Original OD&D Character Sheet, Revised

[Deleted]

I took the original TSR character sheet and added a few fields, then filled it out as a more complete example of character generation from OD&D's Volume I: Men & Magic. I thought it might be of some interesting to the participants here so I thought I would share.

[mgtremaine]

Good ole Xylarthen

-Mike

[ravenheart87]

Nice one.

[Zenopus]

Neat idea!

Wisdom is used 2:1 by MU to increase Int, so shouldn't the Int be 12? Or better, Wisdom 9, Int 13 so the character qualifies for the XP bonus?

[Deleted]

Sept 25, 2013 5:04:02 GMT -6 Zenopus said:

Neat idea!

Wisdom is used 2:1 by MU to increase Int, so shouldn't the Int be 12? Or better, Wisdom 9, Int 13 so the character qualifies for the XP bonus?

Thanks!

What you're seeing there is the result of a house-rule. I never used the "reduce one score to raise another" rule in boxed set, even back in the day. Instead, a player can swap the prime requisite of his desired class with any other rolled ability score. Going with the example of the rulebooks, Xylarthen's player rolled a cleric (high Wisdom) but wanted to play a magic-user, so by my house-rules he swapped INT and WIS.

Good catch. I wondered if anyone would see that. I knew this was a pretty sharp bunch.

[gronkthebold]

I'd definitely bring that fella along with a group into the underworld, and with charm person we'd have pretty much two party members for the price of one. Nifty idea and execution!

[Deleted]

Here is the descriptive text accompanying the character sheet up-thread. I will be revising the added text to include the language selections mentioned in this description. There are a few minor differences with BtB character generation due to the house-rules IMC.


Example of Character Creation

Jim is sitting down for his first game of Dungeons & Dragons, He rolls 3 six-sided dice a total of six times and yielding results of: 6, 11, 13, 12, 9, 8. He jots each of these down on his character record sheet in pencil.

As rolled, this character's highest ability score in Wisdom would make him best suited for life as a Cleric. Jim wants to play a magic-user, so he swaps the average score he rolled for Intelligence with the Wisdom of 13. This will gain him a 5% bonus to earned experience, though it is not quite enough to earn the bonus first level spell benefit.

Jim rolls 3d6 again, multiplying the sum of 7 by 10, giving 70 and representing the number of gold pieces with which his player-character begins the game. Jim equips his character with a weapon and some provisions, noting where all items are carried. The cost is deducted from his starting funds and the corrected amount of gold pieces is recorded. He then chooses the single magic spell that, as a first level magic-user, he can memorize. As a starting level character, the fledgling magic-user has no experience, so a zero is written in that field, Jim also jots down the number of points required to reach second level for reference. Because he cannot wear armor, the Armor Class for the fledgling spell-slinger is 9 (none).

Now for the finishing touches. Jim rolls a six-sider for hit points, getting a result of 4. Because the Constitution ability score is an average score of 12, there is no adjustment to this roll An alignment of Lawful is chosen, and the character is named “Xylarthen.” Finally, his Intelligence 13 allows him to choose 3 extra languages. Jim decides, on the spur of the moment, Xylarthen is a pious man and chooses the Lawful alignment tongue. To that, he adds High Elvish and, with the referee's permission, leaves one slot open. He writes those choices along with “TBD” for “to be decided” on the record. That's it! It is time to play.

The character's statistics and Jim's early thoughts on the character begin to coalesce into a picture: a nondescript (Charisma 8) weakling (Strength 6) who was schooled (Intelligence 13) by the local priest (Lawful Alignment) who recognized the boy's intelligence. Perceiving the potential of this fine young man, and after unsuccessfully trying to convince the boy to become a priest himself (Wisdom 11), the priest apprenticed Xylarthen to a powerful Wizard of his acquaintance.

Xylarthen heads to the Green Dragon Inn, where he will meet with other starting player-characters of various professions. They will form an alliance and, the next game day, will set out to make their name in the campaign world . . .

[allensh]

Nice sheet. where can I get it?

Allen

[Stormcrow]

I'm a fan of minimalist character sheets. My favorite is, of course, a blank, ruled sheet of paper.

But if I were to modify the TSR original to create a minimalist sheet, here's what I would do:

Replace Level with Race. Level is determined by experience points.
Split the Experience box in half; make the lower box Hit Points. This lets you keep track of the result of each hit die and track changes during battles; a single blank is not big enough. (I don't subscribe to the idea of re-rolling your hit points every fight/adventure/level.)
Replace Gold with Treasure, to be more inclusive.
You don't need a blank for Armor Class because you can just look up your armor on the attack table, and your magic affects the enemy's roll.

I believe that's it. There's nothing else you need to track.

[Finarvyn]

Jan 2, 2014 17:13:28 GMT -6 Stormcrow said:

I'm a fan of minimalist character sheets. My favorite is, of course, a blank, ruled sheet of paper.

I've alwasys been partial to the 3x5 notecard, myself.

[Zenopus]

Jan 1, 2014 14:12:25 GMT -6 allensh said:

Nice sheet. where can I get it?

Allen

The Acaeum has scans of the original sheet, in green and goldenrod, on the character sheet page.

[allensh]

Jan 3, 2014 13:12:53 GMT -6 Zenopus said:

Jan 1, 2014 14:12:25 GMT -6 allensh said:

Nice sheet. where can I get it?

Allen

The Acaeum has scans of the original sheet, in green and goldenrod, on the character sheet page.

Thanks. I do have that one. I was referring to the redesigned version that started the thread. Appreciate the heads-up.

Allen