I have a player who's legally blind, and the character sheets we have are way too fine-print for her. Does anybody know of a sheet that stretches out the information to be easily readable to the visually-challenged? A font size about Size 12, basically.
Alright, I just wrote something up in a text document.
Alright, I just wrote something up in a text document.
Patience, my friend.
I'm going to give you the same advice I give most people when they ask questions starting with "I need a character sheet that..."; use a standard statblock.
A standard statblock can be printed at any font size you wish. You don't have to worry about boxes and lines that don't scale. You can use exactly as much space on a page as is needed to make things legible to the player. Better, there isn't a bunch of extra stuff to contribute clutter.
Yes, that involves a player learning and memorizing some things. They'd need to learn the basic math flow. "Dex adds to Reflex saves", for instance. Thing is - and I'm saying this from the standpoint of someone who's got all his players doing this - if you teach statblocks, players DO learn. If you use fill-in-the-blanks character sheets, some learn, some don't. I mean, why bother when the sheet remembers what ability modifier contributes to what skill for you?
Font scalability + game mastery + stealth-DM-in-training = The Win.
I'm running an RPG club mainly for new players. It's not my experience that dense statblocks work for those players, despite the wholehearted conviction I do often hear from veteran gamers that statblocks are the way to go. It's just a mass of numbers to them.
I'm running an RPG club mainly for new players. It's not my experience that dense statblocks work for those players, despite the wholehearted conviction I do often hear from veteran gamers that statblocks are the way to go. It's just a mass of numbers to them.
I hear you.
Usually what I'd do for a brand new player is use a "character sheet" to build the character, so they can visualize the flow. In a sit-down character-building session, where you maybe run a fake combat, that usually works. Then, once they kind of get that ability score changes impact related figures, usually you can get them to "see" how they can eject the redundant numbers. Especially if you're willing to help them mid-game. "Okay, well, you just took Wisdom damage so that reduces things that rely on it. Like Will saves..."
Shrug. Whatever works for you, though.