Do you like stats with your fiction?

[JediSoth]

Statting out fictional character seems to me to be a form of handcuffing the character's development. I think it can put artificial constraints on the story.

Of course, depending on how it's used, I guess it could force the author to be more creative in describing how their characters deal with certain situations.

As a reader, I would think if someone stuck very closely to stats, it take a lot of suspense of disbelief if a character should have done something logically they were capable of, but didn't because "the games says the character can't do that."

JediSoth

 

[tensen]

I didn't know how to answer the poll.

See, I like to know stats. However I really don't want them with the story itself. Later on if I really liked the story, I might consider using the character... so I'd check the publisher or author's site to see if there was a web enhancement type thing for it.

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

I didn't know how to answer the poll.

See, I like to know stats. However I really don't want them with the story itself. Later on if I really liked the story, I might consider using the character... so I'd check the publisher or author's site to see if there was a web enhancement type thing for it.

Option 1 or 2.

The stats don't have to be packaged with the novel, but when you do get the stats (from the web site, web enhancement, etc.) how accurate do you want them to be?

BD

 

[Scribble]

I see stats almost like I do an illustration of the character. It's just a snippet of a moment in time of that character. It's not always going to be completely accurate at all times, nor should it be.

 

[William drake]

This is just a quick poll for readers of RPG-related fiction.

Do you like knowing the nuts and bolts stats of the main characters in the fiction you read? Personally, as a reader, I love them, but as a writer...their kind of a pain in the ass.

Here's the issue from an author's perspective. When writing fiction based around a game like D&D, where things like race, class, feats, skills, etc. so rigidly define a character’s abilities, it can be difficult to shoehorn a character into his stats. Case in point, in the Metamorphosis novels I'm writing for EN Publishing, I have been reluctant to stat up certain characters for fear that it will paint me into a corner, literarily speaking. If I say a character is a 10th-level sorcerer, but then later in the story, I want said character to cast a 6th-level spell, I have a problem. Or, sometimes, a character’s abilities don’t fit into the normal D&D structure at all, like my main character in the novels mentioned above.

So, the author’s dilemma gives rise to another question. If you do like stats with your fiction, how close, in your opinion, must the stats be to the character, as described in the fiction?

NO NO NO.

One is not the other.

I'm a writer too, and I would never cut and paste who or what my character could do so that others could qualify him as need be. As the Author, you put limits...those are enough. If someone would like to mold your character for a game, that is fine, but they must understand that fiction isn't gaming. That the story isn't made by the roll of the dice. Its not like when writing a chapter full of action you break out the dice to see what's what. No, you write it and that's that.

I do agree that it is fun to see what some people may think about characters from stories we all know to well, but everyone has their own oppion. And even though You as the Author created the character, your STATS would never fully be excepted by your readers.

Just a thought.

Game On.

 

[tensen]

Option 1 or 2.

The stats don't have to be packaged with the novel, but when you do get the stats (from the web site, web enhancement, etc.) how accurate do you want them to be?

BD

Prefered Character Stats - Representative of the character at whatever snapshot in time the creator choses.

ie... if the character deviates from normal stats with a special spell or relic, I want it noted as that. As a writer I personally prefer if the character in fiction has something special to them. As a game designer, I tend to create new things for my players anyway.

 

[Voadam]

I'd be more interested in villain and unique outsider stats than hero stats. I can see myself stealing bad guys for use in my own game rather than heroes. I thought it was neat in Heroes of Summer Flames (the dragonlance Chaos war one) where they had game stats for the different dark knight classes in the back. I never used the pregens from the dragonlance modules so I don't think I would have either if they had been in the novels.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I didn't vote. Basically, I would like to see them at the end of a story. But the stats had then better darn well allow the character to do what he's shown doing in the story.

I get really annoyed at RPG fiction that has characters doing things they shouldn't be able to, whether they've been statted up or not. Which is probably why I don't like much of it. If you're not going to stick to the rules, what are you writing it for in the first place? Just make it general fiction and be done with it!

Edit: Elizabeth Moon did it right. She took a D&D campaign and turned it into a general fiction story. No worries about what the characters should and shouldn't be able to do because they were only based on RPG characters, not the actual characters themselves. And Paksenarrion is a great read!

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

Interesting results. I would have thought that the accuracy of stats wouldn't be as important, but according to the poll so far, people want exact stats or none at all.

BD

 

[Fruit]

As other people have said, I think it's dependent on the type of story in question.

If the story is actually based on a game in which the characters had stats, and is more or less the tale of what those characters did in that game, I love to see stats. For the characters, for their adversaries, the whole deal. It adds to the experience in that you can see exactly how the game played out, how the PCs must have lucked out in this or that encounter, how the DM designs his challenges, and so on. It's a wonderful resource to tap into as research for your own games, and it's entertaining in itself.

If on the other hand the story is an original work, not based on roleplaying sessions, I see no need for stats. If Tolkien had happened to live to see DnD 3E in his later years and decided to go back and add an appendix to Lord of the Rings stating that Gandalf was a pimped DR 0 epic level Wizard/Fighter, I'd do nothing but laugh.

If you want to write fiction, great. If you want to play DnD, great. If you want to play DnD and then write about it, with a greater or lesser amount of artistic license, that's great too, and I'd love to see stats from the original game. If you want to write fiction and then write up DnD stat blocks after the fact... well, I don't really get that, personally.

I've never been one for lifting other people's ideas wholesale into my games... inspiration, sure, but on a fluffy rather than crunchy level, so no need for stat blocks. And I don't feel it adds to my enjoyment of a story to read some numbers that the author has chosen to allocate to his characters. So if it's happening that way round, I'll probably skip the stat blocks if they happen to be included.

Not that the presence of stat blocks actively offends me or anything, so option 3 isn't strictly accurate. But I figured it was the best fit, so that's what I plumped for.