I'm curious: do most of you, when GMing, tend to stat your NPCs and Monsters out fully, or do you tend to use the defaults from the manuals, or even just wing it as you go along?
RPGPundit
I keep a sheet of "generic stats" - mostly ones at the player level of power, some bigger, some smaller.
I pick off that as we go.
Depends on the game.
For D&D: Always statted, either from the book, adventure or myself. No D&D combat encounter without stats. Elsewise there can be no meaningful fight.
For Traveller: PC Gen Programs + Citizens of the Glaxy + 1001 characters. Gotta love it.
For Star Wars: I pulled a lot from my arse. Don't play it nowadays.
Quote from: RPGPunditI'm curious: do most of you, when GMing, tend to stat your NPCs and Monsters out fully, or do you tend to use the defaults from the manuals, or even just wing it as you go along?
I consider a decent library of commonly-used NPC stats a critical feature in a full-sized RPG, and when possible I default to those for any kind of "generic mafia goon" or "generic tax accountant" or "typical ozark moonshiner" or whatever. I like being able to point to them as fair benchmarks, too, so players know when they're tough enough so that generic tax accountants need cause them no fear, and so players can measure their characters against a "typical beat cop" and not just abstract stat/skill averages (useful for players new to a system, trying to get a feel for the scale).
If a character or beast is unusual, I stat it special (even if that just means making explicit note of how it differs from some standard thing). If a character or beast is meant to be
recurring, I often stat it special even if it isn't particularly unusual.
If a character is improvised by necessity, I sometimes assign it a single "master stat," Risus-cliche style, and use it or a derivative of it for everything until which time I can dig up or create something more concrete (or until the NPC fades back into the crowd and I don't need to).
I like having full statblocks at the ready rather than using the book defaults. I started playing D&D in the 70s. I very quickly got wise to players being able to tell what critters they were facing just by how many pages had to be riffled through in the Monster Manual, or doing everything in their power to see what page the book was turned to. Having stat blocks written out in my own notes made it a lot easier to retain some mystery.
Quote from: S. John RossI consider a decent library of commonly-used NPC stats a critical feature in a full-sized RPG, and when possible I default to those for any kind of "generic mafia goon" or "generic tax accountant" or "typical ozark moonshiner" or whatever. I like being able to point to them as fair benchmarks, too, so players know when they're tough enough so that generic tax accountants need cause them no fear, and so players can measure their characters against a "typical beat cop" and not just abstract stat/skill averages (useful for players new to a system, trying to get a feel for the scale).
I like stuff like that, too. I liked it in Shadowrun, and I loved it in d20 Modern and the d20 Modern Menace Manual. Mutants & Masterminds also has done this, at least in 1st edition (but I assume they also do it in 2nd edition).
As with many facets of RPG's, a GM's rule knowledge is very important in answering this question. I think you should always have important NPC's and monsters stated up, but when it comes to more mundane encounters it depends on a GM's familiarity with the rules. Basically if you are going to have to stop the game and look something up, have it pre-stated, otherwise if you can do it off the top of your head, I would go with that, just to save pre-game prep time.
I never stat anything out other than brief character information, their personality and stats come out from that.
I create a stat on the fly as the situation demands, but then I dont run DND where monsters are expected to behave to certain criteria.
Quote from: S. John RossI consider a decent library of commonly-used NPC stats a critical feature in a full-sized RPG, and when possible I default to those for any kind of "generic mafia goon" or "generic tax accountant" or "typical ozark moonshiner" or whatever. I like being able to point to them as fair benchmarks, too, so players know when they're tough enough so that generic tax accountants need cause them no fear, and so players can measure their characters against a "typical beat cop" and not just abstract stat/skill averages (useful for players new to a system, trying to get a feel for the scale).
If a character or beast is unusual, I stat it special (even if that just means making explicit note of how it differs from some standard thing). If a character or beast is meant to be recurring, I often stat it special even if it isn't particularly unusual.
If a character is improvised by necessity, I sometimes assign it a single "master stat," Risus-cliche style, and use it or a derivative of it for everything until which time I can dig up or create something more concrete (or until the NPC fades back into the crowd and I don't need to).
