The Great Question of Morale

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What should the abbreviation for Morale be in a monster stat line? (See picture before answering.)

Poll ended at Thu Feb 09, 2023 10:01 pm

Upper-case M, upper-case L
30
83%
Upper-case M, lower-case L
6
17%
 
Total votes: 36
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Dimirag
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Re: The Great Question of Morale

Post by Dimirag »

Solomoriah wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 10:52 am Now it's just yelling at me.

Changing just morale isn't such a big deal to me, but making them all uppercase removes a variable-size feature that helps my eyes find the right stat.

Would help if someone with dyslexia were to weigh in. I know these kinds of things can be issues for them.
I would go with full upper-cases for cases with multiple words and upper/lower combo for single words, it keeps consistency while avoiding the "angry stat syndrome":

Stirge: AC 13, HD 1, #At 1 bite, Dam 1d4 +1d4/round blood drain, Mv 10' Fly 60', Sv F1, Ml 9, XP 37

But due to the forum's font Movement gets again the old problem, which could be fixed by changing how Morale is abbreviated, maybe Mor? and Mov for Movement?
Damage
Morale
Movement
Attacks
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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toddlyons
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Re: The Great Question of Morale

Post by toddlyons »

Solomoriah wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 10:52 am Stirge: AC 13, HD 1, #AT 1 bite, DAM 1d4 +1d4/round blood drain, MV 10' Fly 60', SV F1, ML 9, XP 37

Now it's just yelling at me.
Me too, I'm afraid. To my eyes, it's too much capitalization for the space.
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chiisu81
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Re: The Great Question of Morale

Post by chiisu81 »

Let's get rid of stat-lines and just put in the stat-blocks every time ;) Orrrr get rid of morale altogether :D
While I like the consistency of all in caps, it does look out of place to me. "Mor" doesn't work for me, it screams "More" misspelled. I really don't know what we should go with :(
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Solomoriah
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Re: The Great Question of Morale

Post by Solomoriah »

Ultimately these decisions fall back to me. I do polls for two reasons: first, because sometimes I'm undecided, and second, because sometimes I feel I'm begin pushed to do something but I'm not sure the thing I'm being pushed to do is actually what most people want. When I do polls in the second case, I don't always follow them, but when I do those polls in the first case I usually do.

This is one of those first cases. A majority seem to feel that ML is superior. As far as I'm concerned, all options are suboptimal; it's why I was undecided. So I will go along with this one, and it appears that ML is the winner.

BUT. Despite the arguments of some here, I just do not like capitalizing all the abbreviations. I wasn't kidding that it feels like yelling to me, and the rolling flow of uppers and lowers makes it easier for me to read overall. So I'm not going to make a poll for the larger question, I'm just going to say that we're staying the way we are. Mixed case abbreviations have worked for literal decades, with this being the only actual complaint to date, so we will be staying with them.

And for the record, I take my senior production team members' opinions seriously. But Chi admits to being undecided, and Al hasn't weighed in here. In the absence of clear positions from them, I made a poll.
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Dimirag
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Re: The Great Question of Morale

Post by Dimirag »

chiisu81 wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 12:35 pm Let's get rid of stat-lines and just put in the stat-blocks every time
I like this option, it presents the data in the same manner as with monsters. But it will need a row for the abilities.
chiisu81 wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 12:35 pm"Mor" doesn't work for me, it screams "More" misspelled.
It happens the same to me when reading "Dam", sometimes I read it as if there is a lot of water on the other side, sometimes I read it as "oh dam-!"
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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toddlyons
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Re: The Great Question of Morale

Post by toddlyons »

Dimirag wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:12 pm It happens the same to me when reading "Dam", sometimes I read it as if there is a lot of water on the other side, sometimes I read it as "oh dam-!"
Same here. And in uppercase, DAM isn't just yelling at me, it's cussing at me, too. :D
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Solomoriah
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Re: The Great Question of Morale

Post by Solomoriah »

Dimirag wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 1:12 pm
chiisu81 wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 12:35 pm Let's get rid of stat-lines and just put in the stat-blocks every time
I like this option, it presents the data in the same manner as with monsters. But it will need a row for the abilities.
Chi was joking. At least, I hope he was. Putting full statblocks in adventures would kill me trying to sort out the flow, and would waste rather a lot of paper besides.
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Dimirag
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Re: The Great Question of Morale

Post by Dimirag »

There's a little truth in every joke :twisted:
Although I like the format I know it would really mess the layout and extend the text.
Sorry for any misspelling or writing error, I am not a native English speaker
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toddlyons
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Re: The Great Question of Morale

Post by toddlyons »

Solomoriah wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 4:35 pm Chi was joking. At least, I hope he was.
He did do a winking emoticon at the end of that sentence, so yeah. Just a joke.
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Re: The Great Question of Morale

Post by gabeprime »

Didn’t think of the capped abbreviations as shouting until Solo mentioned it. Now I’m wondering whether ML is still my preference.

I still don’t like Ml though for its potential for confusion. Maybe Mrl? The small r after M would suggest that the l is a small L.

Movement could be Mov like Damage is Dam. Save is Sav. And so on.

Really though, I’d be happy with whatever Solo decides on this.
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