Do you like stats with your fiction?

[BLACKDIRGE]

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?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Why couldn't the character level up over the course of the fiction?

 

[Quartz]

For the sort of fiction written here - the Story Hours, Grummok, etc - I like exact stats. Not only so I can appreciate them, but also so I can plunder them and learn from them.

For a book, stats aren't necessary.

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

Why couldn't the character level up over the course of the fiction?

That certainly could work with charcters that actually have indentifiable levels; however, stats become more of a problem when you are dealing with powerful entities, like unique outsiders and gods.

By the way, I do enjoy statting up the characters for my fiction, I just don't like having to write to the stats, so to speak. It's not much of a problem when you write a single book and then stat up the characters afterwards. But if your working in a trilogy, with the same characters appearing in multiple volumes, the stats you created in the first book may not match up with what you want to do in books two and three. I'm managing okay so far, however.

BD

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Well, I read a lot of Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels and I have to say that I like stats for the characters, but I think that the novels shoul remain separate from the game. What I mean by that is, an author should not feel constrained by the DnD rules when they are writing their novels. I think that the author should make their character however they feel like and if stats are ever made, the stats should try and fit the character, but the character should not be constrained to fit in a stat block.

Does that make any sense?

 

[Nifft]

Story Hour: Yes. A thousand times yes.

Fiction: No.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Mieric]

By the way, I do enjoy statting up the characters for my fiction, I just don't like having to write to the stats, so to speak. It's not much of a problem when you write a single book and then stat up the characters afterwards. But if your working in a trilogy, with the same characters appearing in multiple volumes, the stats you created in the first book may not match up with what you want to do in books two and three. I'm managing okay so far, however.

BD

Write first, then present the character in stats at multiple levels would be my choice. Like how WotC presented the 5/10/15 character builds for Fight Club (or whatever that article series is called).

 

[BLACKDIRGE]

Write first, then present the character in stats at multiple levels would be my choice. Like how WotC presented the 5/10/15 character builds for Fight Club (or whatever that article series is called).

Unfortunately, the novellas are being released as I write them, so I have to do stats for each one. But your suggestion is exactly what I would do if I had my choice.

BD

 

[WhatGravitas]

If I read a story hour: Yes, please.
If I read a novel/story/whatever: You can throw it in as a goody, and I'll perhaps use it... but no need for it. And I don't really care about consistency with the novel, unless there is a outrageous inconsistency (character described as lowly idiot, but has Wiz 39 stats, fighters as sorcerers, obviously higher-level (10+) guys as low-level (~3) guys). But I don't really care.

Cheers, LT.

 

[RFisher]

If you are going to write fiction that is supposed to be tied to an RPG, then I think you should do your best to follow the rules as much as possible. It should be approached like writing a sonnet.

I certainly have no problem with the occasional step outside the rules. Any good RPG campaign ends up doing that at some point, IMHO. A good sonnet writer can break the rules slightly to great effect. But if the rules are completely ignored, calling it a sonnet only distracts from whatever value the poem might've had. If you don't want to bother to make an effort to stay within the rules most of the time, then don't claim any connection to the game.