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Poll: What is a Level 1 PC?
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 6036668" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>Something that occured to me while statting up the blacksmith:</p><p></p><p>I had a bunch of extra skills available with no clear use for them, and so I assigned them to Gather Info and Knowledge(local), on the grounds that the blacksmith is likely to have more interaction with more people in the community (and with travellers) than almost anyone else other than the innkeeper.</p><p></p><p>And <em>that</em> is potentially interesting information - it means that if the party want to consult with people about local events (and not just when finding a specialist to shoe their horse, or whatever), it gives a guide as to who they should speak to. If the village were properly statted up, that genuinely could give rise to a deeper sense of versimilitude than you might otherwise get.</p><p></p><p><strong>But...</strong></p><p></p><p>That only works if the DM basically has the <em>whole</em> village statted out, and so knows that the blacksmith is knowledgeable about such things, that the parson's wife is a notorious gossip, and so on.</p><p></p><p>And the problem is that, even at 2 minutes per set of stats, a village of 200 people will require 6 and a half hours to stat up fully - and virtually none of the data thus generated will be of any use.</p><p></p><p>(And you can't really automate that process meaningfully - it's only helpful if it throws up ideas and knowledge for the DM to use in his game to generate that versimilitude. Buying a book of stats, or having a piece of software do it won't give the DM that same intimate knowledge.)</p><p></p><p>Just an idle thought...</p><p></p><p>Edit: I suppose perhaps you could have a handful of pre-generated skeletons of NPC stats, perhaps with everything assigned except one 'wild-card' skill, plus a few random tables giving names and positions with the village. And so, when the PCs ask about strange goings-on by the bridge, the DM rolls on his 'villagers' table to get "Alice, daughter of a local farmer", who he decides is a "Commoner 1", grabs one of his skeleton NPCs and assigns "Listen +4" as her 'wild card' skill. I suppose that might give the illusion of versimilitude (the illusion of the illusion of truth? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> ) without an <em>outrageous</em> amount of work. Not least since the DM wouldn't need a different table for every village - he could just reuse the same table, and rename "Alice" once her entry has been used...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 6036668, member: 22424"] Something that occured to me while statting up the blacksmith: I had a bunch of extra skills available with no clear use for them, and so I assigned them to Gather Info and Knowledge(local), on the grounds that the blacksmith is likely to have more interaction with more people in the community (and with travellers) than almost anyone else other than the innkeeper. And [i]that[/i] is potentially interesting information - it means that if the party want to consult with people about local events (and not just when finding a specialist to shoe their horse, or whatever), it gives a guide as to who they should speak to. If the village were properly statted up, that genuinely could give rise to a deeper sense of versimilitude than you might otherwise get. [b]But...[/b] That only works if the DM basically has the [i]whole[/i] village statted out, and so knows that the blacksmith is knowledgeable about such things, that the parson's wife is a notorious gossip, and so on. And the problem is that, even at 2 minutes per set of stats, a village of 200 people will require 6 and a half hours to stat up fully - and virtually none of the data thus generated will be of any use. (And you can't really automate that process meaningfully - it's only helpful if it throws up ideas and knowledge for the DM to use in his game to generate that versimilitude. Buying a book of stats, or having a piece of software do it won't give the DM that same intimate knowledge.) Just an idle thought... Edit: I suppose perhaps you could have a handful of pre-generated skeletons of NPC stats, perhaps with everything assigned except one 'wild-card' skill, plus a few random tables giving names and positions with the village. And so, when the PCs ask about strange goings-on by the bridge, the DM rolls on his 'villagers' table to get "Alice, daughter of a local farmer", who he decides is a "Commoner 1", grabs one of his skeleton NPCs and assigns "Listen +4" as her 'wild card' skill. I suppose that might give the illusion of versimilitude (the illusion of the illusion of truth? :) ) without an [i]outrageous[/i] amount of work. Not least since the DM wouldn't need a different table for every village - he could just reuse the same table, and rename "Alice" once her entry has been used... [/QUOTE]
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Poll: What is a Level 1 PC?
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