consider them an integral part of the game... but this was not my experience.


When I've read LotFP the first time, I immediately noticed how the game changed the approach to languages.

Most Characters are assumed to begin play being fully fluent in their native tongue, and are literate as well if they have an Intelligence of 7 or greater. Elves and Dwarfs will know the local human tongue in addition to the tongue of their particular clan (Halflings use the local human language).
When a character comes into contact with another language, his chances of knowing the language is 1 in 6, with the character’s Intelligence modifier applying. If a character has a Languages skill at a greater level than 1 in 6, use that as the base chance instead.

What is quite elegant here, is that you need to make no list in advance. No need for the GM to make a list of languages, no choices to make at character creation.
You know I am a big fan of such flexible and fast approaches, and this is good enough for me. It is not perfect, of course: sometimes it may block an interesting conversation just because no character succeeds in the roll, and still leaves room for frustration for players... How many times did you improve Languages on your character sheet, as a player, giving it skill points or whatever your system used, only to have the campaign and the GM never make this relevent in play?
Still, I feel this is better than the standard lists used in most OSR games.


If instead you want to add more details to language rules, here are some suggestions.
The first is by Rocinante, and presents different levels in languages: it makes sense, if you want to simulate something more realistic.
Indeed knowing a language for basic comunication is one thing, while being fluent or able to read ancient, academic or highly specialist texts are definitely more challenging.
I personally don't like too much the idea to add this level of complexity, but I see how it could be useful if it made most characters able to speak many languages at the basic level (thus reducing or eliminating language barriers). But while I see the potential benefits of this, I still do not like too much having to track different levels for each language - and I guess it would create a discrepancy with other skills in the game... If we introduce 3 levels for languages, why not have for example: Novice/Skilled/Expert for all other skills?

Making Languages Make Sense

by Rocinante

[...] Basic: You can discuss the weather and order a drink or ask for directions in this language. Anything else is beyond you, and Charisma checks are made with disadvantage if using this language. (1 point)

Fluent: You can make alliances, chat someone up and get by in almost all day-to-day situations. (2 points)
Scholarly: You can read ancient, academic or highly specialist texts in this language and understand them. Think reading Foucault in the original French. Only ‘scholarly’ classes (Wizard, Cleric, Warlock, Bard) or those with a relevant background (Scholar, Sage etc) may choose this option. (3 points)

[...]

https://thelastdaydawned.blogspot.com/2016/11/making-languages-make-sense.html

I guess there might be a way to use this concept, somehow keeping the game still simple, if it would be paired with something easier like the default LotFP Languages skill.
An idea could be to allow characters to comunicate with other humans and humanoids in most cases (thus leaving room for role playing and negotiations and interactions...) and test the LotFP Languages skill for reading/writing/other advanced uses of languages.


The next link is instead an analysis of alignment languages - although the post starts with a few considerations about languages for the various game's species (elves, dwarves, etc...) and the "common" tongue which may be used to avoid language barriers.
The alignment language is another interesting topic because it could be used to make possible to sustain many more interactions than the regular language list would... but on the other hand, if used between NPCs and/or monsters, would make it possible for characters to guess someone's alignment very quickly.
The article suggests several alternatives, which are a mix of alignment and other languages - and they have a certain flavor to them, but again I fell like they push too far in terms of world-building and GM-prep and details for the players to remember... especially if they are presented before the start of a campaign, rather than as details that come up later on in play, little by little.

Languages, alignment or otherwise

by Eric Diaz

[...] B13 has a list of languages that is not specially interesting - you've got languages for elves, dwarves, lizard men, etc. It makes sense that every creature would have their own language [...]

This is not particularly useful when running a game. so we get a "common" language that 20% of people speak, thus avoiding to deal with language barriers all the time (still too often, probably) [...]

Modern D&D does something like that, while reducing the number of languages and alphabets to more manageable levels - maybe goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears all speak the same language, for example. Again, works well, but feels a bit artificial and it's not something I feel particularly interested in.

[...]

Now, alignment language. It certainly has its fans, but it has plenty of haters and has been mostly abandoned in modern D&D, as it makes little sense unless you see alignment as factions. The main inspiration for the concept is probably Black Speech.

Another problem with alignment languages is that, in theory, it could be used to identify anyone's alignment in seconds, making some interesting interactions impossible.

[...]

Darkspeak: the spoken/written language of demons and the mightiest inhabitants of the Abyss. Only chaotic characters can learn it without a significant risk of going mad, and even them will avoid using it unless they are also demons.

Bastard tongue: the gutural, often unpleasant spoken language of goblins, orcs, minor demons and beings that associate with chaos.

Devani: the spoken/written language of Elysium. Learning this language for any character that isn't lawful is like looking directly into the sun, and many will not survive the experience. Every mortal uses this language with reverence and awe and avoid speaking it out loud - even if they can understand it when it comes form the mouth of an angel.

Prisca: the spoken/written language of the fallen Empire, specially common in religious (lawful) texts and legal documents.

Fae: the spoken (sung) language of fairies and the spirits of the wild. Anyone can learn it, but characters that are not Neutral are suffer greater risk of being charmed by sylvan spirits if they understand their words.

[...]

http://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/2017/05/languages-alignment-or-otherwise.html

Another interesting take on alignment languages is to consider them specific dead languages in the campaign world. This means that they can be learned and therefore someone's alignment is not necessarily indicated by the alignment language that they speak, and that having a mix of alignments in the party is useful if you need to be able to read or write or speak a specific dead language.
This feels again like an additional layer of complication, to me, but it's interesting (and probably more reasonable than the secret code languages as the original alignment languages were).

Sprechen sie Neutral?

by Dennis Laffey

Alignment languages?  Yeah.  Let's talk about them. [...]

Alignment languages will be specific dead languages in the campaign world.  They're not secret.  They're not exclusive.  They're not even really designed to be used as a secret code language or shibboleth.  But whatever alignment you choose determines which of the three (luckily for me, I run Classic D&D with Law-Neutrality-Chaos only) your PC knows, in addition to Common and any demi-human languages. 

[...]

This means you can't necessarily trust someone just because they happen to speak Ancient Gardelish and so do you (not that you should implicitly trust someone of your own alignment anyway, even if you're both Lawful).  It also gives a reason why adventuring parties might actually WANT a range of alignments in the party. [...]

http://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2012/07/sprechen-sie-neutral.html

If this sounds interesting to you, you may read more in the second part of the blog post.

Sprechen sie Neutral? Pt. 2

by Dennis Laffey

[...] Anyway, my point tonight is to restate my idea in simpler terms.

"Alignment languages" in my game will CEASE to be alignment languages as commonly understood.  They will be dead languages within the campaign world: the cultures that spawned the languages have disappeared, and the successor cultures may speak a language based on them, but they are still different languages.  People use them for various purposes (religious, mercantile, academic, etc.).  Most educated people (and all adventurers) know one or more of them, but rarely use them in everyday life. 

[...]

For example, let's say I've set up Latin as the language Lawfuls start with, Ancient Greek as the language Neutrals start with, and Ancient Egyptian as the language Chaotics start with.  Bob rolls up Gargamel, a Neutral Magic-User with a 17 Int, entitling him to two bonus languages.  He gets French (Common, everyone has it) and Ancient Greek (for being Neutral).  He wants to speak to dragons, so he takes Dragon as a bonus.  He then decides that communicating with any humanoids he charms would be useful, so he decides that for his second bonus language he will learn Ancient Egyptian. [...]

http://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/2012/07/sprechen-sie-neutral-pt-2.html

After reading all these, I am inclined to keep the simple approach of Lamentations of the Flame Princess.
If you want your players to avoid wasting points on the Language skill if you don't really know if it will ever come into play, you could simply grant all classes (not just the Specialist) some sort of automatic progression (i.e. a point in this Language skill every 3 levels or something).

Thinking about it...
I guess Languages are not something that the characters will necessarily get better at, with adventuring - or instead, if you want to look at it from a different point of view, all characters, regardless of their class, will improve with Languages with travel, adventuring, contact with other populations and perhaps with contact with monsters and creatures (if they speak at all).

So my proposal would be to use the LotFP rule and to set the Language skill to 1, but at character creation also add to it the INT or CHA modifier (whichever is higher, and only if positive). Then do not change it anymore (smarter characters or those more inclined to social contact, will have better language skills).

As an alternative, use the LotFP rule and set the Language skill to 1, then every time a character gains a level, roll a d6. If they roll higher than their Language skill, add 1 point to it. As they get better, it becomes less likely that they will add another dot.
There you go; all classes get their fair chance of improving with languages and players do not need to waste points in this skill that maybe you as the GM will never bring into play...
You know what it looks like to me? Saving Throws: Save vs. Dragon Breath increases also if you don't have dragons in your campaign. And if you decide one day to bring one into the game, your characters have a score to save against it.

