I was toldi in this topic to ask for help here. :D
Basically, my friends and I started playing a simplified D&D campaign based on the board game "The Wrath of Ashaladon". There are 5 of us, my boyfriend acting as the game-master. The rest of us have disabilities that can make the game more complex than it probably should be. One of the reasons we are starting from the board game.
I'm in the process of setting up our character sheets, and I'd like a perminate one with the following information:
- Character Name
- Character Age
- Character Race
- Racial Trait
- Character Class
- Basic backstory/self quest
- Character image
The changeable items are:
- Invetory, leve/exp, HP, CHA, SPD/STA, inventory, abilities, traits, skills, powers, and equipment.
I think having it easy to read would be a great, so we don't have trouble finding anything on the sheet.
From the previous thread we'll be using index cards for quick notes and things. :D I also think quest sheets would be useful as well. I'm not sure though.
Any other ideas? o.o
Melanii wrote:
You can help with a blank character sheets.
There are five of us, the game-master not having a disability.
I have bi-polar, PTSD, and poor memory. My main issue is retaining information and if seeing something that looks like a wall of text or broken into sections, I get lost and confused. Another has ADD, and is terrible at staying focused. This also has them forgetting things easily, because they couldn't pay attention in the first place. Another has Autism. She has troube understanding things and often mistakes certain powers as not passive or vice-versa. The other has a physical one, Cerebral Palsy, but that just means that she can be slow at writing things down or anything of the like.
Melanii wrote:
Before I go too far - how does this seem for the first page ? 
special character sheet 001.pdf
That's pretty useful! Thanks! Yup US letter is right. I'll have the DM read that article. Again, thanks so much. XD
Colored higlighters may help too. Pink for attacks, blue for defense, green for information-gathering things (that help your PC learn things), ellow for utility things (like that rooe of climbing).
Just a thought. Good luck.:-)
One thing I did for my campaign, was print out little index cards with three backstory hooks on each of them. I would then ask the players to choose one backstory for their character, and then I would use that in the story of the campaign. This made it easier for my players to work out the details of their character. I didn't ask them to write entire pages of backstory, I just allowed them to pick one cool detail.
For example:
-You inherited a mystical pendant from your father.
-You own your own pirate ship.
-You were marooned on an island for several years.
-You are on the run from a bunch of villains, and are under cover.
-You have a tattoo on your back that is really a treasure map.
-You are looking for a family member, who was mysteriously lost at sea.
-You are on a quest for vengeance, to kill the man that took the life of your father.
-Your father was a notorious pirate captain, and you carry his fearsome name.
Most of my players aren't that great at writing elaborate stories for their characters. This made it a lot easier. They were allowed to keep the index cards, incase they forgot what their plot hook was.
Here is a new version of the page 1. It has the same file name, so don't mix them up.
special character sheet 001.pdf
- I've made the left margin wider in case you want to punch the sheets to put in a ring binder
- There's a little mark on the left edge, exactly half way up the page, to help you line up the punch, if you do
- I've taken away the "Level" box because it belongs on page 2.
Here is a draft for page 2
special character sheet 002.pdf
- No grey background, because you might print lots of copies of page 2 and it saves ink.
- There's a Character Name box at the top, in case the sheets gets separated
- There's a box to write either a version number or the date at the top, in case you keep all the old sheets for the same character, to help you know which is the most up-to-date
I've included all the boxes you asked for, but it's complete guesswork on my part, how much space to leave for each of them. We need to leave room for crossings out and changes and I think that's okay, but I want you to tell me how much space you think we should give to each box on the page. Also, do you want each of the equipment slots in separate boxes?
Just a point of observation: Wrath of Ashardalon is based on the 4th Edition ruleset (as I suspected in the other thread, before I knew which board game you were basing things on). 4th edition is actually rather complicated to play because it has a lot of stuff to track - the very issue you're having, in fact.
You might want to consider at least reading 5th, since it's a recent edition that's much easier to play (fewer bits to track, for instance), or perhaps other games than "D&D" (several can be used to handle fantasy worlds and many really do just come down to people throwing dice at each other.) Your own houserules do a great job of simplifying things, but you might find that large amounts of you work have been done for you or that a different game engine better fits your needs.
I'm so sorry for the late response! I'm always so forgetful when it comes to anything!
Anyway, thank you for the character sheets and all the suggestions. Things are going a lot better now. ;D I plan on making visual tokens soon. :P
As for other ideas:
1. I'd probably use a very "light" sort of character sheet, that only involves the skill modifiers and all the actions that can be done by the character including all the relevant rolls / modifiers needed.
2. Convert all other information that is relevant and frequently changes into physical objects:
- Plastic chips for current HP
- Item cards
- Tokens for other markers like inspiration and maybe status changes
(If light sources are relevant make it obvious which character holds an item that is currently lit.)
In Pen & Paper the situation that a character knows more than a player isn't all that uncommon in the first place, even if the player has amazing memory. So a player could always tell the DM "I want to recall if I know anything about that guy" and the DM reveals all the information (that the character knows). Often players have a hard time getting used to this, but in the end it all boils down to getting used to ask.