I discovered another older ruleset where monsters/creatures have a separate, stat block from characters. In fact, it is a one line stat block, just like older editions of D&D. Granted, it is slightly longer with eight fields, but it is still much smaller than a character sheet.

Before continuing on, I discovered that Footprints #21 came out a couple weeks ago. It has nothing to do with SOTU, but it does give me a chance to say "Thank You" to Alfons, writer over at Mage of the Striped Tower. Thanks also for wishing me luck.

As far as my original point, yes, I am talking about Star Frontiers. The stat block for creatures looks something like this:
Funnel Worm: MV Slow, IM 3, RS 25, STA 200, ATT 70, DM d10, SA Hits automatically from ambush, SD Undetected until it attacks

I did not ever play this game growing up, but thanks to the folks at DWD Studios, I am enjoying reading through it. Especially with my gears spinning around Searchers of the Unknown, I was happy to see a similar dichotomy between character sheets and creature stat blocks.

Translating the block, MV is movement rate. IM is the Initiative Modifier. RS is Reaction Speed, STA is Stamina, ATT is an attack value, and DM is damage. Remembering that Star Frontiers is essentially (but not totally) a roll under d% game, this makes it a potentially very interesting alternative to SOTU. IM pertains to Initiative directly. Reaction Speed is something like a Saving Throw, but also answers the question, "Which one of you drew its weapon first?" STA can function like hit points and the Attack value is pretty self-explanatory.

As I continue to absorb the rules, that may change, but we shall see. I'm still not sure how I would roll reaction speed, or if I would at all. Anyway, I hope to present the Star Frontiers creature stat block as a variation of Searchers of the Unknown.

As far as the original rules that I am working on, I believe I have a bunch of spells 80% converted for use in SOTU. Work continues on. I hope to post something more definitive by this weekend.

That's all for now. More in the next post.