Character sheet

A character sheet is a record of a player character in a role-playing game, including whatever details, notes, game statistics, and background information a player would need during a play session. Character sheets can be found in use in both traditional and live-action role-playing games. Almost all role-playing games make use of character sheets in some fashion; even "rules-light" systems and freeform role-playing games record character details in some manner. The role-playing video game equivalent is known as a status screen. Some non-role-playing games, such as some board games and party games, also use records that could be compared to character sheets.

]] A character sheet is a record of a player character in a role-playing game, including whatever details, notes, game statistics, and background information a player would need during a play session. Character sheets can be found in use in both traditional and live-action role-playing games. Almost all role-playing games make use of character sheets in some fashion; even "rules-light" systems and freeform role-playing games record character details in some manner. The role-playing video game equivalent is known as a status screen. Some non-role-playing games, such as some board games and party games, also use records that could be compared to character sheets.

Overview

What is considered relevant can vary by game and personal preference—one player may consider his character's eye color or personal background relevant while another might not, but both may be required by the game rules to note down on their sheet if their character suffers an injury. The layout of a character sheet, when creating a sheet or choosing which one to use, is important. First, the sheet must allow the player to record what the system finds relevant to their character. Second, it must allow the player to easily find and read off information at a glance when they need it. In addition, if the character sheet is more than one page long, careful consideration must be given to put the most often used data areas at the front page. In all cases, care must be given to ensuring that the layout is generally well organized, grouping similar areas together logically while being easily readable and not overcrowded.

Electronic

With the advent of personal computing, players began designing character sheets with computers. The earliest computer-generated character sheets were designed in a word processing program, so that players could fill in their information and have a typewritten sheet to use. Next, players began to experiment with spreadsheet solutions, so that some of the calculations required were automated. Some important advantages of spreadsheet character sheets are ease of access, automatic calculations, complex formulas can be more easily coded and they remove reliance on pen and paper. Wizards of the Coast included a character generator CD with their Player's Handbook, 3rd Edition, and offered the Character Builder for download to D&D Insider subscribers, alongside a Monster Builder as part of Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Tools.

Dynamic

A Dynamic Character Sheet is an electronic sheet that is used in conjunction with a computer/mobile device during gaming sessions. Such a character sheet is used not only to track the character, but to also add/apply effects to the character on the fly. For example, if the character receives the effects of a spell which increases its strength score, then a dynamic character sheet will be able to automatically update all the effects of a higher strength character. Another example is if a character activates one of his abilities, the dynamic character sheet will be able to apply the effects of that ability in real time. Furthermore, such character sheets enable the player to track the duration of the applied effect, thus turning off effects that have expired.

References

External links

Mad Irishman Productions, featuring character sheets Character sheets, the Dungeons & Dragons official website's character sheet downloads

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1340517425 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.