The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

[Lucius]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

 

Yes, but no one wants to sit out the game.

 

 

You confuse me.

 

Isn't the upshot going to be someone sitting out the game anyway?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary adds that it's also not true that no one wants to sit it out.

[Greywind]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

Don't go confusing things by bringing logic into it.

[Matt Holck]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

You confuse me.

 

Isn't the upshot going to be someone sitting out the game anyway?

 

ideally, the upshot would be the player hands me a character I understand

and perhaps even the other players understand

 

that it's also not true that no one wants to sit it out.

 

Players not currently playing are allowed to speak for minor NPCs during the adventure.

The GM can decide if the NPC actually said what a player suggested

[timfnj]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

Thank you. I'll try them. I had been using the Friz(sp?) template.

[ghost-angel]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

I require a restricted definition of what powers could be used on the variable power power pool based on special effect of powers.

 

after having read a few of the vast supply of Killer Strike's characters and vehicles,

I would add that mental awareness does not come with other mental attacks in my games.

 

Mental Awareness is no longer for free in 6E when you take a Mental Power; All of those are 5E and older characters.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

as the write up is one page' date=' that character would be allowed[/quote']

 

So I can have any construct I want, so long as it fits to one page? I generally review the overall character for fit with the other characters, the campaign setting, etc. Just because it doesn't have a lot of lines doesn't mean it can't be unbalanced. Compare two characters, one which spends points on 25 3 point background skills (each on its own line) and one that has no such skills, but instead adds the points to the character's major attack power (+9d6) and defenses (+15/+15). Which character is more likely to be problematic?

 

Anything I feel is appropriate for the situation

within the confines of the shared perception of the setting [/code]oaff

house rules

guidelines are campaign dependent

 

So it's not OK for someone to have a versatile and complex character that covers 2 pages, but it's perfectly reasonable for the GM to have arcane house rules, campaign guidelines, etc. longer than the rulebooks and expect the players to read and understand that.

 

Yes' date=' but no one wants to sit out the game [/quote']

 

Without an approved character, you're sitting out the game anyway. Unless the GM allows himself to be browbeaten into allowing a poorly reviewed (if reviewed at all) character because the player can't get his act together until the last second, and then to accept whatever was on the sheet because he didn't question it at the time.

 

That's why our group plans in advance for new games, allowing players lots of time to prepare their characters and have the GM look them over before the first session of a new campaign. We typically don't even schedule a new game until the characters are pretty much done. Character review is done outside game time (email is a marvelous thing). And even then we typically have come character issues resolved with "we'll see how it works in the game and modify it should a problem arise". And if an unforeseen issue arises, the character gets modified to correct that as well.

 

I suppose restrictions on size of character sheet may be more beneficial if your game leans to a more "player vs GM" atmosphere where pulling a fast one on the GM somehow means a "win"for the player. That's a different style than I prefer, but may suit the tastes of some gamers. Atthe end of the day, you have to go with what works for your game. To me, though, imposing restrictions on the character sheet is excessive.

[Matt Holck]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

ideally, the upshot would be the player hands me a character I understand

and perhaps even the other players understand

 

 

 

Character sheets cointain visable organization

they lists stats in a column

multi-power slots are listed under the multipower

skills are set to their own list

 

Over designed characters have ability they never use.

[Lucius]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

ideally, the upshot would be the player hands me a character I understand

and perhaps even the other players understand

 

 

Wouldn't it be ideal if the person running the game can understand the characters presented for play?

 

Or perhaps at least be willing to ask for an explanation if something seems unclear?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary buys the Power of Invisibility so as to be as clear as possible.

[JaredThaler]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

I think I will stick with the "Give me the character one week in advance rule"

 

or the "This looks fine, but if it turns out to be unbalancing, we are retconning his power level"

(Hey, it's a comic book, they do that all the time...)

