In Nomine custom character sheets

Jason · 05-17-2013, 03:10 PM

I'm hoping to find (or design) a replacement for the character sheets my In Nomine group has been using, so I thought I would come here to ask for recommendations -- either for sheets that already exist, or for what you think ought to go on character sheets.

I'm familiar with Tafka J.'s character sheets and others on the IN resources page, but I abandoned these awhile back. My players found it really hard to find target numbers, and since people tended to just write the names of powers without descriptions of what they do, we'd spend a long time looking stuff up in books. I'm the only one in the group with an encyclopedic knowledge of what every Song and Attunement does, but even I need to check sometimes for whether it's the Song Level or the Check Digit that determines the duration of a certain Song. (Or worse, players wouldn't bother using certain powers at all because they forgot what their "Such-and-such of the Word" attunement did and didn't feel like asking.)

To replace these, I created an Excel spreadsheet that felt like a triumph of consistent bookkeeping, with target numbers and check digit modifiers auto-calculated all down the left, and space for descriptions of what every power in the game does. Unfortunately, advanced characters tend to have a LOT of stuff, which led to information overload with really tiny type. Now players can find target numbers, but they can't really keep track of individual powers themselves with so many different things on their sheets. (This might be a problem with how we've built characters as much as an information design problem, but it is what it is.)

I wonder now if I can find a middle-of-the-road approach: Something as easy to quickly scan as Tafka J.'s sheets, but which doesn't require you to dig through books to get anything done. I'm considering doing something like a "summary" sheet on the outside of a folded character sheet, with detailed explanations of what everything does on the inside. It's also been suggested to me (since my players are so familiar with D&D 4e) to break individual abilities onto a card-like grid so players can quickly scan for "what can I do in this situation?" Those solutions would be a lot of work for me to convert to and maintain (without setting up an In Nomine database ... gulp), but I'm potentially willing to put in some of that time if it means that we don't get gunked up in social/RP scenes by people staring at character sheets, boggling over what they can do.

Any suggestions or already designed solutions? And what do you use for your group's sheets?

05-17-2013, 03:10 PM	#1
Jason Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Boston, MA	In Nomine custom character sheets I'm hoping to find (or design) a replacement for the character sheets my In Nomine group has been using, so I thought I would come here to ask for recommendations -- either for sheets that already exist, or for what you think ought to go on character sheets. I'm familiar with Tafka J.'s character sheets and others on the IN resources page, but I abandoned these awhile back. My players found it really hard to find target numbers, and since people tended to just write the names of powers without descriptions of what they do, we'd spend a long time looking stuff up in books. I'm the only one in the group with an encyclopedic knowledge of what every Song and Attunement does, but even I need to check sometimes for whether it's the Song Level or the Check Digit that determines the duration of a certain Song. (Or worse, players wouldn't bother using certain powers at all because they forgot what their "Such-and-such of the Word" attunement did and didn't feel like asking.) To replace these, I created an Excel spreadsheet that felt like a triumph of consistent bookkeeping, with target numbers and check digit modifiers auto-calculated all down the left, and space for descriptions of what every power in the game does. Unfortunately, advanced characters tend to have a LOT of stuff, which led to information overload with really tiny type. Now players can find target numbers, but they can't really keep track of individual powers themselves with so many different things on their sheets. (This might be a problem with how we've built characters as much as an information design problem, but it is what it is.) I wonder now if I can find a middle-of-the-road approach: Something as easy to quickly scan as Tafka J.'s sheets, but which doesn't require you to dig through books to get anything done. I'm considering doing something like a "summary" sheet on the outside of a folded character sheet, with detailed explanations of what everything does on the inside. It's also been suggested to me (since my players are so familiar with D&D 4e) to break individual abilities onto a card-like grid so players can quickly scan for "what can I do in this situation?" Those solutions would be a lot of work for me to convert to and maintain (without setting up an In Nomine database ... gulp), but I'm potentially willing to put in some of that time if it means that we don't get gunked up in social/RP scenes by people staring at character sheets, boggling over what they can do. Any suggestions or already designed solutions? And what do you use for your group's sheets?