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Given the debacle of the 4th Edition Character Sheets that WoTC have been selling, I've been thinking. What exactly, in this age of home printing, easy access to printing en masse and excellent quality free PDF character sheets, is the advantage of selling character sheets?
So, I've been thinking. Lets say Paizo were to sell a set of character sheets. What would you want from such a product in order for it to be better then the free versions that are available out there? There's a few things I'd like to see.
1) Customised Sheets for each Class. If I'm a fighter, I don't want to have to see a 'Rages' box on the sheet, or a spellbook section.
2) Sturdy paper, so they actually last.
3) Excellent artwork on the cover. Or better yet, a set of black and white pictures of stock character portraits.
Any ideas from you guys?
Sell a .pdf with some obvious formulas in it, especially attribute cascading if they aren't going to change that (in Pathfinder RPG).
Layout by class, one for multiclassing. The more you can mix and match based on your needs the better. Wordman's Shadowrun character sheets (from back in the day for SR3) come to mind.
It's actually really tough to strike a balance like that, since an over-automated character sheet can be an obstacle to people who house-rule a lot. Truth be told, I don't think anything could bring me to buy a character sheet instead of printing a custom one, since there are some very fine ones available in these forums.
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I think toyrobots pretty much hit it, and I don't know if anything beyond an editable/formula-driven PDF would really strike me, unless Paizo struck a deal with the creators of Hero Lab/RPG Xplorer to market a Pathfinder-specific character sheet plug-in or something of the like.
As it stands, 3.5 (compared to 2E, which I'm more familiar with) has so much detail that I forget to keep track of things... so creation by program is about the only way I do up character sheets anymore.
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What would you want from such a product in order for it to be better then the free versions that are available out there?
The WotC 3.5 sheets were larger size paper folded over to make four pages each and every pack came with one for each class and a generic one. They were very useful and impossible to print at home. That's what a character sheet product should be.
What would you want from such a product in order for it to be better then the free versions that are available out there?The WotC 3.5 sheets were larger size paper folded over to make four pages each and every pack came with one for each class and a generic one. They were very useful and impossible to print at home. That's what a character sheet product should be.
11 x 17, printed on both sides, impossible? I've been doing it for a while now... hmm..
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11 x 17, printed on both sides, impossible? I've been doing it for a while now... hmm..What would you want from such a product in order for it to be better then the free versions that are available out there?The WotC 3.5 sheets were larger size paper folded over to make four pages each and every pack came with one for each class and a generic one. They were very useful and impossible to print at home. That's what a character sheet product should be.
By impossible, I meant "impossible on my printer."
The point, though, is that there are some people who need to buy the product to get the sheets.
By impossible, I meant "impossible on my printer."
The point, though, is that there are some people who need to buy the product to get the sheets.
Ah, duly noted :)
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I can't see buying Character sheets anymore. But my opinion is colored by our 3.5 game which is so house ruled that any available pre-printed sheets are worthless. We do ours in Excel. Each level up PCs give the leveled sheet to the DM who updates the workbook and reprints fresh copies. That way if a player forgets their sheet, it is only a trip to the laser printer away. I doubt any company can sell that kind of convenience.
I can't see buying Character sheets anymore. But my opinion is colored by our 3.5 game which is so house ruled that any available pre-printed sheets are worthless. We do ours in Excel. Each level up PCs give the leveled sheet to the DM who updates the workbook and reprints fresh copies. That way if a player forgets their sheet, it is only a trip to the laser printer away. I doubt any company can sell that kind of convenience.
They might do.
It's sort of a pipe dream, but I keep wishing for better infrastructure for Pathfinder RPG Playtest feedback. Website accessible character sheets with a built in dice-roller (a la d20SRD.com) would be an extremely powerful tool and unobtrusive for gathering data on game performance in the beta.
However, this assumes a table full of laptops, and a total lack of house rules, among other things. Nevertheless, it could be interesting to see how your statistics stacked up against other PCs and parties.
I don't think this would be a viable pay-service, and the overhead would be monstrous, but it would definitely have an appeal all it's own.
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I think selling character sheets in this day and age is kind of silly. If it's going to be done, it should come with a lot of goodies and fun stuff that can't be printed out on my home computer. Folders are nice, but not enough. I'd also expect full-color full-bleed character sheets. And more than four of them!
If paizo is going to do a character sheet, and they want to impress me, what they'll do is a take advantage of the latest in pdf technology and create a pdf character sheet that can be filled in and printed out. If it was possible to import a character drawing into the character sheet that would be the most awesome thing.
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I think selling character sheets in this day and age is kind of silly.
