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Keep them in a notebook so you can view history later
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D&D General Tips for Using Paper Character Sheets
- Thread starter SlyFlourish
- Start date
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Good idea in theory. Doesn't work in practice.
In reality, those cards (or shreds of paper, whatever) get lost, tossed, and otherwise disorganized such that after a while neither the player nor DM have a clue what the character has. I've seen this firsthand, too many a time.
When it's all on one sheet of paper (ideally, either the front or back of the main character sheet), even if that sheet's a mess and needs to be rewritten now and then, at least all the information is in one place.
Sorry to hear that. Works great for me and has done for years!
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
Your mileage obviously varies, but I have used a version of this system since the mid-90s and have had cards gets lost fewer than five times in 25 years. I'll take those odds.
GreatestHonor
Adventurer
I do the same thing. My grandmother recently joined my table earlier this year at the start of a new campaign, and since she still struggles with some of the mechanics/spells/rules, I take the time after each level up to cover anything about her character’s abilities she is still unclear on or wants clarification on.
Side Note: Her dragonborn cleric is a certified badass.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Tips for paper character sheets:
--- come up with a format that works for you and then stick with it such that figuring out what's where on one of your sheets figures out them all (a boon for the DM and for anyone else who has to guest-pilot your character if you miss a session).
--- magic items on the front if possible, spells and mundane gear on the back.
--- keep it organized, as if you're writing it for someone else to parse, even if you're likely the only person who will look at it 99+% of the time.
--- rewrite them now and then, but - IMPORTANT! - keep the old ones! Do NOT, ever, throw away an old sheet, and do NOT erase anything! Keep the old sheet and clip it behind the new one (and yes, this can mean a long-time character can end up with a fairly thick wad of paper; so be it). It's inevitable when rewriting a sheet that something will get missed in the transcribing process; and having the old sheet available is the only way to sort this.
There's two things that need to be tracked on an ongoing basis and take up space, thus work best on separate pages. One is character finances, the other is experience points. Character backstory and-or history is also best kept on a separate page if it's longer than just a few lines.
Paper clips are your friend. Staples are not.
--- come up with a format that works for you and then stick with it such that figuring out what's where on one of your sheets figures out them all (a boon for the DM and for anyone else who has to guest-pilot your character if you miss a session).
--- magic items on the front if possible, spells and mundane gear on the back.
--- keep it organized, as if you're writing it for someone else to parse, even if you're likely the only person who will look at it 99+% of the time.
--- rewrite them now and then, but - IMPORTANT! - keep the old ones! Do NOT, ever, throw away an old sheet, and do NOT erase anything! Keep the old sheet and clip it behind the new one (and yes, this can mean a long-time character can end up with a fairly thick wad of paper; so be it). It's inevitable when rewriting a sheet that something will get missed in the transcribing process; and having the old sheet available is the only way to sort this.
There's two things that need to be tracked on an ongoing basis and take up space, thus work best on separate pages. One is character finances, the other is experience points. Character backstory and-or history is also best kept on a separate page if it's longer than just a few lines.
Paper clips are your friend. Staples are not.
Lanefan
Victoria Rules
Too many times have I seen the dropped folder or binder followed by an explosion of little bits of paper, cards, and other pieces - not all of which get retrieved every time.
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
I use paper character sheets all the time.
I print them out.
No, I'm not being a smart alec. I have poor handwriting and want to include everything I need which means a small font. Combine these together and I print a new character sheet every level, sometimes more frequently. And make pencil changes on it for things like equipment and such in the meantime.
I picked up a Brother B&W laser printer a number of years ago, it's cheap cheap cheap to run. Printing 4 sides once and then printing 1 side of a page of text every other month is not prohibitive.
Biggest suggestion, never ever use an actual character sheet. They have so much wasted white space. Mind you, white space can be useful, but just about every sheet I've seen for D&D wants to be seen at 6 feet away and require multiple other sheets because there's not enough space on it. I am NOT six feet away from my character sheet. I can be much more judicious in my use of whitespace and make things very readable.
Usually I have everything I need for normal play or combat on a single side of a sheet. Occasionally I do them landscape instead of portrait if that makes more sense based on what I want to record - them always being portrait is a hobgoblin of foolish consistency. This may also have a small portrait.
At higher levels this can expand onto the back of the 1st page, especially if I'm running a caster because I write enough about each spell that I only need to reference the books for odd corner cases. In this case I rearrange to make sure everything I expect to need for combat can be found without flipping.
When reprinting for future levels, I usually stop there.
Second page (back of page 1 at start) is usually art. Picture says 1000 words.
Third page is backstory and history. Usually fits on 1 side of a page, is occasionally more.
Lastly is character creation/advancement page, showing my choice (point buy, feats when, etc.) for the DM. That can be 2 sides of a page, but never ever gets reprinted so who cares.
Here's a 3rd level barbarian, still plenty of room for growth.
I print them out.
No, I'm not being a smart alec. I have poor handwriting and want to include everything I need which means a small font. Combine these together and I print a new character sheet every level, sometimes more frequently. And make pencil changes on it for things like equipment and such in the meantime.
I picked up a Brother B&W laser printer a number of years ago, it's cheap cheap cheap to run. Printing 4 sides once and then printing 1 side of a page of text every other month is not prohibitive.
Biggest suggestion, never ever use an actual character sheet. They have so much wasted white space. Mind you, white space can be useful, but just about every sheet I've seen for D&D wants to be seen at 6 feet away and require multiple other sheets because there's not enough space on it. I am NOT six feet away from my character sheet. I can be much more judicious in my use of whitespace and make things very readable.
Usually I have everything I need for normal play or combat on a single side of a sheet. Occasionally I do them landscape instead of portrait if that makes more sense based on what I want to record - them always being portrait is a hobgoblin of foolish consistency. This may also have a small portrait.
At higher levels this can expand onto the back of the 1st page, especially if I'm running a caster because I write enough about each spell that I only need to reference the books for odd corner cases. In this case I rearrange to make sure everything I expect to need for combat can be found without flipping.
When reprinting for future levels, I usually stop there.
Second page (back of page 1 at start) is usually art. Picture says 1000 words.
Third page is backstory and history. Usually fits on 1 side of a page, is occasionally more.
Lastly is character creation/advancement page, showing my choice (point buy, feats when, etc.) for the DM. That can be 2 sides of a page, but never ever gets reprinted so who cares.
Here's a 3rd level barbarian, still plenty of room for growth.
Blue
Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
We used to have a saying: It's not a real character until the sheet has a soda mark on it.I just want to add that the wear and tear on a physical character sheet is part of the fun and charm of the sheet. Sometimes I look back at old sheets and think, "wow, based on the ring-shaped stains on this I really was drinking too much Dr. Pepper back then!"
Edit: Then again, I am a proponent of writing in my RPG books!
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