Creating a Game (Part 8) - Presenting our characters

Early on in this series of posts I looked a a few games to get a grounding of where I want to go with the design. I've always thought that's a great idea, because it's hard to make the perfect sushi if the only thing your ever had to eat is pizza. If you've got no concept of the various optins out there, you're just going to fall into the same patterns as the things you're familiar with.

We've got a decent framework in place, but what do we need to know about our characters for these stories to work?

Let's look at a few other game systems and see how they define characters. Maybe we can use some of their ideas, maybe some of their ideas won't work for what we're trying to achieve... and maybe their ideas are just rubbish.

Storyteller System

Here's a plain, elegant, direct character sheet, it is basically unchanged since it first appeared in the 1990s. This is the latest version of the sheet, for the current incarnation of the game but follows the pattern establshed in the first World of Darkness games. The information is generaly presented in order of importance from top to bottom. Core elements of the character at the top such as their name and a few stereotypes and traits that set the tone for how the character should be played. Attributes next, because they are the widest brushstrokes that define the character from a perspective of game mechanisms. Then we drill down to more specialsed benefits, in this case the skills which are more focused areas where the character has developed over their life so far. 

The middle of the sheet brings us to Chronicle Tenets (which are rules in the story that will have serious repercussions if they are ever broken), Touchstones and Convictions (which give us the reasons why a character should be acting in acertain way), and the Clan Bane (which is a specific traditional weakness that offsets some of the powers possessed by the character). These elements bring everything back into the story, 

Discplines take up a big space at the bottom, and are far bigger than they have been in previous incarnations of the game because Disciplines have gotten messy with the latest version. Discipline are the brad powers possessed by vampires, and at this part of the sheet you name the discipline possessed, then name the specfic powers mastered within that discipline. There's no space to write what the disciplines do, but every one of them is different (which I've indicated is something that can slow down a game).

Finally, a range of scales and numbers that affect gameplay during a session. 

There's no pre-written information because it's a really open system designed for creating a diverse range of characters.

It's a traditional sheet, it follows the patterns we've come to expect from many games. The fonts are elegant and readable, the fram gives a sense of graveyard wrought iron to set a tone for the game wthout being too distracting. However, it's a distinctly 1990s design, reflecting a distinctly 1990s game sensibility. 

Apocalypse World

At first it seems to be information overload, but when you consider that you never need to look up a rule book because everything you need is on the sheet it kind of works. The sheet helps as a guide to work you through chaacter creation, it describes the mechanisms of play for all the abilites.

It tells us that every character in the game works differently, and every character has specific rules that govern their place in the narraive. There is no "multi-classing" in Apocalypse World, you get what's in your play book and that's it (yes there is limited oportunity to learn things from the playbooks of other characters, but you basically stay in your lane).

Divided into four pages, the first gives us the general numbers that are most commonly used during play, and an overview of how the caracter has developed. The second page gives more nuanced decriptions of what benefits the character has (compared to other character types). The third is a very detailed desription of the character class's primary focus. The fourth is a range of tables and checklists tat help define a character (and guide a player through the character creation process).   

It's basically the opposite of the Vampire sheet, and reflects the completely different design methodology behind the game. Beyond the title font, there's really nothing much to inform what the game is about, or how a sesion should look.

Kids on Bikes

There's not a lot to this sheet. Six stats that are basically divided into three pairs that play off against one another, a range of common traits (with scope for two skills that you can customise). some general information about the character to help drive their portrayal in the story. A generic space for notes.

It's interesting to note that there is no "health" or "wounds" on the sheet, because that's not what the game is about. It's a reflection of "Stranger Things" and "SCooby Doo", and "The Hardy Boys"...where kids investigate weird stuff. If they fight it, their story ends; so they run. It's not a game about violence, so violent elements don't really exist on the sheet (except for the "Fight" stat).

Things are kept far more simple than either of the previous sheets looked at, reflecting a far simpler game and style of play. The font echoes a kid-friendly style of play too  

Dagon

What is going on here?

Full disclosure. I haven't played this game, so I'm really not sure what's happening. It looks like there's space for a lot of numbers, I can't ell if any particular numbers are more important than others, but everything seems to be focused on the centre of the "squid-creatures" with things radiating out from there. There's very little space for qualitative elements of the character, everything seems to be more quantitative and number driven. 

There are a few elements in a handwritten font that seem to assist the play of the game. but the whole things feels more like stye over substance. It looks Lovecraftian, it sets the tone. I' intrigued to play the game based on the sheet just to see how functional it actually is. 

Infinite Black of Space

I'm really hoping this is a sketch for a sheet, and not the final thing. I found it while digging around for different types of sheets I could analyse. It's got a range of traditional features that you find on old-school character sheets from the 1980s and 90s. There's the narrative block at the top left (with name, height, weight, sex, eye-colour, etc.)...stuff that rarely comes into play, and really doesn't make a difference. 

Under that are the descriptions for the attributes, places for numbers to go and checkboxes to be ticked. There don't seem to be any skills (especially if this is the only sheet; but then again, the bottom right of the sheet indicates 1 of 1000... so we can probably assume this is a parody sheet... I seriously hope so)

Top right, a spot for a character illustration, the first one of these on a sheet we've examined. That sort of thing used to be common in the 90s. Under that, some equipment placing, which is an interesting idea that I've toyed with a few times in the past. 

