How many character sheets is too many?

[payn]

Assuming the recipient has a convenient way of reading them while at the table, which won't be the case for all.

lol, maybe not from the past you send your post into the future from. Most folks have phones, tablets, and if that fails, a printer.

 

[Lanefan]

What if its "information that could be stuffed onto 1 sheet. but the game publisher split it out onto 4 sheets in order to make it spaced out, bigger font, remove clutter.... ? Would that justify a 4 page character sheet?

Depends. If in a class-based game such as D&D the publisher tries to make a single generic sheet there's going to be wasted space most of the time e.g. a non-caster doesn't need a place to list spells while a non-warrior caster doesn't need space to list weapon and combat proficiencies, yet both will be present on a generic sheet in order to handle both classes.

That, and given the choice between extra white space and having to flip pages more often, I'd chop out the white space every time.

 

[Lanefan]

lol, maybe not from the past you send your post into the future from. Most folks have phones, tablets, and if that fails, a printer.

Trying to read anything like that on a phone is hopeless (I use my phone for looking things up for my in-person game and have learned it's hopeless the hard way - the screen is just too damn small). Tablets work, as do laptops, but not everyone allows such things - or phones - at their tables.

And I'm an absolute cheapass when it comes to using printer ink; that crap is bloody expensive and I feel like I'm being ripped off every time I buy it.

 

[Lanefan]

At a late stage of a 1e AD&D campaign I had a "character sheet" that was around 100 pages.

It listed my henchmen and their character sheets, my followers and their character sheets, my stronghold (effectively a small dungeon), my various possessions (including stat blocks for several sailing ships and their crew with character sheets for the expert hirelings) and properties (such as an inn/tavern), and my library of books and spells.

I think the biggest I've ever had was about half that, including obsolete versions of the sheet and page after page of plans and maps of the massive great temple he built (character was a Cleric).

We keep hench sheets separate and independent from their boss' sheets, in part because the hench is technically an NPC and in part because henches don't always keep the same boss through their career. Right now, for example, in the game I play in the hench in the party is working for another player's character, having been long-term loaned to her by my not-currently-in-the-field PC who was her original boss.

 

[Kannik]

Looking at all the character sheets I have completely-healthily-no-obsession-here designed, I'd say about 400.

Oh! For a single character for a single game... well in that case, usually I try to keep it to 1 double-sided letter-sized page, max. This keeps everything handy and only requires a quick flip at most. Equipment sometimes might have to go on a separate tracking sheet, though. Notes, background, maps, record keeping, and etc always goes in a separate booklet (or an e-booklet such as OneNote).

For systems with a lot of extra bits, such as D&D and spellcasting, then it will start with 2 double sided sheets: Most Character Things + Inventory on one, and then Combat + Spells on the other. Easy to have the character + combat next to each other on the table, and as inventory is less often needed it's only the spells that are flipped back and forth to.

I did make a version once to fit into a gametee journal that used 3 landscape-oriented pages arranged into a mini-booklet, so it could be condensed down to that as well.

 

[LordEntrails]

What if its "information that could be stuffed onto 1 sheet. but the game publisher split it out onto 4 sheets in order to make it spaced out, bigger font, remove clutter.... ? Would that justify a 4 page character sheet?

Sure, I mean when I said two pages I meant with 4 point font on E-Size (34x44") drawing sheets...