One of the recurring themes which has come out over the past few months is that word count is at a premium. Dungeon cannot be all-things-to-all-people-all-the-time because of the logistics of space restrictions in a magazine. Obviously the solution is to simply get an extradimensional Dungeon with a ridiculously expanded space, similar to a bag of holding. But since I am told that idea has already been discarded as impractical due to its effect on the cover price, I am forced to consider other ideas. Below is my modest proposal of how we might scrimp and save a few words in Dungeon. Not very many, I admit, but I get the impression that we are at the point where every syllable saved might help.
One of my very favourite sections of the magazine is “tactics”. People often talk about what they read first in each issue, but for me, I usually scan my swanky new mag for the bold heading “tactics” to see if the writers or staff have inserted something nasty or clever I can use, and they usually have.
With 3.5 ed, it’s common to list which spells are cast in advance by villains before the battle. This leads to the inevitable question of whether the buffs are already in the stat block. Stat block seers can usually figure it out by reverse engineering the stats, but it’s often too time consuming when one is in the middle of a game. To solve this, the author usually sacrifices the word count to tell you directly. I.e. “Lupe the Sorcerer casts Bull’s Strength, which is included in the statistics block.” or “If Lenny the Cleric of Kortes hears the PCs on the stairs he uses his scroll of magic vestment, and so the DM should increase his AC from 10 to 11.”
Here’s my thought: what if instead of writing out what tactics modify the stat block, we instead just mark it with a superscript symbol? I.e. Just, "Lupe the Sorcerer casts Bull's Strength -symbol-." I unfortunately can't draw superscript on on the message board to illustrate, but it would look similar to how we mark domain spells in stat blocks with the snazzy, upper case “D”. (Like a footnote people, you know what I mean)
One symbol would mean “already factored into the stat block” and the second would stand for “not in the stat block and the DM must add it.” It would save space and more importantly it would avoid those unfortunate times when a DM accidentally buffs the NPC twice or not at all.
There is, of course, a downside. We’d be introducing yet more obscure symbols in a game which is already working overtime in order to be inclusive to new players. That alone makes me wonder if this could fly. But hey, if it helps make room for a few more lines of flavor text or more space for a sidebar, maybe its worth a consideration?