Alternate Character Generation Rules

The rules presented in Rifts for Generating a Character comes from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. You roll 3d6 and go on down the line eight times. However, D&D (and it's spin-offs) have changed since then. So, I decided to borrow some rules from Pathfinder to make it easier for players to roll up a Rifts character.


 * Option 1: Roll 4d6 eight times, drop lowest, arrange to taste.   This creates heroes of an exceptional quality.  This means smarter, stronger heroes from the get go.  It's still not overpowering, since the ability cap is at 18.  Some D-Bees, like elves, may be different.  For instance, elves (see Conversion Book 1, page 86) have you roll 5d6 for their Physical Beauty.
 * Option 2: Each character receives a number of points to spend on increasing his basic attributes. In this method, all attributes start at a base of 10. A character can increase an individual score by spending some of his points. Likewise, he can gain more points to spend on other scores by decreasing one or more of his ability scores. No score can be reduced below 7 or raised above 18 using this method. See Table 1–1 in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game (1st Edition, page 16) for the costs of each score. After all the points are spent, apply any racial modifiers the character might have. The number of points you have to spend using the purchase method depends on the type of campaign you are playing. The standard value for a character is 20 points. Average nonplayer characters (NPCs) are typically built using as few as 3 points. See Table 1–2 on the next page for a number of possible point values depending on the style of campaign. The purchase method emphasizes player choice and creates equally balanced characters.
 * Option 3: Dice Pool: Each character has a pool of 24d6 to assign to his statistics. Before the dice are rolled, the player 0selects the number of dice to roll for each score, with a minimum of 3d6 for each ability. Once the dice have been assigned, the player rolls each group and totals the result of the three highest dice. For more high-powered games, the GM should increase the total number of dice to 28. This method generates characters of a similar power to the Standard method.