Do I need to stat out & measure everything?

Question

I am preparing a session that contains a fair amount of absurdity. Many of the creatures and situations that my players will encounter will probably not be encountered again.

On the one hand, I know that players have a tendency to get into shenanigans you don't intend, but on the other, I don't know that it's worth planning for that. This is a puzzle-based session, and the puzzles are fairly thoroughly mapped out. Potential combat statistics, however, are very vague.

Do I need to come up with complete stats for everything? If not, how should I choose which things to stat up?

Answer 1

There's no "have to" in RPGs, but there are pros and cons to doing so.

There is nothing wrong with running games completely off the cuff, with monsters not even having fixed hp or the like, if that results in an enjoyable game for you and your group. This approach gives the screaming meemies to some gamers because they are more interested in the tactical challenge aspect of the game being "fair," in that case you'd want to work on further statting out balanced opponents, maybe by using reskinning as @dpatchery suggests.

I tend to not go to that much work if I'm not looking for a big tactical combat scene. I use rules of thumb, like "oh that guy will go down given two good hits." Or "the player used an action point, the guy goes out no matter how many hp he has." Or if it's a more fanciful scenario, "the bishops on the big chess board go down if you hit them from the diagonal only." I use a lot of GM discretion and fiat. This can go wrong if the players don't trust you or it breaks their "thing" (where their thing might be immersion or tactical joy).

If not going with 100% statted creatures, you can hide the fuzziness from the players or not as you desire. In the end, as long as the interface to the players is clear (it hit AC X, you hit, it does X damage to you) then there can be a supercomputer or an insane gnome on meth "inside the box" determining what happens.

Answer 2

I would say "Hell no!" but I run systemless games.

On a more helpful note, if you know your system well, you should be able to roughly guess what a monster's states should be given a general description of its powers/hardness. Levels were originally designed as a short cut to describe just how hard something was: At Weathertop, the Witch King would be level 30, Aragorn would be level 15, and Frodo level 2. Sure, you could argue that Frodo was level 1 or 3 or 4 but overall his low level gives you a fair idea of what he is capable of. The rest can be filled in so that the characters are having a harder/easier time as dictated by the story.

As long as your players know that you are fair and are telling an interesting story they can influence and take into uncharted territory, then you are should be fine. As for special abilities and so on, feel free to use some that make it a more interesting combat. A character just set the orcs on fire, well, some of them had dynamite. BOOM. A character has a nice toy he can use, make sure he uses it on something big and important. Referees are here to tell a cool story featuring the characters. The players are there to shape and mould that story

For example, 3 orcs attack Aragorn. Let's assume that the referee wants Aragorn to shine in that combat. It's just to show how hard Aragorn is to all the other players and a few NPCs. Aragorn's players does not know this. So, he rolls his attack as usual: superb result. Fine, the first orc is cut in half at the waist. Gore everywhere. Awesome thinks Aragorn's player. Second attack is in the low range for Aragorn's level. Fine, the orc gets a slash across its face and is now blind in one eye. Etc...

For example, now Aragorn is fighting the Witch King. Aragorn rolls well but not brillantly. The result is now that the Witch King parries the blow with apparent ease. Aragorn is in trouble. It's going to be a hard fight... And so it should be!

Answer 3

The easiest thing to do would be to look up monsters for your system with the same level, role, rank, etc that you have in mind for your custom creature. Use those stats and just call the creature what you want it to be in your game. You may need to shift a few things around, like damage types or mode of transportation, but it shouldn't be too much work.

This is typically referred to as reskinning.

Answer 4

I usually have some brief notes about each monster (or relatively-background NPC), fleshing them out as needed. For GURPS, you may want attack skills, dodge/parry skills, HT and maybe Fatigue noted down in advance, if you expect your players to make battle with creatures. No need to go full-character generation on them, no need to keep close track of points cost or anything, just jot down some numbers that sound good (and possibly advantages/disadvantages as necessary).

Edit: Jot down things you expect to be needed in play. Don't jot down things you don't expect to be needed in play. be as brief as you can, while giving yourself a chance to remember what you actually meant.

If you have a monster that has an acid spray attack, but it's mostly just seen in the distance and you can expect your players to not suddenly go "aha! monster! kill!!!", you just need some notes on how it looks. If you have the same monster as a "path blocker", you probably need to note down attack type, chance to hit, hit points, damage done, dodge/parry (as applicable) and...