Designing from the sheet

I've heard people say that the character sheet is one of the first things they look at in a new game. I agree with that sentiment. When I first started playing RPGs back in 19*cough*, there weren't any character sheets. My friends and I spent a lot of time trying different arrangements of information on notebook paper. Some tried for thoroughness and completeness of information. Some tried to be succinct. I liked the big complicated sheets in theory, but found them confusing in practice. I still distinctly remember trying to fit an AD&D character with all the gear and powers on a 3x5 inch index card. I managed it for my thief, but not a wizard. (Looking back on it, this may be why I rarely played wizards: too many things to track.)

In my recent revisions of the skills list, I decided to redesign the character sheet I had thrown together. I want everything on the sheet to be meaningful but easy to see and understand without a lot of calculating. It occurred to me that I should clean up the character sheet as a tool to aid me in cleaning up the system. I think the best way to explain the system to new players is to show them a good character sheet and tell them what all the parts are and how they are used.

When I'm reading a new game, I usually find myself flipping back to the sheet as I read anyway, so I might as well build the explanation around the sheet. I remember how easy the Call of Cthulhu game (don't recall which edition we used but it was after the 1st) made character creation. The double page spread explaining the steps of character creation in relation to the parts of the sheet really made it simple to understand. A picture is worth a thousand words and I'm hoping the sheet will help me trim a few thousand words of explanatory text.

It should also help me tighten up the game in general. I have a tendency to start simple and then add bloat fairly quickly, which I have to trim out later. I'll have a cool idea and toss it in and later I'll take it out when it doesn't fit. Arranging the elements on the sheet should help me realize what is important to keep and what I can toss out. Focusing on what the finished sheet should look like and be used in actual play is a good easy to keep the development focused. Once I get things sorted out, I'll make a nice looking version in Inkscape and post it for comment.

(In blogging news, it seems that blogspot is blocked here again. I can see my dashboard and visitor traffic, but not the actual posts. That's why I haven't posted in the past few days. Once again, I'm posting from my phone so kindly overlook any bizarre phrases that may result from auto correction.)