Inheriting Stats

Resting from the house renovations, packing for the move, and hurricane preparations. Was pondering about a lineage kingdom builder game, where the players can give birth to heirs and eventually play as them. So I came up with a simple mechanic to pass on your stats to you next of kin.

Source (DeviantArt)

Everybody Loves Punnet Squares

This builds off of a punnet square like from high school biology. Take both parents and identify their highest and lowest stat. The highest stat is called the peak and the lowest stat is called the weak. Next, place these stats on the square as listed below. 

Now, whenever a child is born, roll a d4 to see which stats they inherit. After that, just roll for the other stats normally. And you are essentially done! You could also use this as a dice drop method easily if that's what you prefer. It's all up to you. I personally have the stat limit as 18 and I wouldn't let magic item's stat boost apply for this. I feel that would be a tad broken.

Exceptions

If both parents have the same stat as their peak and you get a result of PP, then you simply roll a d12.

1-4    Take the average (round up)

5-8    Take Parent 1's peak

9-12  Take Parent 2's peak

If the first parent has a peak stat that is a weak stat for the second parent and you get a result that would give you both, roll a d12. 

1-4    Take the average (round up)

5-8    Take the peak stat

9-12  Take the weak stat

Example: Quinn and Rose both want children. Quinn has Dex (18) as his peak stat, while for Rose, Dex (6) is her weak stat. They have one child named Darius. The square is set up below:

The players roll a 2, getting Dex for peak and weak. Now the player must roll a d12 to see what they get. If the player rolls a 1-4, then they take the average for their Dex stat. In this case, that value is 12. If they roll a 5-8, then Darius would take his dad's value for Dex, 18. If they rolled a 9-12, then Darius would take his mother's value for Dex, 6. Finally, Darius would roll normally for his other stats.

And that's it. Some basic hereditary trait rules. I'll probably throw in some rules for inbreeding later down the road, if players pursue that. I plan on using this for a kingdom building game where having an heir and playing as one is not only desirable, but a mechanical benefit.