Character Sheets

[IronClawed]

Character sheets. Do you hate or love them? Personally, the only part I hate is when GMs want a long detailed history included. Sometimes I wanna be mysterious or think of my characters past as we go.

 

[Sync]

Character sheets are useful for recording information about the character.

And as a GM, I ask for character backstories so that I can try and incorporate elements from the backstory into the game to give my players a better stake in the game and therefore a hopefully-better time playing because they're more invested.

You can play your characters as mysterious if you want, but if I don't know much about your characters, I don't know how to include you in my games.

 

[IronClawed]

Thats a very fair point

 

[Saber]

I like character sheets for the basic info especially if someone is using a description of a character instead of using an image. I do enjoy a brief description of personality and a little history. I can see how a GM would want more detailed information though.

 

[Jericho Z. Barrons]

I would never use a character sheet for anything other than a group game.

If I was starting a 1x1 with someone and they asked me for a character sheet, I would decline making one. Any time a 1x1 partner provides me with a character sheet for their character(s), I tell them I'm not reading that. If it's relevant, they can write it into the story narrative as brief memories or thoughts.

In a 1x1 there is no GM. It's just the other person playing a character against yours. A character who usually won't have access to my character's backstory or personality profile unless specifically told by my character IC. ...which is where and how that information and knowing it becomes relevant.

 

[ƒeral]

I tend to agree with Jericho.

I like character sheets for actual D&D, and tend to add a decent amount of flair to it. For a 1x1 rp, if someone really wants to tell me something about their character for future plot purposes, just say it ooc. Otherwise, now I have to do the extra work of essentially 'checking-off' the list to remember what my character does or does not know. We don't gotta go meta about it unless the plot requires some metagaming.

That being said, I haven't, but wouldn't mind, doing some kind of cutesy mood board or something. Like favorite colors, favorite drinks, just useless shit lol. That's more fun and might incorporate well into some completely irrelevant scene, than biting off someone's convoluted backstory that my character has no reason to know.

 

[Nihilistic_Impact]

All characters should have a theme song.

 

[Cantarella]

Pretty much reiterating a lot over what's already been said here.

Character sheets are instrumental to group games and system roleplays, but I find them cumbersome and unnecessary in 1x1s. I'm like a lot of you in that I like to develop my characters over time; I find making intricately-crafted character sheets hinders organic character growth because it's all already on the table. And hell, what if I change my mind about something after the sheet has already been made? No takesies-backsies if you have it laid bare on the sheet, and it's easy for the other person to point the finger and say "hey! This isn't what page x says about their motivations/temperament/lalilulelo!"

No shade on people who do ask for them, though, it's just not for me.

 

[Sync]

It's important to remember that character sheets and character backstories aren't (or shouldn't be) straightjackets.

The character sheet defines the character from a system mechanics perspective, and that's it. The backstory gives flavour and info about a few events in the character's past, and that's it. If you're feeling that the character's sheet and backstory are restrictive, you're doing it wrong.

For a backstory I typically make a half-dozen dot points of events in the character's past, turn each dot-point into a paragraph or two for details, and that's it. Then I weave it into a story that flows...but there's still a hell of a lot of room for embellishment. Backstories can't - and shouldn't - detail everything that a character has done before the game/story begins. When I'm GMing, I want a bit of info about the characters in my games, but not so much that I can make my own tale around things. You give me nothing, I can't do much; you give me too much, and I've got nowhere to go.

 

[Strange Days]

Kind of...both? I don't go too in-depth for 1x1s but I have given brief bios before when multiple characters are involved (and currently am doing it for a Gundam RP), but I rarely check them otherwise and never update mine.

I like sharing headcanons but that's about it. The times I had to consistently put out CS have been for one of my long-terms that has... checks notes about 30 characters in it, spanning multiple story arcs. That became kind of a necessity.

If I was starting a 1x1 with someone and they asked me for a character sheet, I would decline making one. Any time a 1x1 partner provides me with a character sheet for their character(s), I tell them I'm not reading that. If it's relevant, they can write it into the story narrative as brief memories or thoughts.

I agree with the base idea but I'm not sure if I'm on board with the approach since it seems harsh, I know some of my partners actively enjoy making their sheets look nice and give me as much information as I need but it does get overwhelming at times. I often have no idea how I'll develop MC.

That said, I do skim through them before starting so I don't happen to do something that'd actively piss their character off lmao.

As feral mentioned, moodboards do help. I at least keep track of what my OCs look like.

 

[Jericho Z. Barrons]

I agree with the base idea but I'm not sure if I'm on board with the approach since it seems harsh, I know some of my partners actively enjoy making their sheets look nice and give me as much information as I need but it does get overwhelming at times. I often have no idea how I'll develop MC.

That said, I do skim through them before starting so I don't happen to do something that'd actively piss their character off lmao.

As feral mentioned, moodboards do help. I at least keep track of what my OCs look like.

The base idea is that I don't want to waste my time doing research on a character I don't care about yet. We're talking about character sheets with a whole set up of personality, background, etc. It's not like we won't share information about the characters IC and OOC, headcannons and discussing favorite colours or making character playlists from one of those meme lists. I just don't want to sit here at the start and read a block of history out of context and be expected to hang onto it in case it becomes relevant. I'm much more able to keep track of information in the actual rp even stuff never verbally mentioned between characters.

I'm usually upfront about my lack of desire for character sheets so no one wastes their time and that's all I can do, is be upfront and honest with my partner.

 

[Strange Days]

The base idea is that I don't want to waste my time doing research on a character I don't care about yet. We're talking about character sheets with a whole set up of personality, background, etc. It's not like we won't share information about the characters IC and OOC, headcannons and discussing favorite colours or making character playlists from one of those meme lists. I just don't want to sit here at the start and read a block of history out of context and be expected to hang onto it in case it becomes relevant. I'm much more able to keep track of information in the actual rp even stuff never verbally mentioned between characters.

I actually can relate to that, because it's how I felt when I began RPing in groups a few years back (I've since left the scene). Usually we'd get people who stuck around for a month or less but had these over-complicated Docs and...never actually wrote scenes with any of the characters in the server, felt kind of like those RPers were there to phone in a few lines and just show off what they could write.

On the second part, that's also why I adopted the "general overview" idea I mentioned, and why I only really accept characters that fit in the setting. Some of my partners have cool OCs that would never fit in a Fantasy RP for example, because they have futuristic tech that wouldn't make sense in a Sword & Sorcery world, or something similar. So having as you said 'blocks' of static info is kind of pointless and never really serves a purpose because like...why do I need to know your character's life from the moment they were born?

That said, it may be different since I usually have all CS RPs on Discord, that way information can just remain there and be edited whenever. Never really feel like I'm hanging onto anything really, but again, this is normal for me so it's just a style difference and something I'm gradually leaving behind.

Thanks for explaining things, though!

 

[Titania]

I don't hate them but nowadays I would rather not do them for 1x1s. I can definitely see them for a group roleplay but that's it. 1x1s I prefer to play out my character's history, background, everything else over the actual story.