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DM Prep Work Leading To Burnout: Help?
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<blockquote data-quote="crazy_monkey1956" data-source="post: 3613237" data-attributes="member: 49514"><p>I had my "aha" moment not too long ago and it was simply, "Stop doing stuff you don't really need to." Why try to recreate a stat block every time PCs run afoul of a city guard? Now I have one generic one in a special section of my gaming folder called "Stock NPCs." Every time I need a stat block for something I don't already have one for, I go ahead and make it up...then I stash it in "Stock NPCs" section so I can use it again, and again, and again. City guards make good bandits too...and pirates if you lose the armor...and gang thugs if you swap a weapon out.</p><p></p><p>I used to haaaaate lycanthropes because, foolish me, I'd work up three seperate sets of stat blocks, one for each form. I gave myself nightmares with a Barbarian were-boar. Then, I had my "aha" moment and realized...I only need the hybrid form, the rest is window dressing. Don't need stats for it because the PCs aren't going to be fighting it in that form.</p><p></p><p>If the PCs are going to kill it, stat it. Otherwise, an NPC is window dressing, setting decor, so much fluff. Even if the PCs are going to kill it...odds are they'll never guess that those highwaymen they just killed are the same guys, stat wise, as the prison guards they killed while escaping the dark lord's dungeon.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="crazy_monkey1956, post: 3613237, member: 49514"] I had my "aha" moment not too long ago and it was simply, "Stop doing stuff you don't really need to." Why try to recreate a stat block every time PCs run afoul of a city guard? Now I have one generic one in a special section of my gaming folder called "Stock NPCs." Every time I need a stat block for something I don't already have one for, I go ahead and make it up...then I stash it in "Stock NPCs" section so I can use it again, and again, and again. City guards make good bandits too...and pirates if you lose the armor...and gang thugs if you swap a weapon out. I used to haaaaate lycanthropes because, foolish me, I'd work up three seperate sets of stat blocks, one for each form. I gave myself nightmares with a Barbarian were-boar. Then, I had my "aha" moment and realized...I only need the hybrid form, the rest is window dressing. Don't need stats for it because the PCs aren't going to be fighting it in that form. If the PCs are going to kill it, stat it. Otherwise, an NPC is window dressing, setting decor, so much fluff. Even if the PCs are going to kill it...odds are they'll never guess that those highwaymen they just killed are the same guys, stat wise, as the prison guards they killed while escaping the dark lord's dungeon. [/QUOTE]
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