Designer's Diary Articles

[rob]

Originally Posted by Mystic Lemur

So, I noticed in Designer Diary #3 that the statblocks presented at the bottom of topics does not use the "Statblock" snippet type. Could you elaborate on why this is considered a best practice?

Originally Posted by Bidmaron

So what is official use of stat block?

We determined that statblocks really didn't offer anything of substantive value and had some drawbacks. As mentioned above, they require the user to make extra clicks to view them, and we found that less technical users would simply click on them instead of loading them into a separate tab, which forced the user to switch back and forth and incur the loading time for changing the contents of the tab. The additional drawback is that no linking can be performed from within statblocks. By putting the statblocks in a snippet that is auto-collapsed in the topic, the information is readily accessible, doesn't require navigating away, and can be fully linked.

Based on the above, the statblock snippet type is something that is available for anyone who wants to use it, but it's not something we'll be using in official content.

[Billy277]

I was confused about the statblock snippet as well, seeing that HeroLab essentially IS a statblock. Was the statblock snippet originally designed for some other type of software?

[Silveras]

Not all game systems have HeroLab support.

I suspect that what Rob is getting at is that the StatBlock snippet is something that sounded good in planning.. but proved not to be quite so good as expected when actually used.

[Dr_Automaton]

Originally Posted by Billy277

I was confused about the statblock snippet as well, seeing that HeroLab essentially IS a statblock. Was the statblock snippet originally designed for some other type of software?

Not all users also own Hero Labs.

[Billy277]

Right, but I was wondering if there was going to be compatibility with other types of software or it would just have been for images/blocks of text. Either way, it's a bit of a moot point.

[Ransom]

Originally Posted by rob

We determined that statblocks really didn't offer anything of substantive value and had some drawbacks. As mentioned above, they require the user to make extra clicks to view them, and we found that less technical users would simply click on them instead of loading them into a separate tab, which forced the user to switch back and forth and incur the loading time for changing the contents of the tab. The additional drawback is that no linking can be performed from within statblocks. By putting the statblocks in a snippet that is auto-collapsed in the topic, the information is readily accessible, doesn't require navigating away, and can be fully linked.

Based on the above, the statblock snippet type is something that is available for anyone who wants to use it, but it's not something we'll be using in official content.

I get this. I've always been a little confused by the need to have a character topic and then a separate statblock screen for the same character. I ALSO get that sometimes you just have a one-time NPC that only shows up in one place and so they need to just show up in the topic where they "reside."

Having said that, there are a couple of other situations that I'm curious about in terms of the suggested best practices. They are...
(1) Major NPCs (which the diary and CSGs partially address), and
(2) Generic NPCs ("Monsters")

The Generic NPC category includes anything that is not unique in its identity, but ubiquitous as a category within the gaming system, in which all elements share the same statblock. Goblins in D&D, Stormtroopers in Star Wars, etc.

Two questions about these categories:

(1) Do these these types of NPCs show up as a stat block in every encounter where they appear? This seems very redundant to me - probably better to just the encounter off multiple tabs instead.
(2) Should the statblocks in the individual topics for these NPCs also appear in the Additional Details section? Or should they show up somewhere closer to the top?

[Mystic Lemur]

Thanks, Rob. That makes sense.

[Ransom]

Originally Posted by Ransom

(1) Do these these types of NPCs show up as a stat block in every encounter where they appear? This seems very redundant to me - probably better to just the encounter off multiple tabs instead.
(2) Should the statblocks in the individual topics for these NPCs also appear in the Additional Details section? Or should they show up somewhere closer to the top?

I think I have partially answered my own questions, now - I see that each system has statblock data for the generic NPCs/creatures/monsters, etc.

But I still have one question that I can't figure out - when you have that Important NPC (say, the Big Bad for a multi-session campaign) that has his or her own topic, where should the statistics for that NPC reside? Is there a suggested practice for that?

[Acenoid]

In my first 3 adventures I wrote a lot of stuff into the scenes. I will try in my next one to keep it much shorter. Just the necessary bulletpoints enough to understand the tasks at hand. The scene topics will not contain statsblocks since i use a combat tool were i load those stats. However statsblocks are added for each npc / monster. Via the participants section i could open an npc relatively quick to check his / her stats.

[kbs666]

Originally Posted by Ransom

I think I have partially answered my own questions, now - I see that each system has statblock data for the generic NPCs/creatures/monsters, etc.

But I still have one question that I can't figure out - when you have that Important NPC (say, the Big Bad for a multi-session campaign) that has his or her own topic, where should the statistics for that NPC reside? Is there a suggested practice for that?

For an NPC like that I build a full HL portfolio and save it as snippet in the NPC's topic. I can pretty easily add it to any encounter I need from there.

For systems that don't have HL support, I'd do roughly the same thing. I'd put the NPC's full statblock in the NPC's topic.