Saturday, 29 October 2011
Starter Character Sheets Origins
The basic layout borrows heavily from Pathfinders Beginner's Box Set. What I quickly learned is that character sheets are information heavy. While not any different from many other games character sheets, clearly there is an expectation of investment. Of course this is obvious, but if one is not thinking about how information is presented and accessed on a character sheet, one might just "forget" the obvious. Initially, I debated: would the project use Dave Graffam's excellent character sheet (of which I can't find online, but will ask permission to serve here) or the official character sheet?
After some tests with Dave's sheet it became clear that the game investment has to be well-rooted for a player to truly appreciate the layout and access to information. Thus the debate was decided: the official sheet would be used...
... but not without some editing. The Pathfinder character sheet is really only effective with two sheets (or one sheet printed front and back). WFRP is no different. Some inspection of the Pathfinder Beginner Box Set sheets shows liberal reworking of the sheet from the core rule set to answer the following question: if the rule book was not available, could the reader play a rough approximation of the game in 15 minutes just looking at the character sheet?
That question seems to beg an answer that eludes many seasoned players of AD&D or WFRP... at least WFRP is nicely packaged in a single book of less that 300 pages. Pathfinder is over 500 pages. D&D today--even yesterday--is dozens of books (minimum two). How can you distill the subtly complex rules and game play into a single sheet and 15 minutes of exposure?
I tried... once. I think I did a good job, but even with freshly exposed players all the "cheat sheet," a WFRP Primer if you will, tried too hard to boil down my experience to one sheet. My experience is broad (vast?), but maybe still too much for new players trying to grok a foreign ruleset. See what you think, download my WFRP 2e Primer.
Your comments, as always, are welcome.
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Hi!
Using your primer tonight, kicking off my new Watchmen of Altdorf campaign.
Thanks!
/M
@Magnus, how's the campaign going?
@Murdoch, thank you for the excellent review. I believe there are merits to your arguments that were not present in my use of the primer, if only because I wrote it and then was present to resolve confusion. Though I don't immediately recall any, some of your notes I think were just assumed by the audience, all programmers.
For example, and point taken, "lte" and "gte" I borrowed from an expression language syntax my initial audience also knew (if you're familiar with Perl these shorthands may also be familiar). However, using ≤ or ≥ would be more universally known.
The Action summary at the bottom really should have been pruned to just the Basic actions (as noted) leaving more room for additional text. Another example of being to complete and thus cluttering what should have been easier to digest.
Regarding the sideways text and some of the other notes. Again, criticism well received, but it's hard to consider other options. The vertical formula for damage still works, it's basic math after all. The "Can you ...?" text was really meant to serve as a queue for players to remember these options. I have often seen players in the heat of a combat forget these tools. Overall, the box is poorly organized and could use some cleanup, so agreed.
Watch for 2.0. :) And thanks for the comment!
Hi, thanks for the Primer but I have a couple of suggestions for you if you will indulge me :)
Firstly, it took me a while to figure out what lte meant - maybe you might want to just use the < symbol. (Or the actual "less than or equal to symbol, that I don't know how to type!)
For the definition of Basic skill I'd maybe have gone with something like "If you don't have a Basic skill on your sheet, you still get to roll it but at half your characteristic."
There is also a LOT of vertical (ie. sideways) writing. It's really hard to read and where you do use it it isn't always clear what the text actually means.
The basic combat box is a bit of a hodge podge - and the "Can you parry? Can you dodge?" seems a bit cryptic and mysterious. The damage "flowchart" could really do with going from left to right as well instead of being vertical.
The Basic/Half Actions thingy at the bottom is handy but you could really do (perhaps on another page) just a list of short descriptions as to what the various actions do, instead of trying to cram them into the individual boxes.
But anyway... all of the above is just my opinion and cheers for putting it online!