Café de Nuit

I've had an idea for a mini netbook, or even just a thread here.

Why don't we take an NPC who has never been detailed and everyone makes up their own version of their stats. For example, if we used the Jongleur, everyone creates different stats for him.

Just a thought.

Nice idea. I'm not confidant enough in my statting to actually submit anything straight off, but I'd love to see this kind of thing work.

I like it. It could also feature 3E updates for characters who have only been done in 2E, like Nostalia Romaine or darklords who weren't in SotD and haven't been gazetteered yet.

Sounds great. I especially like Dominique's idea of the 2ed darklords/important characters to 3rd edition. It would be somewhat semi-official too, which would hep (if you see what I mean...)

Yeah, it's a neat idea. And there's plenty of characters to choose from, like Dominique said. It would be interesting to see people's different ways of doing things with some of the cookie-cutter, weekend-in-Hell darklords who've never gotten a 3E update; for instance, you could probably do a whole netbook of people's ideas on how to make Meredoth a useable and interesting villain, and so on.

I like it. I always felt there were too many 2E characters who never got an update.

So would we vote for the best version or a committee decide which version to put in the book or would there be 5 or more versions of the same character?

Or we could do an NPC a month like we do a domain.

What about the Gentleman Caller?

That would be nice.

Excellent Idea. I'm not sure about the different versions though... I'd rather like different NPCs with one or at most two versions each. We could also update or revise the existing stats from the3E RL books(e.g. what feats Jander sunstar has and update the 3.0 ones to 3.5...)

There's already two nice threads on the WOTC boards with 3E stats:
RL NPCs
RL Darklords

I'm sure Greengiant and the other authors will gladly contribute their stats to the netbook .(Though some of Greengiant's NPCs already have other stats in 3E books) The problem I see with this or rather the question is: Is this ok with WoTC and the FoS? Not that I am personally concerned but the FoS seems to be a bit reluctant. At least that's what I understood from parts of the 100 chickens thread.

The best way to implement this IMO would be to have a NPC stats subforum here where you post your build and it is discussed and refined by the community and/or the editors. (As on the Dicefreaks boards)

You've got a good point Giamarga

Well, do you think, if we talked to WotC and promised not to give backstories, just the core character stats, that it would be more possible? Or would it just make the book redundant?

I'm with you on the multiple versions too. Too many versions would just clutter the books.

Note that i actually don't know if this would be a problem? We'll have to ask the FoS members and/or someone who knows mroe abotu the legality of thesethings.

Over at dicefreaks we sure do post a lot on WoTC material, but the Gates of Hell free publication tried to keep the mention of WoTC fluff/property to a minimum. (I.e. most of the Archdevils are realworld inspired and can thus be used but Gargauth a FR specific is only mentioned shortly)

Drinnik's first remark on detailing undescribed characters would probably be legal as no information would be copied and it would not be encouraging people to download something rather than buy a book and update themselves.

Updating darklords and pre-published characters is rocky, however. WotC's site is infuriatingly hard to navigate in that respect (they keep alot of information burried so unless you know exactly what you're searching for there are no direct links, like the SRD).
Early on in the release of 3.0 WotC cracked down on sites updating old 2E adventures and products, that would be game information without any of the necassary fluff text. That would seem to apply here.

We're trying to get ahold of WotC for clarification but it is a slow process. I'm probably not the best person to be discussing this matter as my knowledge of copyright laws and the situation is limited to Canada, but I'm still erring on the side of caution.

The link detailing their policy:
http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/ESDpolicy.rtf

You'll notice the use of "proper names" as property of WotC.

Well but we wouldn't be converting whole 2E products. Just generating/updating NPC statblocks with perhaps some short (and possibly copied) flavour attached. That is not quite the same thing as updating a whole sourcebook.

I also very much like the style of Greengiant's conversions where he notes the relevant sources to the NPC.