D&D 5E Take a look at my Character Sheet and give me feedback, please.

[zedturtle]

Okay, so I've been working for a few months on a personal project, the post-apocalyptic setting Ashen Frontiers (link to website, where there is a free setting guide and more).

And, while I've been near here before, I think I am almost at a final version of my Character Sheet. Note that this is a generic sheet – I'll like make ones for each class, giving emphasis to what is most important to the class (more weapons to the martials, maybe more mystical effects details for casters). I'm running demos at Gen Con next month, so even if I decide to make changes, this is almost certainly what the players will be working off of.

So please (please, please, please), give me feedback! I'll take it all. I went to college in the age when a graphic designer had to have a foundation in traditional drawing, so I've stood in front of a crowd and been critiqued on my self-portrait before. A 'this section is too big/small/brown/whatever' won't upset me.

 

[aco175]

I find that I'm getting older and cannot read as well without my cheaters. The tiny boxes under the attacks section would not help me. It seems like you can push the stats over to the left some and make them a bit smaller. Add a line down the page so I'm not thinking that what is to the right is not still associated with the stats. I like the color and fonts and guess the non-core 5e things are just an expansion on your setting.

 

[bedir than]

Did you bring back Fortitude, Reflex and Will saves into your 5e game?
Cutting those should help you get more space to increase general font size.
Also, don't leave so much white space on the left.

 

[zedturtle]

I find that I'm getting older and cannot read as well without my cheaters. The tiny boxes under the attacks section would not help me. It seems like you can push the stats over to the left some and make them a bit smaller. Add a line down the page so I'm not thinking that what is to the right is not still associated with the stats. I like the color and fonts and guess the non-core 5e things are just an expansion on your setting.

Thank you! This is a low-res preview, but yeah the smaller text is a problem as we get older. I'll experiment some more with sizing.

 

[zedturtle]

Did you bring back Fortitude, Reflex and Will saves into your 5e game?
Cutting those should help you get more space to increase general font size.
Also, don't leave so much white space on the left.

Yep. So one of my big things is that every roll of the d20 is a Check. So attacks are just Accuracy or Melee checks, mystical stuff uses Psionics or Spellcasting. And there are no Saving Throws. Instead Effects or Creatures make a Check against a Defence (Armour, Fortitude, Reflex, or Will).

The goal is to make sure new players can learn the system as easy as possible. No need to wonder if this or that rule applies. If you're rolling a d20 and adding some sort of thing from your Character Sheet, you are making a Check. Same thing with terminology. You fight Foes, because 'not all Monsters are Monstrosities' is just a way into madness.

Thanks for the feedback! I'll experiment with the layout.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Unless the various leveled features can be usefully described on those little bits of line, I think an area of lined space for writing "features" freeform would be more useful.

I mean I know from experience helping hundreds of kids fill out the "features" section for 5e D&D characters that just having a freeform lined box is initially confusing to many players, but the thing is that once you get the hang of it, you write in the information you need a reminder of with the amount of description you need to be useful for you. The first 5e Fighter I played I wrote out exactly what Second Wind did. When I rewrote the character sheet a few levels later the feature was reduced to bullet points and really the only one I needed was the "d10+level" point. Eventually I was just writing Second Wind with no description. Your character sheet seems set up for people who have reached that final step of familiarity with features, but they are the ones who least need features written on their character sheets.

Also, unless your game is going to usually get to high levels, you might be reserving a lot of real estate for levels most characters won't reach.

 

[zedturtle]

Unless the various leveled features can be usefully described on those little bits of line, I think an area of lined space for writing "features" freeform would be more useful.

I mean I know from experience helping hundreds of kids fill out the "features" section for 5e D&D characters that just having a freeform lined box is initially confusing to many players, but the thing is that once you get the hang of it, you write in the information you need a reminder of with the amount of description you need to be useful for you. The first 5e Fighter I played I wrote out exactly what Second Wind did. When I rewrote the character sheet a few levels later the feature was reduced to bullet points and really the only one I needed was the "d10+level" point. Eventually I was just writing Second Wind with no description. Your character sheet seems set up for people who have reached that final step of familiarity with features, but they are the ones who least need features written on their character sheets.

Also, unless your game is going to usually get to high levels, you might be reserving a lot of real estate for levels most characters won't reach.

Gotcha. Remember this is the generic version ... I am almost certainly going to write a (PHP? Perl?) script where you can tell the website you want a 4th-level Thanator (fighter) Character Sheet and get one with each Feature pre-filled out, likely with a little bit of reminder text, or a page reference (if we ever get to having an actual corebook).

Good point on the level thing. I might be better off making the generic 1-page sheet only go to 10th level, but that big 'capstone feature' space might be a motivator to keep playing too.

 

[zedturtle]

I find that I'm getting older and cannot read as well without my cheaters. The tiny boxes under the attacks section would not help me. It seems like you can push the stats over to the left some and make them a bit smaller. Add a line down the page so I'm not thinking that what is to the right is not still associated with the stats. I like the color and fonts and guess the non-core 5e things are just an expansion on your setting.

I saved the next draft out at a slightly larger size, to help with reading.

Did you bring back Fortitude, Reflex and Will saves into your 5e game?
Cutting those should help you get more space to increase general font size.
Also, don't leave so much white space on the left.

Okay, here is a new version, with only the new Attributes and a single experiment with using that format for the right side. There are obvious spacing issues, and this version might need spaceholders, like the space to write in personal reminders.

 

[zedturtle]

It's amazing how taking a look at a layout outside of the program will let you see opportunities. Minor updates:

 

[aco175]

I do prefer that you spelled out the attributes instead of abbreviated them. Constitut. and Intellgnce felt off.