Design notes:
- Languages are for me a sore topic: they require attention at character creation, and they usually present a difficult choice for players, because selecting languages is often a blind bet
- To help players to make this decision in an informed manner, the GM should prepare in advance a list of available languages and somehow explain to the players which could be more relevant
- Also, selecting languages when afterwards the GM (or the style of the adventures/campaign) does not bring them into play becomes a waste of time at char-gen or even worse, a waste of skill points
- LotFP has a single skill which is tested once for every new language, eliminating the initial choice (but still the skill requires players to invest points in it, so it is still potentially a waste if languages then do not come up)
- If you want to keep it simple, just make this Language skill to progress automatically for example every 3 levels, for all classes (not just Specialists)
- Languages, in real life, have "levels": you can be able to sustain basic conversations or complex ones, you may or not have an accent, be able or not to read and write; this level of complexity seems like an overkill unless languages play a really important role in your campaign
- An idea could be to use a skill like in LotFP but only for advanced uses: i.e. when reading/writing or sustaining a complex conversation
- If you use alignment languages, be careful because it makes it possible for the characters to determine someone's alignment very quickly
- Languages, and also alignment languages (or alternatives to them) help to generate a credible, detailed setting for your campaign, but they might become an additional burden for the players if they are presented just as an info-dump at the start of the game
- If you use alignment languages, you could consider them to be specific dead languages in the campaign world
- My personal preference is to use the LotFP simple approach, but with some sort of automatic progression (i.e. every X levels, or with a d6 chance to improve the skill at level-up)

Retirement and Funerals

The inspiration for this article came from Funerals for the Fallen by James Young.

It's just a simple, easy rule, with the potential for a tremendous impact on the game, in case of character's death.

Funerals for the Fallen
by James Young
In essence:
Take a dead character's remains to a safe place with a church (or cultural equivalent) and you can buy their experience points on a 1:1 silver-for-exp basis.
This represents money spent on funeral rites and memorials and bar tabs and other things purchased in their memory. The player spending the money does, of course, say what they're spending it on.

[...]

It encourages the retrieval of your buddy's corpse from whatever horrific death consumed them, accomplishing my favourite little trick of merging the intentions of player and character together.

[...]

On that note, higher level characters "deserve" more lavish send-offs than their lower level brethren. Nobody's going to do much for a level 2 Thief, but that seventh level Cleric is getting a whole damn church raised in his honour.

Getting a corpse back out of the dungeon is interesting logistically, especially if you didn't manage to kill the thing that killed them. I had players venture, against their better judgement, into a spider lair to retrieve a corpse. A corpse! Usually I only see rescue missions to retrieve still-living hostages!

[...]

https://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2015/09/funerals-for-fallen.html

As you can see, a simple rule brings to the table a couple of very important topics:
- The challenge of bringing your friend's dead body back to civilization, with all that implies (managing resources and weight, deciding to go back instead of pushing forward)
- Expending a certain amount of money (a lot if possible), proportional to the level of the dead and, presumably, proportional to the strength of the friendship and bonds with the deceased

This is done by granting XP for gold spent on the funeral, but while the rule is clearly in the "gaming" space of the players' mind, it achieves something which has a powerful "story" impact: taking risks to bring back to civilization the dead body of a fallen comrade, and spending money to give it proper burial and a funeral service.
In other words, it reinforces a certain behavior by the characters, using XP as a leverage.
This approach is described already in the Gaining XP (number 1) post.


While death signifies the end of the game for a certain character, there is also the topic of Retirement mentioned in the title.
This is a slightly different topic, but it still means that the character is out of the game.

So let's see a traumatic option first: what happens when the character is forced to retire, not because it ended a successful career as tomb-robber, but when retirement is used as a replacement for death.
The first post makes use of a Death and Dismemberment table, as in the link below.

MY FAVORITE MONTH IS DISMEMBER

by Arnold K.

[...]
>CLICK HERE TO GET IT<
[...]
http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2016/01/my-favorite-month-is-dismember.html

This is instead the actual post; as you can see Arnold is using retirement as a substitution for death. Combat with the above rules is harder, nasty wounds may bring a character to retirement.
I find these rules a bit overcomplicated, but the main point is actually using retirement as a way to give characters a way out (a forced way out, in this case) which is not just get-rich-or-die.

Death, Trauma, and Retirement: I'm Gettin' Too Old For This Shit
by Arnold K.
[...] Trauma
PC retirement is a replacement for PC death, not an additional risk.  I'm making death less likely in order to make retirement more likely.  Retired characters are more interesting and more useful than dead ones.  (And a lot less demoralizing.)
For example, ". . . and then he bought a turnip farm and swore never to leave it" is more satisfying end to a character's story than ". . . and then he died in a filthy hole, and the rats nibbled his eyes until he was quite dead".
And of course, forcibly retiring a character still accomplishes the primary punitive aspect of dying: you lose the opportunity to play your character.
So here's my first draft:
Whenever you have a near-death experience (roll higher than a 10 on the Death and Dismemberment Table) and survive, you gain a point of Trauma and put a question mark next to it (if a question mark isn't there already).
Whenever you return to place where your character could conceivably retire, erase the question mark and roll a d20.  If you roll equal-or-less than your Trauma score, your character decides to retire.  You cannot stop them.

[...]

Retirement

[...] Retirement is just retirement from adventuring.  It can be literally anything they way, as long as it's not adventuring and they do not continue on as a player character.  They become a friendly NPC instead.  If they retire with enough loot, they can become a friendly and powerful NPC.  You can retire at any time, not just when Trauma forces them.

Inform the players about everything in the last paragraph.  This rule needs to be mostly transparent.

1. When a player retires, ask them what sort of retirement they intend, and how much wealth they are retiring with.

2. Multiply the wealth by the character's level, and look up the result on the table below.  Adjudicate the details of the new NPC using your vast prowess, using the numbers below as a guide.

Level x Wealth = Retirement Points (RP)

Less than 100 RP - Probably going to die in a nearby gutter.

100 RP - A chance at a normal life.  Apartment, job, loans, loyal dog, relationship problems, taxes.  Just a citizen. [...]

[...]

A Softer Death Table

[...] And anyway, I think the forced retirement thing (see below) will help drive them away from adventuring without gimping them towards the end.

Because one of the reasons why I liked the idea of players losing arms and legs, is because it would (a) motivate them to go find a cool new hand, or (b) encourage them to retire their character and roll up a new one.  In practice however, I find that players tend to just drive their characters until they fall apart like an unlubricated Corolla.

So why not create a mechanic that takes a straight path route to that goal, and forces characters to retire directly?

[...]

http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2017/04/death-trauma-and-retirement-im-gettin.html


Skerples does the same thing here, which is actually the original post which inspired Arnold.
Note that Skerples encourages even to re-roll and follow-up on the retired character(s) relevant or interesting, or when the players ask.

OSR: Death and Dismemberment Table + Early Retirement Tables

by Skerples
[...] At Level 5, and every time you level up past Level 5, you can retire your character to safety. This means I won't torment them anymore. If they can afford it, they can buy a or rent some land, set up a shop, teach at a wizard college, or beg in the gutter. They won't affect the plot anymore, but the plot won't specifically affect them. General disasters (fire, plagues, war, demonic invasions) will still affect their lives, but they are safe from almost anything else. Feel free to organize your character's retirement ahead of time. You can try and buy a castle, a tavern, or a political position.

[...]
Whenever it feels relevant or interesting, or when the PCs ask, I've been rolling on Tito's Retirement Table to see what Tito's got himself into now. Spoiler alert: it's not going well. 

[...]

Generic Farmer Retirement Table [...]
1. Prosperity. Extra food, good weather, or good luck.
2. Rumour. May have 1 interesting rumour for the PCs.
3-7. Stability. Just on the edge of starvation.

[...]

Generic Monastic Retirement Table [...]

1. Tranquility. The PCs hear a distant rumour of their former companion. They are doing well.

[...]

Generic Criminal Retirement Table [...]

1. Escape. Stole enough to start again. The ex-PC vanishes. One day, in a distant land, they might see their old companions and nod slyly.

2-6. Edge of Starvation. No change, but the outlook is bleak.

[...]

Generic Beggar Retirement Table [...]

1. Head Above Water. Food, a warm corner, a position in the local hierarchy of beggars, the favour of the local Church. Might even lead to some minor position out of the rain.

2. Minor Improvement. New pants, a hat, a few more coins than last week.

3-6. Edge of Starvation. No change.

