|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Was looking at the thread located here and didn’t want to hijack it, so decided to start another thread.
The sheet referenced in that thread looks great! However, I noticed that some folks had some issues with it that I took into consideration when making a character sheet of my own design some time back.
Not posting this to compete with that designer by any stretch! I don’t think mine is better or worse or anything! I’m just using this sheet for my group, and for my characters—but if anybody else wants to use it (or not), that’s cool, too.
Couple of things about mine that is different than the official one or some other ones on the Web:
- Margins are huge. When designing character sheets for various systems over the years, my first instinct is to design to the page margins, then later I end up (for various reasons) either having to shrink it down or redesign with larger margins. This time, I just designed right out of the gate with large margins. It’s really handy to be able to jot things down on the fly. You always need margins.
- Less is More. You’ll not see much in the way of “blocks” of black or grey. Whatever your feelings on the design decision, toner is expensive.
- Where is What? This is layed out a bit differently in terms of the different stat areas. The primary concern was fitting it all on two pages, so some things had to be stuck in here or there, but secondary only to that was the decision to more or less “flow” it less like the traditional character sheet and closer to the stat blocks. This is why the Defense block is first, followed by Offense, and then race and class abilities/Feats, etc.
Again, if you can use it, great! Hope you enjoy it! If not, no biggie, I hope you find one that works great for you! :D
Very much interested in an auto-calculating sheet. Will be looking forward to that in the future.
Very nice looking, but skills on the back kills me.
Very nice looking, but skills on the back kills me.
Normally I'd feel the same way too, but I actually greatly enjoy the fact that I do need both sheets instead of just having one with all the important stuff on the front and the less important stuff on the back. This way, you actually *need* to know what's on both sides of your character sheet, and less stuff gets away from you that way. I can't tell you the amount of times we've had to go back and redo something because someone discovered that, yes, they DID have a key for that room listed in a little used area on the "wrong" side of the sheet. And that one side of the sheet is very much for combat and the other is very much for non-combat situations(save perhaps magic) is an interesting take.
Better than the other one in a number of ways; good enough that I might use it.
I do have a few suggestions though. As mentioned, the skills on the back sheet is quite annoying, & the Feats/Special Abilities on the front is largely unnecessary. As such, I would advise some rearranging.
Description / Date Created: The area allocated to the character description is far to short to be of any actual use in my experience. Additionally, if the date the character is created has any relevance, it would be better placed in a "notes" section (alternatively, put "residence" in a notes section, moving "date created" up). Removing both frees up some room on the front page. Move everything up a line.
Edit: There is very little space on the sheet for classes & levels. Instead of shifting everything else up a line, maybe use that space to shuffle things around for more class/level space.
Base Attack Bonus: While I like the current placing, some room needs to be freed up on that side if skills are to fit on the front page. Move it to the upper right, next to ability scores & initiative/speed.
Defenses: The placement of defenses with armor etc. is very well done. Only change I would make is to move it up (or down) into newly freed space.
Edit: After looking at it a bit more, there won't be enough room to move the offense section under defense as intended. Hit points are currently semi-hidden in the middle of defenses, and should give enough room to fit the offense as intended. Move hit points to the traditional location right of ability scores, just above base attack.
Traits & Money: Unnecessary here & takes up room. Move both to the back of the sheet.
Offense: The offense section is currently where I would place skills. Move it into the (now) free space on the left of the sheet. You will likely have to remove one or two "Weapon/Attack" sections for it to fit. Not a big loss - most characters will never use that many of them.
Special Abilities & Feats: Again,...
Actually, I disagree with a lot of this. I'm interested in the sheet primarily because there seems to be a "combat" side and a "non-combat" side that I find refreshing and interesting. Most of these changes would make the sheet into little more than a carbon copy of what has come before, which would kill a lot of the sheet's uniqueness. That said, this is your project- I'll print out a copy of this as is if you plan on changing it as suggested here.
i like it thanks i am gonna use it
Actually, I disagree with a lot of this. I'm interested in the sheet primarily because there seems to be a "combat" side and a "non-combat" side that I find refreshing and interesting. Most of these changes would make the sheet into little more than a carbon copy of what has come before, which would kill a lot of the sheet's uniqueness. That said, this is your project- I'll print out a copy of this as is if you plan on changing it as suggested here.
First, this is not my project. I simply made some suggestions for jtokay to consider for improving his sheet.
As for my suggestions on the sheet itself, nearly all are focused around getting skills to the front of the sheet & visual appeal - this is because not having to flip your sheet over every 10 seconds is actually a good thing. It is up to the players to know their character's abilities & possessions. If they commonly forget things, forcing them to flip the sheet over to look at skills is not going to help.
Sorry about getting you two confused- I think I was trying to respond to the both of you at once and I forgot to include something jto said. Fully aware this is not your project. And while it may be a good thing to not have to flip over your sheet every 10 seconds, taking the same amount of time to find something on the front of the sheet because everything is mishmashed together is also not going to help. I find this separation along what seems to be combat based and non-combat based abilities refreshing.
|
|
Very much interested in an auto-calculating sheet. Will be looking forward to that in the future.
Here is Version 1 of an auto-fill sheet.
It’s my first attempt at such a thing, so it’s pretty basic on what fills in and calculates. Pretty much everything that’s a straight “port” of a bonus or a straight “add-up” gets calculated. If it gets more complex than that, then it’s still up to you.
For instance, the specific attacks. Once you get into adding feats such as weapon focus and various traits that add little bonuses here and there, it starts becoming less “character sheet” and more “software.” Along those same lines, the main Base Attack field only holds the highest number (which it uses to calculate CMB/CMD/generic melee/ranged bonuses, etc.), and since the specific weapon bonuses are not tied directly to it, that is where you can put in your iterative attacks, etc.
However, again, what it does do is take a number of the “little” carry-overs and add-ups out of the way, and that’s pretty handy. I did some testing with it, but not extensively. Let me know if there’s anything that I missed.
As for making a different version with the changes Muspellsheimr recommended, I may just make that other version if you think you’d use it. As mentioned in the OP, this is the sheet I’m using now and we’re pretty happy with it in our group, so this sheet as it is probably won’t be changing beyond minor tweaks here and there if needed. But another version, on the other hand… I have to admit to being kind of a form junkie, and a list of specific changes like yours is hard to pass up. One question, though…a big part of your revision hinges on splitting the spells section off onto its own sheet. Would you really rather have a 2-sheet job with the 2nd sheet having just spells on one side and maybe notes or something on the other?
