| Welcome to Pokemon Tabletop. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| Do you hide NPCs stats? | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Jun 6 2016, 09:51 AM (2,132 Views) | |
| FurretTurret | Jun 9 2016, 01:08 AM Post #11 |
|
Pokémon Trainer
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I figure if there's anything specific they want to know, make it a roll. What's the enemy's HP at? MedEdu to identify the difference between "looks hurt" and "at about 30% HP, probably couldn't take another of your Chespin's Vine Whip attacks." Do they have some stat that's unusually high for the species, or an ability or move that they might not expect? PokemonEdu to identify that that Flamethrower seems to have extra range or that Thundershock was much stronger than expected. Etc. |
![]() |
|
| Gear_Skitty | Jun 9 2016, 06:04 AM Post #12 |
|
Just Another Cat In The Machine
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I readily and gladly admit I'm the kind of player that backwards maths out an enemy's stats. I've played with enough people, player and GMs alike, who were at some point absent-minded or had generally slow/poor mathing skills. If the group as a whole has the general stat-line of a character (this goes for player controlled things too), it lifts the responsibility of making sure everything is right numbers-wise from just that person to the group. Refusing to let players math in combat to gauge an enemy's strengths is like banning gamblers in a casino for figuring out basic odds. And I don't mean you should tell your players all the stats, movepool, and abilities for every thing they fight. But don't hide them, because you don't know you're messing up until after the fact. |
![]() |
|
| Abaddon Viteri | Jun 10 2016, 04:35 AM Post #13 |
|
Hunter
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I play online, but a lot of the time I don't actually roll. I either unilaterally determine whether or not something can hit or miss on my end, or have prerolled damage and accuracy. This makes it hard for them to determine whether or not something has a certain stat. It doesn't generally matter whether or not they know about the NPC's attributes, although I applaud correct efforts to identify weaknesses on the enemy and exploit them. It's a very Pokemon competitive mentality. By the time they figure out what its attack is, it's already hit them enough times that they know the general damage output anyway. If an enemy deals more special damage than physical, then send out the special wall. Surviving to appropriately use this information is key... if and when it's important enough to matter. It's not like knowing these traits will change the narrative. |
![]() |
|
| TimerThyme | Jun 28 2016, 07:43 AM Post #14 |
|
OverGMing
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I play on Roll20 which have a lot of options, i don't hide the rolls of the ennemies because knowing the attack and spe-attack stats doesn't really give an advantage as a crit can always occur and my ennemies always have 3 attacks so they can always surprise if the player thinks he is safe. For the player and the ennemies, i tried hiding the health bars completely but it was confusing even for me and time consuming to describe the injuries each time someone doesn't remember if this bad guy is healthy or not. So we got back to health bar and i describe the injuries only after a hit but the numbers are hidden, its fun to see them freak out when a health bar doesn't move a lot against a boss or a tank. With they can't know if he has a lot of health or a lot of armor. |
![]() |
|
| MrCompetition | Jul 3 2016, 10:27 PM Post #15 |
![]()
Pokémon Trainer
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
I don't tell my players what the stats of an NPC is, but it isn't hard to get an approximate number after a couple rounds. The players need to know the opponents evasion (after they choose what move to use of course) to determine if they hit or not. If they know the approximate base damage of a move, they can figure out roughly what the attack/sp attack stats are. If the enemy is shrugging off hits, can get a decent idea of HP or defense after knowing evasion. Basic math skills and basic knowledge of combat go a long way to figuring out an opponents stats. And I don't consider figuring out that information as "metadata" as a couple others here do and here's why: To reverse math to figure out base numbers requires actions on both sides. How did I figure out my opponent has a high speed? They went before me. How do I know they have a good defense? They had a high evasion but I went first. Lots of HP? I hit them like a truck and they seem to be doing fine. High attack? That was a weak move that nearly one-shotted me without type advantage or a crit. A halfway competent combatant or observer could figure that stuff out, just not exact numbers (sports commentators do that sort of thing for a living, while the regular person will wince after hits or make assumptions based on how someone looks/reacts). Point I'm trying to make is that basic observations made during a fight should cause an individual to alter their tactics. I shouldn't keep spamming earthquake against a pidgey that is dive-bombing me, I can clearly see it isn't working and that the pidgey is somehow immune to it, assuming the PC/Player has no knowledge of types in this example, the basic observation that the pidgey is not being harmed by my powerful move tells me I need to change tactics. That may be a lickitung, but since it is unharmed by either tackle or karate chop, I can assume it is type-shifted to ghost or a hologram. For HP, I generally give a brief description on how they are looking, and give a rough percentage if they make a skill check or use some sort of ability (depending on the system of course). When using Roll20, I let the players see the health bar, but sometimes enemies get multiple health bars (normally big bosses) and I'll let them know beforehand if there are multiple health bars (just not how many). |
![]() |
|
| TimerThyme | Jul 4 2016, 04:05 AM Post #16 |
|
OverGMing
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Yeah, i feel what you're saying, having an approximation of an opponent's stat for the player is like gauging an opponent through the fight. I don't make it much of a deal when an enemy has his stats discovered since his abilities and moves are what can make the fight. |
![]() |
|
| l33tmaan | Dec 29 2016, 01:39 PM Post #17 |
|
Pokémon Trainer
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Wait, people actually just say "Zigzagoon used Quick Attack"? Half of the fun is making your players guess what move you're using. One time I had a Sableye use Detect to dodge a Rock Slide and one of my players straight up thought it was immune to rock moves. I described how it deftly maneuvered between each falling rock before ending up on top of a rock pile, bearing a grin at the party. Some moves are harder to describe than others, but this is a tabletop game, have some fun with it, |
![]() |
|
| Kaede11 | Jan 2 2017, 03:38 PM Post #18 |
|
Unlucky GM
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Well, to be honest I do say "X pokemon uses Y move" but that's just because when we started playing PTU we had a lot of influence from the games and we never thought about doing it any other way. My fault. I've tried to describe moves instead of saying what are enemies using, but my players end up asking the name of the move and some of them get mad if I refuse to tell. Well they are having fun anyway, so... I guess that's fine. |
![]() |
|
| l33tmaan | Jan 2 2017, 05:17 PM Post #19 |
|
Pokémon Trainer
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
If it works for your group, then that's the best way to play. But do they really get mad if you don't say the move? That seems a little excessive. |
![]() |
|
| Xyless | Jan 2 2017, 07:40 PM Post #20 |
![]()
PTA/PTU Researcher and Virtual Tool Maker
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
What I do for our game is each trainer can see each other's HP bar, but not each others' Pokemon stats. Player trainers can't see any stats that aren't themselves, so NPCs and enemies and such's stats are hidden except for the GM. We balance that by the GM flagging trainers/mons when they reach half health and when they reach critical health, and the GM roleplays their health levels to emulate how they're looking. |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| Go to Next Page | |
| « Previous Topic · Pokemon: Tabletop United · Next Topic » |
| Track Topic · E-mail Topic |
5:24 PM Jul 10
|
Pokéball created by Sarah & Delirium of the ZNR





![]](http://z4.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)






5:24 PM Jul 10