[...]

https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/07/osr-death-and-dismemberment-table-early.html


Actually, retirement from adventuring is somehow the goal of the adventuring itself. It would be its most logical conclusion in OSR games, where also high-level characters might risk a sudden death in an unbalanced encounter, because of a deadly trap, a bad decision, or an unlucky turn of events.

A successful OSR character does not have to reach a very high level and keep risking its life...
A successful OSR character earned enough money to retire, in safety and wealth - adventuring is like accumulating your pension funds when you have no skills for a decent (safer) job.

So, what rules do you use for retirement? Do you have rules or a random table for characters making enough money or that are better off with a new, less risky life, which you want share?


Design notes:
- Bring the body of a fallen character back to civilization, earn XP for gold spent on the funeral rites
- It reinforces the fiction and risk taking (care for the fallen, effort to save the body, expenses on the funeral) with an XP reward
- About retirement: retirement from adventuring is somehow the goal of the adventuring itself
- Make enough money and retire from taking all these risks; retire in safety and wealth
- But another option is using retirement as a substitution for death; it gives shades of grey in the outcome of a character's life, it's not just rich or dead any more
- Mix nasty wounds, death and dismemberment tables and early retirement tables
- Perhaps allow subsequent re-rolls for retired characters when it feels necessary or when there is a request from players or circumstances change

How Abilities or Attributes define your character

As stated previously, the six core abilities are often one of the first elements in the game to be house-ruled somehow, whenever a GM feels like tinkering with the rules.
See this previous post - Ability Scores (3d6 in order) - for some alternatives to the classic 3d6-in-order method, and for some additional options, adding Luck, Talent and Saving Throws to the mix, from my own rules.

This time, though, we're looking at what's behind those abilities - as a concept, and as linked rules, and what they mean at the table at the moment of char-gen.


The first link is to a long post by Anne, with an interesting approach to reduce the number of abilities. The post is long but takes in consideration several games - not just OSR - to reach the interesting conclusion of reducing the number of Abilities to four: Strength, Agility, Intellect, and Will, which combine physical and mental in different ways, for attacks/defense and by force/by grace.

8 Abilities - 6, 3, or 4 Ability Scores?
by Anne
D&D-style games traditionally have 6 ability scores, but those 6 scores actually represent 8 different abilities. Those 8 abilities, in turn, are simply the combination of three different dichotomies - physical vs mental,  force vs grace, and attack vs defend. [...]
Recognizing the 8 underlying abilities does a couple things. First, it points to the direct parallels between D&D's mental and physical ability scores - Charisma, for example, is mental Strength; Intelligence is mental Dexterity. Second, seeing the underlying abilities gives us some insight into the ways the can be re-combined to make a smaller number of scores. (Jack argues, and I agree with him, that it's more interesting to have a smaller number of important scores than to have a larger number of unimportant scores - which is why I wouldn't suggest expanding out to 8 ability scores, although you certainly could if you want to.)
[...]
The Classic 6-Ability Division
D&D's 6 ability scores mostly take these abilities individually, but a couple of them double up. Strength represents physical force attack. Dexterity combines physical grace attack and physical grace defense. Constitution is the physical force defense. D&D's mental attributes are basically mirrors of the physical ones, but there's a slight asymmetry. Charisma combines both mental force attack and mental grace attack. Intelligence is mental grace defense. Wisdom is mental force defense. The broken symmetry, I think, is the result of the organic nature of the way D&D has grown over the years. Yes, in some moments it has been designed, but in-between those moments, it has simply grown by accretion.
[...]

Two Possible 3-Ability Divisions 

In the 3.0 ruleset, D&D introduced new Fortitude, Reflex, and Willpower saving throws, representing essentially the physical force defense, physical grace defense, and mental force defense. When other people have tried to simplify the D&D rules by reducing the number of ability scores, the most common reduction mirrors these saving throws.
[...]
Possible 4-Part Ability Scores ... and Beyond
Of the two possible 3-part ability scores, my own preference leans toward 2 physical, 1 mental - but if I were planning to write a set of rules with fewer ability scores, I think I might want 4. My current preference would be for a physical force ability (combining attack and defense), a physical grace ability (combining attack and defense), a mental attack ability (combining force and grace), and a mental defense ability (combining force and grace). [...]
https://diyanddragons.blogspot.com/2019/01/8-abilities-6-3-or-4-ability-scores.html


A good example of ability reduction is also found in Into The Odd, by Chris McDowall: Strength, Dexterity and Willpower.
In Into The Odd, abilities are used in the most simple way: roll a d20 under the score to succeed in your action. But abilities are also used as a measure of the damage you take. You have a few Hit Points but after you've run out, damage reduces your ability score.
Having a few abilities, there, is functional to fast character creation and having a buffer to absorb damage (with 6 or more abilities, you would have a buffer too large).
The character creation process in Into The Odd is as simple as rolling those score, the HP, and then getting a starter package of equipment which should inspire you to characterize your new character. It's dead simple, but effective.


This other post, by Marquis, again insists on four abilities/attributes, instead of the sacred six.
Note three important elements here: first is how attributes are simplified even further but tied closely to the rules in use (read the original article to see how for example Athletic and Savvy are used in different context). Second is that there is an attribute for body and one for mind or skills, and a third for everything weird, supernatural, magical, etc. Third, make a fourth ability which depends on the setting you want to run.
What I like about these points is that they stress several concepts which somehow are sometimes forgotten when house-ruling abilities:
- Don't just build your abilities to "simulate" a character, but build them with a specific usage in mind (rules tied to abilities)
- Supernatural or magical matters may have their own attribute
- Make sure the setting matters: make an ability or score tied to rule(s) specific to the setting

Exploring Characters pt. 3: Replacing Attributes and Rolling Under
by Mastered by Marquis
Attributes are a sacred cow, which means for me they're good beef to eat.
First off, I'm a big believer that only 4 attributes are needed for a character and that one of these four should always be setting dependent. This means I have a standard 3 + 1 special. I'm a bit afraid that this might make things seem super rules-lite or straight forward, but to be honest, 6 attributes causes confusion both from # and how much overlap they have amongst each other.

[...]

The three standard attributes are:

Athletic - This replaces strength, dexterity, and constitution. In a real world situation, most people who are strong are fit, and are usually good with their hands [...] Athletics governs three things: Encumbrance, To-Hit Accuracy, and Damage. [...]

Savvy - This replace Intellect, Wisdom, and Charisma. Essentially, the more savvy you are, the craftier and more skilled you are, both signs of intellect. [...] Savvy governs three things as well: Delicate Matters, Knowledge, and Languages. [...]

Weird - This doesn't replace anything specifically. This is what you use both for dealing with anything supernatural. [...] Weird covers a single thing: your knowledge of Esoteries. [...]

So then, on to the special 4th stat. Again, this depends on setting, but I'll give some archetypal ones.

Corruption/Taint/Radiance - Roll under this whenever you would suffer any of the above. On a success, you only suffer 1 point. On a fail, you suffer however many points are being given. If you have more points than your score, you lose your character or get a mutation or something.

Honor/Glory/Reputation - Roll under this whenever you enter into a scene with NPCs or monsters. On a success, they are awed or cowed by you without you having to do anything. The higher this is, the more well-known you are, the more doors open up for you in terms of exploring a world. Can be increased as rewards for clearing dungeons or helping kings or something.

Alignment [Ambition vs. Harmony/Chaos vs. Order/Light vs. Shadow] - Divide this attribute into 2, but choose one to be higher than the other (so a 12 in Alignment can be a 8 in Chaos and a 4 in order). Refer to this otherwise, though I might update this for the new method.

[...]

https://hmmmarquis.blogspot.com/2018/12/exploring-characters-pt-3-replacing.html

I don't find the Corruption/Taint/Radiance/Honor/Glory/Reputation/Alignment examples so compelling, but I guess they'll do for now, and possibly you already have your own ideas and inspiration about this.
But I would say that this is interesting especially if you think to change to attribute with regard to the adventure, or even the session's content... I don't know exactly how I would do it, but in a dark dungeon adventure a rule about remaining calm and in control while underground would be cool, while the same characters when facing an adventure in the city might enjoy forgetting that score, and having instead another for social connections and interactions and so on, depending on the content of the adventure.


This last link is a little different... enough with all the theory and reasoning about attributes and how to assign scores, house-rules, changes to the list of attributes... In the end, this is just a game.
Regardless of what you choose as attributes, 4 or 6 or 8 of them, Jeff came up with a simple but entertaining way to generate characters and have fun in the process.