Pretty much what he said. Including standard stat blocks is part of good game design for me, not including them or worse yet including them but having the stats skewed so you can't use them that way (NWoD did this with it's ninja trained superbeatcops) I see as a major strike against a game's utility.
I don't stat most characters, although it might help me round them out if I did. I'll stat them in advance if I know combat is coming up, but my hombrew is simple enough that having a general idea of how good the character is at something pretty much provides the stat.
Mostly I run my own games, and in each I have a chapter on NPCs with typical opponents, quick chargen, motives, goals, and other information which can be random rolled or selected. In most cases a typical opponent can be selected and used immediately. In other cases, a few quick rolls builds a character from scratch with the important information. If the character is important and recurring, I advise - and follow this advice - generating the NPC as a PC.
-mice
I guess it is a combination: If it's an npc that is going to come up in play in encounterful way, I have a stat block.
If it's a special encounter, I do a stat block.
If it's kinda routine, I'll use the default of whatever is in the book (monster manual or whatever).
I've gotten so good at "guesstimating" what I'm going to need that I don't work up stats anymore. I can figure in my head within a couple points if not right on where I need the numbers to be, practice makes perfect I guess. It's especially a waste of time if this NPC is going to end up dying and his items in the PC's backpacks.
Unlike this guy on Enworld that is quitting the game crying about prep time, I love prep time. It's actually a relaxing meditative process for me.
QuoteI love prep time
:ditto:
To be honest, I rarely stat anything up at all beforehand but if I'm running BRP I'll quickly roll 3d6 for an NPC's hitpoints. Which is always funny... especially when I roll 3.
I do feel though that I probably should, simply because it feels more philosophically correct to me to have there be real stats for the characters regardless of whether the characters choose to fight them or interact with them. Otherwise it all feels a bit solipsistic.
I'll take shortcuts when needed, but if I have something specific in mind, I'll usually go to the lengths to handcraft things to my taste.
For my D&D campaign I try to make the SRD, the DMG chapter on NPCs, and the internet do as much of the work for me as possible, but I arrange the pieces to produce unique opponents. Monster + template(s) + class(es) = foe. Sometimes I cheat. For example, by the rules you can't apply the Fiendish template to a golem. But when I wanted a Hellgolem I did it anyway.
I generally let my players do whatever the hell they want to and reap the consequences. That means winging a whole lot of stuff on the fly.
Important NPCs get stats, otherwise I generally just set a difficulty or roll the dice based on about how tough I want this encounter to be. This is a place where *GASP* WoD beat out d20 in my experience. With the former, I could just grab a number of dice I thought appropriate and roll, whereas the latter has very lock-step, codified progressions for characters and monsters.
My main game is DC Heroes/Blood of Heroes, which has published stats for over a thousand heroes and villains from the comics. When that runs dry, there's writeups.org, which has stats for more than a thousand more.
If I need a super on the fly, I just attach the appropriate power(s) to one of a set of generic stat blocks I've made up (the strong guy, the smart guy, the nimble guy, the charismatic guy, etc.) and off we go.
Statting up a non-super is even easier: everything's a '2'. ;)
And my prep time consists of watching cartoons, reading comic-books, and swiping the plots.
Other folks love prep time, and good on 'em. Me, I hate it. I like play time.
Quote from: Caesar SlaadI'll take shortcuts when needed, but if I have something specific in mind, I'll usually go to the lengths to handcraft things to my taste.
Same, but in the reverse. I mostly shoot from the hip, but do big prep on special folks and moments.
Hardly ever. I mostly use printed adventures
In the past I rarely did, these days, I use True20 and it so easy to stat someone/thing, that I will take the time to do so while I prep; although, it isn't really necessary.
I'll stat up major villains, but generally wing the mooks and non combat NPCs.
Situational mixed bag.
Something that comes up during play, and this can happen a fair amount with my GMing style if the players are zigging and zagging a lot, is either something out of a pile of generics or has a somewhat limited scope of fleshing out of the stats. Which is what usually depends on whether it is a civilized human or monsterous. For example in D&D a player Summoned Creature is read right out of the MM, nearly always with NPC Summoned Creatures too. On the other hand an NPC that they come across that was unexpected by me will get a quick outline covering off what seems important at that momment, although these are often based off of generics in the catagories I have on hand.
