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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gothmog" data-source="post: 237128" data-attributes="member: 317">Hello again,The last time I posted, I put forth the idea of the DM keeping track of all of the PC's stats (hp, AC, skills, etc) in the hopes of allowing the players to not worry about the stats as much, and to instead to focus on roleplaying and encourage a greater degree of the unknown during play.  This last weekend, we had one of our gaming marathons (20+ hours over 2 days), and we tried the no-stat PC method.At first, the players were pretty reluctant to try this, especially the guy who likes to tally the monster's hp as they score damage.  Most of my players are long-time gamers (2 guys who have gamed with me since high school, my sis, the wife of one of my friends, and a guy who started gaming about 5 years ago), and were understandable reluctant to try this.  The only new player was my grilfriend, and she didn't care if we tried it this way.  They said they wouldn't have any idea what their PCs capabilities would be, and that there would be too much abstraction in the game.  After some prodding though, they agreed to try it for a few hours and see what they thought.I made up an Excel spreadsheet with all of the PC's combat stats on one page, and all of their skills on another page for easy reference (I do the same thing with monsters and NPCs I plan on using during an adventure too).  I gave them sheets with their skills listed on them, as well as a rough guage of how good they were at each skill (novice, competent, expert, master).  Spellcasters still kept track of their spell slots and spells memorized, but otherwise the players did not have access to their game stats (AC, hp, saves, etc).At first they had a little trouble getting into it.  They seemed a little unsure when using skills, but I made sure to give them detailed descriptions of the outcomes of their actions, and they settled into it pretty quickly.  About 2 hours into gaming, I threw a random encounter at them that was not very dangerous (the party is composed of 6 level 5 PCs and one level 3 NPC) consisting of one ogre, 8 orcs, and one level 3 orc fighter.  Not a tough encounter, but sometimes I tack class levels on my creatures, so they aren't entirely sure of the monster's capabilities.  As the combat unfolded, we noticed that while their previous behavior in combat was somewhat reckless (some might call it uncoordinated), without the stats readily available, they were more cautious, and seemed more worried about being flanked, ganged up on, etc.  Also, instead of pointing an an orc and saying "I attack him", they started escribing how they were maneuvering, and how they were attacking!  The hardest thing for them to get used to was not knowing how many hp they had left, but we pretty quickly established a system to give them a ballpark figure of how badly injured they were (less than 10% gone= slight, 11-25% light, 26-50% moderately, 51-75% seriously, 76-90% critically, 91-100% mortally wounded).  The won the combat pretty easily, but they all liked the added uncertainty in combat, and said that this style helped them to become less focused on the numbers, and focus on the game and story instead.  We finished the weekend with the no-stat method, including 4 more fights, numerous skill checks, saves, etc, and it never became a problem for them.  It was also only a little extra work for me to keep track of since I made the spreadsheet beforehand, and as long as it is updated before every session, it shouldn't be a problem.After the session ended, I asked them how they liked it compared to the normal method, and they unanimously said they liked the no-stat way MUCH better.  One guy (the hp tracker) said that he was able to sit back and imagine what was occurring better now that he didn't have to keep track of the numbers.  They were also much more interested ingaming now (they had been prone to goofing off a lot when we played, and interest sometimes flagged).  I don't think I can say it was simply due to the change to going stat-less, since I was also really excited to try this and by their good reaction to this, which got my interest and enthusiam back up.  I know this might not be the solution for all groups, but if you are looking for something to spice up your game or generate interest again, this sure works.  I also think it is important for the players to trust the DM and know he won't screw with them or fudge things against them, so this might not work well in groups where people don't know each other very well.  Anyway, we are going to continue playing this way when we get together next month and for the forseeable future.I'd welcome any comments or further suggestions any of you have.  Sorry for another long post!        <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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