D&D chargen as a party game

by Jeff Rients
Everyone writes down the usual six stats numbered 1 to 6, like so: 
1. Str
2. Dex
[...]
Or whatever order you normally use.  The numbers are the key part.  Next just one player rolls 3d6.  Everyone then cheers if it's a good number or boos if it's low.  Then all players (including the player who just threw 3d6) write that number down next to a randomly generated stat.  I.e. roll 1d6 to determine where to plug the number Bob just saddled you with.  Go around the table repeating the process until all stats are full.  [...] 
And more importantly, chargen now involves everyone paying attention to each other for a bit, instead of a room full of silent people rolling dice at the same time and staring down at their own charsheets. [...]
http://jrients.blogspot.com/2011/07/d-chargen-as-party-game.html

As Jeff points out in his blog post, this process gives the same numbers but on different attributes to every player (so no one has a "better" character) but more importantly, it makes the whole process a group activity, a table activity, instead of a lonely activity.
This is very important and helps create the right atmosphere at the table - we don't play just with rules, but we play with people.

If you want to connect the characters, and not just the players, look at Bonds (put characters together).


Design notes:
- Determine what each ability means and its usage
- Consider reducing the number of abilities, rather than increasing it; a simpler matrix is more effective than a complex one
- Consider how physical and mental are organized, what's used to attack and to defend, what's by force or by grace
- An example is to use just four: Strength, Agility, Intellect, and Will
- Into The Odd uses Strength, Dexterity and Willpower: roll a d20 under the score for actions, and use abilities also as a buffer for damage
- You may simplify even more with Athletic, Savvy and Weird
- Don't just build your abilities to "simulate" a character, but build them with a specific usage in mind (rules tied to abilities)
- Supernatural or magical matters may have their own attribute
- Make sure the setting matters: make an ability or score tied to rule(s) specific to the setting/adventure/session
- Consider how rolling attributes/abilities is the start of your game: make it a group activity and not a solitary procedure
- This can be done by sharing the same numbers for attributes, for example, but assigning them to different attributes randomly
- And/or you can use Bonds, to connect the characters together...
- In general, it's important to be paying attention to what other players are doing at char-gen

Name your character

Now, we all know that naming your character is easy for some people, while others would pour over their character sheet for half an hour before coming up with something unoriginal or silly.
This is true for GMs as well; as GM you have to put a name on this or that NPC, sometimes on-the-fly, sometimes you need a name for a certain humanoid, sometimes you need a name for an entire family...
So coming to the table with one or more lists of names is a smart thing to do.

Because I like both PbtA games and OSR, I've seen something quite interesting in the PbtA playbooks (character sheets by "class"): each of them comes with several names to choose from, so players can give a name to their character which fits the theme and style of the game, and avoid name-paralysis.
This might feel a little bit restrictive for OSR players and GMs: why a fighter gets only 10 names to choose from?
Of course, those are simply there for your first game(s) and as inspiration... You can change and improve the list, but you should have a list. Having a list, perhaps divided in some categories, is the lesson to learn.

So come to the table prepared. The things to keep in mind are just a few:
- Have a short list or two, for those who want to pick a name fast
- Have a long list or two, for NPCs or for players who like many options
- Consider even the option of giving random names to characters; again, this is OSR and you get to play with what fate handed you
- When making lists, set a category for them: names for humans coming from different regions should be different, names for humanoids, etc.


When making the lists, try to make sure you don't just use a random generator online, but somehow make sure that the names will fit the tone and style of your campaign.
A very useful resource is the Story Games Name Project, which contains a lot of lists divided in several categories, which will allow you to select a name while also taking in consideration the background of the character or NPC: https://archive.org/details/story_games_name_project


There are several online tools, of course, and they can be used as long as you are ready to "re-roll" any result which does not fit the tone of your game. In addition to names, consider the option of using nicknames, and/or titles.
- Random Name Generator

- donjon Fantasy Name Generator

- donjon Fantasy Random Generator for NPCs, including a little description

- Chartopia endless lists of names

- Fantasy Name Generators - Nicknames

100 Evocative Character Titles (Part I)
by wizardshaw

This is a resource for sparking character ideas. Descriptive titles have always done a lot for me when imagining characters: they imply history, presence, and persona with a single word. [...]

1d100

1 - The Abominable

2 - The Adorned

3 - The Airy

4 - The Ardent

5 - The Attractive [...]

51 - The Gleaming

52 - The Gloomy

53 - The Golden

54 - The Goodly

55 - The Grisly [...]

https://wizardshaw.blogspot.com/2018/10/100-evocative-character-titles-part-i.html

Alignments (part two)

As a follow-up on the first post about Alignments, we're listing a few additional links here as additional material and as inspiration for your game.


In the first post, we have the introduction of the "unaligned" - which is different than neutral.
While I am not a fan of the "cosmic battle" presented as Law = monotheistic creator vs. Chaos = demons (devil?), the post contains several interesting thoughts:
- Most creatures are unaligned and have not committed themselves to the Cosmic Battle between Law and Chaos
- Clerics must be Lawful or Chaotic or they would not have spells
(the Neutral alignment is a bit "weak" as presented in the post, so let's skip it for now)
- Interesting notes about the Know Alignment spell
- Most important: benefits for other classes (not just clerics) for choosing an Alignment (see below an example for Magic-users)

Unaligned – a new alignment choice

by The Jovial Priest

Reading Keep on the Borderland (KotB) I was struck by the Gygaxian worldview.
“The Realm of mankind is narrow and constricted. Always the forces of Chaos press upon its borders, seeking to enslave it’s populace, rape its riches, and steal its treasure.” Then a little later. “…turn from Law and good and serve masters of Chaos.”
It’s the capital-C for Chaos and the L for Law that impresses me. They mean something – they have a capital. [...]

The Cosmic Battle

This is how I am imagining it.

Law – the monotheistic creator.

Chaos – the horde and legion – fallen spirits / demons. [...]

The benefits of being Aligned.

Clerics get spell casting.

I felt the need to give other aligned characters something, apart from an Alignment language. To keep game balance unaligned characters can do what they wish – they will simply reap what they sow. Aligned characters – more is expected of them to aid their cause. The DM must demand this if they are to keep their benefits.

Clerics

Spell casting from Level 2

Magic User

Law - 'protected' the magic-user gains +1 to AC and +1 to saving throws vs spells.

Chaos - 'possessed' cast spells as if one level higher (for range, duration, damage etc) [...]

http://jovialpriest.blogspot.com/2010/11/unaligned-new-alignment-choice.html

Note that perhaps this system could be adapted to the Good/Evil alignments which are not exactly like Lawful/Chaotic, as presented in my article Some thoughts on Alignments.


The second article, instead, presents a little rule to determine the alignment of a human NPC. Note how this - as we saw already for alignments - contributes to shape the world of your adventures. As the author explicitly says, his view is of the Law vs. Chaos as men vs. monsters.

Alignment Distributions
by Delta
What should the alignment distribution for men in the OD&D game look like? I tend to have a bias towards Anderson's original presentation of the Law vs. Chaos alignment system in Three Hearts and Three Lions; 
"In any case, humans were the chief agents on earth of Law, though most of them were so only unconsciously and some, witches and warlocks and evildoers, had sold out to Chaos. A few nonhuman beings also stood for Law. Ranged against them was almost the whole Middle World, which seemed to include realms like Faeries, Trollheim, and the Giants..."  [...]

So what happens when I need to roll a random NPC, such as a merchant, guard, or potential hireling? Previously I've been using a uniform distribution, i.e., 1-2: Lawful, 3-4: Neutral, 5-6: Chaotic. However, in my recent campaign games something has felt off about that: for example, too many Chaotic-types for them to really get away without notice. Compare to the DMG chart (p. 100) which likewise gives a near-uniform distribution: on d10, 1 pip for each of the 9 AD&D alignments, and 1 extra pip for "neutral".

So what I've recently switched to is a quasi-normal distribution, in which the majority of men are Neutral, and only the exceptional outlier has some ethical commitment, thus: 1: Lawful, 2-5: Neutral, 6: Chaotic. [...]

http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2018/11/alignment-distributions.html


The third article of this post, we go back to more traditional alignments, but instead of having things that the characters must do by their alignment, there are some proposed commandments of how to be good or lawful.

Limits of AD&D Alignment 3: Solutions

by ROGER G-S

Well, you could just not have alignment for player characters. Sure, you can have an affiliation that boils down to a cultural background and reminder - raised in the Church; follows Odin; reveres Chaos. And you can have morality. Your characters' actions have consequences in the eyes of others, after all. [...]

But okay, in some settings you really need the behavior of holy people to be exemplary in some way in order for them to deserve their magic powers. As I suggested before, a more specific set of principles seems in order.  Most importantly, these principles need to be ranked in some order, to give a guideline for resolving the kind of conflicts I outlined last time. [...]

