If the Giant released a Databook would you buy it?

[TooSoon]

I've been thinking about how much I'd like to have this item. If there was an official databook that featured a full list of character stats, including linear progression of their levels through the story, would you buy it?

[Quartz]

I've been thinking about how much I'd like to have this item. If there was an official databook that featured a full list of character stats, including linear progression of their levels through the story, would you buy it?

Is there enough content for such a book? I think it's probably no more than an appendix worth. Stats and stuff don't change that much during the story.

[TooSoon]

Is there enough content for such a book? I think it's probably no more than an appendix worth. Stats and stuff don't change that much during the story.

For every character? I'd say it's be well over a hundred pages. Have you checked out the character appearance thread lately? There are an awful lot of characters...

[Bedinsis]

No.

It's the characters and their personalities I am interested in; stats for them is uninteresting.

[woweedd]

I mean, i'd buy it, but it's pretty clear the characters don't have rigidly-defined stats.

[WolvesbaneIII]

Absolutely. That sounds pretty sweet actually.

It'd be like the daizenshuu of stick comics, but with actual oversight by the giant himself.

Any statistical "errors" could be explained as rule of cool and also some of the characters were never meant to have hard levels attached to them in the first place. Like I've read that xykons levels were all over the place, being in his mid to late 20's and maybe the 30's.

So if his attacks weren't hitting like a 30'ish level guy in the one comic, but he did in the other, I'd reckon he rolled low there, and the other guy rolled high and vice versa.

It'd make for a good thing for him to write and release when the comics done. Maybe he could compile the "data" now while its fresh in his mind, and get it ready just for funzies.

[Quartz]

For every character? I'd say it's be well over a hundred pages. Have you checked out the character appearance thread lately? There are an awful lot of characters...

I was thinking of just the main characters. At most everyone with significant strip time. I consider the Geekery thread as an upper bound for characters. Stats for every single goblin, for instance, would not be interesting. Do we need stats for the goblins who betrayed Haley in Book One? Do we really need stats for Trigak? Do we need stats for every high priest at the Godsmoot?

[hroþila]

Stats would be interesting (if they existed), but not something I would buy.

[GravityEmblem]

That might be interesting, the fact that this will literally never happen nonwithstanding. :smalltongue:

[NerdyKris]

For every character? I'd say it's be well over a hundred pages. Have you checked out the character appearance thread lately? There are an awful lot of characters...

He has stated doesn't even have stats for the main characters, why would he have them for every character? Not every author is Tolkien, most of the time you only plan out what's necessary for the immediate story.


I promise you I have never EVER spent one moment trying to write down the Order's stats. Everything is up in the air, all of the time, until I need to give them a specific ability.

And then I promptly forget that I gave it to them a week later.

[denthor]

I've been thinking about how much I'd like to have this item. If there was an official databook that featured a full list of character stats, including linear progression of their levels through the story, would you buy it?

The only reason would be for very quick generation of NPC'S. Then only if alignment system was used.

[GrayGriffin]

I would buy a databook if it had various fun bonus character info bits and behind-the-scenes discussion on the story progression, or stuff like the detailed city info descriptions in the potential sourcebook. I would not buy it if it was just a bunch of stats.

[WolvesbaneIII]

I was thinking of just the main characters. At most everyone with significant strip time. I consider the Geekery thread as an upper bound for characters. Stats for every single goblin, for instance, would not be interesting. Do we need stats for the goblins who betrayed Haley in Book One? Do we really need stats for Trigak? Do we need stats for every high priest at the Godsmoot?

I suppose not EVERY goblin, no.

But the high priests? sure. A vague level range would suffice, or if there were some that excelled above the others, cool.

Trigak was the chimera who was killed off by belker in the 1st dungeon right? I'd love to know any stats on him just for fun really.

Data books on stuff like dbz were all the rage back in the day, and the data was only later contradicted by the new db super anime and manga. Its mostly data gathered from the manga and anime, with some filler material that was quoted from toriyama, and even his own interviews verbatim contradict his anime and manga on dbs, like how kaioshin are made and what not.

I would trust the word of the giant on his own stats and what not more than toriyama, but thats assuming he would even bother.

moving on, I don't believe the giant would make a new series to contradict a data book he wrote for fans, like "order of the super stick" or whatever, but I would love a data book on some loose ends, stats and world building. Stuff like original intent vs what a plot set up became would be interesting.

