DUNGEON's NEW STAT BLOCK FORMAT

[mearls]

Basically, no. This came up in 3rd Edition design. Twice, actually. And we considered it very strongly. But we ruled it out because we were afraid it would be perceived as a really big change (when in fact it really isn't).

It's easy for me to look at things now and say we should have done it. But considering that the times (and opinions) were different then, I think it's a decision I can still stand behind.

But yeah, I'd be surprised if it survived to another edition.

I think the key issue lies with ability score damage - is there a floor where penalties can't go below? In other words, a creature with a -6 Con is dead (or is it?), but that doesn't easily translate into the flow of the game. It's a lot easier to process that a poison has left me with a Con of 8 and make game decisions based on that, than a negative number with a non-intuitive terminus value.

 

[Emirikol]

>>Also, speaking as the captain of the ship, adding a color-coding system for the magazine text would be like opening a Pandora's Box of potential errors, and is not worth the trouble, I'm afraid.


Funny you should mention that..I'm red/green colorblind..I live in a brown, yellow and blue world

jh

 

[Monte At Home]

I think the key issue lies with ability score damage - is there a floor where penalties can't go below? In other words, a creature with a -6 Con is dead (or is it?), but that doesn't easily translate into the flow of the game. It's a lot easier to process that a poison has left me with a Con of 8 and make game decisions based on that, than a negative number with a non-intuitive terminus value.

And that's no coincidence. Ability score damage was put into the game to give a reason for the numerical values.

Although since you bring it up, I must admit that I love ability score damage and would indeed hate to see that kind of thing go in some other direction.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I suppose it might be possible to re-order the ability scores so that they start at +0 and scale up, with anything below 0 equaling dead (or disabled, or what have you). This has the benefit of removing the necessity for the separation of ability score and ability modifier. But it would also require a complete rescaling of the system from the ground up, taking every single number, check, and roll into account. I'm not really sure it'd be worth it in a future edition, let alone a retooling of the current one.

 

[S'mon]

I suppose it might be possible to re-order the ability scores so that they start at +0 and scale up, with anything below 0 equaling dead (or disabled, or what have you). This has the benefit of removing the necessity for the separation of ability score and ability modifier. But it would also require a complete rescaling of the system from the ground up, taking every single number, check, and roll into account. I'm not really sure it'd be worth it in a future edition, let alone a retooling of the current one.

That would be the obvious, sensible thing to do - basically just divide current scores by 2 and round down. Then you would get a sensible system that didn't require translating "18" into "+4", it would just be a "9", with the average score "5", and the score would add straight to the d20 roll.

Admittedly if anything I'd prefer to retain the 3-18 bell curve and just add _that_ to the d20 roll, with reduced Levelling benefits. So an attack roll would be d20 + STR, plus any class & level bonuses.

 

[Vascant]

As some of you may or may not know, I am creating an NPC Generator.. and this new format does cause me a few hours of work but since most of the information is already handled I do not see a ton of work.

Question is simple.
1. Does anyone see a reason to keep both new and old format alive at the sametime?
2. Would a conversion program from old to new format be helpful?

Thanks to those who take a moment and answer..

 

[WizarDru]

I did not know, but I am interested, in said NPC generator.

Quite frankly, I just want consistency...but I have no idea about the open-nature of the stat-block, as far as the OGL and SRD are concerned.

 

[jmucchiello]

I suppose it might be possible to re-order the ability scores so that they start at +0 and scale up, with anything below 0 equaling dead (or disabled, or what have you). This has the benefit of removing the necessity for the separation of ability score and ability modifier. But it would also require a complete rescaling of the system from the ground up, taking every single number, check, and roll into account. I'm not really sure it'd be worth it in a future edition, let alone a retooling of the current one.

This is the basis of Dungeon Crawl, a silly looting game I've been half-heartedly working on. Just multiply/divide by two to use standard d20 material. The objective of DC is to eliminate complexity. I've mentioned it in passing a few times here. (The name may change before release.)

 

[jmucchiello]

Quite frankly, I just want consistency...but I have no idea about the open-nature of the stat-block, as far as the OGL and SRD are concerned.

Technically the current stat-block is not in the OGL/SRD. It just appeared in a sidebar in the DMG and people have been using it ever since.

You cannot copyright a layout. You can declare it tradedress and vie for trademark protection against its use. Have (Will) WotC do this? That is unknown.

IANAL TINLA YADA YADA YADA

 

[S'mon]

You cannot copyright a layout.

I don't know about USA, but in UK formatting can get copyright protection, theoretically at least the stat block format could be protectable. In actuality though it's more like:

1. A UK court might hold that the stats of an orc ("AC 14" etc) aren't copyrightable as such.

2. However, they might then go on to hold that the format of the stats in the Monster Manual is copyrightable, ie if you reproduced the presentation of the Monster Manual orc you'd be breaching WotC's copyright.

- ie the format protection is supplementary to the protection of the text rather than existing in isolation.

I am kinda a lawyer*, but this is just a vague opinion...

*I have a BA/LLB & PhD in Law but no legal practice qualification. I do teach IP law, though.