Entities that I strongly predict beforehand will come up or that come up, survive the session, and can be reasonably expected to make a return appearance I will fully handcraft the stats for (well not so much 'mooks', they'll get some limited). Even monsterous creatures, to some degree though typically less than with humans and demi/meta humans. Ussually just different HP, although occationally abilities that deveat or build upon the stock ones.
This all assumes (demi/meta)human PCs. My reasoning for the difference with the 'monsters' is that I see them as distant from the PC's experience. So I assume the extra details of the personality differences between members of the species (unless separate age/class groups) being insignificant to the overall difference inherent in them being critters. Along the lines of "all [insert ethnic group] look the same to me". ;)
While I do like to stat up my NPC's, of late I've mostly been sticking with games where this doesn't really take up a lot of my time, so it's no biggie.
The exception being M&M, which does take some time... but making supervillains is fun.
My likelihood of stating is in an indirect proportion to the size of the statblock. The bigger the block, the less I'll stat. If it's small, I might just do the whole damn thing.
Quote from: RPGPunditI'm curious: do most of you, when GMing, tend to stat your NPCs and Monsters out fully, or do you tend to use the defaults from the manuals, or even just wing it as you go along?
Normally, when I ran something like WFRP1 or Fudge, I'd just wing it. I recently ran a D&D 3.5 game where I statted almost everything out (though I usually cheated by using character generators for NPCs with levels). I never felt comfortable winging it because everything was so balanced to work a certain way and I was worried I'd break something. I think I spent more time preparing for that game than I spent playing at times. That's one of the reasons why I'm not sure I'll ever run D&D 3.5 again, even though I had a lot of fun running that game and even though I'm still having a blast
playing in D&D games with another group. Of course I also tend to think of myself as a player rather that a GM, even though I do both, because I enjoy playing more than GMing.
I "collect" statblocks. That is, I find any available, online or in books, and either cut & paste or type them into a Word doc. That way, I have them available to print out when I need them. Over time, it's fairly easy to accumulate a lot of statblocks that fit the bill for most NPCs. If I have something specifically in mind for a BBEG, I may do it from scratch, but often enough I'll have found a statblock that either is close to what I want, or can be easily modified.
Dungeon has been a really good source for a variety of statblocks. As I read each new issue, I make a note of ones I think will come in handy at some point.
Everyone Else is a nice sourcebook for a lot of "generic" NPCs that fill specific functions in society.
This thread at EN World has 100 generally useful NPC statblocks: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=99643
I never do their stats. I do their personalities, what they want and fear, who they like and hate, etc. When the players' characters go see the old witch, I don't need to know her strength stat, are they gonna arm wrestle her? I need to know if she's going to tell them the truth when they ask her for a prophecy. If they go see the thane of the shire to get a mission, do I need his dancing skill? Are they going to have a Lord of the Dance dance-off? I need to know if he likes them, or if he likes one of them but not the others, and what he really wants, and is it the same as what he tells them, etc.
I go to any length possible to avoid making a full statblock for anyone.
My primary game right now is Arcana Evolved, and there are sadly no competent programs that I know of to quickly stat someone out.
Fortunately, both diamondthrone.com and Fiery Dragon's AE box came to the rescue with level-by-level PC Class stats. (Think 3.0 DMG. This, btw, is the largest glaring absence in the 3.5 DMG.)
I only stat something out myself when it's something particularly important, like an 8th-Level Warmain Chorrim or a high-level Magister.
Now, I'm also test-running a Call of Cthulhu game using FATE as the basic rules system. Completely statting out an NPC in FATE is as simple as marking down like three words and three numbers. I'm fucking loving this, since I can concentrate on making interesting scenarios and spend just a few seconds on my stat blocks.
-O
Big Baddies get statted, usually - anything less is on the fly, off the cuff numbers out of thin air or mooks from a book, maybe. My players are so random that it rarely pays to even PLAN much of anything aside from the Big Baddies, and just free-form the rest until they get around to the Plot.
Ask me about the Star Wars game I did for d20 when I first got my hands on it. Weeks of planning derailed in the first 5 minutes. Learned my lesson there, I did.