D&D General Tips for Using Paper Character Sheets

[Stormonu]

I did this for a 1-shot with some scouts. I circles things like AC and HP with different colored highlighters so when I asked what their AC was, I could also say in the green box. I guess this could work with different sheets as well just keeping the same code with the highlighters.

A little more expensive, but could just print them in color (for the "highlighted" parts)

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Two more tips:

- Buy enough polyhedrons with numbers so you can throw them all at once. Saves a lot of time.

- If you roll a lot of them, like 8d6, group them together so that 2 of them add up to 10, or group same numbers, so it is easier to add all of them together.

- Expert tip: instead of grouping an uneven amount of the same numbers you can take a straight and multiply the amount of dice with the middle number.
Even works for sequences of only even or only uneven numbers (note: the total amount of dice still always needs to be uneven as noted above) .
Example: 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 10 = 5 * 6

Edit:
It also works for every sequence where the amount is uneven and all numbers belong to the same residue class modulo n.
Example: 4, 7, 10, 13, 16
All numbers divided by 3 have a residue of 1.

Just some help, because some people claim, people have a hard time adding numbers, while a first grader learns about friendly digits (2 digits that add up to ten).

 

[Lanefan]

- Expert tip: instead of grouping an uneven amount of the same numbers you can take a straight and multiply the amount of dice with the middle number.
Even works for sequences of only even or only uneven numbers.
Example: 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 + 10 = 5 * 6

Note this trick only works when there's an odd number of dice in the straight. If it was just 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 there's no middle number, and it's quicker and easier just to group by tens or add them up.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Note this trick only works when there's an odd number of dice in the straight. If it was just 2 + 4 + 6 + 8 there's no middle number, and it's quicker and easier just to group by tens or add them up.

Uneven = odd.
Maybe I should have placed it later in the sentence to be clearer.

But if the number of dice is even, you can set one aside to have an odd number and add the single die afterwards.

In your case it is 3 *4 + 8 = 20
Or 3 * 6 + 2 = 20.
Or as you (and I in the part of the post you did not quote) said:
(2 + 8) + (4 + 6) = 10 + 10.

The expert trick here is not adding them up in the head but physically grouping them together.

 

[pogre]

I don't play often, but when I do I always use paper sheets. I like using spell cards, inventory cards, hit point dials, tokens, etc. These aids help me to stay on top of my abilities and resources.

 

[cwallach]

I always used a separate piece of scrap paper for recording current HP and prepared spells if necessary. Only editing the primary character sheet for level ups and new magic items.

 

[iserith]

Use character sheets to soak up any pizza grease before it gets on your dice and affects your ability to roll well.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Use character sheets to soak up any pizza grease before it gets on your dice and affects your ability to roll well.

That'll teach you not to use a straw.

 

[Orius]

The most important thing IMO is to follow the KISS principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Don't clutter the sheet with useless crap, and try to keep all the relevant information on no more than 2 pages, front and back of a single sheet of paper.

Look at the mess that is the 2e character sheet. A ton of useless crap at the top of the sheet that's irrelevant in actual gameplay, the worst being the social class and birth rank entries as well as the honor score, none of which occur in the 2e core books! They seem to be holdovers from Unearthed Arcana and Oriental Adventures, respectively. The ability scores cram too much into too little space. The hp box is okay, as the weapon spaces are, but there's still too damn much clutter on it. If I ever do another 2e campaign, I'm going to design a new sheet from scratch.

Multiple sheets have the whole problem of slowing things down at the table, but sometimes it helps to have more than the main sheet too. A separate sheet for a caster's spells is often helpful, and the 5e spell sheet is adequate enough.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Paper character sheets are to electronic character sheets, as a standard transmission is to an automatic transmission.

If you drive "stick", you'll know what I mean.