OD&D Character Record Sheet

[Thangobrind]

I'm looking for a decent OD&D record sheet. Something that's well-organized and attractive in an old school sense.

I noticed some interesting hand-drawn OD&D sheets on Dragonsfoot, but they weren't entirely consistent with the standard rules, which is sort of a bummer:

www.dragonsfoot.org/php4/archive.php?sectioninit=CD&fileid=205

I suppose if all else fails I could design some of my own, but I wanted to check with you guys to see what's out there.

EDIT: This should have been posted under the OD&D Workshop, though I am curious if anyone has access to a Games Workshop OD&D CRS. I haven't seen it, but I noticed that it's listed here:

tomeoftreasures.com/tot_odd/odd.htm

[grodog]

See also the Acaeum @ www.acaeum.com/ddindexes/miscpages/gw.html

I have these back in KS, can see about posting a scan once I'm back from the holidays.

[Thangobrind]

Thanks, Grodog! That would be great.

[kesher]

Thangobrind,

I have a scanned copy of the sheet grodog posted (though not in a dayglo color), as well as a DM's reference sheet and a few other character sheets oldskool in info and aesthetic. PM me with your email address, and I'll send them your way, if you like.

[blackmoor]

I would be interested in seeing this, if permitted.

Dave Arneson
'Dark Lord Of Game Design'

[Fandomaniac]

Dec 23, 2008 12:17:43 GMT -6 kesher said:

Thangobrind,

I have a scanned copy of the sheet grodog posted (though not in a dayglo color), as well as a DM's reference sheet and a few other character sheets oldskool in info and aesthetic. PM me with your email address, and I'll send them your way, if you like.

Hi Kesher,

Could you please send to me also if it's not to much trouble? I will PM my email. Thanks.

[Thangobrind]

Just found a nice example of the Games Workshop sheet in question:

plagmada.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1074

[dwayanu]

At knights-n-knaves.com/dndsheets/ you'll find several items.

TSRcharactersheets-gray.pdf is Grodog's scan of the 1977 sheet, with a gray backgound.

Original_DnD_sheet-set.rar is a simpler sheet in one- and two-per-page versions (JPG and PDF) and a form-fillable PDF version. The mockup of the 1975/76 form is by Jerry Mapes of K&K, PDFs by Littlefoot of Dragonsfoot. The files are also separate in the parent directory.

D&D1980ChrSheet.pdf is in the style of Moldvay Basic, by Radagast the Brown.

[kesher]

Oh hey! That's where I got mine! Duh.

I really should've remembered that...

Nonetheless, scans have been sent to those who requested them.

[kesher]

And, now that I think about it, you should know about burke's sheet, too, 'cause it's awesome, and I think I forgot to include it in what I sent to you...

[Thangobrind]

Thanks for the links, Dwayanu!

[Thangobrind]

Oooh, nice one, Kesher. We may have a winner.

[Falconer]

One of my players and I recreated a character sheet based on scans from the Acaeum. This sheet was used internally at TSR but never sold commercially. You can view the JPEG or download the PDF.

Originally posted here.

[Thangobrind]

That's an excellent facsimile, Falconer, right down to the copyright info at the bottom of the sheet.

Kesher -- Who is this Burke that designed that character record? I've seen his Swords & Wizardry sheet as well (also very nice) -- at least I assume it's the same designer. Anyone have a link to his site/blog?

EDIT: I found his site through your original link:

www.mattiaswikstrom.net/

[Fandomaniac]

The Mad Irishman Productions' website has a great Moldvay era Character Sheet replica. It's a PDF with the ability to turn on and off backdrops and border layers.

www.mad-irishman.net/pub_dnd_basic.html

[Thangobrind]

The Mad Irishman makes some really classy stuff. I've been digging on his site for a while. Love his fonts!

[Fandomaniac]

Thanks to the Mad Irishman and the Creative Commons license, I have revised his character sheet for OD&D.



Here's a link to the PDF:
www.fandomaniacs.com/odnd-character-sheet.pdf

Here's version 2 with "Stone" changed to "Turn to Stone" under Saving Throws
(I thought "Stone" by itself looked off-balanced lined up with rest of the column):
www.fandomaniacs.com/odnd-character-sheet2.pdf

Please note: The green backdrop can be hidden in the Layers menu or the color changed.

Enjoy!

[dwayanu]

Back in the day, my crew always used handwritten sheets; even the arrival of 8-bit computers and dot-matrix printers didn't change that. As I recall, we considered it "a rip-off" that TSR sold sheets instead of including them in the book as (for instance) Chaosium did. The goldenrod sheets for AD&D certainly were impressive, though. We used photocopied (on horrible slick paper) forms for RuneQuest.

The notion that "serious D&Ders" keep their characters on lined notebook paper or index cards seems to have stuck with me as an unreasonable prejudice -- albeit pretty weak now. (I started using forms in the 1990s.) I seem to recall that someone (for Basic Fantasy? Labyrinth Lord? Gods & Monsters?) made up a digital form that emulates the mode, complete with blue lines and a "handwriting" font.