[lemming]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

If it's going to be a campaign, then time before hand is a nice thing. I always consider characters a work in progress anyway. Sometimes play will show something being unbalanced that wasn't apparent during review.

 

For Con games, I certainly appreciate a more succinct character sheet and the same goes for GM supplied if I'm the player.

[ghost-angel]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

Considering most print books are in a 10 Point Serif Font with 1.2 Leading. . .

 

I consider your demand on what size font my character is in to be the height of insults. It's absurdity taken to such a massively high new level I'm having trouble visualizing it.

 

I can come up with a number of 12pt Fonts that would be nearly impossible to read to boot. That's before we even get into Condensed Fonts.

[mallet]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

I like large, easier to read and use sheets.

 

This is an example of the sheets we use in the fantasy Hero game I GM:

[Marcus Impudite]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

While I can understand your reason for wanting to impliment a rule like this, I can tell you from experience that it may not work out quite the way you're hoping. On one hand, I've seen plenty of non-broken character sheets that take up more than one 12-point typed page side, and on the the other, I've seen some broken ones that take up less than a page. The way I generally run things, we don't start the campaign until I have a copy of everyone's sheet in hand and have an opportunity to look them over, and any noobs in the group use pre-gens provided by me until I have the time to give them a tutorial on the finer points of character generation. Also, as others have also pointed out, if a problem comes up in game you just have a polite chat with the character's player and sort things out.

[Matt Holck]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

true

 

my concern is not so much broken characters as overly complex characters that are difficult to understand

I thought limiting write length would be a good way to help prevent that

[Rapier]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

my concern is not so much broken characters as overly complex characters that are difficult to understand

I thought limiting write length would be a good way to help prevent that

 

Well, that depends entirely on a number of things. A while back we ran, for a bit, with some Fantasy Hero. The very first game when we printed out all the character sheets we were AMAZED by how much space the mages required. The first thing we did was tick the box in HD so that not all common Limitations are displayed in each slot. But the spells still took up quite a bit of space. So we finally just created a custom list with custom powers with the spell names and costs. The spells were then printed on a separate 'spell book' page.

 

I, like you, am fond of simple builds that get straight to the meat of the matter. However, sometimes, it's just not possible. The only advice I can give is to try and vet the characters as much as possible and make sure that they are building from reason and not reasoning from build.

[Lucius]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

true

 

my concern is not so much broken characters as overly complex characters that are difficult to understand

I thought limiting write length would be a good way to help prevent that

 

Requiring every power to have a plain language description would be better.

 

That would make the character sheet longer but more comprehensible.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Short palindromedary tagline.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

So, what does the player who is writing up his UberCool Character likely to do when he hits that 1 page limit? My guess is that he will not drop abilities and modifiers in order to fit this arbitrary limit, and in the process remove his vision of the character he wishes to play. Rather, I think he will likely take steps like:

 

- abbreviations and acronyms to shave lines - Blast becomes Bl; Armor Piercing becomes AP; 8 Charges becomes 8 ch and so on.

 

- take out the flavour text. I know that the Bl vs MD AoE 4mCr, Inc (formerly Blast, Attack versus Alternate Defense, Mental Defense, Area of Effect 4 meter Cone, Incantations) is the Soul Rending Shriek of Il'Katur. I won't write that name down, in the interests of space, so you just get the mechanics.

 

In other words, my guess is that you are at least as likely to get a less comprehensible writeup than a more comprehensible writeup.

 

I'd much rather have a group that has had a discussion to find common ground on power levels and complexity of writeups, ideally coming to consensus, but possible a compromise, that allows all the players to run the kind of characters they enjoy playing, in a game where all the players and the GM are having fun. That undoubtedly includes allowing the GM enough time to review the characters and be comfortable with the impact of their abilities. It may include players explaining complexities to other players so someone else can run their character in their absence. It probably includes agreement that abilities or characters which prove unbalancing in play - whether overshadowing the other characters, not performing up to the standard evisioned by the player, or having an ability which proves unexpectedly effective or ineffective - will be subject to revision.

