Pang of nostalgia for "light" stat blocks

[Bullgrit]

all numbers in Traveller are in hexidecimal up to 16

Oh my god!

Bullgrit

 

[Geron Raveneye]

It's not as much nostalgia when I say I like shorter stat blocks, but the fact that I can feel my mental gears starting to grind to create the rest of the character based on the informations that come from one of those abbreviated stat blocks. With the "full length" stat block that is so typical for 3E, all I can feel is the rising confusion while I scan over lines and lines of text, trying to single out the piece of information I need just now. Basically, a short stat block makes me use the game system to create the NPC in question, which I regard as a good thing for myself. Anything that makes me (as a DM) actually use the game system instead of simply pushing around preprocessed information is good for getting to know the system better.

 

[Henry]

Oh my god!

Bullgrit

It's not that bad. (Was there a 16, by the way? I thought it only went from 1 to 15. How'd they write the 16?) Just remember that A=10, B=11, C=12, and so forth. Admittedly, I've done some elementary programming in the past, so remembering these is second nature, but it's not that hard.

Now, people can wax nostalgic about Classic Traveller characters, but what did they do when characters had psionics? How was that written? Same thing in D&D - a character with magic ability has a lot more stat info than a straight fighter.

 

[Henry]

I started playing with Spycraft's NPC system last night, and found that it looks complex, but is basically, the SAME THING I've been doing unofficially for a long time now! Once you've pegged the threat level (easy because that never changes in the middle of a session), then it's a matter of deciding how tough you want your NPC to be, on a scale of I through X (roman numerals). You go down the colum, and pick generic numbers. You can add special qualities to them if you wish, but it's dirt-simple otherwise, and damage saves instead of hit points feel SSOOOOO GOOOOD to run in a game.

 

[sjmiller]

It's not that bad. (Was there a 16, by the way? I thought it only went from 1 to 15. How'd they write the 16?) Just remember that A=10, B=11, C=12, and so forth. Admittedly, I've done some elementary programming in the past, so remembering these is second nature, but it's not that hard.

Hexidecimal numbering has single "digits" 0-F. To write 16 (base 10) in hex (base 16) you would write 10. Things rarely, if ever, went above 15, so it wasn't generally worrysome.

Now, people can wax nostalgic about Classic Traveller characters, but what did they do when characters had psionics? How was that written? Same thing in D&D - a character with magic ability has a lot more stat info than a straight fighter.

Umm, to be honest, psionics were so rare in our games that I cannot remember what we did. I think in offical material when psionics showed up they just tacked on an extra line or so of information. It wasn't that big of a deal, really.

AD&D 1e (or Classic AD&D) MUs would be quick to stat out in a couple lines. It would be a lot like the fighter with an addition of the spells memorized. Simple.

 

[ZombieButch]

There were a lot of things that made me want to work with Core Elements. Small statblocks (and the equivalent time saved in writing up NPC's) was definitely one of them. Pretty much anything that makes it easier for me to run a game totally on the fly is, for me at least, a very good thing.

 

[Kelleris]

The problem is how a very long stat block breaks up the flow of the text, to the point where I forget what was happening in the adventure to that point.

I just don't see how that's even possible. Do you stop and read every line of the thing? Even then, that doesn't take more than a minute or two, and I'm sure we can all keep the thread of an adventure in mind for more than 30 seconds. Besides, the lengthy and detailed stat blocks give me an excellent sense of how a battle will play out when I scan them over to note important stats, special abilities, and feats. That adds to the flavor of the adventure quite a lot for me, much more than a two-line stat block of Generic Fighter #4,217.

 

[The Shaman]

Is it the game system or the adventure writing style?

Adventure writing is rooted in the game system conceits.

Those "minimalist" stat blocks were highly efficient which helped to maintain fast-paced action.

 

[Garnfellow]

I started playing with Spycraft's NPC system last night, and found that it looks complex, but is basically, the SAME THING I've been doing unofficially for a long time now! Once you've pegged the threat level (easy because that never changes in the middle of a session), then it's a matter of deciding how tough you want your NPC to be, on a scale of I through X (roman numerals). You go down the colum, and pick generic numbers. You can add special qualities to them if you wish, but it's dirt-simple otherwise, and damage saves instead of hit points feel SSOOOOO GOOOOD to run in a game.

Monte Cook's lastest Dungeoncraft article has a nice little piece on quickly improvising NPC/monster stats, not too disimilar to this approach.

 

[maggot]

One disadvantage of the complete stat block is making changes. If I have a complete stat block for some guard, and someone casts Cat's Grace on him, I have to modify his melee ranged attack scores (and possibly melee as well), AC, Reflex saves, init modifiers, etc. If I have a cheap stat block, I might update Dex and then recalc the importat parts.

Actually it gets really annoying when you want add a level to someone. You don't know all the ranks of his skills, and have to back them out. I much prefer the source info and important calc info. The fact that it saves space for more adventure per page is a huge bonus as well.