[Thangobrind]

Being born in '78, most of the grognards here can easily place me in the New(-ish) School. My perception of character record sheets when I started playing Red Box D&D in the late 80s/early 90s was exactly the opposite of Dwayanu's -- I wanted to have all sorts of crazy, slick-designed sheets like the example they included in the Player's Book. I had no access to a copying machine though, so I had to resort to lined paper and have at it. I went through many versions and designs for my record sheets until I began playing 2nd Edition and bought my first booklet of official sheets. When the Age of Computers dawned I started at designing sheets again, with somewhat mixed results.

I like the utilitarian and -- for lack of a better descriptor -- secretarial aspects of character record sheets. They add yet another dimension to the game for me, in a quasi-prop sort of way. When a DM puts a lot of effort into his handouts, the little design goblin who lives in my brain titters with glee. It won't 'make the game' of course, but it could be an ingredient in the frosting.

[dwayanu]

For other games (especially my own designs), I got into making up forms on an old manual typewriter (with a sans-serif pica typeface). I even typed up individual index cards, which in retrospect seems crazy. Not for D&D, though; an eccentric sense of "propriety" in that regard somehow took root early on.

Slick paper for photocopies (perhaps a local aberration) ended before the decade, but I had in the first flush stocked up an ample supply of RQ forms. I liked very much the various forms GDW laid out for Traveller, although I mostly kept using index cards for characters.

Burke's design is striking, and is along with some others notable for its "minimalism." Others elsewhere have remarked on the fact that TSR's 1976 form included no space specifically for hit points.

[Thangobrind]

Dec 24, 2008 16:30:05 GMT -6 dwayanu said:

Burke's design is striking, and is along with some others notable for its "minimalism.".

I'm in total agreement there. Burke's sheet has just enough detail to be functional.

Sheets for modern games tend to be too busy, reflecting the "obesity" of these systems. There's a learning curve with those sorts of sheets -- it takes time to figure out where everything is and to be able to retrieve the necessary information without slowing down the pace of the game, especially at times when the drama requires such expediency. I think the "note card" CRS somebody on these forums created does a nice job of illustrating just how compact and expedient OD&D can be. The goal should be to minimize paperwork, especially for the players.

[Random]

Dec 24, 2008 16:53:45 GMT -6 Thangobrind said:

Sheets for modern games tend to be too busy, reflecting the "obesity" of these systems. There's a learning curve with those sorts of sheets -- it takes time to figure out where everything is and to be able to retrieve the necessary information without slowing down the pace of the game, especially at times when the drama requires such expediency.

4E has a section in the PHB explaning the layout of the official character sheet. Wtf @ that! A character sheet should be self-explanatory. It's supposed to be a record, not a puzzle.

[Thangobrind]

That's...just crazy. It seems like all that book-keeping and number-crunching would leave little time for -- oh, I don't know -- fun?

EDIT: After reading LOTFP, I may have to revise my use of the word "fun" and perhaps substitute "aesthetic enrichment" -- I seem to remember Vladamir Nabokov using a similar term at some point.

[harami2000]

Dec 28, 2008 17:46:52 GMT -6 Thangobrind said:

That's...just crazy. It seems like all that book-keeping and number-crunching would leave little time for -- oh, I don't know -- fun?

Gotta be a balance somewhere, I guess, else we'd all be playing Creeks & Crawdads or Dinky Dungeons.

(Was that "question answered" with regards to CRSs, btw? A few sweet replies/solutions in that batch

d.

[Thangobrind]

Well, we definitely got a look at some nice sheets (and I'm definitely going to use one of them), but no one so far has produced a scan of Games Workshop's OD&D CRS.

[harami2000]

Ah.... I presumed that had been handled via PM, sorry. Try farm4.static.flickr.com/3089/3146828488_7cfa388fc9_o.jpg

[burke]

Dec 24, 2008 7:27:32 GMT -6 Thangobrind said:

Kesher -- Who is this Burke that designed that character record? I've seen his Swords & Wizardry sheet as well (also very nice) -- at least I assume it's the same designer. Anyone have a link to his site/blog?

Yes I have designed both a Swords & Wizardry sheet and a sheet for OD&D. I originally posted the latter in the Philosophy section as I was inspired by the discussion there of what a character sheet should contain. The consensus seemed to be that the character sheet should contain as little of the underlying game mechanic as possible.

Both sheets can be found on my site and are in the public domain (though I forgot to put this in writing on the OD&D sheet, I'll update it when I find the time), so feel free to modify it as you like.

www.mattiaswikstrom.net/rpg/odd.html

[Thangobrind]

Harami, consider yourself exalted.

Burke, thanks for offering up such an awesome sheet!

[chgowiz]

When I created my CRS for microlite74, I tried to leave as much as blank as possible. I've watched my wife and daughter and they love to scribble all sorts of notes and stuff on the sheets. I modeled it after the old non-published 75/76 TSR CRSs.

I have to admit, since I'm not an artist, the space left on most of these sheets for character sketches is lost to me. Even the dudes at Order of the Stick look better than what I can draw...

[Fandomaniac]

I'm not into character sketches myself but both my daughters love to draw.