> It is not absolute. People buy game supplements for different
> reasons. When I buy Jamie's Western supplements it will be because I
> want to know what he thinks of things. When I buy Jeff et al's Sartar
> book, it will because I want to know they think. I don't know what I
> think. I'm dim; I want them to tell me. And, let's be honest, I think
> the authors want to tell me, too.
>
> It's gradational. And it's really not too far a journey to
> include 'stats'.
>
> I like 'stat blocks' and game-tuned nomenclature. I have an almost
> mystical reverence for them. Fairly seriously.
In terms of stats, there are very few in LotW1, which is an overview of the West, rather than focussing on individuals. Hopefully, it does have evocative abilities in the various templates (I'm a big fan of writing out templates as such, rather than just relying on prose text).
LotW2, however, was written with the intent of being directly useful to Narrators. Therefore, it does have several 'stat blocks' in it, where I felt they were appropriate and enhanced the game/story rather than making it dull and mathematical. However, this does not extend to the named characters (such as Theoblanc), who receive a brief description and a list of their keywords. If I were writing a scenario book that included those characters, I would definitely want some sort of stats for them, but it didn't seem so appropriate in a setting book. After all, even in the most sim of games, their stats will change over time.
I'm crossing my fingers that the numbered stats that *are* there don't get edited out for publication, because I strongly feel that they enhance the book, and it will be the poorer without them. But such things, of course, are not in my hands.
-- Trotsky Gamer and Skeptic ------------------------------------------------------ Trotsky's RPG website: http://www.ttrotsky.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ Not a Dead Communist: http://jrevell.blogspot.com/
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