Graphite Prime: More D&D 5th Edition Character Sheets

I have a large collection of RPGs. It became a routine: Hear about a game, buy it, figure it out, and ultimately make it my own by redesigning the character sheet. Nothing helps you understand every aspect of a game better than designing a character sheet for it.

The first question I always ask: Can I make this a one-page character sheet? It's always my goal to fit everything on one page. In a way, its a barometer for how complicated a game is. But, not always. Some games are actually fairly simple yet require a lot of booking-keeping. Many games have optional layers of complexity and offer complete character folios several pages in length (eg, Pathfinder's Character Folio, a nice looking product for sure, but how many people actually use it?) The simple act of flipping your character sheet over to look at the back or even turning pages causes a certain level of inefficiency to the gaming experience (it's kind of like pausing and having to look up a rule in the rule book(s).)

Now, is this really that big a deal? No.

But more and more, I'm an OSR guy. I have really come to appreciate the beauty of simplicity. Just picked up Frostbitten & Mutilated by Zak Smith, another great product by that guy. More on OSR products another time...

Throughout most if it's history Dungeons & Dragons only required a single page character sheet. I remember, back in high school (in the late 80's) any time I was bored in a class I would just start writing out character sheets on lined paper. Many gamers back then probably produced very similar looking sheets. The game was simple and there was always plenty of room on the page for everything your character had including all the spells if you multi-classed or were playing a Magic-User or Cleric, but having a separate page for spells wasn't unheard of.

Remember these? Nice stats!

Eventually no one used hand written sheets. The official ones were too cool, and if we designed our own, it involved a lot of cut and paste and photo-copying, and wow, it was tedious and fun. Would not have the patience for that any more. These days require a different kind of patience.

Frankenstein's Character Sheet.

Don't even remember designing this one for DC Heroes.

3rd Edition D&D opened the floodgates. With the addition of feats, skills, extensive class abilities, animal companions, and the necessity of owning many magic-items, one-page D&D character sheets flew out the window. This information bloat continues with Pathfinder -- which, don't get me wrong, is a fine game and I pre-ordered the 2nd Edition play-test, if only just to own, who knows. (Love Wayne Reynolds art.) I'll do a later post on Pathfinder character sheets.

With 5th Edition we have returned to simpler times. Without talking about the game itself, the rules have just the right level of complexity that makes designing character sheets a joy. Everything comfortably fits on one page (except spells.) The official character sheets for the game aren't bad, but I had to customize my own.

Little side note: Back when 5th Edition was D&D Next, WOTC asked people to send in their character sheet designs. Not sure if they were looking for talent or just inspiration, but whatever. Below is what I sent in. I think it resembles the final official sheet in tone, i.e, grey and white, and it shows how my own designs have evolved since then.

On to the alternate 5th Edition character sheets. The files attached include a spell sheet.

This sheet is similar to the one in my first post with the addition of proficiencies.

DD5thProficiencies

This is a full-on Dungeoneer sheet that lists a bunch of items that are commonly needed in a dungeon crawl. I've always liked the idea of having to track all this stuff.

DD5thDungeoneer