What I learned from Boardgames: The hidden power of the character sheet

Blackbrrd · Sep 23, 2012

I have used a 2-page character sheet for 3e and a one page character sheet for 4e. I compress the spells and powers to one liners and auto calculate to-hit and damage from gear using excel.

For 3e I used small pencil marks for which spells where memorized and which had been consumed. After each long rest I just erazed the out-of-date data and updated the character sheet. Sure it could have been done with tokens and power cards, but it's easier to hold on to one or two sheets of paper.

My experience from 4e when people started using power cards was that it took time for people to shuffle through their "deck" of powers and it slowed the game down.

What I would prefer is more unified mechanics for things such as duration. All the different variations makes it necessary to take note of what type of duration it is and write EOYNT and memorized these acronyms. Blah.

slobster · Sep 23, 2012

Zustiur said:
Slobster's paper clip idea is excellent, but I see a flaw; Every possible status you want to record would have to be near the edge of the page. This limits the number that you can record, unless you have a really long piece of paper.

It's certainly a limitation, but I'm starting to wonder if it might be a good limitation. You don't want a character sheet with 3 spaces for slider tokens, 6 sots where you stack counters, 3 places where you place coins after you flip them to determine a binary state, and a forest of pins stuck in somewhere to track a bunch of conditions.

Character sheets are already busy enough with game stats and equipment lists; restraint might be a virtue when designing sheet-based tracking mechanics.

Kinak · Sep 24, 2012

I had a lot of luck with "boardgameification" when GMing Iron Heroes (a d20 variant that uses a lot of token pools). Having physical representations for the tokens made all the difference in the world.

Condition/Injury cards can also help a lot, for the same reason. They're just easier to keep track of, particularly when the conditions have a whole list of effects.

What I really want, as a DM, is monster cards. I want monsters that can be clearly described on a surface the size of a Magic card or, at most, index card.

If it can be made to work for monsters, and I'm confident it can, a similar sheet plus round/encounter tracking for PCs should work. Stuff like Iron Heroes token pools or 5e's expertise dice create the depth you want for a PC without taking up a ton of sheet real estate.

Cheers!
Kinak

GameDoc · Sep 24, 2012

Li Shenron said:
I like the concept of "character sheet extension" that this guy has done a few years ago (click picture to enlarge)

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Li Shenron · Sep 24, 2012

GameDoc said:
O... M... G!!!!

I have seen the Grail of all Nerdom, and been transformed.

But once you have children in the family, you can always say you are doing this for them and with them, and suddenly you're a thoroughly respected parent

Quickleaf · Oct 6, 2012

I really liked [MENTION=5889]Stalker0[/MENTION] 's idea here and I'd like to explore it some more. To me, there are 2 key questions. The first key question in "game board-ifying" character sheets is about graphically representing more complex rules systems. The other is about minimizing (or at the extreme, eliminating) the need for pencil notation with various tracking doo-dads.

Having (finally) had a change to play D&D Adventure System (Wrath of Ashardalon), I think it does a pretty good job of this. You can even flip your character "sheet" over to reveal your 2nd level stats. Of course, it *is* a boardgame and so sacrifices lots of the customizability and role-playing stuff.