Simplified Template Design Concept

[Propjock]

I've never been satisfied with the presentation of the GURPS character templates. They are dense walls of text that I think are intimidating for new players and not that readable even for the initiated. Over the last few years I've started/stopped on a few GURPS template redesigns with varied results.

I thought I'd share my latest attempt by posting a page (PDF) from my translation and re-work of some 3e Cliffhangers templates. Any feedback would be helpful and especially if anyone else has examples they have created or enjoy using.

My goal was to come up with something as simple as possible (and no simpler) that I can hand to new-to-GURPS (or even new-to-TTRPGs) to get them started or inspired on chargen. Most of my sparse gaming is either short adventure arcs on Roll20 with the occasional f2f game where the table isn't overly familiar with GURPS. I'm usually playing in the 150-175 starting point range.

A couple of my design choices are explained below:

• I try to reinforce the [ ] brackets as point values through consistent usage
• Filled bullets indicate fixed skills
• Larger empty bullets are for skill choices (that can double as checkboxes if printed)
• Art and description to build engagement and breakdown the wall of stats feeling
• Maintain as much white space as possible
• Templates should be no longer than a single page
• Included a legend in the footer

I'm currently torn on whether to present the actual skill level or leave it off to achieve a cleaner look. The 4e Basic Set chapter on character templates includes it. The 3e supplements I own (notably Cliffhangers) don't always include it.