Designing adventures

I realised today that I have no patience for statting out a roleplaying adventure.

I love designing the plot, writing the story, creating the characters and fleshing out the adventure, but when it comes to giving the main NPCs and monsters statistics based on the system and the experience of the characters the adventure is designed for, I simply slump my shoulders and press on. To me, statistics are a part of designing adventures that feel like a chore.

All I'm interested in is the situation and how the players react to it. I like introducing new elements to a story as it progresses, twists and incidents that might bring out the player's characters, create in-game tension around a table, or get a few pulses racing.

But when it comes to statting a character... I always leave it to the end as I don't want the wind taken out of my sails as I'm writing. They're usually adjusted after playtesting, anyway. I guess it's because of my background of fiction writing and, of course, you don't have to worry about a character's stats. You just want to get on with the story.