If I get remembered for anything by the rpg community -- though, at least right now, they don't even know I exist, but my group does, and they will remember me for my love of creating character sheets. It's not like rpg's don't come with a character sheet, they do, but sometimes what they offer isn't enough.
I believe the first character sheet I created was just a simple copy of one from West End Games' (WEG) d6 Star Wars. Nothing fancy, but it provided a little more writing space than the sheet WEG offered.
Before I go forward I should take you on a trip down memory lane, to my first experience in an rpg . . . . . . .
It all started one morning during choir practice at R-MA (R-MA is a boarding school with Air Force affiliation.). We were sitting down waiting to get started and two guys I knew, Lindner and Byron, were talking about Star Wars and this thing called roleplaying. Needless to say it peeked my interest and I inquired to what this game was all about. That weekend, I believe, Byron invited me up to his friend Howard's room (Byron and Howard were two of the few guys that we called by first name, most of us went by last name). When I walked in I saw a bunch of guys sitting around this room, each with a piece of paper, a pencil and a load of d6s.
I didn't know what to expect so I just sat quietly and listened to Howard spin his web of epic heroism (Howard was running the game). So there I was, fascinated by the interactions between players, player and gm, and the sound of dice as the scattered across the floor. When suddenly Howard turns to me and says, "Salow, you're the Force and you're glowing." He did this little two handed waving motion and then moved on with the story. And from that moment on I was hooked.
My first character was a Young Kid; that was the template, it was pre-generated character and all I had to do was give it a name. That name ended up being Jean Baptist (the theme of finding a name with meaning continues today). And the most epic moment of that game for me was during a scene in which Jean was fleeing from a female Dark Sider. I don't recall the exact details, but I think I was fleeing either from a ship or to a ship and encountered this woman, and a henchman. It was beautiful, and here's what I remember:
The landing platform hovered hundreds of feet above the ground, the wind whipped across the smooth surface like water over glass. Jean stared into the eyes of his assailant knowing that his life was in her hands. Who was she? What did she want? Whatever it was Jean wasn't going to give it to her willingly. Her attacks came quick, like a serpent striking at a smaller, weaker pray. Jean used what training he'd received to the best of his abilities, but it was like trying to stop a blaster bolt with a piece of paper. Finally a strike took Jean off his feet and he fell hard to the durasteel platform. The cold metal brought some relief to his aching muscles, but the fight was far from over. In the blink of an eye the woman was upon him, poised to strike the final blow. With only nanoseconds to think Jean grabbed the only other weapon at his disposal. Durasteel slinging stones he had picked up only a day before. He reached down into this pouch and gripped one tightly in his little hand. Was what he about to do going to hurt her as much as it would a man? He didn't know but he had to try. And with a grunt of effort, only found in the deep reserves of his body, he forced the stone up into the woman's crotch. The unexpected strike was enough to startle the woman, and give Jean a chance to escape ...
I still have this character sheet, and would like to one day resurrect him in a game. Unfortunately my chances to game are limited, due to work schedule, and being a father. But I would like to give a big thanks to Howard and Byron for taking the time to bring me into the mix, and start me on the track to becoming a gamer. . . . . . .
So back to the character sheet.
A character sheet can say so many things.
It's a blank canvas waiting to be painted.
One of the first things I look at with any rpg is the character sheet. I may know nothing of the system, but I can usually tell by the character sheet if I will like the direction of the game. For instance, The Dresden Files has a decent character sheet that focuses less on the stats, and pushes storytelling to the forefront. The first page offers a look into the character's past by asking for descriptions of five previous events that shaped the character into who they are at the beginning of the game; and then ask you to put a "title" to each event. This title then becomes an aspect, which you can then use during the game to enhance roleplay. The back page consists of a list of skills, your Fate pool (points you can spend to increase skill rolls, or alter outcomes) and a short section for magic, feats and powers.
While this sheet is simple in it's design, my group felt it was too small in certain places, and left out things that were also important during character creation. So I took the sheet and worked on expanding it to make it even more user friendly. What ended up being produced was a four page print-out. And the group responded well to it. Of course I went through a couple different drafts before coming to it's final version, as I tend to get carried away with details. Or rather, I try to be too fancy with character sheets.
The first major character sheet I made was from Wizard's d20 Star Wars. I had bought all the books and was looking for a character sheet that would make character creation easier, by listing all the Skills, Feats, Force Feats, and Force Skills. This way players could see the prerequisites that were needed in order to reach the next Feat or Force Skill. But perhaps I went overboard with this one, as it too ended up being 4 pages long, or was it six? And my group at that time thought I had gone nuts. But we used it for a couple games, until I cut it back down to two pages, by just providing blanks in the the aforementioned sections.
Since then I have created new character sheets for several other games: D&D 3.5, D&D 4E, Star Wars Saga, Last Unicorn's Star Trek, WEG d6 Space and d6 Fantasy; just to name a few. And another one that just got group approval was for a game Byron is creating. The thing that helps most is that all these games had pre-established character sheets. So all I have to do is get feedback from my group and tweak it to their specifications. Although they recently challenged me to create one from scratch for Sword's Edge. While I initially had problems with understanding of the game mechanics, Sword's Edge is a game that uses the same mechanics as Kiss My Axe and Sword Noir, in which the latter had a character sheet I looked at for design support, and I'm still working on this one though. But, I believe it to be one of the first rpgs that could be put on an index card.
As you can see character sheets have a lot of history with me.
Shot Out: Rho Pi Gamma: The Gamer's Podcast for whom this blog is so aptly named after.
Check out my next blog entry, Chronicle 002: Character Sheets Pt 2! COMING SOON!
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