So I've been slowly working on a custom character sheet for my players. I'm trying to combine the best parts of the core-set half sheet with the full page Players Guide sheet, and include some cheat-sheet type notes that explain some of the more confusing and often used aspects of the game.

This is merely a prototype, but I fully welcome any and all comments and suggestions of how I might improve it. Also, I realize that I'm missing several things such as the career advances workspace, equipment carried, experience, money etc. These elements will either go on the back of the sheet, or on a separate sheet altogether (to keep the players from having to flip the sheet over during play).

One last thing. I'm hoping to have the sheet be a bit smaller than 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 (i.e. half of a standard 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet)...this would allow for adequate table space and enable me to print two sheets at a time using a standard printer.

try that again

I like it, the only things I would say, is rather than using lower case, I'd go small caps. I'd also like to see Fatigue and Stress to have their own boxes to clearly separate them. Maybe the talent boxes could use the same kind of graphics as the career card and maybe ditch the old logo for the new one. but all of that is minor, how big is the sheet when printed, I like the size of the half sheet.

Cheers

Mike

Why do you have four expertise boxes for skills?

This is actually a good idea. I second the small-caps and fatigue/stress box suggestions, and also may suggest a bit more contrast text-to-background or making the background even darker and lightening the text areas.

My own suggestion is to float Basic Skills/Advanced Skills in the middle (possibly in bigger font) and to add a few more rows to advanced skills. I know my priest alone has Education/Piety/Invocation and I can see a shallayan perhaps gaining medicine etc.

shinma said:

If you right click the image and "view image" you'll see that there is a dividing line for fatigue/stress. The image is actually quite a bit bigger than the one above.

I'll definitely add more advanced skills boxes, as well as a "special & racial abilities" section under the Characteristics. What exactly do you mean when you say "float Basic Skills/Advanced Skills in the middle"?

Gallows said:

The idea is that at some point, if the characters survive long enough, there will be sufficient expansion material for them to advance beyond the third tier.

GoblynKing said:

Sorry, by day I work with giant databases, and web interfaces for them. When I say 'float' I meant 'like a div'. That is to say I have some positional and layout minor nitpicks which overall don't impact the full functionality of your sheet, but let me try and clarify.

So - 'Basic Skills' should probably be bigger and float above the word 'trained'.

There shouldn't be lines on the 'advanced skills' line, the text should be on one line (same size and boldness as the first) and sit in the middle of the section for skills.

Also, I came to the realization that I'd add 2 things. 1 - I'd leave space for a stance tracker (maybe just draw 5 circles and let folks fill them in with R's or C's as needed), and there should be some place to track fortune points (with one of your charming checkmark acronyms explaining their use next to them).

Sorry, by day I work with giant databases, and web interfaces for them. When I say 'float' I meant 'like a div'. That is to say I have some positional and layout minor nitpicks which overall don't impact the full functionality of your sheet, but let me try and clarify.

So - 'Basic Skills' should probably be bigger and float above the word 'trained'.

There shouldn't be lines on the 'advanced skills' line, the text should be on one line (same size and boldness as the first) and sit in the middle of the section for skills.

Since I'm being picky (and this is a SUPER minor nitpick) you probably want to even the white boxes and the characteristic words (strength, intelligence etc) with the actual blue diamond center.

Also, I came to the realization that I'd add 2 things. 1 - I'd leave space for a stance tracker (maybe just draw 5-6 circles and let folks fill them in with R's or C's as needed), and there should be some place to track fortune points (with one of your charming checkmark acronyms explaining their use next to them).

Not too surprisingly you sheet looks remarkably like mine.....

https://plus.google.com/u/0/s/warhammer%20character%20sheet

You can see I also supplied the text for the basic action cards that everyone has to start out with so I could set those aside.

No image so follow the link.

Gallows said:

Why do you have four expertise boxes for skills?

The idea is that at some point, if the characters survive long enough, there will be sufficient expansion material for them to advance beyond the third tier.

Per the rules, the 4th rank in a skill doesn't give a yellow die, it gives a set of bonus effects collectively known as "Skill Mastery". The Mastery rules aren't in the player's guide or core set, so most players won't have read them. Having four yellow boxes for each skill may make players misunderstand that rule and expect to get to 4 expertise dice.

Suggestion: Make the fourth box different in some way, like a white circle or "m" instead of a yellow square. Then the players will know something's unusual about it and ask for details.

Character sheets can make and break some games. The Gitzman sheet, for instance, smartly puts the basic actions on the front, but you don't need all those redundant effects. For example, as ranged and melee are essentially the same, they could have two title bar listings but only one effects listing. The same for defenses (which we don't even use in our campaign).

Personally, I've heard more bitching, pissing, moaning, griping, and panty-fillers-in-need-of-wiping over the fact that some people cannot /won't/cannot innovate on keeping the player's areas smaller. This is where character sheet innovation comes in.

Talents: forget the cards, put them on the sheet (along with the sockets)

Career ability: forget the card, put it on the sheet

Career sheet: forget the card, put it on the sheet

Skill specializations: put them next to the actual skills.

Basic actions and defenses (if you use them), put them on a sheet!

Then, the only thing you have on the table is your character sheet, some dice, and your 2-6 special action cards (maybe even in an album sheet). Wounds? = tick marks. When you get criticals, you use a card.

I even handed out our sheet with all the conditions on it so I don't have to go through the stack. "DAVE, YOU GOT "SLUGGISH" LOOK IT UP ON THE SHEET OR TAKE A CARD."

Personally, I think the absolute shiite design of the "rules lite" character sheet made things a lot worse. Cripes! Did anyone actually playtest rules-lite or was it just created out of "hurried spite" ? The flurry of activity back in the day, to create new character sheets really never reached the evolved state (imo). I still think there is a best-sheet out there somewhere, and to quote Belloq from Indiana Jones, "waiting in some antechamber to be discovered.

jh

Yeah, the character sheets for WFRP are terrible. I have been using Gitzmans sheets for a while now and they are just great.

One thing have been thinking of doing though: The players have written and rubbed out values for fatigue, stress and wounds so many times that they are starting to wear through the paper. I am going to draw up a set of number boxes on the side of the sheets instead and attach paper clips to use as markers. Then you can just slide the paper clips up and down the lists of values. This also easily stays put when you store the sheets between sessions.

Ralz,

Put magic tape over those spots: fatigue, stress, wounds. You can write on it and never wear through. I use paperclips for our party stress (which we don't actually use, we just laugh at keeping between 9.5-10). My players also use VIS A VIS erasable markers on the outsides of their Album Sheets (cards inside) or a bit of post-it note (again, you can write on).

Here is a link to a topic I made awhile back....

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/78001-updated-fillable-character-sheet/#entry752100

Hope this helps.

Here is the RPGGEEK link

http://www.rpggeek.com/filepage/89700/new-character-sheet-fillable-pdf

bumpity bump