Just sharing this here, you could call this a proof of concept or an Alpha version. I’m working on it primarily for, myself but if others are interested then I’ll post updates as I work on it.
Motivation
As a DM I found it a little disappointing when my players would say things like ‘I want to invoke persistent damage’ knowing that they were a fire mage or assassin. I always thought if I was in that position I would give my spells/actions names to add flavour, ‘I want to cast enflame/venomous blades’ for example
As luck would have it one of my players is currently running a game so I’m trying to lead by example and name my spells as a player, the other players seem to enjoy it and I’m hoping I’ve inspired them to try the same in future.
However a problem I ran in to is that the ‘actions’ panel on the character sheet only has one section for ‘name’ - you can either list the Boon/Bane or the Spell Name you’ve invented, there’s not enough room for both. This is fine 90% of the time, if you’re a fire mage you’ll probably remember that ‘Incinerate’ is Persistent Damage. But my character has a bunch of Prescience Boons and some of them are very hard to name without getting your wires crossed - Reading, Precognition, Detection etc. They’re all very similar in terms of theme so it’s easy to forget which is which unless you just name the literal boon rather than giving it a spell name.
This isn’t the end of the world but I really like the additional flavour that naming your actions brings to the table so I started working on this:
The Sheet
What This Solves At a Glance
- Characters feel more individual, your rogue casting ‘poison daggers’ will feel different to your necromancer casting ‘rot from within’ despite them both invoking persistent damage
- Encourages roleplay and adds flavour
- Boons like Barrier which can take multiple forms can have multiple go-to variations written down and ready to cast at a glance
- Increased room for notes/technical information should cut down on time taken checking phones for boon and bane details
Don’t read too much into the actual examples I gave, I was just writing them out to show the function of the sheet. I used ‘flame breath’ twice to show two different ways of writing essentially the same information, one being more set in stone, the other allowing for adaptation on the fly by including the disadvantage information.
The large open cell can be used to write all the technical information and the smaller individual cells resemble what’s already on the actions panel on the front of the sheet.
The Plan
So as I said this is an ‘alpha’ version just to explain my issue and a potential solution. What I want to do going forward is:
- Create a version in Photoshop rather than Google Docs which matches the design of the front of the sheet
- Expand the Spell List to the bottom of the sheet, allowing for more actions/spells
- Move the ‘Equipment’ panel I’ve also included to where the ‘Actions’ panel is on the official character sheet, essentially adding an inventory section to the default sheet and moving the Actions Panel (in the above format) to the back
So yeah, this post got very wordy which I didn’t intend but I wanted to explain my motivation, I’m probably going to make the changes I’ve suggested above for my own use and my group but if anyone on here is also interested then I’ll keep you updated and share the files when they’re ready.
If anyone has critiques or other suggestions for things to add then let me know
