Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="kamosa" data-source="post: 1401996" data-attributes="member: 1037">That still takes time to look up.&nbsp; I used to keep the 5 key stats for any monster in my head.&nbsp; So, I didn't even need to open the book or refer to my notes during the game.&nbsp; If I'm writing a whole module, it does take hours to write out the NPC's and Monsters.&nbsp;&nbsp; In the old book, you'd just kind of fudge higher level monsters.&nbsp; Give em another 20 or so hit points, add a little to their ac, add damage to their attack, bang, insta badie.&nbsp;&nbsp; Now, I need to refigure the save advancement for that monster, determine it's increased skills, check to make sure I'm advancing it right compared to MM.&nbsp; Skills for monsters were always fuzzy in 2e, which was a good thing for the GM.&nbsp; You could just say the monster was good at tracking and bang, it could track.&nbsp; Now you need to know it's tracking skill and it stats.&nbsp; While this isn't a lot to figure out, you have to do it for each monster.&nbsp; Time sink on the GM's part.&nbsp; Saves all came off the fighter progression and were based on hitpoints.&nbsp; So, after a couple weeks, you had that progression memorized and you could roll the save for any monster without looking, as long as you knew it's hitpoints.&nbsp; Now, I spend several minutes per combat (aggregate) looking at the 15 to 20 bad guys looking for their save number.I used to think it was just that I don't have the time like I used to, but I've been GMing 3E to 3.5 since day one and I haven't even come close to the speed of GMing I had under 2E in the first year of GMing.&nbsp; There is just a lot more to keep track of and balance.&nbsp; It just takes more time and effort as a GM.&nbsp; Time and effort I could spend working on plot and overall story lines for the players.Easy to read page????&nbsp; Are you kidding, I find the new format much harder to read then the old book.&nbsp;&nbsp; The print and kerning is much smaller and the backgrounds are distracting.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kamosa, post: 1401996, member: 1037"] That still takes time to look up. I used to keep the 5 key stats for any monster in my head. So, I didn't even need to open the book or refer to my notes during the game. If I'm writing a whole module, it does take hours to write out the NPC's and Monsters. In the old book, you'd just kind of fudge higher level monsters. Give em another 20 or so hit points, add a little to their ac, add damage to their attack, bang, insta badie. Now, I need to refigure the save advancement for that monster, determine it's increased skills, check to make sure I'm advancing it right compared to MM. Skills for monsters were always fuzzy in 2e, which was a good thing for the GM. You could just say the monster was good at tracking and bang, it could track. Now you need to know it's tracking skill and it stats. While this isn't a lot to figure out, you have to do it for each monster. Time sink on the GM's part. Saves all came off the fighter progression and were based on hitpoints. So, after a couple weeks, you had that progression memorized and you could roll the save for any monster without looking, as long as you knew it's hitpoints. Now, I spend several minutes per combat (aggregate) looking at the 15 to 20 bad guys looking for their save number. I used to think it was just that I don't have the time like I used to, but I've been GMing 3E to 3.5 since day one and I haven't even come close to the speed of GMing I had under 2E in the first year of GMing. There is just a lot more to keep track of and balance. It just takes more time and effort as a GM. Time and effort I could spend working on plot and overall story lines for the players. Easy to read page???? Are you kidding, I find the new format much harder to read then the old book. The print and kerning is much smaller and the backgrounds are distracting. [/QUOTE]

Verification