GM Cheat Sheets


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Liberty's Edge 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau

This was asked a LOONNGGG time ago, but now is as good a time as any to bring it back up again.

What are the chances of PF Scenarios having the Stat-blocks for significant NPCs in the scenarios as a back page pull-out sheet for GMs?
I run a lot of PFS and consistently, I have (since Season 0) had to make my own GM Stat-block sheets for the villains. Most times, an NPCs stats are spread across two pages depending on tier, making it harder than necessary to prepare and run a scenario. If you are running a scenario cold, this makes it near impossible to give even a "good" experience.

When a creature is straight form the Bestiary, no stat blocks are listed, just a reference to the appropriate page. This would make the same available for GMs using the NPCs. And a GM would only have to have the stats for the Tier appropriate for the game session he is running, instead of fighting through the various incarnations.

What do the rest of you think?

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

My main complaint: If you are going to template a monster give us the stat block! Many times you don't have the time to do so before hand (or you are running cold) and taking 10 minutes out of a tight four hour slot to stat up the next encounter makes for poor experience.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau

I would agree with this. I have noticed that some of the newer scenarios DO have full stat-blocks for templated creatures. At the less, the adjustments are listed. THIS is an improvement!

Liberty's Edge 1/5

I build my own bad guy summary sheets for each scenario. Simply use the snapshot tool in adobe and drop it in a word doc. Then I can keep notes near it. You can do this for monsters not included in the scenario or even key spells that may be used.

I never run a scenario cold. If I don't have time to digest it, prep for it, create maps, etc., I won't run it.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau

I've had to run a scenario cold in the past (cancellations of other GMs, conventions, etc.). Sometimes the prep time to create a cheat sheet gets tight. this would be a real time saver for prep.

The Exchange 2/5

Would it be possible for volunteers to just put together cheat sheets? Or would this be a violation of Paizo's Community Use and Copyright? If it's allowed, a group could just post files of pdf's of the NPC's and monsters. Not that Paizo wouldn't mind having someone doing this for them, just that legally it may not be allowed. What if the files were posted on Paizo?

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Shieldknight, I think that is a good idea, but I am almost certain that it would be a no-no. Only from the fact that we would be taking shots directly out of the PDF Bestiary and letting others use it. If they wouldn't mind us re-creating the stat blocks, then maybe that wouldn't be too bad.

Let's see what the official response is.

Liberty's Edge 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau

What if it was only the NPC stat-blocks? I agree that the creatures from the Bestiary probably bend the line of acceptable, though.

Shadow Lodge 5/5

Dave the Barbarian wrote:

Shieldknight, I think that is a good idea, but I am almost certain that it would be a no-no. Only from the fact that we would be taking shots directly out of the PDF Bestiary and letting others use it. If they wouldn't mind us re-creating the stat blocks, then maybe that wouldn't be too bad.

Let's see what the official response is.

To add to this, I'd bet real money the answer will be "no." Each module, companion, etc. is usually set at a specific number of pages, and adding in information which is readily available as-is from the Bestiary, which is a "core assumption", essentially wastes that space. Considering they're removing the iconcs from the Adventure Paths to help conserve space, I'm guessing the same logic applies to the society modules.

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Slanky, he wasn't suggesting adding it to the scenario, but to have the community build and share them.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/55/5 ***

Taking a standard stat block, apply a template or two, and posting it to the boards, does not sound to me like any copy-write issue. Most of that material is still protected under OGL isn't it? If you extract the pdf of the book and post the creature's image and the image of the stat block as it appears in the Bestiary, that I can see, would be a problem.

Shadow Lodge 5/5

Dave the Barbarian wrote:
Slanky, he wasn't suggesting adding it to the scenario, but to have the community build and share them.

Having the community do it isn't a terrible idea and frankly as far as I can tell is perfectly legit per the OGL. I was just expanding on you noting that Paizo will likely never do this. I would be curious how one would pull it off and keep the players away, as it is now, at least they have to pay if they want to cheat.

The Exchange 2/5

It was just an idea. Never said it was a good idea.

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