13
\$\begingroup\$

Also, what are the advantages and disadvantages for each approach?

Improve this question
\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ Voting to close as opinion based, because this appears to be a poll. \$\endgroup\$
    – doppelgreener
    Sep 15, 2014 at 13:58

10 Answers 10

Reset to default
12
\$\begingroup\$

Depends on the game like GURPS, D&D 4.0, Fantasy Hero I prefer character sheets. For older editions of D&D and games like Traveller a piece of paper does just fine.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 3
    \$\begingroup\$ Very true, if the game has lots of information to keep track of, your going to want to use a character sheet. If it's just a few things, you can get a away with just a plain piece of paper. \$\endgroup\$
    – Bonemaster
    Aug 20, 2010 at 13:25
9
\$\begingroup\$

Character sheets because they should be things of beauty to admire and age with the time the game played. A 52 session character sheet should look like it.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 6
    \$\begingroup\$ I usually redo a char sheet every other level or so just so there aren't to many eraser marks that make it hard to read. Plus I like to print customized sheets to make it nicer and you cant eraser printer ink very nicely \$\endgroup\$
    – Ben-Jamin
    Dec 21, 2012 at 18:50
8
\$\begingroup\$

It really depends strongly on the system, and on the character sheet design.

For D&D 3.5, I can't live without a character sheet. I can quickly fill it in with the book in hand, and be done creating a character in minutes. I know where all my combat stats are, and can find them easily. I have a PDF of a customized sheet that has quick descriptions, damage dice, casting times, etc. for all of the 3.5 spells for every core class in a compact format.

Advantages: Easy to find things. Rules and formulas laid out conveniently. Skills already listed.

For Shadowrun 4E, the character sheet is a cluttered waste of space, with ten small tables that nothing fits into, instead of one big table that just fits the things I need for this particular character. I'm better off with lined-paper. I've seen people use excel sheets with multiple tabs for the various types of gear and abilities, but they didn't really appeal to me.

Disadvantages: Too many complex, diverse abilities to cram tables for all of them into a two-page format. Wastes lots of space, and you end up scribbling over sections that you aren't using, and using the space to write in the overflow from filled sections.

For GURPS, I could go either way. GURPS has diverse abilities, but they can mostly be rolled into a few unified listings on the sheet.

When I'm playing Shadowrun over Skype, or printing sheets for a convention, I create a Word document (in OpenOffice); this is a pain to create but easy to use, and doesn't waste space.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ P.S. I've actually taken to creating my own web-based SR4 character generator app. Don't expect it to be released for public use anytime soon, though; it's still in an early alpha stage of development, and intermittently worked-on. Eventually, it will have a nice, printable sheet which is customized to your character. Eventually. =) \$\endgroup\$
    – RMorrisey
    Aug 21, 2010 at 8:01
5
\$\begingroup\$

In my experience, use character sheets so you don't forget to fill out a part of the character and a blank sheet of paper only for the session to track dynamic items like hit points, spells cast, etc. That way the character sheet doesn't get overly ruined with constant erasing and rewriting. Instead the character sheet only gets updated when new (semi-permanent) items are added to inventory or a new level is reached.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
5
\$\begingroup\$

Neither. I keep everything on my iPad/phone.

The good:

  • Everything's either in Evernote or Google Drive as either a straight up document or a spreadsheet (for games with lots of fiddly bits).
  • Being able to show up ready to game with just a tablet (or tablet and physical dice if that's what you like) is fantastic. Carrying backpacks full of heavy crap is for teenagers/college students.
  • Your GM wants access to your sheet? Just share it with him online!
  • I've misplaced hundreds of pages of gaming crap over the years, I have yet to misplace Google.
  • I'm already carrying it because it's got PDFs of all the books we're going to need to play and they're searchable!

Now for downsides:

  • Obviously you don't want to spill coke on your expensive electronic device.
  • You probably shouldn't get cheetos dust on it either. I'm trying to be less of a fat old man, so honestly not constantly eating while I play is really more advantage than disadvantage.
  • It's battery will run out eventually. My iPad lasts for about 10-12 hours of gaming use off of a full charge. That's almost twice as long as my typical play session, but it's inadequate if you're going to be spending the day playing things at a convention.
  • You can't crumple up your sheet and throw it at the GM when he screws over horribly. Well I guess you could, but you'd really have to work for it.
Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
5
\$\begingroup\$

A character sheet helps keep track of the myriad rules and options you would otherwise overlook. This does depend on your game: for complex games like D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder the number of things to keep track of is huge and depends on the class you're playing, while a simpler and more emotive game may be better served with a few scribbled notes and raw roleplaying.

It's worth finding a good set of character sheets. I humbly submit my own character sheets for D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder as being quite good, but Mad Irishman's are good as well.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
3
2
\$\begingroup\$

Depends on the game and the complexity of the character sheet. Something like Pathfinder or 4e I like to use software to take the pain of the numbers away.

For simpler things a blank sheet of paper is perfect.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
2
\$\begingroup\$

I like to encourage the use of plain paper over printed character sheets / power cards in D&D 4e because it forces players to understand their characters. I've found that players often pick powers that have cool names and print them out only to come to the session completely unprepared to actually use them. Players often seem to fumble with their deck of cards when their turn comes up, then say "I'll use this one" and then struggle to figure out what it does.

Even the act of writing out the text of powers goes a long way to making players internalize and understand that text.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
1
  • 1
    \$\begingroup\$ My experience from Exalted suggests that players will tend to burn out in efforts to write down all their powers quite quickly resulting in "How does Insert Power Here work again?", "What page is it on?", "I'll look it up and write down a page reference this time". OTOH, I've never had a problem with 4e players not knowing what powers did (just in trying to pick one of the often too-many options). \$\endgroup\$
    – Quentin
    Dec 22, 2012 at 9:53
1
\$\begingroup\$

I used keep a 3 ring binder with the character sheets inserted under the transparent flap on the front and back, and graph, lined, and blank sheets inside for sketching maps, keeping a campaign journal, and scratch paper for sundry items. However, I've recently switched over to printing power cards out of the D&D Character Builder tool and Scotch-tape "laminating" them to heavy cardstock for my "Character Sheet", and now just carry a small journal and a spiral bound set of graph paper.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$
0
\$\begingroup\$

I customize sheets for each game system.

I have found that, for my GMing convenience, I really want everyone using the same sheet format. This is because I use people's sheets in session, and I need to be able to find things on their character sheets.

I have also found that, in general, I prefer to include the optional data that I make use of; for Traveller, as an example, I do use homeworld data, so there is a spot for it. Likewise, I include space for both base and current attributes, and career history.

Generally, I do up the sheets in Apple's Pages or in a DTP layout program (Pagemaker or Scribus). I usually print them on 110# card.

Improve this answer
\$\endgroup\$