D&D 5E Eyes? who cares

[Szatany]

I was just looking at the character sheet, and something struck me.
Why is there a box for writing down the color of your eyes? It's such a minor and totally irrelevant thing. I can understand with hair, they are easily visible on a character and can add to his uniqueness. But eyes? And at the same time, there isn't a box to write down the color of your skin or your compexion.
I know this is a minor complaint but I wanted to raise it anyway.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Early character sheets had blanks for eye color, hair color, skin color...I guess its a bit of a retro nod.

Personally, I always enjoyed those as a way for me to round out my PC, but many gamers I know never looked at them.

 

[Sunseeker]

I hadn't really noticed them, it's odd though thinking about it. Information on a sheet is supposed to inform you, the player, about relevant information. It's your character, sure you can remember what color your character's eyes and hair are?

 

[Derren]

I hadn't really noticed them, it's odd though thinking about it. Information on a sheet is supposed to inform you, the player, about relevant information. It's your character, sure you can remember what color your character's eyes and hair are?

And here I thought that a Character Sheet should contain information about the character it represents...
Having this boxes reminds the player to think of such things. In a game which mainly only acknowledges the monster slaying power of characters this can't hurt.

 

[DEFCON 1]

How else am I gonna decide my character had grey eyes? At first I said blue, but then I decided I wanted grey eyes.

And yes, you can take a look at my sheet.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

How else am I gonna decide my character had grey eyes? At first I said blue, but then I decided I wanted grey eyes.

And yes, you can take a look at my sheet.

I must spread some XP around before giving more to DEFCON 1




But on a serious note I wish the character sheet had way more of stuff like that, helps inforce that this is a human being, (or elf being) not just a machine that kills monsters.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

It's in preparation for the "Eye Power" module, which will provide different abilities dependent upon eye color.

For example:

Blue -- water affiliation -- +2 to Diplomacy checks, +1 saves vs. fire effects
Brown -- earth affiliation -- +1 to saves vs charm effects; +2 to Bluff checks
Green -- nature affiliation -- +2 to Handle Plant checks, +1 to saves vs. sleep
Red -- fire affiliation -- scorching ray 1/day, -2 to saves vs. water effects
... etc.

 

[Sunseeker]

And here I thought that a Character Sheet should contain information about the character it represents...
Having this boxes reminds the player to think of such things. In a game which mainly only acknowledges the monster slaying power of characters this can't hurt.

I considered the perspectives on a character sheet, and there are basically two. The internal perspective of the person playing that character, and the external perspective of everyone else. The character sheet is IMO, privileged information, so what is described on it may not accurately represent what that player is showing to others, for q variety of reasons. Perhaps you are a shapeshifter masquerading as an elf, or you are secretly a vampire or werewolf. For some, a character sheet can be as tightly guarded as a winning poker hand. So while I have no real disagreement with including a spot to list your hair and eye color like a drivers license, q cursory glance at the top of a players sheet may reveal more information than is wanted. Personally I would encourage adding a section for describing your character over simply listing some random snippets.

 

[Szatany]

It's in preparation for the "Eye Power" module, which will provide different abilities dependent upon eye color.

For example:

Blue -- water affiliation -- +2 to Diplomacy checks, +1 saves vs. fire effects
Brown -- earth affiliation -- +1 to saves vs charm effects; +2 to Bluff checks
Green -- nature affiliation -- +2 to Handle Plant checks, +1 to saves vs. sleep
Red -- fire affiliation -- scorching ray 1/day, -2 to saves vs. water effects
... etc.

That must be it!

 

[Szatany]

And here I thought that a Character Sheet should contain information about the character it represents...
Having this boxes reminds the player to think of such things. In a game which mainly only acknowledges the monster slaying power of characters this can't hurt.

Sure, fair enough. But why there's place to put your eye color, but there aren't any for information that's way more noticable, like skin color or....character's age.