D&D 5E Shorthand/Notation for Advantage/Disadvantage

[ko6ux]

Anyone have any good ideas on a shorthand or notation for specifying advantage or disadvantage? For example, if a character is wearing heavy armor that gives them disadvantage on stealth rolls, I can list their skill bonus by writing the whole thing out as:

Stealth: +1 (with disadvantage)

However, this seems a bit unwieldy, so I am thinking about alternatives.

I have seen some suggestions of using ADV or +ADV for advantage and DIS or -DIS for disadvantage.

+1 ADV
+1 +ADV
-1 ADV
+1 -DIS

I've also considered using an ASCII arrow pointing Up for advantage or Down for disadvantage.

+1↑
+1↓

I am almost sold on this one as it seems reasonably intuitive, it's very short, and it's mostly unambiguous. However, depending on the font the arrows can be a little hard to read. It's tempting to color code them but that isn't always possible.

+1↑
+1↓

Anyone else have any brilliant ideas?

 

[Quartz]

How about putting A or D after the number? E.g. +1D?

But really, is this worth notation? Advantage and Disadvantage are conditions or statuses - sure they may be defaults but no one has permanent advantage and your character in heavy armour might decide to take it off.

 

[Morrus]

I can't think when you'd need to write a temp modifier out, but if you did, I guess A or D does the trick nicely.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I've been using "adv" and "disadv," but I suppose +Av and -Av would work.

 

[ko6ux]

But really, is this worth notation? Advantage and Disadvantage are conditions or statuses - sure they may be defaults but no one has permanent advantage and your character in heavy armour might decide to take it off.

Yea, it's definitely not a necessary thing. It's more a space saver for a character sheet than anything else.

Instead of writing "you have advantage on saving throws against being charmed" or "opportunity attacks against you are made with disadvantage," you could use "+ADV vs charm," or "-DIS on AoO against you," which are a lot shorter.

Adding A/D to a die roll notation winds up being ambiguous because "D" is already used to specify die type. And +ADV/-DIS look kind of weird.

+1A
+1D
+1ADV
+1DIS
+1+ADV
+1-DIS

I am just thinking that there has to be an elegant way of handling this.

 

[Rod Staffwand]

I use ADV and DIS in game notes, always in all caps and sans + or -. This seemed natural when I started 5E and it's second nature now.

 

[Cannyjiggit]

Yea, it's definitely not a necessary thing. It's more a space saver for a character sheet than anything else.

Instead of writing "you have advantage on saving throws against being charmed" or "opportunity attacks against you are made with disadvantage," you could use "+ADV vs charm," or "-DIS on AoO against you," which are a lot shorter.

Adding A/D to a die roll notation winds up being ambiguous because "D" is already used to specify die type. And +ADV/-DIS look kind of weird.

+1A
+1D
+1ADV
+1DIS
+1+ADV
+1-DIS

I am just thinking that there has to be an elegant way of handling this.

Have you thought about switching the order there so the options would become

ADV+1
DIS+1

This makes the (dis)advantage more obvious when you first read it and the modifier clearer by being separated at the end.

 

[aramis erak]

I've also considered using an ASCII arrow pointing Up for advantage or Down for disadvantage.

There is no ASCII arrow.

Unicode as them, but ASCII doesn't.

 

[Psikerlord#]

I've been using Adv & Disad. I can also see Adv and Dis...? How much shorter do you really need?

 

[DMZ2112]

Have you considered greater than and less than signs?

Stealth +1 with disadvantage becomes Stealth +1<.