Messy character sheets & messy characters!

[Oryan77]

I'm like that too... My sheets are a MESS!

But it's just how I am. A tiger don't change its stripes.

Coming from someone with the screen name "Scribble", I'm not surprised

 

[Mark]

If you prefer to use fillable PDF forms but do not have the abilty to save them (as that used to require the full version of Adobe Acrobat and not just the Adobe Reader), you can download a small, free program from Foxit -

http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php

- which is a typical PDF reader but with the added ability of being able to save filled in forms and reopen, adjust, and resave them. Very handy!


Particularly, IMO, for use with The More Better Indispensable Character Formfolio

http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=20819&it=1

 

[el-remmen]

For my group a messy character sheet means it has some kind of stain on it, usually food of some kind. . . we always say, "It is not a real character sheet until you can tell what you had for lunch one day from looking at it."

 

[Scribble]

Oh, I didn't even mention her red notebook of notes Luckily, she already has what you suggested. But it's a whole other story

She has pages and pages of notes and doodles in that thing. And there is no system to it. I've taken a peak in it and she has notes from the game written upside down, vertical, and right side up all on the same page. And ringing the notes is a nice frame of doodling. Sometimes there's doodles in the middle of the page mixed in with her notes.

Somehow she finds what she's looking for in that thing. It doesn't take her much time to find the info within her notes either.

Wow thats exactly what i do too!

I have a notebook that I use for party treasure, and other notes... It's full of random scribbles and notes and such... Dunno really how, but I can find pretty much anything I need whenever I need it.

 

[Lanefan]

My SO's character sheet got to be in much the same condition as that described in the first post. So what did she do? Got the thing laminated, then kept on writing on the lamination, so now there's 2 layers of mess!

I was able to make sense of it once in a while...when I made my saving throw...

Another player had a character sheet that was legible enough (on a good day), except most information that came up since character creation e.g. treasure shares, items owned, etc. was kept on little scraps of notepaper in her folder. Whenever the folder got dropped I thought there'd been a snowstorm!

Then there's the other extreme...one player put his character sheets into a spreadsheet of his own design...spent hours and hours working on this, then more hours updating whenever something changed, and often all for naught as the latest printout would be either out of date of left at home.....

Lanefan

 

[useridunavailable]

Her character sheet is a nightmare.

I'm pretty sure that constitutes legal grounds for a divorce.

 

[Oryan77]

Wow thats exactly what i do too!

You know what's even stranger?

I have a notebook that I use for party treasure, and other notes

That's exactly what she also uses her notebook for!

You guys should share note keeping tips

I'm pretty sure that constitutes legal grounds for a divorce.

But then she'd get all my D&D books & miniatures. I'd stay married simply to keep my junk!

 

[Scribble]

You guys should share note keeping tips

Tip # 1

Whenever marking a note into your notebook, always make sure it' simply a one word note or at most a sentence fragment/ string of random words.

IE: Belcaz. or sword flame +1 , or red tree gypsies.

 

[Oryan77]

Tip # 1

Whenever marking a note into your notebook, always make sure it' simply a one word note or at most a sentence fragment/ string of random words.

IE: Belcaz. or sword flame +1 , or red tree gypsies.

Dude that's the exact same thing she does.

Let me guess, when you find treasure and the DM says your group found 4 Diamonds, you jot down that your party found 4 gems? Nevermind that you already have notes for other "gems" your group found and didn't appraise yet.

I actually had to train my players to keep better treasure notes so I can identify wtf they're talking about. I don't know how many times my wife found old notes in her notebook and said, "Wait, I have 4 gems that we found somewhere." Then I have to spend 15 minutes figuring out if those are the 4 diamonds that they already appraised and sold, or if that's other treasure that they forgot to appraise.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

Somehow she finds what she's looking for in that thing. It doesn't take her much time to find the info within her notes either.

Her memory associates the notes with their position and orientation on the page and with the doodles mixed in with them. If it works for her, don't sweat it. If she doesn't mind her stats being several levels behind, I don't recommend giving her a hard time about it. If it really bugs you, tell her that you've taken over her character sheet responsibilities.