Shadowdark Shadowdark Character Sheet

[neceros]

hello

Here's a Shadowdark RPG Character Sheet. If you think of anything to make it better let me know.

Shadowdark RPG sheet on Drive

 

[Kampelakelmi]

It's great to see improvements on Shadowdark's original character sheet.

Few points of criticism.

• It's not immediately obvious to me which slot is for the stat and which is for the modifier. I'm not sure if the 'MODIFIER' label applies to the one on the top of the one on the bottom.
• It would be convenient if the gear slots were numbered like in the original character sheet. This would make manually counting to make sure you don't go beyond your carry limit unnecessary.
• The character sheet has no space for "free to carry" items such as your clothes, backpack or items the GM deems so tiny they won't need a gear slot.
• I'm not sure why a player would need "Spells known by level" listed on their character sheet when they can just look at how many spells of which tier they have. Also, Shadowdark uses spell tiers and not spell levels.
• The font is small at times and might be hard to read for the visually impaired. This isn't a problem if all your players can see well, though.
• Very minor detail: Shadowdark's rules speak of "spellcasting" as a compound word instead of two separate words ("spell casting")

I like how you recognized the need to have shapes which suggest the stats are subordinate to the modifiers. You were very efficient in putting all the available space to good use. Armor class and hit points not being shortened to AC and HP is helpful to newcomers. My group of TTRPG newbies found them being shortened confusing.

 

[neceros]

It's great to see improvements on Shadowdark's original character sheet.

Few points of criticism.

• It's not immediately obvious to me which slot is for the stat and which is for the modifier. I'm not sure if the 'MODIFIER' label applies to the one on the top of the one on the bottom.
• It would be convenient if the gear slots were numbered like in the original character sheet. This would make manually counting to make sure you don't go beyond your carry limit unnecessary.
• The character sheet has no space for "free to carry" items such as your clothes, backpack or items the GM deems so tiny they won't need a gear slot.
• I'm not sure why a player would need "Spells known by level" listed on their character sheet when they can just look at how many spells of which tier they have. Also, Shadowdark uses spell tiers and not spell levels.
• The font is small at times and might be hard to read for the visually impaired. This isn't a problem if all your players can see well, though.
• Very minor detail: Shadowdark's rules speak of "spellcasting" as a compound word instead of two separate words ("spell casting")

I like how you recognized the need to have shapes which suggest the stats are subordinate to the modifiers. You were very efficient in putting all the available space to good use. Armor class and hit points not being shortened to AC and HP is helpful to newcomers. My group of TTRPG newbies found them being shortened confusing.

thank you for the suggestions. I think they make senses

about the spell casting. This is why I added that table:

seems players only know so many spells at once

 

[neceros]

It's great to see improvements on Shadowdark's original character sheet...

Updated sheet:

Made the ability and modifier placement more clear
added numbers to equipment list
added a free to carry list
made the font bigger in many places
made some words easier to see by value
fixed spellcasting spelling
fixed spell tier wordage
minor alignment fixes

 

[Kampelakelmi]

I like how the new containers for stats and modifiers look!

Confusingly, Wizards can actually know more than their Spells Known table indicates because they can learn spells from scrolls during downtime. I understand the Spells Known table is there to tell the players from which tier they should learn their next spell on level up.

 

[neceros]

I like how the new containers for stats and modifiers look!

Confusingly, Wizards can actually know more than their Spells Known table indicates because they can learn spells from scrolls during downtime. I understand the Spells Known table is there to tell the players from which tier they should learn their next spell on level up.

that makes sense. if you think it is pointless to have let me know. i've not played the system yet

 

[Bill Zebub]

that makes sense. if you think it is pointless to have let me know. i've not played the system yet

K is right. The rule you are citing is only how many spells that automatically learn, for free, just by leveling up. But they may have (in my games, they will have) had chances to learn more spells along the way.

And unlike D&D you don't pick which spells you want to have ready to cast each day. You have all of them, every day (unless you flub the casting attempt and lose that spell for the rest of the day).

So, yeah, drop that section.

However, I wouldn't mind having a checkbox (even just the faint outline of one) on each line of "spells and abilities" so that I could mark the ones I've lost for the day.

 

[Fenris-77]

You could probably spend a lot more time making the sheet visually easy to scan. You have a lot of lines and not a lot of visual hierarchy to help guide the eye around the page. For reference, here's the WiP of the SD sheet I'm working on for my latest project:

Not better or worse, just a different set of design goals.