2018-05-05

OERAD Offering: Monster EHD Digest

R.J. Thompson over at Gamers & Grognards has newly declared today, May 5th, to be Original Edition RPG Appreciation Day (OERAD), and I think that's super cool! A great way to show our ongoing allegiance and community support for the rawest, purest of all RPG experiences. (And not just as an exercise in nostalgia; I've convinced several of my wonderful millennial friends to buy it and convert in the last few months.)

Here's my new offering for today: the OED Monster EHD Digest. It's an extract of the primary results of the Monte Carlo simulations we do here to balance our games (i.e., computer simulations of monsters vs. fighters of various levels, run a few million times each, to dial in the danger levels). Previously you'd have to hunt through the OED Monster Database spreadsheet for this information; now you can print it on a single sheet for use at the table. Use for encounter balancing if you wish, and probably more importantly, XP awards at the end of each game. Also please check out other stuff at the OED Games website while you're there. Happy OERAD. Fight on!

Edit 5/26/18: Updated with more monsters and sorted by both name and EHD value.

Edit 7/24/18: This particular format turned out to be a pain to maintain and has been removed. Please see the full OED Monster spreadsheet that contains all the most-up-to-date EHD estimations (as well as having them now inserted into the automatically generated stat blocks):


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8 comments:

  1. R.J. ThompsonMay 5, 2018 at 11:23 AM

    Hey, Matt isn't involved in Gamers & Grognards. G&G and Appendix N Entertainment is, currently, just myself.

    ReplyDelete
  2. TetramorphMay 6, 2018 at 12:48 PM

    This is rad, Delta. Would you do something else for me?

    Would you make a list where you list them in EHD order?

    That would be awesome!

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    Replies
    1. DeltaMay 26, 2018 at 5:25 AM

      Good idea! I just uploaded a new version that adds the EHD values for more monsters, and has both a sort-by-name and sort-by-EHD list.

      Delete
  3. Timothy S. BrannanMay 9, 2018 at 7:33 AM

    This is awesome. As a former stats prof I love Monte Carlo simulations.

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    1. DeltaMay 9, 2018 at 6:22 PM

      IMO you're always still a statistics professor, just maybe not-currently-practicing. :-)

      Delete
  4. VedronMay 17, 2018 at 6:39 PM

    Very helpful! The only suggestion I would have is to add a column for the monster level from 1-6. So at a glance you get Name, EHD, and monster level. That's all the key info needed for encounter balancing/design.

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    Replies
    1. DeltaMay 26, 2018 at 5:28 AM

      That's a good idea, but I just couldn't find space in the layout for that. I just added a sort-by-EHD list in an update, so hopefully that gets one most of the way there.

      Delete