COMMANDMENTS OF GOOD - most to least important

Life: Don't kill or torture a helpless sentient being.

Benevolence: Don't harm, disrespect, or steal from a peaceful sentient being.

Crusade: Don't back away from a fight against Evil that you can win.

Justice: Don't let crimes against Life and Benevolence go unpunished. 

Generosity: Don't hoard wealth; spend what you need for your own security, then give to others.

COMMANDMENTS OF LAW - most to least important

Honor: Don't break your given word.

Chivalry: Don't use trickery when you fight.

Restraint: Don't indulge pleasures wantonly. Food is for surviving; drink is for tasting; sex is for commitment; wealth is not for wasting.

Legalism: Don't break the law or let lawbreakers go unpunished.  

Obedience: Don't disobey or disrespect your superiors in society.

With these ten commandments in hand, we can see that it's ridiculous to require Evil and Chaotic characters to do everything exactly the opposite [...]

It might be interesting to have particularly Evil or Chaotic characters or beings pick one commandment they feel compelled to violate; the sadist revels in Anti-Life, the Anti-Crusader picks a special fight with the forces of Good, the Unrestrained Chaotic is a compulsive libertine. But that's about as far as it reasonably goes. [...]

http://rolesrules.blogspot.com/2010/10/limits-of-ad-alignment-3-solutions.html

The last article has a simple, yet quite effective suggestion: start as neutral, then see later on what would you like for your character. In fact, especially if Law and Chaos in your world are in a state of cosmic battle, level 1 characters are counting very little (even nothing) and players might not know enough of the game world (or of their own characters) to make an informed decision at the start of the game. This is quite easy to implement, and leaves room for some interesting character's development later on.

Alignment Ain't for 1st Level
by Adam Muszkiewicz
I had this thought last night while talking to the gorgeous wife: there is no reason for PCs to choose an alignment at first level, so why not save the decision to align oneself with the forces of Law or Chaos until the point where such a decision (a) makes sense for the character and (b) will contribute one way or the other toward the "eternal struggle" between the two forces?
Allow me to elucidate.
First, I'd like to re-introduce my concept of alignment as "that with which a character aligns himself." This is both a literal interpretation of the word "alignment" and a reference to how the concepts of Law and Chaos [...]
If society crumbles, the thing is wrong. If society flourishes, it is right. Thus, the focus of Law is the society (whatever society) and placing the collective above the individual. Thus, the Lawful are expected to give and sacrifice of themselves in favor of the greater good while being vigilant against the deeds and actions that could cause society to crumble.
Similarly, Chaos's guiding principle is that of Nietzsche's nihilism and Rand's "enlightened self-interest:" that I, the individual, am supreme and not bound by any morality except that I should do as I will. [...]
And then the realization hit me: if he hadn't needed to make an alignment decision at first level, but could have made it later on in his career he would have made a decision that fit the way the character has developed. Sure, Chaotic may sound great at level one when "no one's gonna tell me what to do, I'm out for teh phat lewts, son!" But at level 9 when you're carving out a kingdom for yourself, do you really want that kingdom to be all full of orcs and goblins and ogres and such? Maybe you do, that's cool. That's what Chaos is for.
My point, though, is that maybe we should hold off making that decision until it's an educated one.
http://www.kickassistan.net/2015/12/alignment-aint-for-1st-level.html


Design notes (putting together both posts about alignments):
- How alignments shape the world of your campaign
- Alignment is a character’s orientation on a cosmic scale, as in LotFP
- Alignment connected to the usage of magic (for Magic-Users), perhaps for Clerics, and for demi-humans if they're a thing in your game
- Alternative alignments (such as family, or a community, or love, etc.)
- Destined Death (and Funeral Rites, to be discussed separately)
- Prevalence of Neutral alignment by default, Lawful or Chaotic are rare
- Prevalence of Neutral alignment by default, Lawful or Chaotic are the results of an active pursuit by the players
- To-Do lists for the various alignments (or Do-Not lists, which sounds better)
- Alignments tied to hexes or locations
- Possible unaligned default, with alignment required for Clerics (and as a benefit for other classes)
- Select alignments later on in the game

Careers

Most characters were not born adventurers. We've seen how to add a little bit of history to your character before starting the game, with Backstories, or how to have a few guidelines for your role-play with Traits, and also how to interact with other characters with Bonds.
If you want to add something more or something else to your character, you may consider using Careers - in the OSR this is usually intended as what the characters did before they started with their current lives of adventures as fighters, clerics, thieves or magic-users...
These Careers, of course, are also a great source of inspiration for NPC characters as well.


The first article presents a couple of simple lists. In this case, the background professions are also tied to a little mechanical advantage.

Background Professions

by Akrasia

[...] Player characters weren’t always adventurers.  Before they decided to head off into dark mysterious dungeons or ogre-infested wild lands, they most likely started down one or more ‘respectable’ career paths.  In most ‘old school’ fantasy role-playing games like Swords & Wizardry and Labyrinth Lord, however, this aspect of a character’s early life has no effect on that character’s abilities.  This optional rule aims to rectify this situation.
In addition, by providing all characters with at least one ‘background profession,’ this optional rule should provide greater depth and personality to the players’ characters.  Consider, for instance, the following party.  Cormac the fighter was once a hunter who was raised near the Highland Forest, hence his skill in tracking prey and moving stealthily in hill and wood.  In contrast, his ally Elowyn, also a fighter, was once a scholar in the city of Bookbridge, hence her wide-ranging knowledge of different esoteric subjects. [...]
It is assumed that characters abandoned their professions in order to become adventurers before progressing beyond the ‘apprentice’ stage (or equivalent).  Thus a character who has the background profession of ‘alchemist,’ for example, would not be as skilled at alchemy as most ‘professional’ (non player character) alchemists.
A character’s background profession(s) can enable that character to do or know certain things that other characters cannot do or know. [...]

Background Profession Charts
Players may select (or roll for) either one profession on chart I or two professions on chart II.
Chart I
1 Alchemist [Requires Intelligence of 12+]
2 Aristocrat
3 Doctor [Requires Intelligence and Wisdom of 10+]
[...]
Chart II
1 Blacksmith [Requires Strength of 10+]
2 Farmer
3 Fisher
[...]
List of Background Professions
Alchemist [Requires an Intelligence of 12+]
Alchemists are skilled at identifying elixirs, poisons, potions, and so forth.  (Normally there is no bonus to the roll, except for +1 if Intelligence is 13 or greater, but only alchemists can try this.  If an alchemy lab is available – typically only found in towns with populations of 2500 or more – the alchemist gains a +4 bonus, but must pay 30 +2d10 gold pieces per day to rent necessary supplies.)  Characters with the alchemist background profession start with 1+1d3 potions (to be determined randomly or by the GM).
Aristocrat
Aristocrats have knowledge of court etiquette, heraldry, recent history, and politics.  They are skilled at difficult riding manoeuvres (+4 bonus) and mounted combat (+1 bonus to hit when on a trained warhorse).  Characters of an aristocratic background start the game with an inherited high-quality weapon, shield, or suit of armour (player’s choice).  Because of its superior quality, this item will have a +1 non-magical bonus (i.e., the weapon will have a +1 bonus to hit but not damage, or the shield or armour will grant a +1 bonus to AC).    Aristocratic characters also start with a bonus of 2d20 gold pieces.
Blacksmith [Requires a Strength of 10+]
Blacksmiths can repair metal weapons and armour with proper equipment (costs 10% of ‘market’ weapon/armour price for supplies and to rent forge; normally takes one day per item).  Blacksmiths can also determine the correct value of non-magical weapons and armour within 10%.
[...]
https://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2009/06/background-professions.html

There is also a much simpler system, presented by an anonymous comment on the same post, as follows:

I use a much simpler system (pinched from Barbarians of Lemuria):
Every character has 4 points at chargen to spend on "backgrounds" -- essentially roles he has held in the past (q.v., a Conan-like character might choose Barbarian, Thief, Pirate, Mercenary). You can choose a background more than once (e.g., Barbarian 2, Thief 1, Mercenary 1).
Whenever attempting a non-combat related task that can somehow be tied to the background, you gain a bonus equal to the number of times you chose the background. [...]


We're moving to the next article, from the author of Into the Odd, and we should focus a little on the title: "Failed Careers". This is a common trope in OSR: a career in the past of your character is likely to be something that went wrong, instead of something that simply configures as a set of skills and/or bonuses.
It does a lot also to help figure out why the character is now out on adventures and risking their life, instead of sitting safe by the fire at night, and having a "regular" job just like everyone else.

Failed Careers

by Chris McDowall

In Electric Bastionland everybody starts with:

A failed career.

A shared debt.

