Quote:
Originally Posted by Exallted
I like your sheet! I don't know what initially drove you do to it, but I suspect it was something along the lines of "I'd like more info here" and as you said, less page flipping.
Not meaning to steal your thread (just commenting): I tried making a custom sheet myself, and while quite happy with the amount and type of info it has (being superior to the official in those regards, IMO), your design quality is much more "professional" than mine:
Custom Sheet
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EF...L8dVl6fRkKFgVG
NPC Sheet
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1IU...WG6-EJcwRj8eRr |
It was not the amount of info... I think mine has about the same amount as the standard sheet -- with the exception of one little table and a few instructions to help beginning players, though that was inspired by the 3rd edition sheet.
It was mainly that the top half of the standard sheet looks too disorganized and cluttered, which makes the sheet -- and thus, the game itself -- seem too complicated. My first reaction upon seeing it when I bought the book was saying "Well, this looks like a mess." I don't want my players to feel that way.
So by separating things into "sections" or "zones", grouping, aligning everything whenever I could and leaving a good amount of room for someone to write on it, I thought even if it still looked pretty plain, it would end up helping players have a more pleasant experience.
There's still too much stuff in it, for my tastes anyway, but it's really hard to remove stuff and still have a very generic-and-universal character sheet. In my latest revision I actually removed the Points Summary, because it's not the kind of information that players need to keep referring to. It's not essential.
Now it occurs me that I could remove some lines from the Skills and Ads/Disads columns and add back in something else that is very important: White space.
Your sheets look pretty neat. Good idea with using the icons. It's something I'd like to use too.
If you want some constructive criticism, I'd say that you should try and be consistent with both your fonts and the decorations you use.
Think on hierarchy and function when choosing fonts, font sizes, font weights, etc. and if you have the same type of information to display (for instance, tables) format them always the same way.
On decorations, the curved part of every box should be the same size everywhere.
You should also try to print your sheet and see if on paper everything "reads" well (i.e.: not just the text, but the icons too).