Monsters

darkbeto

darkbeto

Like PCs or NPCs would be nice to have a place to put our monsters (original or not) so we can create a world ecology or main recurrent enemies (or enemy NPC's pets), what do you think guys?

Figment

Aren't monsters, pets, et cetera still NPCs? That's how I've always treated them. My players just treat familiars as other PCs for the campaign. The character image, description, and statitics make it clear whether a PC is a sorcerer or its familiar.

darkbeto

Well actually I'll like'em in a separate category, not like unique individual but like a common creature you can find in that campaing or game world.

Bathlarper

I'd like to see this as well. It would be handy to have seperate section for common recuring monsters like town guards or whatever. It could go on a new tab next to NPCs.

Figment

The NPC tab already handles this. Sure, some NPCs are named characters, but most NPCs in a campaign are unnamed characters.

Bathlarper

Really? My campaign has a list of over 30 NPCs (either writtenup and posted or in progress) all with names, descriptions personal histories and stats. I make sure all my NPCs are fully detailed because you never know what a player will ask them (or do to them.

I'd like a seperate space where I can list my recurring monsters. (Town Watchmen, Elite Guards etc) so I have the stats and descriptions at my fingertips.

Adino

This is a feature that is unnecessary for a large majority of campaigns on Obsidian Portal. Personally, I do NOT want to see another tab crammed at the top of my campaign portal that is not going to be used most of the time.

I understand why you would want this, but I think it would be annoying to more users than it would be useful for. Non-fantasy campaigns would get almost no use out of that, and the majority of fantasy / D&D campaigns don't need this function.

RobJustice

Instead of a new tab (mind you, tab space is limited. If they want to implement features in the future they don't want to be limited by pre-existing tabs) I'd like to see better organizational control of the NPC space.

Here's why I don't want a Monsters tab: Very rarely do my games contain Monsters. It would be wasted space to me. The "Monsters" I do have, I list ether in the all-powerful Wiki or in the NPC list, depending on which flavor they serve more. Sometimes I even feel that the NPC list is excessive because I can accomplish all of that with the Wiki. Why implement new features when we already have features set up to manage them?

Now, ideally, I'd like more control over my NPC space. The tagging is a great start, but I'd like to designate tags by priority. For example, lets say I have eight NPCS with the following tag setup:

NPC 1: Cleric, Human
NPC 2: Fighter, Dragonborn
NPC 3: Fighter, Human
NPC 4: Rogue, Dwarf
NPC 5: Druid, Gnome
NPC 6: Cleric, Elf
NPC 7: Rogue, Human
NPC 8: Warlord, Warforged

Now, currently they are sorted by Name only. What if I want my NPC list sorted by class? or Race? I designate a Tag to be its primary Sort option and then I get to see:

NPC 1: Cleric, Human
NPC 6: Cleric, Elf
NPC 5: Druid, Gnome
NPC 2: Fighter, Dragonborn
NPC 3: Fighter, Human
NPC 4: Rogue, Dwarf
NPC 7: Rogue, Human
NPC 8: Warlord, Warforged

Its a small change to my list, but now its easier for my to find a Rogue if I need a Rogue.

Figment

In every game system I've played which includes Monsters, they've always been considered NPCs by the game system. This never mattered whether it was "Gwjbfejkwa, the Aboleth of the Sea of Tears" or "half-elven gypsy sniper (x3)". If there are game systems which make a separation between Monsters and other NPCs (and I'm not even sure why they would do such a thing), I'll take your word for it. Either way, it'd be a design needed for too few campaigns, IMHO.

What I would suggest instead is: tagging NPCs and sorting them as "named", "unnamed", "Monster", "non-Monster", et cetera.creating separate wiki pages for Monsters and non-Monsters. Each wiki page could be a list with links to each NPC. Then place the the links to the Monster and non-Monster wiki pages in a footer, sidebar, or header on each of your wiki pages.create an ecology wiki page, with similar linking options

darkbeto

Sure figment, that will be a way to go, but if you are worried about the tabs it can be a sub tab inside NPCs, my main concern is that the "monsters" don't show up when somebody search for NPCs.

That's because I play using GURPS and I have to make all my monsters (that includes town guards, thives, gladiator, etc...).

Would that be too hard?

RobJustice

bq. Would that be too hard?

From a programming standpoint, yes. Currently nothing uses sub-tabs so thats another layer they would have to create.

bq. My main concern is that the “monsters” don’t show up when somebody search for NPCs.

If your main concern is that people can skip by the monsters, yet again i suggest Tagging or creating Wiki pages. You already have a solution to your issue.

bq. That’s because I play using GURPS and I have to make all my monsters

I also play games where I have to create creatures, monsters, groups, etc but I've never once thought "Wouldn't it be nice if Micah and Ryan bent over backwards to do a ton of extra work to add a tiny feature that can be easily accomplished using the tools I already have!"

Personally, I would be annoyed if I had to deal with a Monsters tab. I'm already irked that every NPC I create has to have a Race & Class listing, that 95% of my games don't use.

darkbeto

Yes sure, I'll solve it with the all migthy wiki xD

And if it's really that hard, then some other features should have preference. Or don't implement the idea at all.

darkbeto

The portal Dungeon Mastering did something related to this topic for the D&D 4e players, have a look at the video on this link...

http://tools.dungeonmastering.com/

Adino

bq. Or don’t implement the idea at all.

This gets my vote.

I hate to be so brief and snide, but yeah, I think this feature would annoy more people than it would help. It's no hassle to create Wiki pages for your monsters, _especially_ given the video that you linked there. In addition, you can flag unique monsters as GM-only and nobody else will have access to them... unlike tagging an NPC GM-only, which only removes it from the visible list.

Doing this via the wiki reduces clutter dramatically, and doesn't require any sort of changes to the overall structure of OP. Elegant and simple solutions are often the best.

RobJustice

bq. In addition, you can flag unique monsters as GM-only and nobody else will have access to them… unlike tagging an NPC GM-only, which only removes it from the visible list.

You should be able to also un-flag NPCs as Public which should hide them from people.