The Kingdoms of Kalamar Player Character Record Book by Kenzer and Company is a 32-page, softcover product retailing for $9.99. The book consists of six 4-page character record sheets (pages 1-4 below), four 2-page spell/powers sheets (pages 5-6 below), and one 2-page cohort/adventure log sheet (pages 7-8 below). The inside front cover is identical to the Skills and Feats page (page 4) while the inside back cover is a list of actions and Attacks of Opportunity.
Page 1 - Basic Character Statistics. This page contains the basic information all players need to have in front of them when playing (Abilities, Saves, HP, etc). What sets this apart from other sheets out there are the AC chart and the Weapons chart. The AC chart is smartly broken down so that you can keep track of all armor bonuses/penalties (i.e., enhancement, shield, natural armor, deflection, luck, sacred/profane, etc). They have it further broken down into columns for Flat-Footed and Touch as well. This makes it very easy to see just how a character's AC varies from situation to situation. The weapons chart is good because it has room for 15 different weapons (where most sheets I've seen give you room for 2-3) and it has a space for "Special Properties." Now you have a place to note which of your weapons are Keen, Bane, or whatever.
Page 2 - Equipment. This page gives players plenty of room to list all of the various items that a character has and how much it weighs. There are three columns to catalog each of the character's items. The first is Equipment Worn/Wielded and even has a sub-chart that spells out how many of which kind of item can be worn/carried (i.e., helmets (1), necklace (1), etc). The second column is Equipment Carried and includes spaces for coins. The third column is for listing Equipment Stored so a player can remember which he leaves at home or tucked in a bag of holding. Across the top of this page is a chart to track Encumbrance and Movement. This area makes it easy to determine how much weight the character can carry and how fast they can go based on the weight of the items listed in the columns below.
Page 3 - Notes. This page is more of a housekeeping area. There are sections to list party members, important NPCs, an XP log, and additional weapons and armor. Also, there is a section to place a character sketch. I don't see this page being used by the majority of players beyond the character sketch. While it may be handy to keep track of party members and NPCs, there isn't really enough room to do much more than list name, race, class. The XP log has columns for session, date, XP awarded, and total. Again, I don't see the utility of having it broken out this way, but maybe it's just me.
Page 4 - Skills and Feats. This page has a long table listing most of the skills (but not all) from the Player's Handbook, Psionics Handbook, and the KOK Player's Guide. It looks like the untrained usable skills are all there, but the trained-use only skills only list Knowledge (with 7 slots) and Perform (3 slots). I would have like to see all the skills trained and untrained listed for sake of completeness. Is this a big deal? Not really, it is easy to write in those other skills, but I can't print as neatly as they typesetting. Also on this page are areas for description, languages, and special abilities/feats. Besides the omission of some skills, this page is very well done, although I would put it in the page 3 position so that I could access it by just lifting up the front page without having to turn this page over.
Page 5 - Spell Book/Spell Planner. This page has a chart that lays out the spells per day and spell save DCs by level to make it a bit easier to figure it out in the heat of battle. The rest of the page is filled with areas to list spells from 0 to 9th level. There are a series of boxes to check whether a specific spell has been memorized or not.
Page 6 - Spell/Power List. This page has a large chart for listing the spells or psionic powers the chacarcter can use per day. Furthermore, it has the same spells per day and spell save DC chart from the previous page. There is a similar box for Psionic power points, attack/defense modes, and powers known. Finally, there is a box to put clerical turn/rebuke undead info and domains, powers, and domain spells. I would have made this page 5 not 6, so it would be easier to get to during play.
Page 7 - Cohorts. This page consists of four boxes to track statistics for cohorts or even perhaps familiars. Each box is essentially a mini-record sheet to make keeping up with your hangers-on a bit easier.
Page 8 - Adventure Log. This page has four identical boxes that can be used to track a characters various adventures. There is room to list companions, an adventure summary, any pending issues, and any notes. Much like the important NPCs on page 3, there isn't much room to list a lot about an adventure. I don't think I would have much use for this page, but then, I'm not big into logging all of my adventures.
The Good. This Character Record Book is extremely well done. The layout is well done and the typeface is large enough to be read easily. The boxes are logically laid out and information is easy to find and use. The charts included to help determine AC, spell save, and other math-intensive statistics are very helpful and make character creation very easy.
The Bad. Besides the skills omissions listed earlier, I don't really have any gripes about this product. The page order issue is easy to fix by running personal copies and putting them in the order you like.
The Other. One thing I truly like about this product is a line in very small type on the back cover that states: "Permission is granted to the purchaser of this product to reproduce sections of this book for personal use only." I would assume most gamers are like me and have multiple characters, therefore being allowed to make copies of these pages is a boon. And, in one of those unfortunate circumstances where a character dies during a campaign, you won't have to either buy a new copy or carefully erase everything to use the sheets again.
Final Remarks. I think Kenzer and Company have a winner on their hands. The sheets are well laid out, have plenty of room to write on, and seem to cover all the bases. This product is much better than the 2-page sheets from WotC or anything I've come across in the web. Well worth the $9.99.
