Friday, February 11, 2011

Example how I stat uniportant NPC opponents in V:tM

So, basically I start filling basic information. In this battle there are four NPC thugs. I take Excel (as I use computer as game aid) and make rows of Thug 1, Thug 2 and so on.

Basic information I need are attack pool for melee, (attack pool for ranged weapons if needed), stamina soak, dodge and wounds. As these are unimportant opponents, I use fixed wound steps of -1, -3, -5 and incapacitated.

Sometimes I use D10 to determine dicepools for enemies. In this case, I roll D10 for every thug's melee attack, stamina (for stamina D5) and dodge.

At this point it looks like this:


That's the information I need right now. If needed, I can add more. If more important NPC's, I could make more stats but that's good enough for lesser encounters. I did use D10 to determine melee attacks and dodge and D5 to determine stamina in this case.
When wounded (these are human) I simply put a cross or crosses (X) on row of damaged thug.

In row A I also wrote down the weapon thug uses for a reminder.

Next step is weapons and damage. I use simple rule of thumb here. Damage bonus from strength is ½ of melee bonus rounded down. But in damage row I put total damage (Str bonus + Weapon damage) to nullify extra calculation during combat. Some of weapon damages are fixed, as in V:tM core book there are not that many melee weapons present.
It looks like this:


And we are ready to go with this information... at least for now. If some of these NPC thugs does some manouvers or something not covered yet, I just simply decide (or roll) dicepool for that and add it to remember later. Simple and easy and fast.

You can easily make ready template for this to your PC if you use it when you ST or make printable combat templates.

EDIT: Oops, I forgot initiative!!! Roll D10 for base Initiative representing Dexterity + Wits!!!

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