Breeding

Breeding

This was a wrong idea I had. And the math worked out quasi-believably, so I may as well put it forth here. -- Tony

In case any of youse are planning to have children, I figure that their parents genetic material is going to have some sort of impact on how the kids turn out. Not just in appearance and racial characteristics but in other ways.

In D&D, we tend to quantify the characteristics of an individual through the ability scores. So I figure we can apply a general formula to make breeding possible. Kinda like breeding dogs, but with 50% more moral consequences...for free!

It seems logical that smarter parents will have smarter children, and tougher parents will have tougher children. We shall make the assumption that any ability score can be affected by one's parents. Additionally, we assume that the scores that come out of this model apply to the fully-grown adult, before any ill effects of aging have occurred. Finally, we assume that you are using a flat 3d6 to generate ability scores when you are not using these rules.

The rules here really only affect children who were raised in their homes until "coming-of-age," however that is defined. Young runaways, orphans, and other such people don't get the benefits (or penalties) described herein.

For those of you who don't like randomness, apply the following horribly complicated formula:

• (X + Y) / 2

Round down if there is a remainder. Where X is mom's ability score, and Y is dad's. Good in a pinch. Yes, this means that genius parents get genius kids. Deal with it.

For those of you who can take a little randomness:

• (X + Y) / 3

Round down, and add 1d6. That is your ability score.

Or for a lot of randomness:

• (X + Y) / 5

Round down, and add 2d6.

Comparing models, we see this:

Parental Average	Average [Min, Max]
	(X+Y)/2	1d6 + ((X+Y)/3)	2d6 + ((X+Y)/5)
3	3.0 [3, 3]	5.5 [3, 8]	8.0 [3, 13]
4	4.0 [4, 4]	5.5 [3, 8]	8.0 [3, 13]
5	5.0 [5, 5]	6.5 [4, 9]	9.0 [4, 14]
6	6.0 [6, 6]	7.5 [5, 10]	9.0 [4, 14]
7	7.0 [7, 7]	7.5 [5, 10]	9.0 [4, 14]
8	8.0 [8, 8]	8.5 [6, 11]	10.0 [5, 15]
9	9.0 [9, 9]	9.5 [7, 12]	10.0 [5, 15]
10	10.0 [10, 10]	9.5 [7, 12]	11.0 [6, 16]
11	11.0 [11, 11]	10.5 [8, 13]	11.0 [6, 16]
12	12.0 [12, 12]	11.5 [9, 14]	11.0 [6, 16]
13	13.0 [13, 13]	11.5 [9, 14]	12.0 [7, 17]
14	14.0 [14, 14]	12.5 [10, 15]	12.0 [7, 17]
15	15.0 [15, 15]	13.5 [11, 16]	13.0 [8, 18]
16	16.0 [16, 16]	13.5 [11, 16]	13.0 [8, 18]
17	17.0 [17, 17]	14.5 [12, 17]	13.0 [8, 18]
18	18.0 [18, 18]	15.5 [13, 18]	14.0 [9, 19]

I think it's okay for basic arithmetic. Though I probably shouldn't have taken time out of my work day to assemble this. :-)