And of course I'm willing to put plot above stats even if stats would contradict a particular scenario. I mean, what level would miko have to be to survive being lightly tapped by the MITD and be flung out miles away to survive that, and any fall damage in addition to a horse landing on her? Rule of cool here and gag manga immunity can go a long way and no stats are required for this feat.

A stat book like this wouldn't be all that useful, but I'd enjoy it for the same reason I liked the dbz guide books, just nerdy nostalgia and power levels really.

LOL. I probably ruined it for the people who did want it originally with that topic.

[Synesthesy]

Long answer? Yes.

[Morty]

He has stated doesn't even have stats for the main characters, why would he have them for every character? Not every author is Tolkien, most of the time you only plan out what's necessary for the immediate story.

Yeah, I feel like the Giant's avowed opposition to tracking this sort of thing would answer any questions about it.

[Casta]

Since exact stats and equipment lists are eschewed in order to make space for the rule of funny, I don't think I would buy it. Because I don't know 3.5 rules so well (only dabbled in DnD since 4), but if I was the kind of nerd (not a perjorative, I understand why you would want it if the Giant followed stats exactly when writing like a DM would), to be interested in exact stats then I think the discrepancies/inconsistencies necessary for the story would be disappointing.

Super looking forward to getting the next set of AMFES though.

[137beth]

Hrmm, this idea sounds familiar. Where have I heard it before? Oh, right, some jerk named 137ben posted something similar nine years ago (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?212242-Will-we-ever-see-complete-stats).

The Giant said in a very old FAQ entry that

I find that if I were to ever commit exact stats to paper, I would feel limited in what I could have these characters do in the future. For example, I might want to make a strip spoofing a particular feat, only to find that I didn.t give it to any of my characters.

In 2011, I thought that he might still be willing to provide complete statblocks after the main series ended. I no longer believe this for a variety of reasons, some of which were supplied in the replies to my thread back then.

Additionally, IIRC The Giant said since then that he expects a significant chunk of his readers have only played newer editions of D&D (I can't find the quote right now: Banana?) If that is true, then a book full of 3.5 statblocks would probably not appeal to those readers.

With that said, as unlikely as I think it is, if the Giant did decide to release such a book, I would buy it. I'd much rather see more prequel/spin-off comic stories, but I expect I will buy any OOTS books he puts out.

[TooSoon]

I'm sure there are backstory things that could be put in with the data (e.g. story of how Tarquin levelled up from character sheet 1 in year X to character sheet 2 in year Y).

[EyethatBinds]

I doubt even the main story will ever finish, I'd rather not ask for additional content beyond the bi-weekly single page (sometimes two pages) comic that currently exists.

[Ron Miel]

Try the Class And Level Geekery (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?607385-Class-and-Level-Geekery-XVII-When-you-Wish-upon-a-Stat)thread. (Currently on its 17th incarnation) In this thread people make deductions about character stats. Character can do this so they must be at least level 10, but they can't do that so they must be less than level 12. Things like that.

It's the closest we'll ever come.

[Morty]

I'm sure there are backstory things that could be put in with the data (e.g. story of how Tarquin levelled up from character sheet 1 in year X to character sheet 2 in year Y).

We don't even know what level Tarquin is when the Order meets him, beyond "high level because he's really strong". Or what abilities he has, beyond the magic items he uses.

[TooSoon]

We don't even know what level Tarquin is when the Order meets him, beyond "high level because he's really strong". Or what abilities he has, beyond the magic items he uses.

Which again, is why we'd want to buy the book.

[Morty]

Which again, is why we'd want to buy the book.

But "we" in this context includes the Giant. I'm reasonably certain, based on his comments, that Tarquin's level is "strong enough to fight off the Order sans Vaarsuvius" rather than a number.

[NerdyKris]

I doubt even the main story will ever finish, I'd rather not ask for additional content beyond the bi-weekly single page (sometimes two pages) comic that currently exists.

I'm not sure if you mean because of the length of time or that you think there isn't an ending, but there is a set plot and ending for this story, and we're in the final book now.

[Emanick]

It’ll never happen, but I’d definitely buy it.

[Hopeless]

A Campaign Setting book?

Yes I'd be interested in that.

