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When I made my character sheed, I also made it from scratch. Maybe not as fast as other methods, but it did allow me to control everything.
My general design advice: Think of all the things you like about other sheets, and incorporate them into your sheet. Think of all the things you didn't like, and avoid them. Have a couple of nice ideas you haven't seen anywhere else and put them in, too.
That's the theory, anyway.
If you have access to programs like Adobe InDesign, maybe from your work, use that, but there are free alternatives, like Scribus.
When I set to make my own 3.5 D&D sheet I had two sheets I had in mind when creating it. I used both versions as a base, but I made everything from scratch eying the details. Eventually, it became my own sheet as I incorporated my own ideas into it.
Now, I've made many sheets for many systems, all from scratch. Some I like, some I don't, but in the end I think they are better than what I've seen elsewhere. I don't do dynamic sheets, by the way.
I use Adobe InDesign CS3 trial for a bit, then purchased it. One of the best buys I've ever done.
I had a pretty good system for making character sheets since all the way back in 2nd Edition. Unfortunately, it didn't translate well to word processing and after a few hours of attempting to transfer the format I gave up.
A few years later, after I had been a DM, I realized I had developed not only a new character sheet, but a new statblock system. Not only do I use that for all my NPCs now, but occasionally for PCs as well.
So my advice is: grab the basic information of a character, get a piece of scrap paper, and start sketching out a layout - move the information around in various iterations and see what makes sense to you.
A few years later, after I had been a DM, I realized I had developed not only a new character sheet, but a new statblock system. Not only do I use that for all my NPCs now, but occasionally for PCs as well.Example? :)
Joe Schmoe
N human fighter 1hp 14
AC 17/11/16; Dodge
Att +5 (1d8+3/19) longsword or +2 (1d8/x3) longbow
Init +1; Spd 20
SV 3/1/2
Skills: Climb +3*, Jump +1*
Feats: Dodge, Toughness, WF (longsword)
Gear: longsword, longbow, chainmail, lt steel shield, climber's kit
That's it. SQ and SA are added if needed before skills. If I'm writing out an NPC the skills line frequently looks more like:
Skills: 2@4
Name, classes, and hp typically are aligned on the left, with the rest in a column on the right.
But I really think you should use what works best for you. This is just my method.
I want to make one, but I've no real clue. Any tips? I could, theoretically, make the PDF from scratch, but that would probably be...inefficient.
I started working on my own character sheet, as I did not see anything on the market that did what I expected from a Character Sheet. Five years later, the latest iteration of my Character Sheet is one of the most powerful and customizable one available for D&D gamers.
There are many flavors of Character Sheets. I selected to base mine on Excel, as it also allowed users to create their own formulas; This means an unprecedented level of power to make races, classes and such. Excel can also handle the very complex formulas needed to compute everything that can be tracked by a number. AND as this was not enough, Excel also allows you to code in Visual Basic, allowing even more power 'under the hood' !! This combination makes for a very flexible way to create a Character Sheet - even one that handles complexities like the stacking rules!!
Good luck!
RiTz21
http://TheOnlySheet.com
Interesting. I'm wondering, though--what is a good way to approach the "graphic design" angle of the character sheets? I could make my own plain character sheets no trouble, but I prefer them to be slightly more "pretty" to look at.
good idea! find a picture of a sword and put it above the combat stats. find a picture of a sack and put it above possessions. find a religious symbol and put it near the "religion" space on the sheet. and so on. it really makes your character sheet more interesting!
messy
Interesting. I'm wondering, though--what is a good way to approach the "graphic design" angle of the character sheets? I could make my own plain character sheets no trouble, but I prefer them to be slightly more "pretty" to look at.
Graphics are very difficult to create, unless you are an Artist (and chances are, you are not!)
A good looking character sheet will surely attract people. Everyone enjoys 'good looking', in different degrees, while some give higher emphasis on Layout and/or Easy of Use.
What I did to get a cool image to represent my Sheet, is contact some Graphics artists and ask them permission to use such and such images for my Sheet. I was lucky to locate 2 or 3 which agreed to lend me their work to represent my own work. Evidently, I gave them full credits for the images, and also placed a link to their websites on my homepage. That is how I was able to get cool images!
RiTz21
http://TheOnlySheet.com