From Men & Magic, page 10: "Prior to the character selection by players it is necessary for the referee to roll three six-sided dice in order to rate each as to various abilities, and thus aid them in selecting a role."
Because I started playing D&D with the Moldvay Basic Set and came to original D&D much later, I never really acknowledged that sentence until it was highlighted on one of the blogs I follow. At first I was shocked and almost appalled to think that someone else would be rolling MY character's abilities. But as I pondered it a bit more, I realized that it's a great way to generate memorable characters.
Imagine being handed a character sheet with an 8 STR and a 13 WIS, and being told that it would make a good Cleric. You could make the character a Cleric or, if you're willing to take a possible XP hit, you could decide to play a Fighting-man; remember, there are no minimum ability requirements for any of the classes in 3LBB OD&D.
The question of why your character is a Fighting-man when he'd be better off as a Cleric is something that could be answered in play as the game progresses. Perhaps he was slated to join the clergy but was mistreated by a priest and ran away. Perhaps he actually joined the church but got caught up in a scandal and was defrocked. There are so many good "bits" which can come out of such an unorthodox class selection, all of which will stick in your head when you think back upon the character...
...assuming he isn't killed in his first foray into the dungeon. Heh.
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