Archived Idea For New Character Sheet (and More)

[Airrail]

Hello, everyone! So I've been on MassiveCraft for quite a while now and decided to make a character sheet to verify my long time favorite character, Harnor. However, I saw the reason people don't do character sheets on this RP, and why magic was wiped out. Everything on the character sheet isn't specific and statistical enough, and there are many unnecessary parts.

Let's start with the unnecessary things. When making a character for a multiplayer game, a character sheet should consist of things that are vital to the gameplay. Such as what skills they have, how good are they at it? What do they look like? Not things such as, "How does your character feel inside?" As far as personality should be explained on a required basis is their alignment. Are they good, bad, or neutral? If your char is good, is he lawfully good, neutral good, or chaotic good? From there you should feel free to leave any other details out. Because "How is your character perceived by others?" make a huge impact on how your RP experience goes, or anyone else's (The character can be perceived in many ways considering who is perceiving them).

With all these minor character traits overshadowing the more important ones, this leads to vagueness. Anyone remember how people couldn't agree on how magic worked in RP? Some would say "Your spell should've only lasted 2 minutes and it's been 4." Others would go on to say that "You can't cast until your 5th turn of mumbling and hand signs." Nobody really knew what they were talking about and just made stuff up as they went, then tried to enforce it on others. People try to do the same thing with your character in a battle. Saying "They can't take that many hits," or, "They can't dodge that fast," or "My character is way stronger than yours." There are no numbers (except for rolls that rarely anyone uses) that indicate how fast, strong, smart, wise, charming, or durable your character is. There is no proof of what your character can and can't do other than the very basic vague information on your character sheet and rolls. This is why magic was wiped out. People were sick of people God RPing with magic or being accused of God RP with magic. Yet the problem still resides in normal combat.

So I have an idea on how to fix this issue and maybe even bring magic back with it. A new kind of character sheet. One that focuses less on the ins and outs of the character's personality and life story, and more on the character's abilities. Ladies and gentlemen, I present a character sheet that works with many roleplays and has worked with them for decades. I present to you, the D&D 5E Character Sheet!

Now, in no way am I saying this is the end-all solution. The first thing you're probably wondering is, "How do we know they aren't rigging their char sheet?" I have two ways of doing this. One, there is a base amount of points you can distribute to the character that if you go over or under, your char sheet is invalid. Two, You can roll on the server with "/roll 20" near a trusted moderator to make sure none of your rolls are over-the-top (Honestly though, the first option is probably the best way to do this). Now perhaps, if this format does not suit the admins, there could be a cross between the current Character Application and this one. But the main thing I'm trying to get at is that in order for everything to remain fair and balanced, there must be a basis for their character's strengths and weaknesses.

If this could be implemented in place of the old character sheet, I believe the server could be a more fair, bullshite-free roleplay.

Thank You,
Airrail

 

[Wumpatron]

I like the usage of D & D and I will admit, I use it frequently for combat scenarios. I just want to offer this one side point, not necessarily a disagreement, but a personal reflection on why the sheets are heavily based on perception and emotion. The most common and simplest feature to make use of in RP is dialogue. How your character is perceived is derived from their manner of speech and approach through dialogue. How they feel is often shown in how they speak, based upon reactions to various situations. Dialogue is the driving force to strong RP and characters. That is how I perceive the template being designed, to reflect this. Not everyone bases their characters upon skillsets and skillsets are not the basis for a strong character. You need to have a person, a being with thoughts, feelings, emotions, ambitions, before you apply skills to said person. Merely my insight on it.

 

[Airrail]

I see what you are saying. What if there was a combination of who your character is as a person, and who your character is statistically?

 

[The Unknown]

Hi! This looks well thought out and the solutions that you are offering are good ones - I have just a few issues, though.

Let's start with the unnecessary things. When making a character for a multiplayer game, a character sheet should consist of things that are vital to the gameplay. Such as what skills they have, how good are they at it? What do they look like? Not things such as, "How does your character feel inside?" As far as personality should be explained on a required basis is their alignment. Are they good, bad, or neutral? If your char is good, is he lawfully good, neutral good, or chaotic good? From there you should feel free to leave any other details out. Because "How is your character perceived by others?" make a huge impact on how your RP experience goes, or anyone else's (The character can be perceived in many ways considering who is perceiving them).