Here are the one-hundred possible options for the former, all determined by the roll of your Abilities.

1: Gutter Wretch

The bottom of the barrel. 

Bastion’s crust.

2: Curiocentric Collector

An entire life spent looking at dusty things and squinting at books.

It’s time to get out there for yourself.

3: Trench Survivor

You survived a Trench Battle with little to write home about.

Except for that one thing you found in a strange tunnel.

4: Debt Collector

Someone paid you a pittance to look intimidating in dark alleyways.

If need be you shed some blood, but there’s no extra pay.

5: Dead-Shoresman

You died, but found a way back from where you went.

Nobody believes you, and everyone you once knew is long gone. [...]

http://www.bastionland.com/2017/10/failed-careers.html

If you want a much longer list, the 200 below should suffice. They come with a starting weapon and something extra, some useful, others just plainly odd... But figuring out what to do with odd pieces of equipment or with something peculiar of your character is part of the fun in the OSR.

200 Failed Medieval Careers
by James Young
I like the idea that new characters start with a profession they failed at/got bored with/were fired from before they started out on the road to fortune and doom.
I made the jobs pretty standard because I am boring and so try to keep things fairly normal until the Weird Shit starts happening, so there are no leech-fuckers or tree-gobblers or anything like that.
But you can rename them if you want I don't mind! [...]

Spreadsheets for you to have! [...]

http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2014/01/200-failed-medieval-careers.html


Now, this next one is a very long list; you may use it to inspire you in building your own table(s), but it has no numbers and therefore is not of immediate use.

What did people do in a Medieval City?

by Shawn Vincent

What did people do in the Middle Ages? If you meet a random person on the street, what is his likely occupation? Or did people work at all? Were the Middle Ages some Communist utopia, where everybody laid around all day and things were magically produced by fairies?
Of course not. They didn't have electronics engineers and computer programmers, but they did have coopers, bakers, blacksmiths, and many other jobs that made their society go around. If you do a little research, there were tons of medieval occupations. Luckily, I've done it for you, so you don't have to!
In the following list, I have made a link to the online version of Webster's Dictionary, so you can find out what things are. In some cases, the definition is also included locally. I am slowly making local definitions for all these occupations, for your convenience. [...]
http://www.svincent.com/MagicJar/Economics/MedievalOccupations.html


If you need something just very weird or baroque, you have the next two lists. The first is 100 careers for DCC assuming you're playing in a peculiar setting, a little bit over the edge... while the second I find more useful. The second list is still presenting peculiar entries like "Carnivorous-plant gardener" or "Raised by apes", but it could fit in an almost "regular" setting if these would be used only occasionally.

DCC: d100 Weird Urban Occupations
by Jez Gordon
100 slightly more colorful Occupations for your 0-level funnel runners, written up for use over at Purple Sorcerer's character generator. [...]

01 Sweat-milker, Wooden pail (as club), Apron

02 Muck-racker, Crusty rake (as polearm), Soiled smock

03 Slurry-runner, Staff, Thigh-high boots and sweaty rags

04 Limb-strainer, Large bloody sieve (as club), Spare hand

05 Filth-cutter, Scissors (as dagger), Leather smock [...]

http://gibletblizzard.blogspot.com/2012/07/dcc-d100-weird-urban-occupations.html


52 Baroque Character Backgrounds

by ROGER G-S

This time, the random finger of fate has decreed that the Character Background and Languages page get the Baroque treatment. I suppose if you play that "Dungeon Crawl Classics" game, these might also be useful as backgrounds for your little pit-fodder avatars. As always roll d100, in half, rounded up, and use 51 or 52 to replace a dull or inappropriate outcome. [...]

http://rolesrules.blogspot.com/2014/01/52-baroque-character-backgrounds.html

Design notes:
- Careers as "skills" or as something the character is good at (with a mechanical advantage or some implied skills)
- Careers as "failed careers"; somehow more of a background than a set of skills
- Possibly add a starting weapon to a career
- Perhaps add a starting piece of equipment or something peculiar
- Use weird or baroque careers with care; spice things up but only every now and then

Ability Scores (3d6 in order)

Ability scores are determined by rolling randomly: roll 3d6 for each ability.
Or not.

In B/X Essentials, the referee may allow to discard the character if very poor ability scores were rolled, for example an 8 or less in every score or an extremely low rating in one ability.
Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox allows some flexibility, according to the Referee's preferences, such as rolling 3d6 six times and arranging in any order.
Swords & Wizardry Core allows also to shift scores around, according to the Referee's preferences, for long-term games.
Labyrinth Lord allows, at the Referee's discretion, to roll 4d6 for each ability, discarding the lowest roll and adding up the three remaining dice normally. Alternatively, roll five separate sets of abilities as if rolling up five separate characters, and then choose the preferred set of abilities.
Lamentations of the Flame Princess proposes 3d6 in order for each ability score, then the player can decide to swap one ability score with another.

If anyone starts to write house-rules, they're most likely to start changing the 3d6-in-order rule.
Before you do that, though, consider why 3d6 might make sense and what other adjustments you may do in order to keep this rule, instead of changing it.

3d6, in order
by Norman Harman
After using it on both sides of the screen I've become a serious fan of rolling up characters using 3d6 and assigning the rolls in order.  That is no rearranging of scores.  Even in games where the DM doesn't require it I sometimes assign ability scores in order.  This morning, in the shower, I was thinking about 3d6, in order, what was lost when game rules moved away from that. [...]

We need feats and doo dads and more rules to differentiate characters!

I'm sure you've heard that.  I hear it from friends and read it online.  Where I don't often hear it is from people playing "3d6, in order" games. [...]

https://trollandflame.blogspot.com/2010/12/3d6-in-order.html

But if we want to talk about alternatives, let's look at what Rafu - a fellow Italian - has to suggest. His matrix combines some player's agency (the first roll is random but in the order you want), some average but with control (the second roll is not random, it's 1 2 3 4 5 6 but in the order you want), some (finally) completely random generation (the third roll is totally random and in order as rolled).
This combines well a bit of randomness with some control, without resorting to the simple "roll 3d6 and then assign to the abilities in the order you prefer".

Ability scores: roll #d6, some of them in order

by Rafu

That which follows is a method of Ability scores determination for use – during character creation – with any role-playing game employing six Abilities with scores in the 3-18 range. This includes all iterations of D&D I know about, retro-clones or other immediate derivatives of them, as well as Dungeon World and some others. The method can also be altered for a different number of Abilities or scores in a different range, of course.

My aim with this is to marry the “organic” feel of the roll-3d6-in-order method with some of the most desirable qualities of roll-and-arrange and fixed-set methods (namely, the ability to play the class you desire, to always have a character you can make sense of in your mind’s eye, and less power-disparity within the party). [...]

http://orgasmocerebrale.blogspot.com/2012/07/some-of-them-in-order.html

The last article for this topic is an alternative designed closely to LotFP, but which is easy to adapt to other systems as well. The key concept is that different classes (determined randomly in the author's rules, but which could be perhaps also chosen by the players) have a slightly different starting scores.
So for example a Hedge Knight starts with better strength and constitution (both 2d6+6) while a Cutpurse with better dexterity.
There is more in this process than simple ability scores - the chargen procedure includes Hit Points, Skills (as in LotFP, but with a d8), starting Equipment, Saves and Levelling; a complete tuning of the entire set of classes available in the game.
The ability scores are usually 3d6 or 2d6+6 (for better scores) or 2d6+1 (for worst scores), but of course you may adapt this to your game with all the tuning you need.

Alternative character creation and advancement rules for D&D

by Sam Morris
[...] Often TTRPGs worry a lot about balance between classes and will try to make them all pretty evenly matched at level 1, but I thought it might be cool to have classes that are less balanced for more variety of play experience.
The 'balance', or probably better called 'fairness', comes from classes being randomly selected instead of chosen by the player.  I've written up d10 classes, which I've decided to call 'backgrounds', along with rules for character creation and advancement.  As you'll see, ability scores are sometimes rolled with a different formula to 3d6 depending on the strengths and weaknesses of the background.  I have roughly based this off of LotFP but with the key difference that I'm using d8 skills instead of d6.  This is because skills are improved each level in a similar way to the CoC/Runequest roll-over mechanic, and using a d8 will make skill progression a bit slower.

Hedge Knight
You were once a knight but fortune has left you without a lord to serve or lands to protect. You wander the land subsisting with little more than your martial skills.
Abilities
Str: 2d6+6
Con: 2d6+6
Dex: 3d6
Int: 3d6
Wis: 3d6
Cha: 3d6 [...]

Cutpurse
You were probably born on the streets. You have survived this long only by pilfering the valuables of wealthier folk.