Even though there are numerous elements that suggest this is a parody sheet, there's some interesting things to consider or even adopt here.    

Mecha

This one really gies the impression of the game it's trying to portray. It's designed to look like a cockpit for a mecha (which is a giant robotic fighting vehicle, in case you're not familiar with the term). Ts charater sheet tell us that most of the game is about fighting in the giant robots, after which the game is named. Again, this isn't a game I've played, and while it's the kind of thing I'd normally be interested in, this sheet is a bit of a mess. There seem to be three clusters of attributes (two vertical groups of 4 and a horizotal grouping in the middle). I'd have thought the centre of the "Head Up Display" would be the most important and regularly used elements of the game, but I'm not sure here. 

The bit at the upper left indicating damage, has both pilot and mecha tracks and suggests that the rest of the sheet is similar a mix of both biological and mechanical elements. I don't know if any scenes in this game occur outside the robot vehicle (some of the skills at the centre bottom suggest they do). So I'm not really sure.

Beyond the "goal" at the lower right, we don't really know anything about the pilot. This is also a bit problematic if the game is meant to be an emulaltion of genre for mecha-focused anime series. Mst shows of that nature use the Mecha as a prop, and the show itself is often driven by character relationships and conflict.

If the game is just a fighting simulator with limted cut scenes and montages showing how things ar repaired and events unfold leading to the next fight scene, then it might be alright. However, that doesn't entice me to try it out.  

Thematically, great. Usability... not so sure.    

Mothership

Here's one of those games that people have been raving about for the past couple of years. So I figured I'd take a look at the character sheet. I think I can see what it's trying to do just by loking at the sheet.  four type of characters, Teamsters, Scientists, Androids, and Marines... prety much the character types in the Alien franchise. If you look at the sheet closely, there's a range of nunbers that guide you through the character creation process 9No matter which type of character you make). That's interesting.

I guess the presence of all the game's skills is helpful in generating a character, and maybe when advancing a character, but I'm not sure how useful it is to have them there all the time, especially when there are so many skills there. Kind of a throwback to 80s game design concepts.There's lot's of fiddly bits on it, and it's seems busy, especially with all those arrows and lines directing all over the place on it. Howeer, I can see that it's trying to go for that "sci-fi technical manual" aesthetic.

Yeah, it works as a whole... 80s sci-fi aesthetic, 80s style game mechanics (from what I can tell with the varying saving throws by class, the massive range of skills, and the percentile system), I guess it kind of fits as a whole if you know what you're looking at. It actually does make me wonder about how a game session of this would play out.  

Necronautilus

No idea what this game is. But with a picture like that and boxes for marking off tension, I'm interested. This actually seems to be a sheet to detail some kind of ship in the game (possibly one of the "Necronautilus" vessels from the game's title).   

Zombie King

I've played games with less complicted sheets than this. Not often, and sometimes it's been hard work. A character sheet like this expects a player to bring a lot to the table, and rely a lot on their memory. There's no motivation or background information, no skills, no evidence of how a character can improve. If there's no way to either get into the headspace of where a character has been, or way to embody them as they move forward, is it really a roleplayig game?

Sample D&D Sheet

There are so many D&D sheets around, and some people have gone to a lot of effort to make them look at lot more aesthetic than the standard variant. The regular version of a D&D sheet is probably something a lot of people reading this blog are familiar with, and if I had to compare it to the other sheets in this post, it probably looks somewhere between the "Kids on Bikes" and "Mothership" sheets.

Looking at this particular variant, I'd say it was for D&D3.5 (or maybe Pathfinder 1st ed). If I had to be mre specific, I'd say with the cogs in the border elements that it was probaby de eloped for the Eberron setting. 

The circled elements on the sheet are most commonly used in combat (excet the circle on the top left), the attributes get an open space to one side. It's a pretty sheet, and it's functional with everything laid out in a manner that makes sense. However, there would probably be another sheet for equipment, or for spells. 

In typical D&D fashion, there is nothing about a character's relationship to other characters (whether enemies or allies). This kind of stuff is usually only handled on the story side in D&D, and rarely (if ever) enters the game play.

Some parts of the sheet are hard to read and are buried in the details, but it's definitely an atmospheric and pretty sheet.

What have we learned?

We've basically learned about my prejudices and my infomed biases when it comes to character sheets...and yeah, I can admit that.

Basically, I aim toward character sheets that balance the line between aesthetic and functional. This is probably a function of my design training, and undestanding of user interfaces. 

Key features at one point of the sheet, then radiating out from the centre, or working down from the top.

Here are some sample layouts that are good on the eyes, with a focal point at the centre, smaller details and points of interest around that point. I'm still fond of the idea of seven things in a person's mind at one time, so the character sheet should be limited in what it presents, or should be easy to navigate. Only two or three things at a time on the sheet for players to concentrate on, and any side effects should be easily navigable from the main rules and features they relate to.

(One of the isues I'm seeing in my high school gaming club and in the D&D sessions we run as a school sport is that most players are simply overwhelmed by the regular sheet, and don't know how to navigate it, even after a couple of sessions)

But we need to make sure we've got the Hard-Rock/Scarecrow-punk aesthetic happening too.