Gaminess

[benlehman]

So, whilst not doing the test prep that I ought to be doing, I'm going to write about games. Yay!

One of the things that I realize has changed for me over the past 6-7 years or so is my opinions towards character sheets. Or, rather, what is written down about an RPG character (I've always been fond of lined paper as a medium, but that's not what I'm talking about.)

It used to be that I loved having details -- height, weight, age, eye color, skin color, nationality, and the like, all over the sheet. I never used the stuff, I just dug having it around, you know.

Now, I am totally the other way around. If it isn't about the game right here right now and having a big effect, I just don't really see what it is doing there other than distracting me from the important stuff.

I think that this may be the result of exposure to games like Over the Edge and Dogs in the Vineyard where even the trivial stuff is game mechanically important if you want it to be. That's the theory, at least.

What do your character sheets look like?

Comments

[unrequitedthai.livejournal.com]

http://www.geocities.com/torchbearer_rpg/cruciblesheet.pdf
This one is sort of ornamented, but you only fill in information that you must know.

http://www.geocities.com/torchbearer_rpg/pdfs/sfkcharsheet.pdf
This one can be read from the other side of the room, and is designed so you can track your stats with piles of coins.

http://www.geocities.com/torchbearer_rpg/pdfs/sfkadvsheet.pdf
This one fits two characters on one sheet, and looks okay in black & white.

[benlehman.livejournal.com]

Hey -- how much would you charge for design / layout work? Those are super-pretty.

yrs--
--Ben

[unrequitedthai.livejournal.com]

Thanks, man. At the moment, I'm not in the business, so I have no idea what the going rate is; I'd have to check around. I'm willing to work cheap in order to get some stuff out there, though.

[funwithrage.livejournal.com]

Enough of my games are LARPy that I have, like, one actual character sheet. Thing from Mage, and it's standard, so I have Deb's hair and eye color--but just because there are spaces there. Age might be useful, but if I don't have a pretty good idea what my character looks like when I'm playing her, I have issues with that character.


Mind you, having the spaces is a good way to make myself think of appearance when creating the character, but I don't often use it afterwards.

[judd-sonofbert.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of when I first gamed with my girlfriend and handed her a D&D 3.0 character sheet. Her eyes crossed. She put it down. "I don't like looking at this."

Burning Wheel was better, I asked her to just concentrate on the Beliefs, Instincts and Traits, just find the other numbers as I asked and not to worry about anything else. I noticed her and the other gamers weighing their BIT's during play.