How many character sheets is too many?

[Deset Gled]

How much value does having 'campaign notes' baked into a nicely formatted character sheet add to a game? (i.e. the last page or 1 of a given sheet set?)

Inherently, none.

If there's an external reason (say, you keep a collection of PDFs stored by character name and want to keep everything in one PDF for organization purposes) that's cool. But it has nothing to do with the character sheet, per se.

 

[aco175]

I have 1 sheet for everything I need to start. Casters have a spell sheet, so 2 pages. I can see having a sheet for notes on the campaign and NPC and such. Now we have bastions and what do they need, maybe a map and another sheet for rooms and powers. Another sheet for NPCs at the bastion.

But to start, I just need one page.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For me, it depends on the game…and the era.

For the first few iterations of D&D, I got by with a standard TSR character sheet, plus a piece of notebook paper for things that accreted over time. But by the time 3.5Ed rolled out, 99% of my characters were stored in digital format only, regardless of the game. I’m sure that, if printed, several would be a several pages long.

In part, that’s because I now tend to spell certain things out on the character sheet so I don’t have to refer to the rule books as often, especially stuff frequently used or complicated enough that it’s not easily grasped. So if an attack does damage based on a PC’s stat, but that stat just got altered, I have that formula on the sheet. If my PC is a grappler, I’ll have the game’s grappling formula (if there is one) on the sheet.

And the first shot on THAT front was fired back in the early 1990s, when I did a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet for use with HERO 4th. Technically, it was 4 pages (front only), but since the sheet could be expanded indefinitely, there really was no upper limit. Some of my more complex PCs done in it were more than 10 sheets long. Usually, those were BBEG, with LOTS of resources & powers.

Unlike any other electronic format since, though, that spreadsheet wasn’t just a static presentation of the character, like an electronic stand-in for a sheet of paper. I did it in Excel instead of Word for a reason. I had taken the time to program the HERO formulas in the relevant cells so that it precisely tracked every last point spent on the character.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Depends on the character and the campaign, mostly notes after the basic one sheet.

 

[LordEntrails]

3 is too many. I certainly don't want that much crunch, or constraints. If I have to look up something about my character, then its probably because I've got too much detail written down and not enough in my head.

2 is just right.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

My home-brewed HERO the CS are 8 pages long.These are intended as play sheets, so presentation is important. As is having all needed info.

I'm a big fan of white space. I include a section for basic combat manoeuvres. There's also a page for spells that not all characters need. Also, being HERO, there's a separate page for Advantages and Disadvantages/Complications.

 

[Fatal_Theory]

For your character... your one character... in that one game....

• A sheet for your main stats and skills
• a sheet for your magic powers
• a sheet for your combat equipment and armors and such
• a sheet for your plot notes
• a sheet for your faction and NPCs that are part of your cadre/group/faction/assets
• another sheet for spells or powers (how many spell/powers sheets do you have typically?)

= 5 to 6 sheets for one character. Is that helpful? too many?

How many sheets are too many? Are extra helpful for simple tracking or notes? Other comments on character sheets?

Idk it depends on your players but 6 sheets is starting to feel like doing taxes. But honestly if they want that type of game then there is no problem providing the extra material too. Me personally though, I'd try to get everything on one sheet.

 

[Joshua Randall]

It has been my experience that regardless of how many pages and even if they had a table of contents, those sticky note arrow things, an eidetic memory and an index....they still won't know where what they are looking for is.

I know, right? I am convinced there could be a game where the only stat is your character’s name and the only resolution mechanic is “flip a coin”… and players would STILL need 20 minutes to decide what they’re doing each round.

 

[Lanefan]

For your character... your one character... in that one game....

• A sheet for your main stats and skills
• a sheet for your magic powers
• a sheet for your combat equipment and armors and such
• a sheet for your plot notes
• a sheet for your faction and NPCs that are part of your cadre/group/faction/assets
• another sheet for spells or powers (how many spell/powers sheets do you have typically?)

= 5 to 6 sheets for one character. Is that helpful? too many?

How many sheets are too many? Are extra helpful for simple tracking or notes? Other comments on character sheets?

For me, the first three of that list go on the main sheet (front, back, and front in sequence); and the 6th on that list is IMO the same as the 2nd. The 4th and 5th on that list don't go on the character sheet but instead go in a party folder of some sort; if we each had individual factions then that would go on the background and personal history sheet (see below).

However, there's other things need to be there that IME do require separate sheets:

--- character finances
--- xp (or equivalent) tracking
--- character background, family, and life-history notes
--- notes, maps, etc. of the character's stronghold, base, bastion, home, or similar (later in career)

And the character bundle gets ever thicker over the long run for one major reason: nothing is ever thrown away, erased, or edited when obsolete! I do it this way and ask the same of my players, reason being that far too often we have to refer to old versions of a character sheet because something didn't get transferred properly to the new sheet, or we have to refer to historical financial transactions to determine whether a character owns a particular item, or similar.

 

[Smackpixi]

For your character... your one character... in that one game....

• A sheet for your main stats and skills
• a sheet for your magic powers
• a sheet for your combat equipment and armors and such
• a sheet for your plot notes
• a sheet for your faction and NPCs that are part of your cadre/group/faction/assets
• another sheet for spells or powers (how many spell/powers sheets do you have typically?)

= 5 to 6 sheets for one character. Is that helpful? too many?

How many sheets are too many? Are extra helpful for simple tracking or notes? Other comments on character sheets?

3 goes on page 1. 4 & 5 are notes, a real note taker has pages or journals for that if they’re into it, the lazy fills up the backsides of pages 1 and 2 with them. 6 is part of 2. Max two pieces of paper.