Character sheet

Okay, it’s time for the first real teaser for the actual game. Here’s a playtest version of the Fantasy Infinity character sheet, with spaces for recording everything you need to keep the game moving at its characteristic lightning pace!

Note added August 2015: I notice this page is getting more than its fair share of visits. That’s cool, but you should probably know that this version of the character sheet is over a year old and that a new one is available here. Thanks for reading, though!

First of all, this is, as I say, a playtest version. I think it already looks better than 90% of the RPG character sheets out there, to be honest, but, I can still see significant room for improvement – additional visual aids that could be added, freebie icons from a Web site that will need to be replaced, and minor issues with spacing and positioning. I think it’s presentable, or I wouldn’t be presenting it, but I’ll want a professional graphic designer to have a go at it eventually.

That said, let’s take a little tour of what we’ve got. This won’t be too detailed – most of the terminology, for example, will be explained in later updates, not this one. Just a quick overview, for now.

The front page contains your character’s “naked” stats – what he or she would be like with no equipment – including a complete record of your skills. It also has space for your current experience level, and any unused points you’ve “banked” from previous levels. There is a lot here, most of it fundamental to the game; but by the time I’m done with my previews, you’ll understand every word of it!

In the lower half, you record all the abilities you’ve learned (first two columns) and all the stuff you typically carry (last column). The open space is a conscious decision. In my experience, players vary a lot in how they like to record information like this, from a simple list to detailed notes on everything and encompassing all kinds of idiosyncratic shorthand. So why not give them the freedom to do that?

These are two different versions of the back page; which one you prefer will depend on things like how often your character switches equipment. In either version, the back page gives most of the numbers you’ll actually use in play, particularly for combat. These are your stats when fully equipped; you record exactly what you’re equipped with in the upper left. Along the right, you record many of the same stats from the front page, but this time, including the effects of your equipment. For example, if your character is really good at using swords, she might have more Attack, Defence and even Magic dice when using a sword than she does when unequipped. The “quick item slots” are for things like healing potions that you can use in battle – basically, they’re a way of keeping how many you can have handy reasonable without making you worry about exactly how your backpack is laid out. The “swimlanes” dominated by the reddish “Total damage” area are referred to as combat blocks and are each set up to record everything you could possibly need to know about one of the attacks (“strikes”) you can make, spells you can cast, or other techniques you can use. It may look like there’s a lot there, but not every field will apply to every possible strike or spell; in fact, Recovery is, I think, the only one that you’ll always need to fill out.

Anyhow, hopefully that makes for a nice teaser. There’s a lot more I could say, but let’s leave something for future updates!

You can download the character sheet here: Character Sheet Traditional. Sometime fairly soon, we’ll show you another, even more flexible version, in the process explaining that word “traditional” in the file name.