The Character Sheet Conundrum; Convenience vs. Flexibility.

The Character Sheet Conundrum; Convenience vs. Flexibility.

Ultimately, at some point every person playing a tabletop role playing game has reached for the most basic form of character sheet imaginable; a blank piece of paper. You can fill it in with any information you want and in any way that you want. But at some point the little issue of convenience slips in. It could be any manner of pre-made printed or digital creation – we’ve all used them. From photo-copying the character sheets out of the back of a book to downloading some new one found online everyone has their personal favorites. The thing is, and it is something that can be argued; at what point does that convenience balance with flexibility?

Let’s say for example a player picks up a printed sheet that allows him to fill in a blank space for any skills that he has while a player next to him has a list to check off. Which of the two would you prefer? What does a player do if their skills are not on the list?

There are many digital tools for character sheets online as well that include auto-fill and auto-calculation of various scores as an aid. However, sometimes a player uses a house rule or has a special trait that doesn’t fit with the standard methods. What then?

I find myself contemplating such things as I consider working on a new digital character sheet for 5^th Edition Dungeon’s & Dragons. What features are useful for players in such a utility? Is it better to allow them to fill in some aspects or lock in the pre-set values defined by things like race and class? How flexible and how convenient should it be?

I’d love to hear any thoughts on what favorite features people enjoy in a character sheet. What do you look for in one? Do you like the freedom to fill in what you like or do you prefer a pre-defined pick from a list approach? What are some of your favorite character sheets that you have used over the years?