DUNGEON's NEW STAT BLOCK FORMAT

[Mystery Man]

I don't like it.

 

[bbarrington]

I do like it.

 

[Branding Opportunity]

I like the fact that higher-level spells are listed first. In DM terms, that makes a lot of sense. Also like section where AC, hp, DR, SR, Immunities and Saves are all grouped together; everything that deals with how much punishment a critter can take. I can't tell you the number of times I've forgotten one or the other in the heat of battle.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Heck it will probably be what 4th edition looks like

The DMGII introduces this new stat block, we'll probably be seeing this in WotC's new adventure path, as well as all new accessories. The Dungeon #124 thread, in this post , James Jacobs explains that WotC designed this with specific goals in mind to make it easier to use.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I don't like it. It sacrifices practicality for ease of use, and I had no trouble with the paragraph style. Things are listed multiple times making it take up even more space. If I were to print up NPCs like this instead of paragraph style, I would have maybe two per page whereas I can get four per page easily with paragraphs.

 

[Ranes]

Also, in the mag it would help me if the stat block section were on a slightly different color background, like a sidebar but without the border. And they could alternate colors if they're presenting 2 or 3 or more stat blocks in a row so it's easy to see where one stat block ends and another begins.

I like all your suggestions, Eric, except this one. Since Dungeon changed format there have been far fewer coloured backgrounds obscuring the text. This makes it a lot easier for me to scan adventures into my word processor using OCR. I know some other DMs do the same thing. For us, coloured text is fine but coloured backgrounds are show-stoppers.

I don't have 124 yet (just got 123) but, from Emirikol's post, the new stat block format looks very helpful. Still, I'd like to see how much space it would take to describe a high level character's abilities in this format before I decide which I prefer.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

How do you OCR a document?


Scott

 

[Ranes]

Er. You don't. Sorry, perhaps I wasn't being clear. When I want to use something from Dungeon magazine in my game (an NPC, item, adventure, whatever) I scan it, so I can refer to it on my laptop. I use OCR so that I can edit said NPC, item, adventure, whatever... When Eric referred to the use of coloured text backgrounds in Dungeon I just wanted to point out that doing so would present a small minority of DMs with a problem (ie more work).

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

Uhh, where is the normal attacks info? Are they only including the rage-modified attacks?

 

[Vigwyn the Unruly]

It sacrifices practicality for ease of use

Is that conceptually possible?

I really like this style.

Space used to increase playability, and therefore fun, is space well spent.