D&D 4E Old School 4E Character Sheet (Goldenrod) - Now with Power Cards.

Melkor · Aug 24, 2010

Hi folks,

I've been working on an old-school look-and-feel character sheet for 4E that resembles the old AD&D Goldenrod sheets. I know that the Character Builder tends to make handwritten character sheets seem a bit obsolete, but I enjoy using them nonetheless.

I'll be working on some similarly-themed Power Cards to go with these sheets next.

EDIT: I have added a link to a PDF of the sheet in a follow-up post below. Thanks folks.

EDIT (AGAIN): Now with Power Cards. I have created a set of generic power cards. The box in the upper left corner is for you to break out the colored pencils (old school style) and color code the cards yourself. I have also designed these so you can write the action type (free, minor, standard, etc.) on the left-hand side and organize the cards that way.

The Power Cards are attached a couple of posts down with the original old-school character sheet PDF.

EDIT (9/22/10) - Made some corrections to the sheet.

Henry · Aug 24, 2010

How big are they? Can you zip and attach them to a post here?

Bungo_Underhill · Aug 24, 2010

Could you put them on google documents?

Melkor · Aug 24, 2010

Color me uninformed. I didn't realize I could do that. Thanks Henry!

I have attached a PDF for download.

Feedback and constructive criticism welcomed.

Thanks!

JRowaland · Aug 24, 2010

Very Nice. I'd have paid you a dollar for this. Throw in the power card template and I'd make that $5. Maybe Enworld wants to help you make a couple pennies. 10,000 pennies add up...

I'd put the AC on top of the NADs, feels right, and iirc, how the old character sheets did with "saves" below them.

Swap the Skills and attack workspace. You want the most fundamental stats on the front page, on the top half. Basic Attacks are THE mechanic from which the powers deviate (exception based design).

Class/Race features, feats need to be swapped. Basically, use CB to build any level 15 character. Class/Race stays basicaly constant throughout a characters career (Paragon Path adds some) while feats do nothing but grow. In addition, the main benefit to a hand-made character is being able to put in notes for feats. This will likely take up the most space. So, in short: Feats bigger, race/class smaller.

I'm looking to start playing in a Dark Sun campaign, I think I'll be using this one as is, give it a test drive so-to-speak. If something else comes up, i'll post here.

TikkchikFenTikktikk · Aug 24, 2010

The character builder sheets are absolutely terrible. Attrocious and almost unusable. Just plain ugly.

Not to say character builder is to blame, "official" character sheets have been terrible for years. I've been using a custom Word template since 3.x that I have evolved for 4E (it's very much like a monster stat block). I like it quite a bit and use it whenever I get to play. I strongly suggest my players use it too.

Yours are very nice, very good looking and they make me very nostalgic. We can never have too many well-designed sheets.

I'd consider redoing the powers list or adding another powers index that sorts the powers based on action type (move, minor, standard, etc.). That is often more useful, or at least just very useful, than having them sorted by how often you can use the power.

P1NBACK · Aug 24, 2010

I'm gonna be honest.

I like the "style" you have going; the whole "old school" look to it.

However, it's basically presented in the same way as the WotC sheet. I'm interested in seeing a new method for presentation altogether. I don't like the "checklist" boxes for Powers and Magic Items, etc...

Here's what I do like:

The shield for AC. Cool. I can quickly find this stat because it stands out.
The three boxes for Death Saving Throws. Good. In fact, the whole hit point box is pretty nice.

Other than that, it's pretty similar to the WotC sheet and while I'd use yours, it's not different enough for me to drop the auto-calculating CB sheet.

I like the look of the sheet and little things added, but I don't necessarily feel like this sheet is more useful at the table, or that the presentation is better.

I'd like to see you step outside the box and present the data in a way that's unique and more useful than WotC's sheet.

Festivus · Aug 24, 2010

Have you seen the layout for the Red Box character sheets? I'd love to see the red box layout with your styles on it.

Melkor · Aug 24, 2010

Thanks for the feedback folks. I plan on playtesting this version for a bit (unfortunately, my gaming group only meets every other week), and then I will look to implement changes and suggestions.

By the way, I noticed some minor typos, corrected them, and updated the PDF, so if you downloaded before this post, you may want to download the PDF again.

JRowaland said:
I'd put the AC on top of the NADs, feels right, and iirc, how the old character sheets did with "saves" below them.

Yeah, I wanted to keep AC near Hit Points, so when I update the sheet, I will see if I can make that work with the layout.

Swap the Skills and attack workspace. You want the most fundamental stats on the front page, on the top half. Basic Attacks are THE mechanic from which the powers deviate (exception based design).

This was something that I did intentionally. One of the players in the group always talks about how 4E "isn't D&D," and plays like "Chinese Checkers," so I wanted to build this sheet for nostalgia, but also put the skills right prominently on the character sheet to encourage all of us to use them more instead of focusing on combat. We'll see how it goes with some playtesting, and I will look at making that change.

Class/Race features, feats need to be swapped. Basically, use CB to build any level 15 character. Class/Race stays basicaly constant throughout a characters career (Paragon Path adds some) while feats do nothing but grow. In addition, the main benefit to a hand-made character is being able to put in notes for feats. This will likely take up the most space. So, in short: Feats bigger, race/class smaller.

That's actually great to know. As someone who has only played 4E to 2nd level, these are the kinds of things I am interested in hearing!

I'm looking to start playing in a Dark Sun campaign, I think I'll be using this one as is, give it a test drive so-to-speak. If something else comes up, i'll post here.

Great! I look forward to hearing back.

P1NBACK · Aug 24, 2010

Festivus said:
Have you seen the layout for the Red Box character sheets? I'd love to see the red box layout with your styles on it.

Can you provide a link for us all?

D&D 4E Old School 4E Character Sheet (Goldenrod) - Now with Power Cards.

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