Talking with my good friend Paul Foisy (he runs Chicago, you should play there) he brought up a point that I wanted to make here: Scaling is a wily demon who tends to run roughshod o'r even the most prepared soul. That is, what might be sticking in many people's craw is the idea that a lineated Monster DB would be a Hard and Fast repository of scaled cards, eg: "All Goblins MUST BE 20 body; 1-h Edged; and Waylay" <full stop>. While that is one way such a document could be forged, I think there's another which might be more functional.
In truth, my main interest is less in how any given monster is statted and more in how a monster's salient characteristics are cited. That is, I think a Monster DB, instead of the above entry, could read: "Goblin, idiot-intelligence, low-threat level, simple weapons and spells, penchant for shiny objects, doesn't like pie, found throughout Fortannis". The idea would be to have a "Monster Committee" which would create and then maintain an outline of how critters should act, be portrayed, respond, etc. A descriptive Bestiary, of sorts. The Bestiary would outline a series of general concepts like Challenge Rating, Intelligence level, General Weaknesses/Advantages ("Trolls are often susceptible to Flame", "Undead are usually immune to Ice"), Physical description, Roleplay hints, which would be understood to apply across the Alliance. The details are murky, but the document would have a paragraph or two on each base-critter and the entries would slowly expand as various Chapters offer up new critter types. Since the Bestiary would be universally available and would grow with submissions from each Chapter, it would also mean that Chapters could easily and quickly involve creatures from other lands in their plot, thus entwining distant games and involving unrelated characters in a single history.
In this way, though the actual build-points between a Seattle and a New Jersey goblin would probably differ greatly, both critters would be instantly recognizable by anyone in the Alliance as "A Goblin". An Albertan Player visiting San Fran might not know how many to toss, but she sure as heck knows Flame is the best way to gut a troll.
With this schema, there would more than enough room for Chapter variety as the Bestiary could include Chapter unique critters but no one else need use 'em; Chapters could scale their critters as appropriate since the Bestiary doesn't match for stats; and since the DB would be a general set of guidelines, there is more than enough room for local flavour and that sense of "adventure and spirit" one feels when traveling to a land where the food is spiced just a bit differently.
In truth, my main interest is less in how any given monster is statted and more in how a monster's salient characteristics are cited. That is, I think a Monster DB, instead of the above entry, could read: "Goblin, idiot-intelligence, low-threat level, simple weapons and spells, penchant for shiny objects, doesn't like pie, found throughout Fortannis". The idea would be to have a "Monster Committee" which would create and then maintain an outline of how critters should act, be portrayed, respond, etc. A descriptive Bestiary, of sorts. The Bestiary would outline a series of general concepts like Challenge Rating, Intelligence level, General Weaknesses/Advantages ("Trolls are often susceptible to Flame", "Undead are usually immune to Ice"), Physical description, Roleplay hints, which would be understood to apply across the Alliance. The details are murky, but the document would have a paragraph or two on each base-critter and the entries would slowly expand as various Chapters offer up new critter types. Since the Bestiary would be universally available and would grow with submissions from each Chapter, it would also mean that Chapters could easily and quickly involve creatures from other lands in their plot, thus entwining distant games and involving unrelated characters in a single history.
In this way, though the actual build-points between a Seattle and a New Jersey goblin would probably differ greatly, both critters would be instantly recognizable by anyone in the Alliance as "A Goblin". An Albertan Player visiting San Fran might not know how many to toss, but she sure as heck knows Flame is the best way to gut a troll.
With this schema, there would more than enough room for Chapter variety as the Bestiary could include Chapter unique critters but no one else need use 'em; Chapters could scale their critters as appropriate since the Bestiary doesn't match for stats; and since the DB would be a general set of guidelines, there is more than enough room for local flavour and that sense of "adventure and spirit" one feels when traveling to a land where the food is spiced just a bit differently.