Ramidel:
Ah, the endless joy of being someone who likes Palladium's settings but doesn't like random rolling everything (which Kevin Siembieda thinks is fun, and demands that everyone else think is fun too by making it difficult to houserule around the randomness). I suffer from this affliction too, so you're not alone.
You can simply ask your players to give you the attributes they want. Or, if you want to allow for some swinginess, here's one way to do it that I've seen: "Roll 4d4+6* and drop the lowest d4, then assign stats, and take something like 80% of any random rolls that skills force on you."
Siran:
I have to say that I detest random attributes. I have rolled much better than average (I once had 4 18s in a d20 game) and much worse, and both of those outcomes spoil my enjoyment of the game. I no longer play in games in which there are random attributes.
The simplest approach for me is that the GM gives you a handful of numbers, and the players can pick whichever they want.
For example (I did no thinking on these numbers just wrote them as an example)
- 18,14,12,12,10,8
- 16,16,16,12,10,8
- 14,14,14,14,14,12
- ...
Both of these techniques are solid. I've also seen alternative attribute rolling methods in
Dead Reign that provide some randomness, but still allow players to effectively pre-choose what their characters will be good at. These alternative methods basically guarantee that at least one stat will be in the 20s, which means everyone gets to add those yummy bonuses for a 16+ stat to
something.
Frankly, I'm torn between controlled randomness and simply removing the random element altogether.
Ramidel:
I'd definitely recommend allowing Beyond the Supernatural content as well as Nightbane. (Heroes Unlimited feels like it might be a little out of genre, though it could obviously work.)
Siran:
I also quite like Beyond the Supernatural and Heroes unlimited. The Ninjas and superspies and the Chinese supplement to that content is fantastic and I'd consider looking at that too if you were going beyond just Nightbane.
I wouldn't have a problem with allowing BtS or N&SS options for players, except I worry that such players wouldn't be able to keep up with a nightbane in combat (which will be a big factor for a splatterpunk-style game). BtS and N&SS characters will have more (and better)
skills than the Nightbane, but I fear that creates a game where every character has nothing useful to do for 50% of the time. Heroes Unlimited characters can probably keep up on both sides, but I worry if they'll hurt the tone.
That said, I've played very little of HU or N&SS, so I have a poor understanding of their combat abilities.