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A character sheet is a record of a
player character A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional Character (arts), character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters tha ...
in a
role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...
, including whatever details, notes, game statistics, and background information a player would need during a play session. Character sheets can be found in use in both traditional and live-action role-playing games. Almost all role-playing games make use of character sheets in some fashion; even "rules-light" systems and
freeform role-playing game Freeform role-playing games, also called freeforms, are a type of role-playing game which employ informal or simplified rule sets, emphasise costume and theatricality, and typically involve large numbers (eight to two hundred and fifty) of players ...
s record character details in some manner. The
role-playing video game Role-playing video games, also known as CRPG (computer/console role-playing games), comprise a broad video game genre generally defined by a detailed story and character advancement (often through increasing characters' levels or other skills) ...
equivalent is known as a status screen. Some non-role-playing games, such as some
board game A board game is a type of tabletop game that involves small objects () that are placed and moved in particular ways on a specially designed patterned game board, potentially including other components, e.g. dice. The earliest known uses of the ...
s and
party game Party games are games that are played at social gatherings to facilitate interaction and provide entertainment and recreation. Categories include (explicit) icebreaker, parlour (indoor), picnic (outdoor), and large group games.Frankel, Lillia ...
s, also use records that could be compared to character sheets.


History

The first role-playing game published, ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (1974), did not include a character sheet. The first one ever published was in the ''Haven Herald'' fanzine of Stephen Tihor published on May 3, 1975. One month after, another character sheet was released in the APA magazine '' Alarums and Excursions''. Since then, most tabletop role-playing games use a character sheet for information about the player characters. Most of them fit onto one page, but some games like '' Castle Falkenstein'' or ''Sailor Moon RPG'' use a full booklet. Other games such as '' Ars Magica'' (covenant sheet) or '' Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay III'' (party sheet) and ''Reign'' use a sheet for a group of player characters.


Overview

What is considered relevant can vary by game and personal preference—one player may consider his character's eye colour or personal background relevant while another might not, but both may be required by the game rules to note down on their sheet if their character suffers an injury. The layout of a character sheet, when creating a sheet or choosing which one to use, is important. First, the sheet must allow the player to record what the system finds relevant to their character. Second, it must allow the player to easily find and read off information at a glance when they need it. In addition, if the character sheet is more than one page long, careful consideration must be given to put the most often used data areas at the front page. In all cases, care must be given to ensuring that the layout is generally well organized, grouping similar areas together logically while being easily readable and not overcrowded.


Contents of a Character Sheet

A character sheet is likely to include stable attributes, such as the character's name and physical characteristics. It may also include values that change often such as
experience Experience refers to Consciousness, conscious events in general, more specifically to perceptions, or to the practical knowledge and familiarity that is produced by these processes. Understood as a conscious event in the widest sense, experience i ...
, abilities, health/vitality (e.g. hit points) and an inventory of items possessed. It is common for a character sheet to essentially be a record of a character's history as changes are made and important things noted. It is referenced during gameplay. Despite the name, a single character "sheet" may actually be two or more pages in length. The content and design of such a sheet varies greatly among games, and is a reflection of what the system considers important. For instance,
Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...
, being a high fantasy dungeon crawler, requires a description of a character (same as every game), combat capabilities, and magic abilities if applicable. As such, the character sheet focuses on the character and the basic combat abilities, with an optional secondary page on magic. Another example is how in comparison, Call of Cthulhu has a larger section on skills and what is possible, without the unspoken abilities of a Dungeons and Dragons character. Going to extremes, character sheets can even hold nothing on the characters being played. An example of that is Alice is Missing, where the character sheet is a record of what has happened to the character in the game at that point, and not on the abilities of each character. A player may have an additional character sheet if he also controls a second character, a cohort or a hireling, but this is less common. The dungeon master, who runs the game, may optionally keep proper character sheets for
non-player character A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by a ...
s (NPCs) if he wishes to keep full information on the character. Some rulebooks offer special “NPC sheets” for this purpose that are considerably smaller than the usual (main) character sheets.


Formats


Paper

Character sheets for a game are usually found within the game's main rulebook, and permission is almost always given for players to
photocopy A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers ...
this sheet. Some publishers sell preprinted sheets separately. Many offer
PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...
files with character sheets for the players to print out themselves. These sheets are generally forms split into sections that hold the information related to play the game. It is not uncommon for players to create custom character sheets, to their own design, rather than use the publisher's “official” offerings. Some design their own sheets or record their character information on an empty sheet of paper, although inexperienced players are recommended to use formatted sheets to avoid leaving out important information.


Electronic

With the advent of personal computing, players began designing character sheets with computers. The earliest computer-generated character sheets were designed in a word processing program, so that players could fill in their information and have a typewritten sheet to use. Next, players began to experiment with spreadsheet solutions, so that some of the calculations required were automated. Some important advantages of spreadsheet character sheets are ease of access, automatic calculations, complex formulas can be more easily coded and they remove reliance on pen and paper.
Wizards of the Coast Wizards of the Coast LLC (WotC or Wizards) is an American game Publishing, publisher, most of which are based on fantasy and List of science fiction themes, science-fiction themes, and formerly an operator of retail game stores. In 1999, toy ...
included a character generator CD with their Player's Handbook, 3rd Edition, and offered the Character Builder for download to D&D Insider subscribers, alongside a Monster Builder as part of Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Tools.{{cite web , url=http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/insider/monsterbuilder , url-status=dead , title=Wizards of the Coast Monster Builder , publisher=Wizards of the Coast , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090802184500/http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd%2Finsider%2Fmonsterbuilder , archive-date=August 2, 2009 , access-date=November 4, 2019


Dynamic

A Dynamic Character Sheet is an electronic sheet that is used in conjunction with a computer/mobile device during gaming sessions. Such a character sheet is used not only to track the character, but to also add/apply effects to the character on the fly. For example, if the character receives the effects of a spell which increases its strength score, then a dynamic character sheet will be able to automatically update all the effects of a higher strength character. Another example is if a character activates one of his abilities, the dynamic character sheet will be able to apply the effects of that ability in real time. Furthermore, such character sheets enable the player to track the duration of the applied effect, thus turning off effects that have expired.


References


External links


Mad Irishman Productions
featuring character sheets
Character sheets
the Dungeons & Dragons official website's character sheet downloads Role-playing game terminology