Greetings!
Yes, ForgottenF and I agree very much. In the "Wheelchair" thread, I made precisely the same argument. Yes, I am biased towards harsh, brutal reality, because I have actually done all of what amounts to as "Adventuring" in real life, professionally. While the Army and Navy are not as strict and demanding as the Marine Corps, historically, both of them have embraced and demanded a fairly rigorous uniform standard of physical abilities. Army Infantry demand everyone in the squad are able to perform basic physical challenges, running, climbing, swimming, digging, crawling, combat, running, and so on. The Navy--of course, not now with the fucking Woke Navy--but in the past, they too required regular physical challenges, carrying men and equipment up and down tight flights of stairwells, working with heavy tools, weapons and ammunition, and of course, being skilled in swimming. They also required a standard of athletics, likewise from every member of the crew, regardless of their particular "job".
That gets into my experience with the Marine Corps policy of "Every man a Rifleman." The Marines of course, likewise demand extremely vigorous physical abilities from everyone--again, regardless of their job or specialty. The standards within the Marine Infantry and Force Recon are much higher, and even more demanding. The Navy Seals, as you mentioned, yes, they too demand some of the highest and most brutal standards, again, for every member of the team.
This experience is all very relevant, because for many members of the military, at least much of the time, we do most everything that professional Adventurers in our games do.
The stupid, the fat, the weak, the slow--and certainly the fucking crippled--are not welcome, not acceptable, and not tolerated.
WHY?
Because people will unnecessarily DIE trying to protect the weak fucks, or get killed while coddling them.
Next, the MISSION. The success of the MISSION requires everyone is pulling their weight, and bringing their "A" game in every way. Minimum standards are simply a baseline--out in the field, in the real world, the Mission will always demand FAR MORE.
Your team simply must be able to all perform very well, and be ready and able to exceed expectations, or the Mission fails.
So, yeah, even in 1E D&D, Wizards are always very welcome, and an excellent asset--but they still must be able to do all the basic physical challenges and wilderness survival and movement required of everyone on the team.
There is no room for the weak, the fat, the slow, the stupid, or the crippled.
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
Shark, do you allow players to re-roll characters if they get lousy stats? Or are you in the “3d6, straight-down-the-line-and-you’ll-take-what-you-get-and-like-it” camp?
Greetings!
Good question, my friend! The truth is, it depends on the "Campaign Mode" I am running that particular group with. Normal Mode--which is 4D6 for each stat; or Hard Mode, which is 3D6 down the line. Of course, sometimes I will run the campaign one mode or the other, or allow the Players to select what they like. Some, after all, *prefer* the Hard Mode.
In recent campaigns, however, like my more recent group, I have been playing the Shadowdark rules, so, HARD MODE it is!
I can be lenient though. If they roll up a totally lame Character, yeah, reroll and get something decent. I don't let them reroll endlessly, seeking super stats--but simply to get that rough, decent range of stats. The driving point, being, yeah, Adventurers are unusual and somewhat elite. You have to be to even have a chance at surviving the challenges ahead. Being normal is ok, but let's face it--a large chunk of humanity are in fact, just walking corpses in a firefight. They are often mentally and physically entirely unsuited to fighting at the front. So, I am careful to supervise Players to make sure that they have rugged, functional characters. The weak, fat, crippled, and so on, well, again, let's be real. Those people stay back on the farm, or stay in the urban ghetto where they come from, or even a more well-off house. Those people stay near the temples, the schools, and markets, away from danger and real work.
As I recall, isn't the average for 3D6 like, 10? The average for 4D6 (drop lowest) is...12, I think? Depending on what scores the Players have in what, yeah, I try and hope they never get anything below a -1 modifier. Or at least, not having more than two (-1) attributes. Having two or more (-1) or (-2) attributes, well, yeah, you are getting very close to failure state there, you know? Again, depending on the attributes and the class, some things can slide better than others, more so in the mental, social areas than the physical, for example. Being socially clumsy, or mentally a bit on the slow side can be fine--but if you cannot run, climb, jump, swim, carry shit, dig, and fight to a basic standard, that seems like a huge no to me, right from the beginning.
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK