"I play DnD 4e, and I am not the type to give away NPC levels, but if there's going to be a section, I don't want it to be blank. I'm okay with mentioning a tier, maybe whether or not the NPC is elite or solo, but I can't list non-numbers. Can that field just be changed to accept numbers, seems like it wouldn't be difficult, and really, would it hurt the people that want to put only numbers?"
I like this idea, because the system I'm playing in doesn't have levels, it just has xp. This way I could put "56 xp" or whatever in that field to make it clear. I'm guessing it can currently only accept a number because it is stored as an integer value to allow sorting by level or some such. However, my guy's xp count is not equatable to level, so it showing up in the same list doesn't really help anyone. Not sure if there's a practical solution if that is the problem, but that's my 2 coppers on the topic.
On that note, the level field is pretty useless for multiclassed or dual classed characters. One of the main player characters in my campaign is a Cleric/Fighter 3/2, but I can't put "3/2" in the field, only "3" or "2"...
"I'd like to bring this little idea to attention again, simply because it seems like a simple change to allow a little more freedom to those of us who might not want to disclose particular levels to our PCs."
IIRC, the main reason for having that field is so that other GMs could search for characters to adopt into their campaigns. So in a level-based system it would be important to know if that character is level 10 or level 5 (and I would consider a 3/2 character a level 5 - adjustment for optimization can happen at the time of adoption).
"Of note, if I have no interest in letting my players know the levels of my NPCs, I will not be filling that field out anyway. So, if I have the ability to put H, P, or E in that field, that would not effect DMs searching other people's campaigns. Not to mention I could sort my characters by tier."
How's this for a solution? Each character has three radio buttons: Searchable, Customizable, and None:
( ) Searchable
( ) Customizable
(*) None
Searchable is how it is now, Customizable is how people have been requesting in this thread, and None is where the character has no such field at all. You could make Searchable the default button, as most game systems have clear, numerical character levels.
"This is a nice alternative, if nothing else, having it not show up if left blank (and having another field that is more customizable and also will not show up if left blank) works for me."
Agreed. As a GURPS GM I'm going to put point totals in there for now. I do love the humor factor of people searching and finding a bunch of level 275 and higher characters on my campaign site though.
Comments
I'm using it now to show the total point value of the caracters x)
( ) Searchable
( ) Customizable
(*) None
Searchable is how it is now, Customizable is how people have been requesting in this thread, and None is where the character has no such field at all. You could make Searchable the default button, as most game systems have clear, numerical character levels.