Better formatting of d20 stats

reason · Jul 18, 2002

So I'm contemplating d20-izing an aged but extensive and well-formatted campaign setting of mine & putting it online for the masses under the OGL. I'm a little stuck on formatting of

a) racial templates
b) statistics for individuals

I've meandered around the online stuff from wotc and other companies and ventures of various sizes, and I'm struck by how downright *ugly* and unreadable all of the stat and template formatting is. Even from wotc.

Surely there have to be some examples out there of half-way decent formatting and appearance of game stats? Suggestions gratefully appreciated, especially suggestions that I can go look at without getting out of my chair.

Reason
http://www.exratio.com

Wolvorine · Jul 18, 2002

My biggest problem with stat blocks in 3e is that there are no line breaks, no visual formatting to the stat blocks at all. Everything in a big, huge run-on sentance. It's like reading a line of text with no spaces or something.

Wolf72 · Jul 18, 2002

you make it sound like early latin

jaerdaph · Jul 19, 2002

Check out this Web site:

d20 Standard Stat Block Foundation
http://www.d20statblock.org

Specifically, see the "style guide" and examples.

A very worthwhile, if somewhat anal retentive, even bordering on obsessive compulsive, cause.

Which is probably why I support it wholeheartedly

Monte At Home · Jul 19, 2002

The problem is, in my opinion, that all stat blocks are terrible. When we designed the Monster Manual entries, we made them as compact as we thought we could without sacrificing usability. We tested a number of different formats and presentations before coming up with what we did. Anything more compact, in our opinion, is harder to use.

But people wanted stat blocks in adventures. Thus, the designers of those stat blocks went entirely the other way, favoring compact and complete over easy to use.

I never use stat blocks, prefering the MM instead. With NPCs, though, of course, there is no MM. I don't have a set standard format for my own games. I use WotC standard stat blocks (with a few minor changes) in my products for Malhavoc.

If you didn't mind the space, using MM-like entries for NPCs would be OK. You might need some slight modifications.

kingpaul · Jul 19, 2002

reason said:
Surely there have to be some examples out there of half-way decent formatting and appearance of game stats? Suggestions gratefully appreciated, especially suggestions that I can go look at without getting out of my chair.

Well, if you go to the Netbook of NPCs site (URL in sig), you can see how we've done it.

Squire James · Jul 19, 2002

I use stat blocks when I prepare my own adventures because (1) it saves paper when I print them out, and (2) like any good computer programmer, I can read my own jargon! I would consider doing things differently if I were designing something I intend someone else to read.

An NPC, if arranged in eye-pleasing fashion, can take up 1-2 whole pages by themselves. What if you have 5-10 NPC's in a particular adventure. Do mooks that happen to have class levels need the "full NPC" writeup? How about "advanced monsters"? we're talking 32-page writeups for 6-hour adventures, and I really don't want to kill that many trees even if I'm writing for someone else!

reason · Jul 19, 2002

thanks muchly

Thanks guys; most helpful. Keep adding more if you know of them

Reason
http://www.exratio.com

Better formatting of d20 stats

reason

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Wolvorine

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Wolf72

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jaerdaph

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Monte At Home

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kingpaul

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Squire James

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reason

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