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I actually think that how your character feels inside is more important to roleplay than what your character is good at.
In a roleplay situation, I find that a large part of the fun is thinking about how your character would react to something (say, catching a vicious glare from an Allar at the next table), which is first and foremost based on personality. If you have their strength value then yes, you know that your character can quite easily smush that Allar into a fine paste and paint the walls with it if they wanted to. But how do you know if they want to? Well, you think up a personality. And personalities are complex - if you plan to go into it in enough detail to create something realistic, you're going to need to flesh it out quite a bit. Writing it down can be a great way to help flesh it out - and I feel that if you don't do it in as much detail as is on the current character sheet, things will have to be improvised on the fly. This, while perfectly doable, very often leads to big inconsistencies depending on the mood of the roleplayer (at least in my experience) and degrades the realism supporting the character. On top of that, I feel that the character sheet sets a good standard for how much thought should be put into a character if you plan to use them long-term.

But that, of course, isn't the main point of a character sheet. The main point is for it to be reviewed by staff, make sure it's all up to scratch, and then be accepted. That is most certainly covered by your character sheet, so in that aspect it looks very good. It would actually streamline the application process in that way. It would perhaps make player-interaction progression events a bit more difficult, but not hugely I think. It would also make character sheets less valuable in terms of applying to charters etc, which could be considered both good and bad.

My main problem with this, though, is that lots of people simply don't enjoy using rolls/stats for roleplay, and removing the current character sheet format and replacing it with a new, statistical one might turn it into a less organic thing. In combat roleplay and action-packed scenarios rolls can certainly be helpful, and I have used them a lot in the past, but in other areas they fall short and overusing them can suck the fun out of the roleplay.

I have recently moved away from sewer roleplay, and combat roleplay, in favour of the more peaceful surface. I find that combat situations are rare, due to the high guard presence, and rolls are thus very rarely needed. I do, however, realise that they can be extremely helpful as a tool in some situations. Therefor, I suggest that instead of removing the current sheet format it should be tweaked. Life story should be only required by those seeking a special permission, and a section dedicated to statistics should be added (which would be optional unless the character is trained in combat or magic). That way the organic and in-depth character personality can be retained, rules regarding character creation (such as no mental illnesses for the most part) can be enforced, and characters that are lacking in personality can be rejected, but the load of writing is lessened and statistics are added to make combat situations more fluid.

 

[Airrail]

I see the validity of having these traits in a character sheet. I think that we could just tweak it as well. Maybe instead of removing things, we just add the statistical stuff to the beginning of the character sheet.

 

[CptSilvyrall]

I see the validity of having these traits in a character sheet. I think that we could just tweak it as well. Maybe instead of removing things, we just add the statistical stuff to the beginning of the character sheet.

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Umm, why? There doesn't really need to be an order in which it is presented, but if it does I think the current order is great.

 

[Airrail]

Umm, why? There doesn't really need to be an order in which it is presented, but if it does I think the current order is great.

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What do you mean 'the current order'?

 

[CptSilvyrall]

What do you mean 'the current order'?

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The illuminati


The current order in which the information is presented.

 

[Airrail]

I mean the order is fine, however, the battle stats should be more specific.

 

[CptSilvyrall]

I mean the order is fine, however, the battle stats should be more specific.

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"Battle Stats" There's no real battle stats it's talents. Not all talents have to be combat oriented. I try to avoid combat anyway.

 

[Airrail]

Well for when you're in combat, or for people who go seeking combat, stats are very beneficial so you know your character and their character's real strengths and weaknesses rather than guesstimating how good or bad they are.

 

[Suzzie]

Well wto

I mean the order is fine, however, the battle stats should be more specific.