Abilities

Str: 2d6+1

Con: 3d6

Dex: 2d6+6

Int: 3d6

Wis: 3d6

Cha: 3d6 [...]

https://monstromanualis.blogspot.com/2018/10/alternative-character-creation-and.html


But yeah, of course I did the same when it came to writing my own OSR games (or heart-breaker).
Below you can see that I went a little further though - perhaps too much. What I did in the Crying Blades, for example, was 3d6-in-order and swap-one (as in LotFP)... but I also kept a separate note of that the lowest of the 3d6, for each ability.
This would be the Gift score, for each ability (named Attribute, in the Crying Blades).

This Gift score is used later in the game for various purposes: determining the number of starting talents for a character, the max level for multiclassing,, the maximum increment to the attribute score, and allowing a certain number of re-rolls. These options would "burn" points so taking a re-roll early in the game to allow the character to survive would for example impact later choices in multiclassing.

The above are just some examples, if you want to track a single die of the 3d6. But what if we recorded each single roll of the 3d6 for each ability? This is what I proposed in the Black Dogs fanzine. This is made possible by having three additional scores for each ability:

- Luck (burn points for re-rolls)

- Talent (burn points to increase the ability score or the save score)

- Save (which works as an x-in-6 chance - see also d6 Saving Throws for LotFP for a similar approach)

Design notes:
- 3d6 in order
- Discard characters with very low scores?
- Assign in the order that you prefer? Maybe only for long-term campaigns?
- 4d6 for each ability, discarding the lowest?
- 3d6 in order, swap one score with another if you want?

But also:
- A matrix with fixed scores
- Different rolls or some fixed scores for different classes
- Track the lowest d6 (or the highest) for each ability, write the score as "Gift", or "Talent", or "Luck" or whatever
- Track each single roll for different purposes, for each ability

Bonds (put characters together)

I admit that the first time I've read about bonds, it was in Dungeon World, a Powered by the Apocalypse game.
For those of you who don't know what that means, a PbtA game is a game based on the framework of Apocalypse World, by Vincent Baker... There would be a lot to say about PbtA games; some OSR people love PbtA too, others don't like them at all, for various reasons. I stand among those who love both OSR and PbtA games (although not all of them). But this is not the topic for this post.
This post is about bonds, and bonds are not a thing of PbtA games alone.

Bonds are all about creating some kind of relationship between characters. This is great because it gives your players some material for role-play, right from the start, like Traits or Backstories do... but in this case it also encourages players to interact one with the other, thanks to the bonds established between characters.
Note that this also helps to minimize the feeling of characters being "randomly" put together.
Bonds do not necessarily have to connect all characters to all other characters; not all bonds have to be "strong" or "positive" ones, but it's probably better not to have in your list somethink like "I've sworn an oath to kill character X because reasons".


The first post is a list of one hundred reasons for characters to be connected, such as characters being best friends or being siblings, or other reasons less obvious and more entertaining like robbing a temple together, were slaves, met in a prison and so on.

Give me a reason...or a hundred!
by JB
Download the list here
[...] when your players are all seated around the table, each rolls D% to determine the relationship of their character with the player sitting to their right. The player sitting to the left of the DM rolls for the player sitting to the right of the DM (unless the DM has some prominent NPC in the party, than he might check that as well...it's not necessary since the DM usually creates reasons for NPCs to be around...I hope!).
By doing this, you should create at least two relationships, possibly more (if the guy to my left is my brother, and the gal to his left is my sister, than she's MY sister, too). That's enough to start the ball rolling...everyone else in the party is simply the proverbial "friend-of-a-friend" until you've developed a working relationship in-game. [...]

http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2010/08/give-me-reasonor-hundred.html

In this second post, Arnold K. offers also a suggestion (and a shorter list of bonds) to avoid forgetting to bring into play those bonds. By granting bonuses as long as you fulfill your role in the bond, you can make sure that players will keep those bonds in mind, and do their best to bring them into the game.
If you go with a list like this, perhaps a single character should have one or two of these bonds, but not more (they're a bit harder to keep track of, and may become too crunchy to deal with at the table, transforming role-playing into farming for bonuses).

Player-Player Bonds

by Arnold K.

So a lot of games establish player bonds during character creation.
"You once fought along side the person to your left."
"You have sworn to protect the person on your right."
Et cetera.  And that's a pretty cool idea.  But. . . it's possible for that sweet backstory to drop into the background.  Players and DMs might easily forget that Alice swore to protect Bob. 
Hopefully, if those bonds are represented mechanically, they'll be more in the forefront of everyone's mind.  For example, if two member of your adventuring party are ex-husband and ex-wife, they might share a Vendetta, and be paying very close attention to each other's turns, because the Vendetta ability triggers whenever the other person fumbles. [...]

Player-Player Bonds

1. Battle Brothers/Sisters - Years spent fighting together.

You each get +1 to hit as long as you attack the same target as your battle brother/sister simultaneously.

2. Destined Twins - You share everything.

Your HP is pooled and shared between the two of you.  Any negative physical effect that happens to one of you happens to the other, including death and or maiming.  (e.g. sympathetic limp if the other one loses a leg, nausea if the other one throws up, etc.)  This also works well for conjoined twin characters.

3. Favored Son or Daughter - You adventure alongside your offspring.

Your favored son or daughter must be lower level than you (and therefore, probably created after you).  They must also be the same race and class.  As long as you begin each session asking them "So what have we learned from all this?" they gain XP 10% faster, and whenever you assist them, you can double your bonuses you add to their attempt.

[...]

http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2015/08/player-player-bonds.html


In this third link, by Jeremy Friesen, we have instead a random generator. The generator presents multiple columns and for each you should roll a d20. You could get bonds like:

"Character-A has much to teach me about always pushing for golden reputation" or such as:

"Character-B insulted me by the ridiculousness of knightly dreams"...

Not all are going to be perfect, but you can work your way around the table to improve it or adapt it to your needs.

Random Bonds Generator for Dungeon World

by Jeremy Friesen

[...] Roll 1d20 for each of the four columns.

d20	Relation	Action	Modifier	Subject
1	________ has much to teach me about	the ridiculousness of	angered	heirloom
2	________ insulted me by	always calling out	knightly	reputation
3	________ misunderstands me about	always pushing for	golden	dreams

[...]
https://takeonrules.com/2013/01/02/random-bonds-generator-for-dungeon-world/


Three links only, for Bonds, feel like not enough to me... So I am going to jump the fence over into the PbtA field (like the previous post), and present some material which could be used as an inspiration.
In a lot of PbTA games,  Bonds are written in playbooks, and playbooks (a character sheet which is also your "class", your archetype in the game) are available as a free download, even if you don't own the game. So you can check those playbooks and fish for inspiration in their bonds.
We will look at a few examples here, with the classic fantasy theme, from Dungeon World:

Barbarian
______________ is puny and foolish, but amuses me.
______________’s ways are strange and confusing.
______________ is always getting into trouble - I must protect them from themselves.
______________ shares my hunger for glory; the earth will tremble at our passing!

Cleric
______________ has insulted my deity; I do not trust them.
______________ is a good and faithful person; I trust them implicitly.
______________ is in constant danger, I will keep them safe.
I am working on converting ______________ to my faith.

Thief
I stole something from ______________.
______________ has my back when things go wrong.
______________knows incriminating details about me.
______________ and I have a con running.

If you want to see more, you can check out this link - and you can download a pdf of all Dungeon World's Bonds from there (plus other alternatives):

Bonds

by A Dungeon World Wiki

Bonds represent the feelings, opinions, desires and shared history that make the player characters a party of adventurers and not just a random assortment of people.  Each bond is a simple statement that relates your character to a party member.  A few "fill in the blank" standard bonds are found in each core class playbook with the idea that you can create your own even during character creation and will gain new ones through play.

