A Gaming Folder (Part 4) - Character Sheets (and other player stuff)

As a teacher, I'm used to students leaving their workbooks at home, the same applies to players in a game campaign...not as often, because players usually want to be a part of the session's activities, but it still happens. 

A player without their character sheet is problematic, especially in complex systems, or  if there's a lot of moving parts in the game. Over the years (decades) I've been playing and running games, I can think of several times where different players have come to a session without their character sheets, and inevitably the player says "I know my character so well that I don't need my sheet". The first few times, I figured that this was reasonable, but invariably every time something would come up in the narrative, and the player without the character sheet would mysteriously have just the right skill or piece of equipment that would quickly overcome the issue. "No, honestly, that's on my sheet at home. I'll make sure I bring it next time to prove it to you". Sometimes the sheet comes back and the unexpected detail is there, sometimes it obviously looks like something has been erased and something else written in, sometimes it just isn't there at all. 

Is this an issue with certain players? Maybe. Yet it's an issue that quickly disrupts a table and can derail a game. Usually, I'll push through and the incident is glossed over in the wider storyline, but it sets up a sense of betrayal among the other players... the rules have been violated once and there's nothing to say that they won't be violated again. The structural side of the game loses trust. There's a few ways to remedy the issue, one of which might be to pick game systems that don't rely on having complex character sheets (but the kind of player that does this will often be just an manipulative in that style of rule environment), another option might be to ban that player from your game (at least while they don't have their sheet with them...but that has it's own social issues that need to be dealt with as a part of the social space around the game). Perhaps you could have a bunch of spare characters available, just in case a player forgets to bring theirs (which would require some kind of organised gaming folder), or you could just make sure everyone gives you their character sheets at the end of a session and file them into the folder.

Naturally, for the purposes of this series of post, we're aiming toward the last two options. There are two easy ways to do this.

Option 1: All in

If you've got single page sheets, you could punch holes in them and add them directly to the binder, perhaps using cardboard dividers to partition a section off where the characters go. Or maybe you could slide them all into a single sheet protector. The idea is that you have everyone's play sheet in a prominent location, maybe the front of the folder or the back, quickly accessible so that the sheets can be distributed and play can begin with minimal paperwork and bureaucracy.  

Option 2: Individual 

If you've got more complicated sheets, a game system where players have multiple sheets (one for mundane stuff, one for spells, one for equipment), or even a game where extra information about the characters is included on index cards... you might want to have each player's relevant information in it's own plastic sleeve, or even a pouch that can go into the larger folder.

 

These might be colour coded for players...but I'm more likely to pick a single colour for all players, to allow other colours to contain maps, storylines, treasures, or whatever else might be necessary for the game.

I like the individual pouch idea, because then I can give each player their character sheets and index cards (describing useful equipment or spells that are relevant to their character). In addition to this I might include some pieces of paper that indicate useful clues and information that the character has uncovered during down time, and this can be used as a story seed for the next session, or might even just lie in wait as a gradually building background that comes into effect several sessions further along. I might include some copies of maps that have been annotated by the player, their working notes for the campaign, and anything else they might find useful. The other key thing I'd include in a "character pack" like this would be a rule cheat sheet for the game system we're using. This is a single sheet with the core systems of play on it, and maybe some references to pages in the main rule book if there are elements of play that are too complicated to fit on a single page. Each pack contains all the paperwork necessary for play (dice, pens, pencils, and other game hardware go elsewhere in the folder...if they're included at all).

 

By having everything together in a single location, there's less chance that a single character's stuff will get lost, and if I'm feeling that way inclined before a session I can look through the packs belonging to a couple of the characters to see what sorts of things might bring them back into the narrative if I feel that they've been a bit ignored. Maybe they've got some great skills that haven't seen much use and it's time to highlight their strengths...maybe they've got some weaknesses and secrets that need to be exposed in a way that will push the story forward. If there's one thing I hate it's games where players can offset a couple of extra bonuses by purchasing a couple of penalties, and then the penalties never actually see the light of day. Such penalties shouldn't be invoked for the sake of causing issues, but if they can be used to drive new elements of the storyline, then all the better.