CKs: What's your preferred FG layout?

[Talyn]

In working on the U-series, I've noticed most of the time there's the story/adventure text then BOOM out of nowhere there's NPC stats, eg:

Stabby McStabface (He is a chaotic neutral, elf, 3rd level rogue whose vital stats are: HP 12, AC 14. His prime attributes are: dex and cha. His significant attributes are: wis 13, dex 18, cha 14. He carries studded leather armor, dagger, thieves tools, 6 caltrops (1-2 dmg when stepped on), +1 Ring of Protection).

In FG that bit can go in the NPC sheet and I could just put a link to that NPC if need be on the Story page. Or do you prefer having it both on the NPC and on the Story page?

I'm trying to balance things out between being readable and quickly playable and using as much of the FG features we expect like links, where PDFs can't do that.

[JohnD]

Here's what I've been doing.

15618

[Talyn]

That's exactly what I'm doing but thought I should ask here just in case there's purist GMs who want it exactly like the PDF reads. :)

[JohnD]

IMO the way the pdf reads doesn't really do anything for someone running the adventure in FG. It still leaves too much additional work to do in order to be ready for play IMO at least. I have been pasting verbatim from my AD&D/2e content, but adjusting for the medium and C&C... in an official product there's probably a happy medium where the original layout can be honored but at the same time make allowances for the FG environment.

[JohnD]

I guess, in terms of detailed NPCs, which are the exact opposite of what the source C&C modules give us, I've been doing this.

15619 15620

There are two modes of creating NPCs that seem to be used for C&C based on discussions over at the TLG forums; one is to have as much information as possible (what I feel I'm doing) and the other is to just put the minimum you need to run the NPC (what they seem to follow in the products) with no concern for consistency of creation.

[damned]

Hi Talyn have you thought about using the referenceblocks for this? You would have to do that bit by hand... maybe its not worth it - that info might get lost every time you update the module...

[Talyn]

Nah, not really. I'm not even to the refmanual stage yet, I'm still fine-tuning the Story windows before I copy/paste them into refpages and tweak things further. It's not a bad idea, but C&C books don't seem to use colored blocks to draw your eyes to stat blocks like Pathfinder etc. do. I'll give it some thought once I get to that stage of things.

[Talyn]

Oh, and not only do I own C&C here on FG, I got the ruleset bundle on DTRPG awhile back, just got another $32 worth of stuff to convert to FG this morning (there's a $1.99 sale on DTRPG for a bunch of C&C stuff today) and also ordered the hardback PHB last night.

::GLARES AT DAMNED AND JOHN::

lol

[Trenloe]

Don't replicate data in a story entry that is being provided by linked FG objects. One key thing is to label the link from the story entry with reference to what the link is: NPC statblock, Encounter, Item, Parcel, Map, Image, Portrait, etc., etc.. It's quite annoying (and wastes time in the middle of a game) to open a link assuming it was going to be a statblock (for example) and find it's a portrait. For example, the NPC Statblock could be called "Stabby McStabface" and when you link that to a story entry it will be auto labelled "Stabby McStabface", just change that the link label in the story entry to "Stabby McStabface (NPC statblock)".

[Talyn]

Correct, and I always prefix my important links with what they are, eg. Image: or Encounter: etc.