# 2012-09-26 Class and Equipment Distribution

A while ago I was wondering about randomly determining class and buying equipment for my campaign. I’m using the Labyrinth Lord rules, but when it came to the equipment list, I decided to go use the much simpler Moldvay list with the extremely cheap plate armor (60 gold).

Classes
cleric  195
fighter  182
magic-user  177
elf  147
dwarf  136
halfling   96
thief   67
total 1000
Property
backpack 1000
iron rations (1 week) 1000
sling  753
pouch of stones (2)  736
long sword  468
chain mail  362
shield  356
dagger (2)  350
leather armor  293
dagger  224
mace  195
spear  137
plate mail  126
silver dagger  123
hand axe (2)   87
pole arm   73
battle axe   71
short bow   32
hand axe   27
pouch of stones   17
quiver of arrows   16
quiver of arrows (2)   16
helmet    4
two handed sword    3

The web application that implements these algorithms will now also generate 50 characters in plain text format (useful for pre-generated characters and non-player parties?) and it will also report some numbers for 1000 randomly generated characters. You can find the output in the sidebar.

The question I’m most interested in is this: How to tweak my equipment buying algorithm in order to generate more natural numbers?

I’ve tweaked my character selection algorithm a bit in response to these numbers and expect to tweak the equipment buying process in a similar vein. For example, since I use Death & Dismemberment tables: If you have very few hit-points and poor armor, buying a helmet might be more important than it is right now! In addition to that, I wonder why my players don’t buy enough slings. The algorithm apparently leads to long swords being very popular. No love for short swords?

I should read through a few pages of random characters to see whether I see any unusual choices made. Did you spot anything strange?

Update: thinking about helmets again—I think that perhaps this reflects how helmets are bought at our table. Practically nobody buys a helmet unless they have money to waste. The current algorithm only buys a helmet for 1 in 216: those who got 180 starting gold. 20 goes for the rations and the backpack, that leaves 160 gold, half of that is for armor (80 gold), which is enough for plate armor (60 gold), shield (10 gold) and a helmet (10). I think that’s ok. I won’t be changing this after all.

Also, lanterns. Practically everybody buys a lantern. I know my characters usually do. I think I’ll leave it as it is.

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