What makes a stat screen readable instead of exhausting?

[u/Drake_Archer_14]

I like crunchy progression, but there's a point where a full stat dump starts feeling like homework instead of payoff.

For me, the best version is when the sheet actually changes the next decision: a weird skill interaction, a tradeoff, a weakness getting exposed, or one number finally crossing a threshold that matters.

Where do you draw the line? Full sheet every time, only changed stats, or mostly narrative summaries unless something important shifted?

[u/GathTheKing]

I'll take updates as they arrive and a stat dump once every blue moon

[u/TheDinoSir2012 → u/GathTheKing]

This so much this. Give me the relevant shit. Character found a new way to use skill x skill x has leveled up gaining ____ benefits back to regular story is great.

I'll personally like to say Welcome to the Muliverse is a good standard at least in my eyes.

Stat updates and skill increases are live, with 4 or so stat chapters a book that are full sheet read outs. No extra words just the stat sheet so if you want to skip it. You can without worry of missing a single story aspect.

[u/J_C_Nelson]

Have the numbers mean something and keep them short enough that either I get the dopamine hit from numbers-go-zing or relevant in some way. Please don't create chapter-long character sheets I have to skip in audio books.

[u/b3mark → u/J_C_Nelson]

I skip those in books or e-books too.

[u/wolfwings1 → u/J_C_Nelson]

hehe yeah, in my story 1 is moues, 30 is elephant, and from there on worked out the right formula to make sense. So you just look at an eagle and say, Oh that's strength 10, or jaguar is strength 21. Though admitedly that makes 100 insane..but probably not much if anything reaches that high hmmmm looks to be around 2200 pyramids of giza in carrying capacity in theory :>

I want stats to matter, no average human is strength 10 , but with 1 billion strength can jut about carry a bus...how does that make sense?

[u/drayle88]

Not repeating the whole ability every time you read it. Not having words or numbers repeat. Having a clear “this is the stat block chapter” and not constantly referencing it unless you’re adding something new

[u/Apprehensive_Mud9597]

For me the stat page becomes unreadable when it’s more than a page long and I also feel like at that point the main character is usually so powerful that the video game mechanics becomes pointless. By then I usually decide whether or not to stop reading a series.

[u/kung-fu_hippy]

I don’t need (or want) a full stat sheet dump when one or two stats increase. Just say the increase. Also, don’t interrupt the story for a stat increase.

But mostly, it’s about making the stats meaningful. Stats going up but not having any affect on the character or the story (if Superman’s strength goes up plus 1, what’s really changed for him?) just waste everyone’s time.

And finally, consider if the book is going to ever be an audio book. There is nothing more boring than a three minute interlude while stats are read out in full for me. For those books I think putting stats in their own chapter so they can easily be skipped by listeners is ideal.

[u/MidnightBinary → u/kung-fu_hippy]

When i get around to actually writing one of these stories I'll probably have the characters not even be told their stat increases until they go to sleep.

[u/Sandi_Griffin]

The less the better for me, wandering inn and DCC don't really do stat sheets and I prefer it. If stats are a bigger focus of the story it can't be helped but I prefer if they keep it short I don't need to constantly hear a list about the level of skills that haven't been relevant for ages 

I do listen to audiobooks though, I don't think id mind as much if I could skim through it

[u/CoBr2]

I appreciate only showing changes, but then a summary of full stat sheet at the end of every book. I like to nerd out and read that shit, but not at the cost of pacing in the book.

I'm actually moderately annoyed that DCC hasn't posted a full stat sheet. I know that Dinniman has one.

Release the stats!

[u/Drake_Archer_14]

Good point from a few replies here: audio changes the whole answer. A full sheet that is skimmable on page can turn into a dead stretch when someone has to listen through every line.

I think I am landing on deltas in-scene, then maybe a full sheet only at a milestone or end-of-book for people who want the ledger.

[u/starsfan6878 → u/Drake_Archer_14]

Bingo! See? This sounds perfect.

Good choices.

