The Brian Morgen design for D&D Next was brilliant - arguably ground-breaking even. Everybody loved having the vital stats in the centre circle; it made SOOO much sense! Why wasn't the concept adapted to 5E? That seems like a terrible mistake, going for a standard, boring, old-style, blocky design. I'm actually quite disappointed. Has anyone done an adaptation?
There was a playtest survey specifically about the character sheet. My guess is most people didn't like it.
I, a crafter of character sheets myself, really liked the Brian Morgen design - it was outside the box, and I respect people trying new stuff like that.
My players found it difficult to adjust to the new layout after playing so many different games with a similar organization (read from top-left to bottom-right, not the center out of this sheet), and kept running into space issues specifically in the boxes that curved on the side to accomodate the inner circle - they thought it was quirky, but those quirks became annoyances as they needed more info written down.
I even felt that a reorganization of it was not only possible, but improved the sheet.
Then there is the "standard, boring, old-style, blocky design" from Emi Tanji that made it into official status, which is actually regarded by my entire group as the best D&D character sheet we've ever used since there is only one complaint made of it (normally there are many, and I alleviate them myself) which is that there isn't quite enough room to list out a character's full inventory of equipment with only 1 item per line (the most minor complaint I've ever heard about a character sheet).
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
I just found it hard to read. I think I should stiill have ut buried in the playtest materials somewhere.
Well met, all.
A friend of mine was searching the forums and sent me this link letting me know he found a query that concerned me.
I am Brian Morgen and have indeed been MIA for a good while. Since 5E got started I'm now playing in my old 4E world that I DM as well as an online 5E group... it's got me good and distracted. 
Thanks for the dialogue concerning my sheet. It certainly has become somewhat obselete since the days of D&D Next; however, having started with my 5E group I have already completed a big update to my sheet. Though now it's more apt to say "sheets". I am making entire sheets specifically tailored to builds now. For example, I now have an Arcane Trickster, Battle Master, and a general Barbarian sheet. These are of course the classes being played in my current campaign. I have great interest in continuing the designs though. In the end, I would love to have a specific sheet for almost all builds. This will fix many of the issues that exist with the current sheet. I will have one general character sheet still that had many tweaks, but ideally the tailored sheets are far superior.
Another solution I was contemplating was simply including a 3rd sheet. Adding a 3rd sheet will solve nearly all of the "space" related issues. Admittedly, things can get a little cramped even now, but I've designed most of the sheets so you can reach the high levels and still have space. Some feat bloat with Fighters can make things a bit tight for example. Honestly though, I really wish to keep it to just 2 pages. I always hated having character sheets that were 4 pages long or whatever... I'm trying to ride that line of having enough space to put everything, but having a sheet that you can easily lay out on a table and not have to fumble through papers. Also imho, I rarely write out all the details of my spells & features. With 5E going back to the days of long spell descriptions (i.e. 3.5E spells), there would be waaay too much to fill in anyways. Instead, I'm trying to give just enough space to write out the basics with possibly a reference to the page # you can find the spell on in the PHB.
Anyways... I'm all about providing high resolution PDFs of what I've come up with, though I am unsure of how to share them with the masses currently. I need to find somewhere to upload them so I can link them here. If this is something you guys are interested in, please let me know and I'll look into it. Also, let me know what other tailored sheets you might like and I'll do my best to fulfill those "orders". heh I honestly just love designing the sheets and equally love the fact that some of you enjoyed the format I utilized. I certainly went for a break-the-standard-mold design, but I do not think it is all form and no function. The sheet is working better and better I think with each tweak I do. The centralized character info is something I believe I'll be holding on to, but I am toying with a more compact version as well. More on that later though.
So, let me know your thoughts and we'll see if we can find that ultimate final revision.
Thanks again for the comments and constructive criticism.
Cheers!
There were a lot of problems with it, like no place for your total HP, feats were on the second sheet where as less frequently used things were on the first sheet etc.