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It's really simple those. The higher the skill level, the better you are. Expert > Warrior, Warrior = Warrior*. You don't need numbers, there comes a point where that is too complicated. If you're the same level, roll for the results. It's nothing hard.

*certain schools are weaker than others.

 

[CptSilvyrall]

Well for when you're in combat, or for people who go seeking combat, stats are very beneficial so you know your character and their character's real strengths and weaknesses rather than guesstimating how good or bad they are.

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This influences metagaming, and they aren't difficult to understand anyway.

 

[Deadfoe51]

I mean the order is fine, however, the battle stats should be more specific.

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I'm going to further support @Suzzie here and elaborate on some things and go into greater detail. The current system going from least skilled to most skilled in combat is Trainee, Novice, Student, fighter, Warrior, Expert. This is pretty self-explanatory and each school page goes into detail about what the training includes, it's style, etc. However, a character isn't going to need any of this if they're not a combat-based character or are just some average Joe. There is also a skill system for Intellect-based schools just like combat, going from Acolyte, Novice, Student, Learned, Scholar, Expert. If you're higher than one person, they are more skilled and would obviously have more experience and win-out in what you're trying to do. Certain combat schools are inherently weaker than others such as Tenpenny and Siegwald.

Each and every school goes into detail about it's intended purpose and how it functions, what can counter it, etc. For example, the school of Griffer can counter Blackmark, Feer Drakken, and other such heavy schools but is countered by Drixon and Turall. I don't really think you need to go into specific statistics yourself or anything like that when you can just do a little bit of reading and call it a day. Following that, however, there is a grading system @MonMarty uses for combat/military characters to calculate their combat advantage/skill/whathaveyou. The current system is plenty detailed because there is already a skill section which can state where you were trained and what your level is. It doesn't make anything too convoluted, it's easy to grasp, and it's pretty straightforward. Staff reviewing the app can just look at your skill info and be like "Okay, this guy is a scholar in the school of medicine." it's simple, doesn't slow things down, and gets the message across.

You can easily read about the skills and it's explained well enough. https://wiki.massivecraft.com/Intellect_Schools for intellect and https://wiki.massivecraft.com/Military_Guide for military. Over-complicating things isn't necessary when it's already fairly easy to understand and there's rarely room for confusion if you've a character app and/or follow a school.

It's also quite nice to let your creative muse free and go into detail about your characters talents, weaknesses, and personality. It gives them a feeling, it makes them feel alive and unique as well. Rather than saying "Oh, I have 18 strength, and 20 constitution" or whatever. While it might be nice to have stats for your characters, it's not necessary in the grand scheme of things. RP isn't just about having good stats, it's about creating bonds, interacting, and enjoying yourself. The current system allows that because the schools can open up even more progression whilst giving you combat skills, healing skills, or whatever the school teaches.

That's my opinion on it anyway, if you read up on it a little bit and add a school to your app, the specific stats are simply unnecessary. That's because all schools have their advantages, disadvantages, etc. It goes into detail on it, just do a little bit of reading and your confusion and problems will go away.

 

[ZZaque]

Stats might make the very issue you seek to help worse. Someone saying that they have 16 vitality and 25 strength could cause more disputes than a magical caster that took one too little turns to cast his spell. Numbers cause headaches and you have to find a fine line between your statistics and your roleplay or else everyone is going to argue in OOC chat for a year.

Combat RP isn't that common outside of events now anyway. The system is the way is for a reason and I recall days that the system was far more.... shall I say, less fleshed out. I played a spirit bear-wielding elf for several years and despite its apparent OPness at first glance, I had balance and not one person argued with me over the course of 3 years.

At the end of the day it comes down to how good of a role player you are anyway. If a person wanna dodge every hit go ahead but that character will always remain the same and that person will slowly lose people to RP with as they get a reputation for god RP.

To add to my previous statement, it takes a certain degree of knowledge about your character to know his weaknesses and strengths and if you know them then everything will turn out fine. Just because you're an expert turall fighter doesn't mean you're a god.

(I liked it better when character apps took more effort in honesty, I understand why they streamlined it though.)

Thank you,
Drunkfailure