 

And, if your group sees fit, it could even include specific restrictions on character sheet design, including size, margins, fonts, etc. But I don't see character sheet design requirements as all that effective, all that desirable, or very much fun, so I doubt it's part of the social contract my group would come to.

[Kristopher]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

I have to agree with those who are saying that a page-length limit on character sheets isn't going to get the OP what he seems to want.

[Vondy]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

I tend to have work sheets and play sheets.

 

Here is a standard play sheet for a protagonist in a historical game (c. 1600).

 

I'm not going it give background information on the game/character here.

 

I might in another thread when more is done.

 

[ATTACH]34529[/ATTACH]

 

Some notes:

1. I dropped END, OECV, DECV for this game.
   
2. I do grabs as opposed strength rolls
   
3. I do presence attacks as opposed characteristic and or skill rolls
   
4. I use the "organization" multiplier for classes of contacts
   
5. I treat background skills as free-form regular skills (utility and cost wise)
   
6. I only allow "expert" as a skill enhancer (the others are just iterations of it)
   
7. I don't impose transport or weapon familiarity pens if the character has a relevant skill or skill level
   
8. The skills cantor, mohel, sofer, and shochet are zero point flavor skills
   
9. Polyglot is constructed using the TUS compound skill for backgrounds
   
10. I treat languages are INT based skills
    
11. I don't charge character points for equipment, bases, or vehicles.
    
12. I call complications "plot points" and give no character points for them. Instead, they serve as the basis of HAP economics.
    

Translation notes:

1. HaSaif Lbneit Brit - the sword of the children of the covenant (a secret society of jewish mystics with a nationalist vision).
   
2. Talmud Hohkam - specific usage: a talmudist; general usage: an expert in the broader Jewish corpus
   
3. Mohel - do circumcision
   
4. Sofer - a ritual scribe
   
5. Shochet - ritual slaughter for kashrut purposes
   

[Lucius]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

[*]Shochet - a ritual slaughterer

 

To forestall any misunderstanding, perhaps you should point out that "slaughter" in this context means killing animals for food, and "ritual" means according to traditional Jewish law (such as killing with a single swift stroke across the throat to make the death quick and easy for the creature, not killing one beast where another will witness the act and suffer fear and helplessness, inspecting it to make sure it's healthy, etc.)

 

Someone who doesn't know might see "ritual slaughterer" and think of a Divinely inspired battlefield berserker or something else far off the mark.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

I don't think a palindromedary is kosher

[Vondy]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

To forestall any misunderstanding, perhaps you should point out that "slaughter" in this context means killing animals for food, and "ritual" means according to traditional Jewish law (such as killing with a single swift stroke across the throat to make the death quick and easy for the creature, not killing one beast where another will witness the act and suffer fear and helplessness, inspecting it to make sure it's healthy, etc.)

 

Someone who doesn't know might see "ritual slaughterer" and think of a Divinely inspired battlefield berserker or something else far off the mark.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Um... yeah. Okay.

 

I edited it to make you happy.

 

I don't think a palindromedary is kosher

 

Most certainly not.

[GoldenAge]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

My character sheets are far too pretty to put on one page!

(Though, as an artist, my math often falls short)

[Vondy]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

My character sheets are far too pretty to put on one page!

(Though, as an artist, my math often falls short)

 

They are pretty. Kind of hard for the rest of us to reproduce, though.

[GoldenAge]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

I was showing them, not sharing them.

 

But seriously, yes... I used to do all of them in Illustrator. I've recently switched over to Word so that I can share them with Co-GMs. This is the first time in many years that I wasn't the only GM, so there's never been a need for anyone else to read them.

[The Main Man]

Re: The character should fit on one side of one sheet of paper in 12 point type

 

My character sheets are far too pretty to put on one page!

(Though, as an artist, my math often falls short)

 

Must Spread Rep...