Things other than rulebooks

[Tonguez]

Just an observation but doesn't the internet have enough sites giving 'free character stat blocks to provide an NPC for every occasion? ENworlds own Rogues Gallery has all kinds of useful ideas floating around...

 

[JohnSnow]

Yes, there are plenty of stat blocks on the internet.

However, they are poorly indexed and not readily accessible. People place a high premium on organization and usability. Even something as simple as a product that compiled all the stat blocks on the internet in one place would be a value-added proposition that, I imagine, a lot of people would pay money for.

After all, most gamers pay money for the PHB, MM, and DMG even though their content is available for free. That says something about the value of organization and navigability.

One of the failings of 1e AD&D was its organization, or lack thereof. There was a great quote in the other thread about Gygax, for all of his genius, having the organizational skills of a butterfly on crystal meth...

3e, by contrast, may not be a flawlessly engineered game, but it's pretty well-organized.

More generally this stat book is a great idea that I, for one, would pay for. One of the things both Star Wars and d20 Modern provide is a good list of NPCs. D20 Modern did even better with the publication of the Menace Manual. I've always thought a D&D version would be great. If you wanted, you could make one that was setting specific - flavor text, organizations, and complete sample NPCs.

On a somewhat tangential topic, I personally suspect that one of the things Monte Cook wants to try with his Ptolus Book is providing NPCs with FULL stat blocks. If I'm right, it would partially explain why that project has taken him the better part of the last year. I guess we'll find out when it's released.

 

[ecliptic]

Talk about alot of work. Heh. Question is if I did it, would the work actually pay off?

 

[delericho]

Because that's the sort of thing that demands to be an electronic product, so it can't be done without WotC's blessing, can it? As a paper product, I wouldn't find it terribly useful, but give it to me in database form and I'd snap it up. Plus (and I believe this point was touched on earlier in the other thread), just the monsters in the SRD isn't going to cut it. You've got the SRD, the stuff thats in the MM thats not in the SRD, MMII and III, 3rd party monster books, etc.

Absolutely. However, if you're talking an electronic product, then rather than providing a database of pre-generated stat-blocks, I think I would prefer a tool to quickly and easily generate stat blocks. So I can take the standard orc, add any combination of classes and templates, and print the whole.

There are two key features I think I'd need from such a tool. The first is the ability to expand the database (to support MMII, MMIII, and a future MMIV), which would need to be supported by both Wizards and the 3rd party publishers (because if I have to enter new monsters from one or the other by hand, or worse I simply can't add monsters from one or the other, the product is worthless to me.

(Incidentally, the task of adding new monsters to the database would require that the designs be subjected to the rules associated with feats and skills, in a form where they won't be missed by the editors. It is therefore entirely possible that this would cut down on the stat errors in all the latest monster books.)

The second key feature I'd need would be the ability to partially specify a creature, and click a big "finish it for me" button. This would allow me to specify some key feats of a high-level fighter, but not have to worry about every skill point, and be sure to receive a complete and legal creature.

You want to give the DMs some useful toolkits, let slip the programmers of war and give us good electronic tools. It's just stupid that in this day and age, I've got to comb through a half-dozen books and stat things long-hand when a decent computer program and the requisite data sets could do it better, faster and lighter. Stop thinking about electronic products as an additional way to extract money from the customer and start thinking of them as an integral part of the game.

I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment. Sadly, the costs involved in building a suitably powerful PC tool that can be shrink-wrapped and used by any DM with a computer are probably prohibitively high, given the likely number of copies sold. And if you don't sell it, but instead give away copies of the database with every MM purchased (for instance), you then have to add to the cost of the MM to compensate.

This then leaves the possibility of a fan-driven effort building a tool as a labour of love. The problem here is that any fan-generated tool is unlikely to have the exposure to command the respect of enough of the industry to allow them to keep the database up-to-date except through a huge amount of their own blood, sweat and tears. And that assumes that Wizards of the Coast even allow them to use monsters from their expansion books, which seems unlikely. Sadly, without those monsters, any such tooll has extremely limited utility to me (and I suspect I'm not alone).

(That said, there is an argument that Wizards are shooting themselves in the foot by not immediately declaring all new monsters (and perhaps spells and magic items) to be OGC immediately upon being published. By that's their right, and a whole other debate.)

 

[Morte]

I'm not exactly sure from the ecommerce description but this looks like a book of stat blocks for the basic SRD mosters.

I'm talking about a book that has:

Orc
Orc/F1
Orc/F2
Orc/F3
Orc/F4...

Completely "kitted" with appropriate gear, spell lists, domains, etc.

Example: Somewhere in this book would be a complete stat block for a 15th level Pixie Ranger.

For extra credit, you could do common multiclass combos (1 level of Rogue, 1 level of Monk,1 level of Paladin, 1 level of Barbarian, etc.)

The toolset bundled with Neverwinter Nights is about halfway there. Something along those lines could do it. But I can't imagine anyone in the RPG "industry" commissioning bigtime software on this level. It would take Hasbro rather than WOTC.

 

[DaveMage]

I don't own it, but doesn't e-tools generate this type of info? Or do you have to build it yourself in that program?

 

[derbacher]

posted by DaveMage

I don't own it, but doesn't e-tools generate this type of info? Or do you have to build it yourself in that program?

yep, and I use it all the time, however:

You still have to assign skills and feats, pick spells, and buy the equipment. You can apply templates, class levels, whatever to any creature that CMP sells a supplement for (including all the WoTC stuff, either done or in the process).

I like it for making BBEGs, but I use Jamis Buck's NPC generator for lots of generic grunt-type folks.

 

[kolikeos]

another thing just poped to mind, i'd like to have a comuter battle system, like in the computer game temple of elemental evil for instance, where the dm controls the enemys and the players control their characters, this could really speed up combat.

 

[Lalato]

I think it may have already been done, but I can't find it anywhere... Spell Cards. Basically, it's a deck of cards. Each card details a spell in the SRD. Players would put together their spells for the day by choosing the appropriate cards. Thus eliminating the need to look up spells and effects during the game.

I could have sworn I've seen this product somewhere.

--sam

 

[Imperialus]

Spell cards used to exist for 2nd ed. Wasn't a bad idea but once again it runs into the same problem as that stat book. Too many spells from too many third party publishers.