Homebrew Level Up Official Character Sheet (Color) 2021-12-01

[Doskious]

Speaking as a Narrator planning to run a Level Up game in the not-too-distant future, my plan was to describe the situation that called for initiative to my players and then invite them to indicate which skill they each think is most appropriate for them to roll initiative with based on what they were doing when the need arose, and why (if it's not obvious).

I find that prompting my players for that kind of participatory input often leads to interesting (comical and/or perilous) developments; I'm looking forward to what they're going to come up with.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Speaking as a Narrator planning to run a Level Up game in the not-too-distant future, my plan was to describe the situation that called for initiative to my players and then invite them to indicate which skill they each think is most appropriate for them to roll initiative with based on what they were doing when the need arose, and why (if it's not obvious).

I find that prompting my players for that kind of participatory input often leads to interesting (comical and/or perilous) developments; I'm looking forward to what they're going to come up with.

It does require trust, though, that your players aren't just going to always choose the highest bonus they have.

 

[Morrus]

It does require trust, though, that your players aren't just going to always choose the highest bonus they have.

That's when you say no.

 

[Galahadred]

We don’t make character sheets for other games. This is for our game.

Exactly. And in your game, 90% of the time Initiative rolls are going to be based on Dexterity.

 

[Morrus]

Exactly. And in your game, 90% of the time Initiative rolls are going to be based on Dexterity.

In your game, perhaps. Mine aren't. But feel feel to home-brew character sheets as much as you like!

 

[VanguardHero]

I figure some tables will prefer Ability and some will prefer Skill checks. If abilities, Perception is a strong contender for 'default'. If you're getting bumrushed, Perception seems the obvious choice, if it's more of a standoff waiting to see who makes the first move Dexterity could be a god fit, if you're doing the bumrushing, Stealth. There's a lot of options even for basic scenarios and while I do wish there was a default one just to have a number sitting there, this way does make a lot of sense. PF2 defaults to Perception while allowing anything, but also made Perception a non-skill with its own built in auto-progression so you can't hyperoptimize it for Initiative purposes easily.

 

[Morrus]

There's a lot of options even for basic scenarios and while I do wish there was a default one just to have a number sitting there,

If we put a default one there, it would become default. Our game does not have a default initiative check. We're not going to make a character sheet which contradicts our game rules.

 

[Doskious]

It does require trust, though, that your players aren't just going to always choose the highest bonus they have.

Wait, who said anything about vacating the Narrator's role in deciding whether something works or not. If I don't think their explanation is sufficient to justify the use of whatever they want to roll for initiative, they'll have to go with something else. As Morrus said:

That's when you say no.

But my players know this is the way that things work even now (and any future players will know it well in advance of needing to roll anything). Someone who tries to leverage the invitation for mindful creativity into a recurring numerical advantage will either meaningfully contribute to the story being told (in which case it's fine, actually, thanks), or won't (and we'll have a little chat about it).

If we put a default one there, it would become default. Our game does not have a default initiative check. We're not going to make a character sheet which contradicts our game rules.

I think one of the things I like most about the entire system is that it's chock-full of these kinds of invitations to think about things slightly differently, to consider new ideas, to get creative with the narrative across a range of granularity. The flip side of this is that presenting options in this fashion does not preclude individual Narrators or tables from adopting house rules that are more restrictive, if that's their preference, all it does is ensure that the adoption of such rules is (nominally) a conscious choice.

The absence of a default for initiative, and the absence of a dedicated "initiative" box on the character sheet, is a prime example of this. The absence, for those familiar with earlier editions where it was present, invites the consideration of why it's absent (which is clearly an affirmatively-executed design choice); for those for whom Level Up is their first experience, it makes sure they get off on the right foot in terms of understanding their options within the game.

 

[Morrus]

I deleted the color thing from each page in a pdf editor.

Feel free to upload that to the downloads area so it's easy for others to find!

 

[Kinematics]

So, I'm getting around to trying out using the provided character sheet to convert a character from another campaign (level 14 barbarian), as an illustration for our GM about how a rebuild might work. I'm currently up to level 9 in the process, and I am already out of space in the Features & Traits section (even with minimal descriptions, no subclass details yet, and no custom stuff). And I see this is after expanding that section for space.

Also, assuming Developed Talents == Exploration Knacks (I seem to recall that being stated, but there is nothing in the book or character sheet to link those terms as being the same thing), there are only 6 lines available. While that works for level 14, a level 20 Berserker will have 9. And a Herald will get 7, a Rogue will get 10, and a Ranger will get 12.

Also, Combat Maneuvers has 11 lines. Again, that works for the Berserker and almost all other classes, but the Fighter can get up to 17.

Some of this is overflow that doesn't affect most classes, but the sheer number of traits and features that pile up from heritage/culture/background/class/subclass (plus maybe custom stuff per game, too) overwhelms that little box. It would be nice to have one extra page for extra features/traits/maneuvers/knacks. Doesn't even have to be broken up into sections; just "name: description" like the knacks section, for the whole page. Maybe a page # column, too.