On the phone with creative consultant
JP (JP loves his new title at LPJ Design) and I wanted to give the NPCs stat blocks and he suggested we shouldn’t because then people would try to kill them. Now this isn’t the first time that I hear this from JP and other gamers. So I started wondering, does stat blocks mean this is something to kill? I don’t feel that way, but apparently I am in the minority on this though process. I think of something with a stat block as just “something with a stat block” not the next victim in combat. While I don’t know people who are always looking to test themselves against what every combat challenge that might come up, some time I just like to stat things to prove to you how powerful they are above you. The
Enemies of NeoExodus: Folding Circle was created with the concept that you can meet these NPCs over the life of a campaign that runs from 1st level to 20th and they will always be a change for you. The “repetitive villain concept” is one of those things that can make a campaign truly epic. Hell, comic books had done this for all the major villains from
Doctor Doom to
the Joker to
Magneto to
Darkseid. The more they come back, the more dangerous they become. I personally like that effect. So I want get the readers on this blog’s opinion on this: Just because it has a stat block doesn’t mean I want you to kill it…doesn’t it? Thank to you later…
I agree with you, Louis. Statblocks are useful in more ways than just giving the characters another "monster" to kill, but I do know that's how a lot of gamers look at it. I still remember the gamers I knew years ago that were working their way through the old 1e Deities & Demigods, killing one after the other...
ReplyDeleteWrite then up on mini-character sheets instead. JP is right - "how does my character kill it" may not be the first thing some players think of, but for others, it is.
ReplyDeleteWant to scare players? Tell them you won't list their stat blocks because you are afraid GM's will just slaughter entire parties with them.
ReplyDeleteI saw that first in a World of Darkness book, and they proved it to me. I used one of their supposedly super-powerful 6th Gen vampires (the Malkavian Pentex board member), and the PCs killed him in a round of combat.
ReplyDeleteI think this comes from the fact that no one writing a game baddies stats can really account for player ingenuity and teamwork. It again comes down tot that idea of the DM is one person trying to defeat a team of three to seven players, and it's just not really possible with out some measure of /deus ex machinae/.
Yes, these PCs your are stat blocking will likely become targets for the PCs, and when they do, unless they are grossly over your intended PCs power level (i.e. 10th level characters versus 34th level Orcus), the PCs /will/ smoke them like a nickel bag of pot. You want the NPC to be godlike and undefeatable? Don't stat block it.