Character sheet

A character sheet is a series of numbers, notes, and other details about a character in a role-playing game. Character sheets can be found in use in both tabletop and computer role-playing games, although in the latter they are usually not expressly referred to as such, and are almost always represented by a display on the screen rather than via an actual sheet.

Some non-role-playing games, such as some board games and party games, use records that could be equivocated to character sheets.

Design

A character sheet is likely to include the character's name, physical characteristics, experience, abilities and 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. Despite the name, a character "sheet" may actually be two or more pages in length.

Many game rules come with a standard character sheet, a kind of a fill-in form which may be photocopied and has sections laid out for all of the game statistics a character can have. Some players design their own character sheets or simply record their character information on a simple sheet of paper, although inexperienced players are recommended to use properly printed sheets so that they don't leave out something important.

The content and design of such a sheet will vary greatly depending on what game it is used for and will reflect its play style and rules system. For instance, Dungeons and Dragons is an RPG which places much emphasis on combat, skill use and gaining abilities, in that order. The sheet devotes a small section at the beginning to character name and description, a larger section to combat statistics, then large areas for detailing statistics of what weapons and offensive attacks the character has, while the table to the right of that details the character's proficiency in skills. On the other hand, Tri-Stat dX is a simpler system placing a greater emphasis on special abilities, so its standard character sheet devotes a large area to recording the character's special abilities.

The layout of a character sheet, when creating a character sheet or choosing which one to use, is very important. Firstly, the sheet must be sure to allow the player to record everything relevant to their character. Secondly, it must also allow them to easily find and read off any information at a glance whenever 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. Finally, decoration of some kind may be added, but again, care must be taken that it is not distracting from the main character sheet.

Usage

Each player in a role-playing game has a sheet on which it is his responsibility to record all relevant data about his character. 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.

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 GM, who runs the game, may optionally keep proper character sheets for non-player characters if he wishes to keep full information on the character.

Almost all roleplaying games make use of character sheets, with the exception of rules-light systems and freeform RPGs that have no use for character record sheets.