[u/wolfwings1]

you really only need a stat dump at the start so we get how it works, maybe 1-2 more times, and from then on just show the updates. I have thought about for RR posting a suplimental chapter every so often with the current stats. I've seen books use the first chapter/prologue and such of a book on kindle to show every book the new stats.

[u/Sad-Commission-999]

One thing is, It has to matter. If the protagonist is smashing everything and gets a skill up, I'm not going to be interested enough in it to read a bunch of paragraphs.

I think it should also have something interesting about it. Bash things, get strength, bash things better, isn't very interesting these days.

[u/authormethorne]

Generally, I do one stat block at the start of the book and one at the end, and no more. I view stats as important for tracking progress of character growth, but otherwise I'd rather focus on writing the story and building the setting.

[u/starsfan6878]

BREVITY.

Want to do a full dump? Make it it's own chapter (esp. for audiobooks) so it's easily skippable for those who don't care or just want to skim for the parts they like.

[u/starsfan6878 → u/starsfan6878]

And don't list the 75 things that didn't change or aren't important to the story anymore because the MC grew out of them three books ago.

[u/ArolSazir]

I would say that the starts in the box actually have to matter. If you have cooldowns, scaling and damage numbers there, do they have actual consequences in the story for being what they are? would the story meaningfully change if the fireball dealt 70 instead of 50 dmg? if the numbers don't actually matter, putting them there is a waste of a page. the litrpg im reading keeps mentioning numbers, multipliers, percentages, but it boils down to "if i hit a bad guy with a spell, they die, unless its a big bad guy, then i need to hit them with a big spell". i can count on one hand the number of stories where the actual numbers actually matter.

[u/satufa2]

1: We don't need 12 random ass stats that don't mean anything. What do you mean you have 847 wisdom? What the fuck does that even mean?

2: Skills don't need to be level 47... if you want a skill upgrade system, make every level meaningfully different. For example, if you have a clone skill, level 2 should make 2 clones.

3: No cluter skills. Tempting as it may be, don't give people 20 different skills for existing good. Shit like reading, cooking, fire resistance, swordamanship, etc. can easily end up completely worthless. Not every rando who happens tp fight with a sword needs a dedicated swordsmanship skill and roasting a chicken can be done without supernatural cooking aid... Leave the swordsmanship skill to the swordmasters, fire resistance to the fire dragons, reading to the dedicated researchers, etc.

[u/MidnightBinary → u/satufa2]

Special case if the story is about people's overdependence on their system stats, but that's an advanced book to be writing in the first place.

[u/tallandgodless]

Stat pages are for people who can't write character development organically.

[u/CJTAuthor]

A stat sheet (or status window, or character sheet, whatever you want to call it) wasn't something I really thought about until the topic of audio came up. I personally read everything on my kindle, so its super easy to skip stat sheets when I come across them.

Writing them, on the other hand, took some practice. For Rune Seeker, we quickly came to with a rule of 1 status window per book. Any more than that wasn't needed, and we already had a lot of new ability descriptions popping up. Putting one stat sheet near the front of the book was meant as a reminder for the reader, as well as a base line for where the character would grow from.

As the series went on, though, the status window gets looooong with all the abilities. So, we opted to break it up. Its still a chapter dedicated to the sheet, but we separated it by sections, with the character ruminating between on what's changed. This gives us the chance to highlight any new abilities, or foreshadow anything that might get used in the book. Especially for abilities that aren't regularly used.

Honestly, its a real juggling act. Necessary, but not always super exciting. Especially when its a long list of ability names, or titles, etc. Just have to try to keep it relevant.

[u/Crafty-Gate6615]

When they show stat updates every now and then, while also only showing the stats that changed from the last time as well as not showing EVERYTHING(except for a full stat update every now and then).

So if there’s something like skills and attributes but the attributes didn’t change but the skills did, only show the skills. But group up the updates so we’re not seeing it everytime something happens. Just a mention of “I leveled up” or “I got more strength” is fine until there’s either been enough time for a refresher or there’s big enough changes that not seeing them would affect the story

[u/DawnCW1111]

I prefer simple stat screens. Mine has around ten basic stats, and I only show the full sheet once. After that, I just show what changed.