[WolvesbaneIII]

But "we" in this context includes the Giant. I'm reasonably certain, based on his comments, that Tarquin's level is "strong enough to fight off the Order sans Vaarsuvius" rather than a number.

You make some good points.

Perhaps not a hard limit on levels, but perhaps a vague estimation on levels would be nice.

I think back and recall the giant already established some vague level estimations, like "around level 10. Not too strong, but high enough to fight off some threats that a normal pc would find dangerous"

Then that answers my question to a degree, and with room to spare for debate.

What is "around level 10"? 12? 13? 15? 8?

and it depends on what you consider to be the vague estimation of "around".

Then theres also things I would enjoy, like "what if" scenarios.

suppose the story ended and we never got some hypothetical showdowns. like "xykon vs mothra" or some other thing like 1on??? matches where teams who never fought or had unclean finishes could have the debate settled.

The whole of team evil vs say, the likes of tarquins group. or some other variant.

We don't really need a big descriptor, but even somethign like "despite tarquins cunning, his whole group was mowed down. I guess he didn't have the balls to make it big, like what nale said. Even summoning his army, the goblin army took out the rest of tarquins forces. it was a blood bath."

you get the general idea, and you have room to consider how much of a blood bath it was in your own imagination, and a general sense of scale even if big armies were called in.

rematch varieties where if characters who fought early on who stuck around and leveled up were to meet up in a dream match.

we will probably see xykon vs roy again, but assuming we don't, we could see what if roy fought xykon once more without a flying dragon to inflict fall damage.

This stuff might not interest you or maybe it does, but I'd love to see and read this kind of stuff.

[Velaryon]

I would not buy a book that simply listed off stats of prominent characters from the comic and maybe a few bits of trivia about the characters that never made their way into the story.

I would however buy a full setting book, with detailed maps, character stats, full writeups of different lands, factions, etc. If nothing else, I'd love to have official versions of Elan's prestige class, and whatever Aristocrat-friendly prestige class that Kubota had.

I don't expect such a book to ever be made, especially not before the comic ends, but if it ever does happen I'll preorder the heck out of it on day one.

[Ionathus]

I would not buy a stats book, or probably even a sourcebook (though, as Velaryon said, the Dashing Swordsman prestige class and other homebrews would be fun to see in fully-designed form).

You know what I would go for? A concept art book. I absolutely loved reading Rich's justifications for "The Art Upgrade" in the Utterly Dwarfed commentary, along with screenshots of the compositions he didn't like and all the different workshopped versions of Roy's hands (those fully-illustrated hands on his stick figure body were absolutely wacky!).

I realize there's probably not a ton of material for it, given how the comic has evolved in real time, but I would absolutely buy a "making of" book with sketches, concept art, commentary, etc.

[Sky_Schemer]

I've been thinking about how much I'd like to have this item. If there was an official databook that featured a full list of character stats, including linear progression of their levels through the story, would you buy it?

I would not, mostly because I don't see the value in it. It's the story that matters, not the stats.

I'd rather see Rich put his time into new content. New stories, new characters to create more comics. Not even backstories of these characters or ones we've seen, but a whole new story.

As far as products go? I'd rather see him continue the AMFES lineup. That, right there, has been invaluable in every game I've been in, virtual and otherwise. Not only are they awesome, but the art style lends itself well to a VTT where screen resolution and token size makes more "traditional" artwork muddy and illegible. And AMFES can apply to any D&D version and variant, and just about any fantasy game system.

[burpbot]

Nope, not a chance.

[Leirus]

Shut up and take my money! But I would rather have a world book, I think. Like his old articles about world building but in the Oots world.

[Goblin_Priest]

A databook would ruin a lot of perfectly enjoyable pedantic theorycrafting.

[Shirow]

I've been thinking about how much I'd like to have this item. If there was an official databook that featured a full list of character stats, including linear progression of their levels through the story, would you buy it?

Yes, but I will buy anything. An idea, sketches/artbook kinda deal would be more enjoyable for me. Like,


"When I first envisioned Haley Starshine, I took this idea and then added this from here and that from there; and as for the feats and skills, I thought she would decide on them based on this and then that; by book x her focus shfted to blah blah blah here are some earlier sketches and other directions in which I might have taken the character... the name was originally... then I changed it to ... because ...
"


Production art, and personality info like someone mentioned.