Experimental Legal-sized TB character sheet [v1.3 Update]

[AdmundfortGeographer]

A couple decades ago I designed character sheets for my AD&D groups, putting the things on that we wanted, in the sizes we wanted, so we could print out as many as we needed without having to try and photocopy those color character sheets. They proved pretty popular, not least because they were free and not a gray-scaled variant of a color original.

I always felt they were too crowded, or the items were too small. Needing to squint to see things or print microscopically to get things on it. So I fell upon the idea of taking a legal-sized sheet and folding it in half because a legal sheet gives far more surface area to design onto.

I came up with a design that was polarizing. Both well received and dismissed. Some folk just didn't like having 4 surfaces to look through when the single letter-sized sheet had just two "flip, there you are". Others like that the sheet was smaller when all folded, and we were playing in some rather cramped basements so table space was a premium. Compared to the 4e character sheets printed by the Character Builder, I think 4 sides is nothing!

In any case, I spent a couple days toiling away at this attempt at getting this all in places. I didn't put any Trailblazer logos on it. The equipment page has some more space that I could fill with something, doesn't have to be equipment related. I was thinking maybe make space for other consumable magic, like wands

The idea is to fold it in half, so the side with the ability scores, AC, Saves, Weapons are on the cover; equipment, spells, feats are inside; skills are on the rear.

[Update version 1.3: I've gotten feedback from Wulf and Glassjaw and included some changes. I'm posting the latest (and hopefully last!) version in this thread Maybe I shouldn't be concerned about uploading the same file multiple times in multiple forums, but I'm trying to keep it tidy. Sorry for the inconvenience in not having it here anymore!]

 

[GlassJaw]

After a quick glance, my first impression is that it kicks major butt! Nicely done. I'll take a closer look soon.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I packed it tightly in, there is only a .25" margin around it all. My printer can handle it, but I know there are some ink jets that would have to scale it down a tad.

And, ya know, gotta keep the Trailblazer old-school-look by continuing to use Futura. It's one handsome font. The other font that heads some of the sections is called Galahad. I like it, somewhat evocative and not ostentatious.

I see there being some room on the Skills "side" for more. I can squeeze that down some if there was something major I needed to make a lot more room for.

I kept the design of the Spells Per Rest table from that original Trailblazer char sheet, with a third column to add up Base plus Bonus. I think that bolded column is not totally necessary, I think it is obvious enough to just have the Base column and the Bonus column. But that gives me more space I don't have an obvious use for besides stretching "Always Ready" wider.

I thought about designating one of the columns in the Feats and Abilities portion as the "Action Points Enhancements" space to list. I talked myself out of that because Feats and Abilities covers that well enough. And "Action Points Enhancements" is a lot of words taking up space on the sheet.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I like it.

I'm not sure what greyscale % you used on the "faded text" in the skill section (and elsewhere), but my experience was that whatever I chose, it was too light.

FYI, you can totally use Trailblazer logos. Let me know if there's anything else I can provide you.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Good point on the grayscale. I printed out the other Trailblazer sheet and the grayscaled small text came in near unreadable.

I chose, I think 40% for the tiny text (6 point) in each cell. 20% for the gray text in the skills list because those words were larger (12 point). The tinier the font, and the lighter the grayscale, the less readable it became when printed.

I hadn't yet printed it—I'm out of legal right now—but I intend to out and grab me a small packet of legal and check it out.

I'll darken each usage if it suffers the unreadability fate.


About the fonts, I debated using small caps throughout. I like small caps for things like this, when it's not intended to be a readable paragraph but rather is more like a title or headline. Galahad came with an alternate character set, but I opted to stay with the regular set and not get too fancy with the design, though the alternate set offers some more evocatively "fantasy" versions of some characters. Galahad Regular is just more readable, can't go wrong with readable.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Got me some legal paper. After a few prints:

300 dpi laser, not a good result. Grayscale everywhere had a funny pattern, the text was horrible but visible, mostly unreadable without squinting.

1200 dpi, very pleasant but gray was a disappointment. Black text was nicely sharp but the grayscale everywhere was surprisingly light, too light. So light that the grayed text was invisible. Disappointing.

600 dpi laser, the best, grayed text was readable and appropriately faint. However, I think I'm going to bump the grayscale up to 50% for 6 point, and 35% for 12 point.

I'll try this on my Canon inkjet later today.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Update: results from Canon inkjet

I'm a bit surprised, but from the Canon inkjet, the results ended up being superior, but a far slower printing.

First run: grayscale, high quality
Result: even better than my laser printer's best result. All of the grayed text came out very readable. The draw back is that my Canon inkjet doesn't have duplexing, so printing two side involves me flipping the sheet over.

Second run: grayscale, standard quality.
Result: came out just a sliver better than my laser printer's best result.

I'm not going to try to print this non-grayscale, I'll let someone else try. I'm taking a guess that the results are very nice in part because my Canon is a 5 color printer. (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Photo Black, Page Black). In other words the grays don't need to be mixed from levels of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black as there is a dedicated black tank for gray printer.

And I haven't even tried darkening the grayscale text up yet . . .

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I've put together what I hope is a nearing final version. It's coming in two variants.

One variant includes page numbers for where to locate the relevant Trailblazer content in the book! A second variant doesn't have the page numbers, for those of us who memorized either the content or memorized what page numbers to find it all so don't need the clutter of the page numbers.

I've updated the font use to include the "fancier" Trailblazer font instead of Galahad.

I've also fixed some embarrassing spelling errors. Gah!

The only significant content change was including BMB repeated on the cover page (there was space for it) and I included a spot in the Hit Points for noting how much heals up with a 10-minute rest (it felt right).

Look to the original post to download either new variant of the updated sheet!

Any comments on design, layout, glaring omissions? Is a version with page numbers too cluttered for the usefulness it might bring? Maybe there are other page numbers worth putting down?