Character Record Folio

When I reviewed MEG's Player's Archive, fellow reviewer Psion mentioned that there were already several 3.5 character sheet packages. A revision of an old favorite, the Green Ronin Origins Award Winner Character Record Folio, has made it's 3.5 debut as well.

Smaller than the MEG book, this one strikes back by having two factors for it. The first is the price, at $4.50, it's a little easier to swallow for a single character that MEG's well designed book at $9.99. The next thing is that it uses the interior covers so you get an extra two pages worth of space out of the book.

The GR book starts off with important charts which is always useful when you want to know what your max skill ranks are or what your base saving throws are. The attack roll modifiers, like dazzed or shaken, are good to have at a glance and the armor class modifiers, like helpless or pinned come in handy. It then starts with the player material like character name, stats (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA), Saving Throws, Hit Points, Hit Die, Damage Reduction, Melee Attack Bonus, Ranged Attack Bonus, and Armor Class, including Flat Footed and Vs. Touch. Now it has more information on one page than the MEG one and is still fairly spacious so people who write big like me shouldn't have a problem using it.

Both books have skill charts as well as a place for character illustration. MEG creeps in a little here with Setting Specific Rules Changes though. Both have locations for equipment, although the Green Ronin book wins this round because for magical equipment, it has an illustration to help those less gifted thinkers determine what they can wear and what space it takes up.

Both books have an Advancement Tracker, so you can check Hit Points, Feats, Ability Score Changes and what new abilities are gained on a level by level basis. Both have spots for mounts and familiars. Both have spots for spells and psionics. I like the way the Green Ronin book handles the Cohorts & Followers in terms of layout a little more as the boxed stats give it a more professional appearance than the MEG book.

Both have room for adventure notes or adventure log, as well as contacts, or Notable Ally or Enemy spots. MEG's book has a little more specific information like Guilds and Enemy Organizations, as well as pages for mapping activities. In addition, the Player's Archive has the fantasy occupations which I think add another layer to D20 fantasy games. However, those extra things come at a cost, making the book double the price.

Green Ronin's character sheets have been around for a while and have undergone several revisions to bring them in line with augmentations in the various classbooks. MEG's has some nifty stuff planned from Philip Reed's website, but as of today (August 5th, 2003), there's nothing up yet. It boils down to a matter of preference in terms of what the reader wants and what the reader is willing to pay.

You need more than a flimsy piece of paper for your character and that's where the d20 System Character Record Folio comes in. Say goodbye to cramming your notes and magic items onto a single sheet, the folio is designed to handle your character for the entire campaign. Its 16 beautifully designed pages include great add-ons like mini-record sheets for your paladin's warhorse, familiar, and cohorts, and adventure logs that let you track important events and NPCs. The d20 System Character Record Folio is good for any character in any d20 game. Even better, this Origins Award winning accessory has been 3.5 updated, so it reflects the cutting edge of the core rules.

One problem I had with the first version of the Green Ronin character folio (D&D3e version) was that I couldn't find a place to tally XP. Is that fixed in the new version? Or did I just miss it in the first version?

That's been fixed since the second printing. This is the fifth. Each time we reprint, we do some nipping and tucking based on feedback to make the Folio as good as it can be.

Chris Pramas
Green Ronin

This is not a playtest review.

The Character Record Folio is a mega-character sheet in booklet form from Green Ronin, updated for 3.5.

The Character Record Folio is a 16-page mono softcover product costing $4.50. All internal pages have been used including the inside covers with the OGL taking up 3/4 page on the last page being the only additional aspect. The sheet layouts are attractive, using a distinctive GR font. The front cover is an atmospheric piece showing an elf with crossbow, a halfling and a wolf silhouetted by a huge full moon.

The pages are used as follows:

Front Inside Cover: This shows 'Important Charts' - level progression cross-referenced to XP, skill ranks, feats, ability increases, saves, and BABs, charts showing modifiers to attack and AC, currency exchange value, and encumbrance.

Page 1: A box for basic info such as name, class, race. Boxes for abilities (with options for temporary ability scores and their modifiers), saves (with 5 different possible modifiers), hit points (including temporary and subdual damage), melee and ranged attacks (with room for 3 weapons and seven modifiers for each weapon, as well as a line for conditional modifiers), and AC (with boxes showing AC when flat-footed and against touch attacks, and armor check penalty).

Page 2: Skills (with notation for those that require armor check penalties and which can be used without possessing skill ranks) and Feats (with room for brief descriptions of each of the 30 feats that could be added).

Page 3: Box for description (including 6 lines for personality traits, and 1/4 page given over for an illustration of the character and any coat of arms), and two 1/4-page sections for basic stat blocks for a mount/animal companion/familiar.

Page 4: Room for 28 pieces of equipment with room for notes, location and weight (+ encumbrance and carrying details below). Also space for secondary weapons, and current wealth in coinage.

Page 5: Same amount of room for magical items as was given to the equipment on the previous page. Also a diagram allowing the location of magical items to be shown on a body, along with a list of the restrictions on magical items by body area.

Page 6: Advancement Tracker showing starting ability scores, hit points and XP followed by a 20-level progression chart showing how much HP was gained each level and which ability scores and skills were increased and which feats were taken. Also a section for non-coin wealth - i.e. gems, jewellery and other valuables. And a box for tracking XP.

Page 7: Psionics - allowing input of power save, free manifestations, power points, attack and defense modes, number of psionic powers known, and a chart showing the stats for 18 psionic powers. Also a chart is provided cross-referencing the modes, showing the modifiers when used against each other.

Page 8: Spells Known - shows Spell Save DCs, spells per day, and bonus spells for 9 levels of spells, and separate sections showing spells known for bards, clerics & shamans, druids, paladins, rangers, and sorcerers and wizards. Also a small section for noting domains and their powers at the bottom.

Page 9 and 10: Spell List - standard spell stats for up to 92 spells, with a box to show which have been mastered.

Page 11: Cohorts & Followers: 1/4 page stat blocks for 4 allies.

Page 12: Contacts - 6 boxes for information on contacts, allowing for information on location, allegiances, areas of specialty, rates, and favours owed.

Page 13 & 14: Adventure Log - room for notes on 8 adventures, including companions, villains, notable events, outcome, and clues.

Page 15: Miscellaneous Notes - full page for general notes to expand other areas if necessary - e.g. background/history, more adventure notes.

Page 16: as well as the OGL, an amusing little section for legendary stats such as most damage inflicted with a single hit, most enemies slain in one round, etc.

Back Inside Cover: Shows full-page weapon chart for simple and martial weapons.


High Points:
A pleasant layout with plenty of room for writing notes and covering all the aspects I could think of that would be required in a mega-character sheet. Provides a good overview of the history of the character as well as its current status, and the legendary stats section is bound to bring a warm feeling to most players' hearts.

Low Points:
The inside covers could have been better used in my opinion. I would have liked to have seen an overview of combat actions and their effects rather than a listing of all the simple and martial weapon stats - the character sheet already has stats for the character's weapons.

Conclusion:
An appealing luxury item for players who treasure their characters (and play in a game where their PC is likely to survive for more than a couple of sessions). Well presented and fairly exhaustive, the only notable improvement would be for the handy charts used on the inside covers.

There’s some subtle clues on the front of Character Record Folio that the d20 product one to consider. The "Now 3.5 Updated!" is a pretty good clue, even the Green Ronin logo is a fair guarantee of quality but perhaps the biggest clue is the Origins Award Winner badge. Actually, since we were supposed to be listing the subtle clues I’m going to mention the white bar on the front of the otherwise colourful and illustrative front cover. The white stripe is there for you to scribble your character name’s on.

The Character Record Folio is a treat; it’s a luxury for both you and your character. On one hand paying US$ 4.50 for the Record Folio when a scrap of paper will do seems expensive. On the other hand the buzz of having your own 15-paged book at the end of the campaign, or simply the touch of professionalism the folio adds is well worth paying US$ 4.50 for. Who wants their heroic character to be consigned to a scrap of paper anyway?

The folio’s covers are of fairly decent card stock. I don’t think I’d want to face a wasp without rolling the mini-book up and I’m not going to do that but the folio easily stands up by itself if you balance it on the bottom edge. If you’re paying for the folio because it’ll last longer than a photocopied character sheet then you shouldn’t be disappointed.

The inside covers aren’t for writing on, they’re packed with rule summaries in the same way a GM’s screen might be. The front inside cover has the template for level advancement; when feats are due, what the BAB will be and when you’re due an ability increase. You’ve action roll modifiers; the bonus for hitting a prone target, the penalty for trying to hit someone while dazzled, etc. There’s a similar chart for Armour Class. This is all handy. Filling in the gaps is an exchange chart for money; showing how much coppers cost in comparison to gold, and I don’t really see a need for this, the maths couldn’t be easier. There’s an encumbrance chart at the very bottom of the page, working out the light, medium and heavy load values for different strength scores.

The back inside cover is one long list of weapons, mainly melee but with some ranged weapons too. You’ve the cost, the type of damage as well as the typical damage dice, threat range, range increments and weight.

As you’d expect, the very first page is the core of the character sheet: name, class, race, etc and then down to the abilities, saves, hit points and combat values. That’s all and this ensures plenty of space to write the numbers, no squinting and finding a razor sharp pencil lead simply to update this character sheet.

Skills and feats are over the page, they’re followed by another and more detailed section to describe the character and a space to draw the hero. Below the description area you’ll find mini character sheets for mounts, animal companions or familiars.

There are pages for tracking magical equipment and whereabouts it is worn, an advancement tracker to record your XP and which feats you gained when, plenty of room to record your loot and then a full page for psionics. Spells Known actually follow psionics, it’s not often that happens, and the spell section takes up a few pages. There are mini-character sheets for numerous cohorts and followers (which work best if those stats aren’t GM eyes only), the list of contacts appeals to story gamers like me rather more than the adventure log boxes do but the Character Record Folio is wise to include both. There’s a whole page for miscellaneous notes and since the folio uses the d20 logo on the cover there’s the requirement to include the OGL legal foo too but squeezed along side this is a section to record your most heroic crunchy bits.

The Character Record Folio is a luxury but it’s not an outlandish luxury, it’s the sort of product that makes you think "I want this" and you can quickly follow up with "And I need this because..." in a way that some of the more obscure rules supplements can’t do.

* This Character Record Folio review was first published at GameWyrd.