Believe it or not, there are still people out there that do not fulfill their gaming needs via the computer OR the internet. Call them cavemen if you want, but that does not make them any less real. It's statements like this, that made Dragon and Dungeon magazines go digital...
If you recall, "People look to the internet now for their gaming needs!" (paraphrased quote from WotC)...
-That One Digitalelf Fellow-
ummmm..... Herolab AnnouncementI think toyrobots pretty much hit it, and I don't know if anything beyond an editable/formula-driven PDF would really strike me, unless Paizo struck a deal with the creators of Hero Lab/RPG Xplorer to market a Pathfinder-specific character sheet plug-in or something of the like.
Very good find! I'll have to get that one.
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ummmm..... Herolab Announcement....Hero Lab/RPG Xplorer to market a Pathfinder-specific character sheet plug-in or something of the like.
I did see that, as well, thanks! And trust me, between that, the Tactical Console, and the recent Mutants and Masterminds compatibility, I'm not sorry at all I picked up HL... right now I use it for darn near every character I make!
What I was actually referring to, though, was something along the lines of a plug-in to change the output sheet/PDF to make it look like the Pathfinder character sheet in the book... kind of a Pathfinder "skin" for the usual Hero Lab output. But that's not really high on my list of must-haves, I suppose, anymore than pre-printed character sheets would be. ^_^
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Hi all -
I use the ones that Paizo produces in the back of the A3 book. I then used Foxit PDF Editor to modify it to fit my Barbarian Druid. Because I took a flaw that limits my Knowledge skills (No Need for Book Learning) except Nature, I took those out. I also removed some of the weapon slots, added a new Will Power save slot for when I'm Raging and such.
Now that is extremely time consuming and not something that I'd really like to do, but the idea of being able to modify a character sheet is something that I highly value. Thus word is one of the few options that we have for most people being able to really modify the character sheet, although excel is also a very viable option.
In the end, I do buy character sheets from d20 companies because I like the extra details that they provide, especially for my WifeFIEND's characters, as she doesn't know the game that well.
In His Path and Glory We Follow
Theocrat Issak of the Church of the One True Path of Pholtus
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Wait, you mean all this time it was not only possible, but cost-effective and legal to print out Dungeon and Dragon for no price except the paper and ink?! Wow, I sure was wasting my money all those years.
Uh, no...
What the implication was, is that people tend to think that just because they do something (like look to the internet for all their game resources), that EVERYBODY else must surely be doing it as well...
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I think the Deluxe Character Sheets from 3.5 are a great example of what character sheets should be. Combine those sheets with the 4e folder and you've got a good product IMHO.
BUT, now that we see next year.. I guess they want us to buy all 12 power card decks coming out next year.. so that's why the sheets are so lame, they probably make more off the cards.
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It's statements like this, that made Dragon and Dungeon magazines go digital.Wait, you mean all this time it was not only possible, but cost-effective and legal to print out Dungeon and Dragon for no price except the paper and ink?! Wow, I sure was wasting my money all those years.No you can print out the SRD (very important distinction), even dress it up a bit and reorganise which is what Moongoose did with thier pocket books. However you don't have any rights to material which wasn't put in the SRD such as the character generation rules, experience guidelines, or the monsters like the Mind Flayer which were not released to open gaming. You also have to of course use the generic versions of named spells as listed in the SRD.
Dungeons and Dragons remains an exclusive trademark of Wizards of the Coast.
I know. That was sarcasm.
If it was possible to import a character drawing into the character sheet that would be the most awesome thing.
You know, that's possible with Acrobat Reader in any sheet. All you have to do, is select the desired image in any drawing or image-editing software and copy it. Then in Reader you select Tools > Comment & Markup > Stamps > Paste Clipboard Image As Stamp Tool. Then you click the stamp anywhere in the sheet, move it and resize it as desired.
And there you go, your character's portrait imported to any sheet using just Acrobat reader =)
1) Customised Sheets for each Class. If I'm a fighter, I don't want to have to see a 'Rages' box on the sheet, or a spellbook section.
It is funny you say this, I did character sheet with the Racial information already on it, D20 Fantasy Character Sheets. I think it is a better idea to do the racial info, that is never going to change, over the class info which can change almost at any time.
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You know, that's possible with Acrobat Reader in any sheet. All you have to do, is select the desired image in any drawing or image-editing software and copy it. Then in Reader you select Tools > Comment & Markup > Stamps > Paste Clipboard Image As Stamp Tool. Then you click the stamp anywhere in the sheet, move it and resize it as desired.
And there you go, your character's portrait imported to any sheet using just Acrobat reader =)
::blinks in surprise::
AWESOME!!!