What do you want out of Character sheet?

[Ulfgeir]

First of all I want it to be useable during play.

• That includes having all the stuff that is used together grouped together, and in places where they are easy to find.
• If you need to perform wonky math to calculate certain values, make sure the formulas there are written on the character sheet, so you don't have to look it up every time.
• All boxes should be large enough so you actually can write in them, and get the stuff needed to fit there.
• Make sure you have room for all the modifiers that apply. (Worst case was Starfinder, I got different types of modifiers on skills from I think 7 different sources (Race, class, background, gear etc..... How many of those were actually on the character sheet? I think 2 or 3, and having multiple things go into "Misc" is problematic, as if something changes, then you have to look things up and recalculate every time).
• If you have a number of common skill specialites (and you HAVE to choose said specialities) when taking the skill, why not actually print them out. Like Knowledge skills, and Performance skills? Especially if it is likely that a character has more than one of them?

After this is done, then you can start prettying it up. Make sure everything is still readable though.

 

[pemerton]

I like this from Vincent Baker on "character sheets":

Character sheets are useless when it comes to creating, describing, defining, realizing characters. Totally pointless, valueless, toss 'em in the recycling. A notebook is helpful for remembering things, or 3x5 cards or post-it notes, let's use those instead. Or let's use nothing at all, if we can remember what we need to remember! Probably we can. . . .

So we start right here at this point: the character exists only in our minds. If we write something down about the character, it's only to remind us, to help us keep the character in our minds. The character cannot be touched by rules or game mechanics at all, under any circumstances, no exceptions. The character is pure inviolate fiction. This is fundamental and inescapable.

And from there we build. . . .

The "character sheet" isn't about the character. Maybe - maybe - it refers to details of the character, if that's what our resolution rules care about. But either way, even if so, the "character sheet" is really a record of the player's resources. "Character creation" similarly isn't how you create a character, but rather how you the player establish your resources to start.

If you like, you can design your game so that the player's resources depend wholly on details of the character.

Or you can just as easily design your game so that the player's resources don't refer to details of the character at all.

Or a mix, that's easiest of all.

Whichever way, you need to establish what resources the player has to begin with, and you'll probably want to write 'em down. That's what's really going on.​

So a character sheet should make it easy for me to see what my resources for play are. I like it to group things by similar details of the character, where those are relevant; and by mechanical function, where that is relevant. Sometimes these two desiderata collide with one another, which creates challenges in design.

Here's an example of a collision like that: in Burning Wheel, call-on traits set out distinctive or quirky details of the character, similar to character traits, which suggests these should all be grouped together on the sheet. But call-on traits also allow manipulating the dice pool, which suggests they should be grouped on the sheet with artha (Fate, Persona and Deads points), which are mostly about manipulating the dice pool.

I haven't worked out the best way to handle this on my own (Excel-based) BW character sheet.

 

[dragoner]

I have a free form fillable one for Traveller or Cepheus Engine on dtrpg: Andromeda Dragons Character Sheet - Wild Bee Publishing | DriveThruRPG.com

Though in print it is a little heavy on the ink, so I made another, as I printed out a bunch to run some kids through chargen: Character Sheet - People of the Sun

 

[Committed Hero]

[via Vincent Baker] Character sheets are useless when it comes to creating, describing, defining, realizing characters. Totally pointless, valueless, toss 'em in the recycling. A notebook is helpful for remembering things, or 3x5 cards or post-it notes, let's use those instead. Or let's use nothing at all, if we can remember what we need to remember! Probably we can. . .

This is a great philosophy until someone remembers they left their vorpal blade on the other 3x5.

Less snarky, there are other reasons to have physical character sheets than that list. They can provide inspiration and instant reference, for example.

 

[John Dallman]

I have quite limited vision. It's got worse with age, but it has never been good. I really don't like decoration, icons, colour or other visual distractions. I want textual information, as easy to read as possible.

For GURPS, I use GURPS Character Assistant, with the Phoenix character sheet, heavily customised for larger fonts, no colour, and general visual simplicity. I can print those, or play off the screen for online play: we don't use a VTT for GURPS, just Jitsi with Inkscape for maps.

For AD&D1e, my older characters are on handwritten sheets, and the ones played more recently are in multi-sheet Libre Office Calc spreadsheets. Again, I can print those or play off the screen. We use Roll20 and Discord for AD&D, but I put minimal info into the Roll20 sheets and treat the spreadsheet as the primary form.

 

[Faolyn]

Room for me to write. And something form fillable.

 

[Teo Twawki]

Vincent Baker on "character sheets":

Character sheets are useless when it comes to

Good thing Vincent Baker cannot gate-keep the creative scaffolding that are character sheets at our table.
But we could also turn around and say--with much more accuracy and validity--that Mr Baker is useless when it comes to our gaming.

 

[pemerton]

This is a great philosophy until someone remembers they left their vorpal blade on the other 3x5.

A vorpal blade, as you're describing it, is a player resource.

 

[LegendaryAdventureStudios]

I love simple character sheets, 1-2 pages with complex reference sheets that make a game with deep, diverse combat digestible.

 

[Committed Hero]

A vorpal blade, as you're describing it, is a player resource.

I was intimating that a PC can "remember" owning one without having actually acquired it.