As a systems component , bonds are intended to facilitate building immediate backstory between two player characters.  They also reward XP by encouraging the player to resolve the bond by acting upon changes in circumstances to create narrative that makes it clear the bond- for better or worse- is gone and replaced with something else [...]

http://a-dungeon-world.wikia.com/wiki/Bonds


Design notes:
- Bonds help players to figure out how to role-play to each other at the start
- Bonds are good to keep the party united or to give reason for additional role-play
- Simple bonds are a few (such as family, love, a common past, a friendship)
- Long lists avoid repetition and allow a wider scope
- Short lists may be combined with mechanical advantages
- Dungeon World contains a lot of example bonds to use as inspiration

Backstories

Something you don't do in OSR games, is to write a 3-pages backstory for your character even before char-gen. It goes without saying that it would be a waste of time when the character might die after a few minutes and when scores are totally random, so you might decide to steer towards a different kind of character than what you had in mind.
Actually, coming to the table, rolling dice, and only afterwards trying to guess who the f*** is this character that you're going to play with, seems like a healthier approach to me. And it is indeed what the OSR usually "prescribes".
Yet, there are times when you want something more than a name and a few scores and a backpack with torches, rope and weapons. We already discussed the option of using Traits, in this previous post of mine: https://daimon-games.blogspot.com/2018/12/traits-for-characters.html

While Traits usually focus on how to role-play your character from the start, Backstories introduce something about what happened to the character before this moment, before the adventure began. A backstory might contain the reason for the character to be out on adventures, to have left their homeland, to be on the run, to be seeking treasure, or it might be a sad story, a terrible story, a funny story. Regardless, it says something about the past.
One should be careful when planning to use Backstories. Some are easy to adapt to every character (like almost every Trait). Others have heavier implications towards the character's background or have strong connections to the setting, and so on.
Also, I strongly advice against using backstories longer than two, three lines. Backstories should be easy to play with as Traits are.
They might have a little more potential, though, in the hands of an inventive GM, because they can serve as a focus for bringing important NPCs into the game and making the campaign feel more "personal" for the characters. But again: do not invest too much, even as the GM, on a backstory. Every character in the OSR may die before they get a chance to get their revenge against their arch-enemy.

And it goes without saying: Backstories should be about level 0 (zero) characters.
If we were discussing Careers (and we will...) instead of Backstories, we would be discussing about "Failed Careers" rather than of successful enterprises. Why would someone successful (with a few exceptions) want to go risk their lives in a dungeon?


The first page we bring you is a huge d500 table. It contains several examples, and can serve very well as an inspiration to build your own table. Note that Skerples suggests to roll multiple times (maybe twice) for each character. In its introduction, this post mentions rolling also on Bastionland, the Into The Odd website, which provides a list of failed Careers. We will discuss this in a post about Careers, which is definitely a related (overlapping) topic.

1d500 Backstories to Inflict on your Characters
by Skerples
This post brought to you by a whiskey so cheap it doesn't even have a website, and root beer.
Normally, you might start a D&D group in a tavern or a prison or a convent. You might connect characters by a lifepath system or a few shared events. Instead, consider rolling on the table below several times for each character before race, class, stats, etc. are determined. The results are life events, things that just happened, or reasons to go adventuring. The effect on your players will probably be a dismayed "WAT", but so it goes. 
Side Note: Consider rolling once or twice on this table, then on Bastionland's Failed Careers table.
[...]
1d500 Backstories and Events Stolen from The Toast
1d500 Backstory Inflicted
1 You spy on people through keyholes and get exactly what you deserve.
2 You have been rejected on your wedding night.
3 You get made fun of sometimes. It’s hurtful, and you’d do almost anything to teach your tormentors a lesson. Almost.
4 You have committed several murders, yet somehow you are also the sanest and most sympathetic person you know.
5 You have earned the personal ire of a Witch-king. This ends poorly for you, and everyone in your country.

6 Your love has been soiled, and the object symbolizing it tainted, quite tainted! [...]
https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2017/11/1d500-backstories-to-inflict-on-your.html


Sometimes, you want something which might go a little over the edge. This is a good d100 table with some "mildly plausible background stories" (to quote the author), and others definitely less plausible.
The link below is if you want to see the table right away online. Afterwards, you'll find the link to the PDF that can be downloaded for free on RpgNow.

D100 Mildly Plausible Background Stories For Characters
Special thanks to 3 Toadstools Publishing – 3toadstools.blogspot.ca
1 Mentor was killed in an explosion
2 Father was beheaded
3 Sister kidnapped by Demon
4 Home town destroyed [...]
16 False prophet [...]
19 Teleported from a different world/time [...]
32 Remembers all past lives [...]
93 Deposed king [...]
https://simplednd.wordpress.com/2016/07/28/d100-mildly-plausible-background-stories-for-characters/

Free PDF on RpgNow:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/187805/D100-mildly-plausible-background-stories-for-Old-School-Characters


Another approach to backstories, is to roll nothing at the start, but add something as you level-up.
The next article by  has an example in this sense. James Young presents a system where every time you level-up you roll for a story and decide how the story ended, giving you a bonus or boon related to how the story ended... Note that instead of a static entry you get a choice, and the choice has a mechanical bonus attached.
It's a little more complex that a simple backstory which serves as a background, but since it is a process done at level-up, at least it's done on characters who already have at least achieved level 2 and it preserves a fast character generation process for level 1 characters.

1d100 Retroactive Backstory
by James Young

I've been working on this off and on for the past couple of months.

The Backstory table is here.

The basic idea is that every time you level up, you roll 1d100 on the Backstory table.

Each has a hopefully-inspirational fragment of backstory and two potential outcomes.

So if you roll a 1, the DM tells you "You got into a confrontation with a bully who was way tougher than you. Did you fight or flee?"

Now the trick here is that the other players at the table decide what your character must have done, based on how your character's been acting in the game thus far. Debate is allowed and encouraged, as is swapping examples of supporting evidence, in this case probably times you stood and fought versus times you turned and ran.

The others come to an agreement or vote or whatever, then you make up a story of what actually happened. Who was the bully? Why did you do what you did?

The story can be as detailed or as sparse as you want, no pressure. Most of my players tied it into their failed career in some way.

Finally you get told what your new ability is! Each outcome of each backstory has its own associated power. In this example, "fight" nets you a +1 to hit vs enemies who have more HD than you, and "flee" grants you a +1 to fleeing rolls.

Score! Now your character is hopefully encouraged to live up to their new backstory. [...]

http://tenfootpolemic.blogspot.com/2016/09/1d100-retroactive-backstory.html

A different way to deal with backstories, is to select backstories by topic. You may have a huge table mixing different backstories, or in this approach you could build different tables and let the players decide on which table to roll. The event(s) of the various backstories would still be random, but it would allow the players to decide which type of story they'd like in the past of their character.
For example, you could build lists with
- Birthrights
- Conflicts
- Criminal events
- Adventures
- Weird or other events
- Horror events
- Romance events

The above list is built by combining topics of the next two linked posts, by Canecorpus. Use the lists to inspire you for your own tables.

A fire-breathing were-mammoth destroys half the village while calling your name
by Canecorpus
[...] BIRTHRIGHT d10
1 – Slave/Exile
2 - Serf
3 – Lowborn Commoner

[...]

CRIMINAL EVENT d20 

1 – The PC is accosted for brigandage. The PC is forced to wear iron boots for 1d4 years.

2 – The PC is accosted for begging in the presence of a noble. The PC is forced to wear a halter for 1d10 days and walk through the streets of his homeland.

3 – PC is accosted for piracy and transfer of illicit slaves. The PC is racked for 7 days and nights. The PC is 1 inch taller.

[...]

WEIRD/OTHER EVENT d20 

1 – Perfectly normal childhood. The PCs peers mock the child for his normalcy.

2 – Every morning the PC wakes up and finds a silver piece under their head, as well as a splitting headache.

3 – PC is ruthlessly hunted by Dwarven slave-traders for an unknown reason. The Dwarves have a very annoying war cry they scream when ever they see the PC, 'Vbblalalalbalalalalbala!' [...]

http://valleyofbluesnails.blogspot.com/2009/04/fire-breathing-were-mammoth-destroys.html

You spy your long time love laying eggs in the wilderness one evening
by Canecorpus

[...] HORROR EVENT d20

1 – Head stuck in a hole in ground for 1d8 days. Something licks your legs periodically during your entrapment.

2 – Deranged hermit pulling a cart with unidentified meat follows you around at night for 1d4 years

3 – Walking barnacles abscond 1d4 members of your family and are never seen again

[...]

ROMANCE EVENT d20

1 – You have absolutely no romance in your adolescence and are mocked ceaselessly by your peers

2 – Desert raiders abscond you into slavery, forcing you act as a pleasure slave in the profane Ziggurats of the Man-Bull. You are released 1d4 years later. Gain a trade skill.

3 – The sexually frustrated Elf maids from the Village of Two Stars kidnap and fight with one another over mating rituals for 1d4 years. Still unresolved, you eventually escape. [...]

http://valleyofbluesnails.blogspot.com/2009/04/you-spy-your-long-time-love-laying-eggs.html

Design notes:
- Backstories at char-gen, perhaps tied to traits and/or careers
- Backstories with choices or different ending (chosen by the player? by other players?)
- Backstories at level-up, adding complexity and depth (also, in accord to what we've seen so far of the character), keeping char-gen as fast as possible
- Backstories with mechanical consequences (good, or bad ones!)
- Backstories divided by topics, giving players some choice before their random roll(s)