3.5 Stat Blocks Kill my creativity

[Akrasia]

Dude. You're like the poster boy for C&C. Your name and C&C are virtually synonymous. I would have a hard time not believing that you worked on the book even if the guys who did work on it showed up to say you didn't.

I'm glad you continue to mention other options such as WFRP and Savage Worlds, but come on. The folks at Troll Lord should be paying you to be a sales rep.

Cheers,
Cam

Yeah, whatever. :\

Anyway, I hear that the DMGII is supposed to have suggestions for easing the burden on the DM. I wonder if it will address this particular problem?

Does anyone know?

 

[swrushing]

Yeah, whatever. :\

Anyway, I hear that the DMGII is supposed to have suggestions for easing the burden on the DM. I wonder if it will address this particular problem?

Does anyone know?

the advanced GMG from GR has a section on npc builds made easy (easier)

 

[Shemeska]

I CAN and HAVE run heav stat-block game sessions before, but a DM can run without them, too.

Absolutely. I don't write down anything beyond the most applicable things for NPCs, especially if they're just cannon fodder mooks. The more complex and more important the NPC, the more I'll stat them out. However you can be assured that the history and fluff written for them will be at least 10 times the length of the stat block in any case.

 

[barsoomcore]

Likening it to another thread started years ago about "complexity" isn't helping anyone and honestly, just makes you sound like a jerk.

Well, that's fair. I am a jerk.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I don't remember bringing up C&C in "inappropriate" threads. :\

It is not a perfect game at all, but it has certain virtues. I have mentioned it when appropriate IMO. (Or with reference to my own campaign.)

As I said, you aren't doing it as much now, and this was an appropriate thread. (Which is why I edited my own post, which was not appropriate.)

I suspect that the impulse was generous - you had something that you really liked and you wanted to share it. It solved a problem that you had, and that you knew that others had as well. So you promoted it. Just a little too... vigorously. And that can be counterproductive.

I have seen more people turned off RPGs by fanatic fans than I have those turned away by fanatic 700 Clubbers. (Sadly, a lot more.) It can make people bristle. In my area it is more likely to be either the Rifts or the GURPS players than D&D, but I gather that yes indeed there are roving bands of radioactive D20 fans who drive people into the wastelands of HARP, or clear back to Monopoly.

Anyway, sorry about that.

The Auld Grump

 

[Breakdaddy]

I somewhat agree, and apologize, stuff from another series of threads is overflowing to here, though there was one poster in this thread who has brought up C&C when it was not particularly appropriate. So I am guilty of what I was mentioning. Bringing up my problems with a system in an inapproriate thread. I was reacting to a poster instead of a post, which is a rude thing to do.

The Auld Grump

You're one of the good ones for being so magnanimous about the whole thing. Good on ya!

-Breakdaddy (retracting his previous remark about the cordiality of TAG)

 

[helium3]

I've taken to building a library of character classes and advanced monsters. I just keep everything I generate and recycle it later with bits of extra flavor tacked on for difference. I also have taken to designing a couple of different builds and sticking with those builds. So with fighters, I have the melee fighter, the ranged fighter and the mounted fighter, and my feat selection and other stats for those builds doesn't change from encounter to encounter. Granted, I don't use many demi-humans or monstrous humanoids in my game, and that makes it easier.

Building stat blocks, while fun, is definitely a time-suck. Of course, advancing monsters is a real pain too.

 

[Arnwyn]

Somewhat telling that everyone who has said that "statblocks aren't so bad" or "I don't have a problem" is either using a $500+ computer plus software to generate statblocks, or simply "doesn't use statblocks". Nice.

 

[Kelleris]

Somewhat telling that everyone who has said that "statblocks aren't so bad" or "I don't have a problem" is either using a $500+ computer plus software to generate statblocks, or simply "doesn't use statblocks". Nice.

That's not true. I and several others have suggested ways that we employ more-or-less finished statblocks in our games. And there's a huge and interesting range between "doesn't use statblocks" and "every one of my NPCs are completely statted out."

 

[Henry]

Somewhat telling that everyone who has said that "statblocks aren't so bad" or "I don't have a problem" is either using a $500+ computer plus software to generate statblocks, or simply "doesn't use statblocks". Nice.

Exactly. Other systems, for example C&C, don't have the hangup that using complete statblocks is absolutely necessary at all times, and the fact that most products for D&D encourage it is not a good thing in my eyes. When people say that "statblocks are smaller" for certain other games, I look at them, and realize that half the time, they're smaller because they assume so much. They assume that the DM should have an easy-reference chart somewhere that says what the saves for an X-level fighter are, or how to specifically calculate their weak or strong saves, or what a given piece of equipment does. Mainly this is because such systems are very regimented out of the gate on the stats they do use, whereas games like GURPS and various d20 systems are so customized there really isn't a "default set" of stats. If D&D emphasized that most monsters were created whole cloth by the DM for use with their particular party of PCs, the stat blocks would be MUUUCH smaller, same as they are with other game systems.

A completely statted out and well thought-out Wizard 9 or Fighter12 will completley destroy a run of the mill unstatted "off the handle" "fly by night" Wizard9 or Fighter12 every time.

Since the PCs will be fully statted out, and mine won't, and the PCs are usually supposed to win the smaller encounters, I have no problem with this. If I want to give my players a hard time, I DO stat out multi-classed and levelled monstrosities, mainly for climactic battles.