FFSAA wrote:
It reminds me a bit of the Numenera sheet http://www.numenera.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Numenera-Character-Sheets.pdf which sadly isn't fillable and wastes a lot of space on artsy stuff, although being a simpler system they can mostly get away with it.
FFSAA wrote:
I would really like to see updated sheets. I'll try to figure out how other people have been linking theirs.
[edit]
Looks like most of the ones I've checked out were uploaded on enworld.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?categoryid=23
Not sure how or if people do similarly on this forum. Also, there are other hosting options obviously. Hopefully someone will come along with some sound pdf hosting advice.
I recommend Dropbox for hosting things you want people to be easily able to share with people.
DM_HEEGZ wrote:
bitterblackale wrote:
Xaspian wrote:
Dunarian wrote:
FFSAA wrote:
Some of the layout I didn't like - I think stuff like a large space for languages on the front page??
But the circle was nice - I think it helped with the imaginative side of the game. I was a bit dissapointed in the squares design as well.
Dunarian wrote:
The Numenera sheet is probably the most beautiful PC sheet I've ever seen.
But, it's kind of hard to use.
I second the 'wild shape rotate your sheet 90 degrees' thing. That's an awesome idea. It makes me want to roll up a druid right now
Although, I've never played a druid, and I've been meaning to; even if it's just as a DMPC.
The sheet was interesting but the arrangement of information was off. And it made the unforgivable sin of being letter instead of landscape, when the later is much more efficient in terms of table space.
I remember sketching out an alternative that replaced the circle in the middle with a hexagon, evoking a d20. People seemed to like that. I've considered making a full version when I have the time.
Dunarian wrote:
I joined the game late (I didn't read any playtest elements and more or less only looked at the system after all three core books were out) and hadn't heard of this before now (though I did see "Alternative 2", listed above; I started out using it until I hit a few snags), and am intrigued to see its successor.
I really like the overall layout and the druidic iconography, though I will raise minor issues with both of these as I go on.
In terms of things that stand out, I really like use of a Wild Shape as simply rotating the sheet. That's a great indicator of what's going on, and the use of rotating the physical sheet to minimize everyone's confusion is something I have to admit is brilliant. I don't have enough experience with the system to know how many combat-ready forms a druid typically assumes. (It looks like Moon druids typically have one or two they favor and pull out the others on an "as needed" basis, so this is probably fine; all the same, you might consider a third sheet that's three copies of that Wild Shape template stacked on top of each other for contingency forms. This would also solve a page layout issue that I'll discuss below.)
Tempest_Stormwind wrote:
Dunarian wrote:
Dunarian wrote:
Any sign of new sheets from Dunarian?
I would love a link.
Nothing new on ENworld. Maybe he will pop in here and comment. You might have better luck messaging or emailing him.
Sorry, gang. I had to take a small hiatus.
I'm still in the character sheet biz so no worries there. :P
Let me know what class you would like to see next and I'll see what I can do.
As of right now, I still only have the Druid posted on EnWorld... I do intend to do more though.
I'll await your word.
Cheers!
Glad to hear you are still around; hope the hiatus was for good news and not bad.
I would like a generic one first (I have a Ranger/Rogue multi class)
But would also love a Paladin one.
Or, whatever sounds fun for you....
Coredump00 wrote:
Wow, sorry I missed replying here!
Dunarian wrote:
It amazes me people even care about a character sheet. A simple notebook has served me well. But whatever makes people enjoy the game works for me (unlesss it's 4E, concentration checks, nonvancian spellcasters, multiclass characters, demihumans without level limits, just kidding).
Dunarian wrote:
I really liked the look of it. I found navigating that sheet intuitive. But the boxes were to small and I couldn't fit much info in them. In the end it failed for me.
More importantly than my own critic, the playtest comunity as a whole hated it. When it came out there was a mot of "It looks wierd. I don't like it."
Those who participated in the playtest, gave regular feedback and filled out all those surveys directed the way the 5e game was design.
If you didn't get what you want in 5e and did not particpate in the playtest, to bad.
Dunarian wrote: