Thursday, December 10, 2009

Your Character Sheets Probably Don't Look Like This

...but mine do. Or they do now anyway.

This is because last week I had roughly the following conversation at least twice:

"Ok, a flaming axe shoots out of the wall at your head--what's your reflex save?"

"I don't know."

_____________

So instead, it will go more like this:

"Ok, a flaming axe shoots out of the wall at your head--give me your reflex save--that's the number in bright red 48-point type."

"It's +2."

"Fantastic, roll some dice."

Maybe this is overkill but yesterday I had this conversation with Kimberly Kane, aka Agent Scully in The Sex Files:

Me: "I'm figuring you're gonna want to be a fighter, right? Something simple?"

"Uh, I guess, I mean, what are the choices?"

"Pretty much anything you want, really, take a look."

looklooklook

"So it's all medieval?"

"Uh...yeah."

"So there's no robots?"

"Not so much. Although...[oh let's not go there quite yet]...yeah, there's no robots."

"Oooh, what's that?"

"That's a beholder."

"Can I be that?"

"Ummm..."
at

12 comments:

  1. crowkingDecember 10, 2009 at 4:48 PM

    I bet playing a Drow would fancy her.

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  2. Matthew SlepinDecember 10, 2009 at 5:41 PM

    You get good players. Knowing Saves is the Referee's job anyway, dude. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. JaysonDecember 10, 2009 at 6:44 PM

    That was an oblique Warforged reference, wasn't it?

    Or maybe she could play a police robot from the Barrier Peaks?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Adam DicksteinDecember 10, 2009 at 7:00 PM

    If she's looking for a SciFi GM send her my email.

    My character sheets look, well, not like that, but certainly more artistically designed then whatever is standard for the game I'm running. With very few exceptions I custom make my sheets for each campaign.

    As Zak can verify, my game has lots of visuals.

    ReplyDelete
  5. ChrisDecember 11, 2009 at 6:06 AM

    I liek yr super simple char sheet. It exploits the players' universal child-like love of bright colours and simple shapes to excellent effect.

    Memo to self: less illuminated manuscript, more Sesame Street...

    ReplyDelete
  6. kathulhuDecember 11, 2009 at 7:06 AM

    Ok, I think it's awesome that she wanted to play a beholder :) I've always wanted to play an ithilid but my DM won't let me. Something about evil characters not meshing well with the other good PC's.

    And I have to disagree with Matthew. Players are responsible for their own stats. DM's have a million other things to remember while running the game. But if they're just learning the game, then your character sheet is definitely a good idea.

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  7. thekelvingreenDecember 11, 2009 at 9:34 AM

    If you're playing third edition, there's probably a rule somewhere for playing beholders, although the level/xp penalty would probably be fairly steep, I'd imagine!

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  8. Stefan PoagDecember 11, 2009 at 10:05 AM

    I always wanted to play a mind flayer... but while the rest of the party (fighters, magic users, thieves, etc.,) all eat iron rations out of their backpacks, I'd be dragging a dozen slaves behind me in chains. Whenever we would stop for lunch, I'd just grab a slave, suck the brains out of his head, then chop up his body and feed it to the remaining slaves.

    Being evil means never having to say you are sorry.

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  9. TetsuboDecember 11, 2009 at 1:28 PM

    I'd just let her play a modified Warforged suited to her needs.

    I've seen aplayable beholder done in Savage Worlds.

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  10. Nicolas DessauxDecember 12, 2009 at 1:57 PM

    Very nice character sheet. I will think about it, but I'm pretty sure it could be adapted for my gamers.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousDecember 14, 2009 at 4:07 PM

    There's always this should you decide to indulge/taunt KK.
    http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/robotmaker.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  12. TomFebruary 24, 2010 at 11:35 PM

    I have taken this for use with a new player. Your copyright shall be maintained via a wee symbol and notation in like 4pt type on the bottom. Is this acceptable?
    (Oh, and thanks in advance. I think this will really help with the basic mechanics of the game.)

    ReplyDelete