I have just uploaded Customizable Minimalist Character Sheet to the downloads area.
Every official character sheet I've ever seen had one major flaw: it was never suitable for every character the game could make. Mages need spell space, fighters have lots of weapons, gadgeteers have lots of gadgets, and so on. One enterprising HackMaster Basic player made a separate character sheet for each of the four classes in that book simply to get around that problem.
That was the last straw for me, so I designed some character sheets for the games we play most (GURPS 4e, HackMaster 5e, D&D 4e (adapted for 5e)) with three major goals in mind:
My designs are also guided by physical limitations. For those who don't know me, I was in a car vs bicycle crash in college, and slammed headfirst into the asphalt with enough force to shatter my spine. The resulting chronic pain, hand tremors, and memory issues impact everything I create and do. Because of that some of my design decisions may seem odd to more able-bodied peopled, but know that nothing is there without good reason. That said, I'm always happy to hear new ideas, so please speak up if you have any suggestions. It also means I may not always remember to update on here when I make changes to the sheets, but the most recent versions can always be found on the downloads page of my blog.
For D&D 5e I made several variants for specific purposes, all adapted from the sheet I made for 4e. The default sheet should be suitable for every character. The main thing that distinguishes it from the others is that its skills are on the back, which leaves a convenient space on the front that my wife and I use for small things that might be hard to spot when needed, like the THP my warlock gets for killing things, or the magic/poison resistance of elves and dwarves. In the spirit of the sheet, you are, of course, free to use it however you want.
Now that Wizards has taken Vancian casting away from martial classes, I decided I wanted a proper grimoire for my spell-chuckers, so I adapted the one I made a couple of years ago for HackMaster 5e. Across the top of the page is space for your spell attack bonus and save DC, maximum number of spells you can prepare for the classes that need it, and how many spell slots you have of each level. Every other row border line is very faint, minimizing space wasted by simple spells, but not visually obstructing longer ones.
The sheet named "Mage" is dual purpose. It gets its name because the second page is now the grimoire, but without the header since it would be redundant. Consequently I moved skills into the small Character Notes space on page 1. The advantage is that you can now get a caster onto a single sheet of paper. Alternatively, you can print page 1 one both sides of the paper, getting two characters per sheet of paper, which is useful for events like Encounters where characters don't level very much and you may not the play the same one each week.
The last sheet ("half sheet") is designed specifically for pre-gens. I took the top bit of the mage sheet and pasted a second copy halfway down the front. The back is filled with the faint guidelines. That allows you to get a character onto half a sheet of paper, sort of like Wizards' 4e Encounters pre-gens.
Stupid thing stripped out all of my formatting. I'll have it fixed and reposted soon.
You can find the file here in the downloads section. Please use this thread for comments.
Every official character sheet I've ever seen had one major flaw: it was never suitable for every character the game could make. Mages need spell space, fighters have lots of weapons, gadgeteers have lots of gadgets, and so on. One enterprising HackMaster Basic player made a separate character sheet for each of the four classes in that book simply to get around that problem.
That was the last straw for me, so I designed some character sheets for the games we play most (GURPS 4e, HackMaster 5e, D&D 4e (adapted for 5e)) with three major goals in mind:
- Earth- and wallet-friendliness. In other words: cheap to print. Also with minimal clutter to confuse the eyes.
- Only force the positioning of things that will be present on every character or are tedious to hand-write every time: stat blocks; name, race, age, etc.; skills; and so forth.
- User-customizable depending on player taste and character class, if applicable. This includes having the lowest item on the front page of the D&D sheet be the column headings of the weapons table. That way it as long as needed, no more or less, yet still details out the math for new players and for ease of making changes as needed (leveling, new magic items, feats, etc.).
My designs are also guided by physical limitations. For those who don't know me, I was in a car vs bicycle crash in college, and slammed headfirst into the asphalt with enough force to shatter my spine. The resulting chronic pain, hand tremors, and memory issues impact everything I create and do. Because of that some of my design decisions may seem odd to more able-bodied peopled, but know that nothing is there without good reason. That said, I'm always happy to hear new ideas, so please speak up if you have any suggestions. It also means I may not always remember to update on here when I make changes to the sheets, but the most recent versions can always be found on the downloads page of my blog.
For D&D 5e I made several variants for specific purposes, all adapted from the sheet I made for 4e. The default sheet should be suitable for every character. The main thing that distinguishes it from the others is that its skills are on the back, which leaves a convenient space on the front that my wife and I use for small things that might be hard to spot when needed, like the THP my warlock gets for killing things, or the magic/poison resistance of elves and dwarves. In the spirit of the sheet, you are, of course, free to use it however you want.
Now that Wizards has taken Vancian casting away from martial classes, I decided I wanted a proper grimoire for my spell-chuckers, so I adapted the one I made a couple of years ago for HackMaster 5e. Across the top of the page is space for your spell attack bonus and save DC, maximum number of spells you can prepare for the classes that need it, and how many spell slots you have of each level. Every other row border line is very faint, minimizing space wasted by simple spells, but not visually obstructing longer ones.
The sheet named "Mage" is dual purpose. It gets its name because the second page is now the grimoire, but without the header since it would be redundant. Consequently I moved skills into the small Character Notes space on page 1. The advantage is that you can now get a caster onto a single sheet of paper. Alternatively, you can print page 1 one both sides of the paper, getting two characters per sheet of paper, which is useful for events like Encounters where characters don't level very much and you may not the play the same one each week.
The last sheet ("half sheet") is designed specifically for pre-gens. I took the top bit of the mage sheet and pasted a second copy halfway down the front. The back is filled with the faint guidelines. That allows you to get a character onto half a sheet of paper, sort of like Wizards' 4e Encounters pre-gens.
Stupid thing stripped out all of my formatting. I'll have it fixed and reposted soon.
You can find the file here in the downloads section. Please use this thread for comments.
Last edited:
