Tiering.

[garhkal]

For those who 'tier' their npcs and such, when making adventures, how do you decide what is tiered? How much is it tiered?

For those who don't know, tiering is where you increase the stats of npcs (or the number needed to do something, based on the average of the experience of those gaming)...


On a side question, do you feel tiering should be based on the average of the players or tiered individually to the person (to where you might get a situation, where two pcs are being targeted by an npc, and he owuld have different stats for each)..???
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[Error]

Nah. If I'm throwing a sith lord at some n00b, he's bantha fodder.
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[gollummen]

[Vanion]

I agree with Error and Gollummen. I've never even heard of tiering before. I always make sure I pu a "feeling" of how powerful or imposing an emeny is before the characters decide their course of action (The hulking alien is clad from head tto toe in powered armor, is well armed, and holds himself with an air of complete confidence, etc etc). After that, the player(s) will just have to deal with the enemy NPCs stats the way I set them.

The PCs are supposed to be the heroes, but even heroes get in over their heads and die.
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[Jamfke]

I tend to tier up a little every now and then.

But seriously, yes I do this quite often, so that the NPCs are a challenge to my group, but still give them some equal ground to stand on. Of course, there's always certain NPCs you just can't do this with, like Darth Vader. He's a pretty powerful dude even just after getting his new suit! "Noooooooooooooo!"
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[garhkal]

What i mean by tiering. Is say, for every 7 games a person plays, he is considered 1 'tier'. As the party gets higher you add a die (or two) to npc stats, to keep them in line. Like say, you have 7 players, 3 tier fives, 2 tier threes, a tier eight and a tier twelve. Which averages out to 41/7= 6 rounded. Consulting our handy dandy chart (press that make believe button students 8) ) we see that a tier of 6, grants the enemy +2d to their primary skill, and three secondary skills get +1d each.
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[Jamfke]

Oh, of course, it'd be silly to assume that an NPC just sits around watching the holovids and gaining 0 experience while the PCs are doing their thing. Of course, I allow the PCs to eventually gain on the NPCs at each encounter, eventually becoming almost powerful enough to defeat them.

You don't want to let your players to get the idea that no matter what they do, they still won't be able to whack the baddie! But you don't want them to be able to kick his butt without breaking a sweat on the next encounter either.
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[Volar the Healer]

I do not tier my NPCs. Continuity to the skill scale is important for me. Continuing villians do increase in stats and skills - generally at 1/2 the rate the PCs are.
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[Jedi Skyler]

While I agree that continuity is very important, especially in light of all the disparities between what has been held as canon and the new trilogy, it's also important to remember that the baddies won't simply be sitting on their hands. Yes, the PCs need to know that they're going to have a shot at taking down their enemies, but they also need to know that it isn't going to be a walk in the park, either. They're going to need good dice rolls, better role playing, and teamwork to make it happen. If the baddies are just sitting in an ivory citadel, waiting for the PCs to come kick their butts, it's not going to be very fun working to get to that point.

[garhkal]

Linked question.

Say you HAVE tiered the baddie, so he is still going to be a challenge. Do you have him roll less, when facing someone who is weak (like say you just had a newbie start a new character for the group)??

What about, do you have him 'somehow' lknow who is experienced?
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[Lord Aramus]

I don't 'tier' NPC's I advance them.. I like to run miniquests for my baddies and advance them as a normal character..


that way when the party dinks around too long.. bad stuff happens and they have to play catchup.

I don't believe in the 'tier' method just because it seems hackneyed.. I will make a crimeboss just as powerful to a 15 character point character or a 500 point character.

it should make no difference how the party has developed.. if they choose not to, it is there misfortune
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[Jamfke]

[Jedi Skyler]

Pretty much! They don't give Force Points for nuttin', ya know! 8)

[KageRyu]

I am of a mind that agrees with Lord Aramus, in that I try to track individual awards for NPCs to increase with, and often write little side adventures for them (sometimes even going as far as to roll out situations that directly affect the game, and write up the results). I explained this in the following thread:
http://www.rancorpit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=809

I have used some tierring for lesser NPCs and Thug-Types, but I do not use it often, or at anywhere's near as complex a formula as is described. What I do to track PCs and NPCs alike is add up the total of all skill dice above base attribute, and note their highest skill. This gives me the aproximate Die range of oposition.

For advanced NPCs or villains facing newer players I wont "weaken" them just to give the new PC a chance, though I may give the PC plenty of chances to escape, or fudge the die rolls to allow him to survive...at a price.
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[garhkal]

But would not 'fudging' to let them survive, be the same effect as weakening them??
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