Why are character sheets so often badly designed?

[John Dallman]

This is a terrible choice that is focused on character building but not on playing the game!

... because the designer explains what's needed to the graphic artist by going through character generation.

 

[Shiroiken]

I've pretty much made my own character sheets for every RPG I've ever played, except for Deadlands (that sheet was pretty usable). Part of it is because I'm used to character sheets just being chicken scratch on lined paper. The other part is that so many sheets waste a lot of space with artwork, or even worse make the space for some areas WAY too small to write legibly (an issue I've always struggled with). In general I try to make a character sheet 1 page of vital information, with the backside being general information. If a character has any kind of spellcasting type abilities, I'll usually have that on separate pages, not only for quick reference but also to avoid cluttering the sheets of non-casters.

Character sheets typically need to be dense with information, which is a bad place to start. Then, there's the problem that what information actually matters varies from character to character. What a Barbarian needs to see, and what a Wizard needs to see are not the same thing.

One of the things I remember from 3E D&D was they made a packet of character sheets specifically designed for each class. The concept was pretty solid, since you could ignore aspects that were irrelevant to that particular class. Unfortunately they didn't change the overall design much, meaning that some wasted space still existed. The other downside, due to the design of 3E, was that if you decided to multi-class later, you needed to make an entirely new character sheet.

 

[John Dallman]

Supplementary question: what do you keep on your scratch paper, as a player, during a session? For me, in D&D family games, it's hit points, my current initiative value, spells, and notes about what's going on: the watch list if we're having a multi-day march, names of NPCs, spells currently in effect, that kind of thing.

Spells is a list of preselected spells if we're doing that, or an array of tick-boxes.

 

[dragoner]

I agree with the skills part, why list them all? Then the fancy graphics just take more ink, and some add color, why? Less is more, just give the relevant data fields to be filled in.

 

[Campbell]

Usually because they are designed last instead of as part and parcel of the game design process.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

Reasons:

• Design is harder than you think. Fan-made character sheets are not better than professional ones; it's not an easy thing
• Some systems have characters with very different needs. Having half a sheet devoted to spells on my D&D fighter is an example
• Some people care about the appearances way more than others. I'm one -- looking at an ugly (if informative) sheet for hours at a time is no fun for me. I'd prefer cryptic prettiness spread over several pages

 

[Ulfgeir]

Reasons:

• Design is harder than you think. Fan-made character sheets are not better than professional ones; it's not an easy thing
• Some systems have characters with very different needs. Having half a sheet devoted to spells on my D&D fighter is an example
• Some people care about the appearances way more than others. I'm one -- looking at an ugly (if informative) sheet for hours at a time is no fun for me. I'd prefer cryptic prettiness spread over several pages

I am well aware of the different needs between for example a fighter and a wizard. What I referred to were the generic uses that is a problem that most people will experience. I think a solution to that is one one page have the stuff that affects all characters. Like the class, their stats, HP's, and weapons/armour, and skills. Then have separate pages for example spells, equipment etc.

And yes, I am also well aware of the difficulies of design and functional UI's and the complexities of functional UX...
I think @Campbell had a point that the character sheets often are done last, and thus not tested enough.

 

[Ulfgeir]

Supplementary question: what do you keep on your scratch paper, as a player, during a session?

I like to put notes on what the other player's characters are named and what they are. We often have at least 2 campaigns running concurrently, and we are a group of 8 players. We play every second Friday and Sunday, and we mix systems and genres a lot, so not always easy to remember who everyone is.

I write down stuff like my characters HP, initiative (not always there are premade places for that). And for some things a short note on HOW certain things are calculated (like initiative, perception, saves etc. Especially if it is something that are used frequently, and not intuitively, and they have messed up and not provided a fixed space for it. So I don't have to look it up every time I use it, or I expect that this is something that will change often. And other important stuff.

 

[MichaelSomething]

Do you think the initial Pathfinder 2E sheet was well designed??

 

[Li Shenron]

I think a solution to that is one one page have the stuff that affects all characters. Like the class, their stats, HP's, and weapons/armour, and skills. Then have separate pages for example spells, equipment etc.

This is commonly the case.