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<blockquote data-quote="GreyICE" data-source="post: 6001168" data-attributes="member: 6684526">But what skill/feat would every marine in the entire army have?&nbsp; One might be an excellent piano player, another might have connections with all sorts of people, a third might be an excellent swimmer and a fourth might just be great at math. At the point where you need to care they're becoming named NPCs anyway, which is very different from just a stat block.&nbsp; Discussing the transition from &quot;stat block&quot; to named NPC could be done a LOT better in 4E, but again that's not something that affects how the Solo/Standard dynamic works, and isn't actually very edition specific (most relied on &quot;You're the DM!&nbsp; Wing it!&quot;). I just think this is a very generic complaint being thrown at a very specific problem.&nbsp; I've been playing a lot of FATE recently, and I'll happily agree the stat blocks paint a good picture of who each character is - at the cost that every single stat block is specific to each individual character.&nbsp; This fits the setting (there's really no '4 orcs in the room' type of encounters, and it's focused much more on narrative gameplay over oppositional gameplay (players create narrative elements, and it's straight up said that player death should be consensual between the GM and the player, and fit in with the narrative), but it doesn't work for D&amp;D.&nbsp; No edition of D&amp;D has wanted the 'four orks in the room' to all be named monsters with different dreams, hopes and aspirations - that you kill in half an hour of dice rolling.&nbsp;[MENTION=84465]B.T.[/MENTION] - I hope I don't really need to tell you that even soldiers deployed in combat zones spend at most a few hours each month shooting at people who are shooting back.&nbsp; In fact it is an active goal of our military to avoid having our soldiers in situations where they are being shot at.&nbsp; Those few hours can be quite deadly, but a marine doesn't spend 40 hours a week in combat.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="GreyICE, post: 6001168, member: 6684526"] But what skill/feat would every marine in the entire army have? One might be an excellent piano player, another might have connections with all sorts of people, a third might be an excellent swimmer and a fourth might just be great at math. At the point where you need to care they're becoming named NPCs anyway, which is very different from just a stat block. Discussing the transition from "stat block" to named NPC could be done a LOT better in 4E, but again that's not something that affects how the Solo/Standard dynamic works, and isn't actually very edition specific (most relied on "You're the DM! Wing it!"). I just think this is a very generic complaint being thrown at a very specific problem. I've been playing a lot of FATE recently, and I'll happily agree the stat blocks paint a good picture of who each character is - at the cost that every single stat block is specific to each individual character. This fits the setting (there's really no '4 orcs in the room' type of encounters, and it's focused much more on narrative gameplay over oppositional gameplay (players create narrative elements, and it's straight up said that player death should be consensual between the GM and the player, and fit in with the narrative), but it doesn't work for D&D. No edition of D&D has wanted the 'four orks in the room' to all be named monsters with different dreams, hopes and aspirations - that you kill in half an hour of dice rolling. [MENTION=84465]B.T.[/MENTION] - I hope I don't really need to tell you that even soldiers deployed in combat zones spend at most a few hours each month shooting at people who are shooting back. In fact it is an active goal of our military to avoid having our soldiers in situations where they are being shot at. Those few hours can be quite deadly, but a marine doesn't spend 40 hours a week in combat. [/QUOTE]

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