[Mor's End] OOC: Questions and comments please post here

[Lalato]

We have had minor mentions/discussions regarding asking some of the artists in the EN World community to contribute to this project. We haven't, as of yet, actually gone out and solicited artwork.

Wolv0rine sketched a picture of the barbarian Erekh. You can find it in the "Time to open shop" thread. As you noted... there is quite a bit of activity in the geography thread.

If you, or anyone you know, would like to submit artwork... that would be awesome! You're more than welcome to post your art in the "Time to open shop" thread for now. I'm sure that we'll get a dedicated art thread at some point.

--sam

 

[David Argall]

beggers

"1500 beggars?
is that correct? that's more than 10% of the population begging! you couldn't take a walk without bumping into at least ten of them! "

Beggers here is defined as any of the unemployed, underemployed, employed in dubious industries [vice, crime...] and others seriously looked down on. The actual begger out getting some copper by begging is only a small percentage of this figure. The term was an insult in the good old days and thus covered just about anybody not clearly well off one disliked.

 

[Krug]

Re: beggers

"1500 beggars?
is that correct? that's more than 10% of the population begging! you couldn't take a walk without bumping into at least ten of them! "

Beggers here is defined as any of the unemployed, underemployed, employed in dubious industries [vice, crime...] and others seriously looked down on. The actual begger out getting some copper by begging is only a small percentage of this figure. The term was an insult in the good old days and thus covered just about anybody not clearly well off one disliked.

So is there another term? It'll deceive the casual reader. Peasants? Citizens?

 

[David Argall]

stat question

Might as well put the stat question in here.

What total stats do we want our NPCs to have? Having the individual authors decide what is "reasonable" is inviting trouble for the final editors. So we need a general guideline, to be violated, perhaps frequently, when it suits purposes, but something that will keep us somewhere on the same track.

I suggest a basic 63 [10.5 average stat] for 1st levels and increasing 1 per level. This means the higher levels in the city will be on a par with the PCs [who will likely be 70-78]. Since the PCs are the heros, they should have an edge over the common run, but not outclass the entire city, which fits this nicely.

Shall we adopt that standard?

 

[jdavis]

Re: stat question

Might as well put the stat question in here.

What total stats do we want our NPCs to have? Having the individual authors decide what is "reasonable" is inviting trouble for the final editors. So we need a general guideline, to be violated, perhaps frequently, when it suits purposes, but something that will keep us somewhere on the same track.

I suggest a basic 63 [10.5 average stat] for 1st levels and increasing 1 per level. This means the higher levels in the city will be on a par with the PCs [who will likely be 70-78]. Since the PCs are the heros, they should have an edge over the common run, but not outclass the entire city, which fits this nicely.

Shall we adopt that standard?

With 3 pages of NPCs and 4 pages in crafts thread (each shop has one or more NPC's attached), It might be a little late. I wouldn't want to go back and restat the 16 NPC's I've done personally. It wouldn't suprise me if we had close to 100 NPC's submitted already. Ask Lalato about it as he is the NPC minister, maybe something can be done for new NPCs.

 

[Lalato]

Personally... I don't see why a little minor editing here and there couldn't be done to "fix" any problem NPCs. People do have a tendency to overstat their creations... It doesn't take much effort to scale them back.

Say someone gave a 1st level NPC these stats... 14, 12, 10, 15, 11, 13

We could easily edit them down to... 12,10,10,13,9,11 without doing any "real" damage to the NPC.

I would have no problem going back and editing those numbers down to make them more "common". 1st and 2nd level NPCs are easy to edit this way. Since higher level characters will be allowed to have higher stats they probably don't need to be edited as much.

--sam

 

[jdavis]

When you change stats that is also going to change AC, HP, Init, attack bonuses, saving throws and skill points. On some of these characters that would be a real mess.

 

[Lalato]

That's why I'm only suggesting it for low level NPCs that are not meant to be "heroic".

You're right... stats affect a lot about a character... but a Com2 wouldn't require too much surgery... and that's where I would be foucusing... low level NPC classes.

--sam

 

[GladiusNP]

I think this discussion also brings up one more point - editing of NPC's. I've actually reread some of my submissions and found mistakes, and have found mistakes in some other peoples' as well. Who's going to go through and fix all of them? What a thankless job.

With regard to the points, I think legitimately over-powered NPC's should be scaled back. I also think the person should be given the option of whether or not this happens. As has already happened with the levels of some NPCs, people have been asked to either tone it down. If this is not an option, then they can remove the NPC completely. I really can't say I'd be particularly impressed if we just modified all the NPCs into the way we want them, without letting people have the option of doing it themselves or withdrawing their submission.

 

[Lalato]

Gladius... good point...

Let's do this then. When we start to compile the NPCs, we can decide who we feel is overpowered. The overpowered NPCs will be sent back to the author for revision. If the author refuses to revise the NPC, she has three options...
1) explain in the background why the NPC is high powered... or
2) remove the NPC...
3) allow me to tone the NPC down...

How about that... simple... easy...
--sam