Should Character Sheets Have That Space For Portraits

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Character Portrait on Character Sheets Yea or Nay

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    72
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PolarBlues

PolarBlues

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I am stealing this topic from Reddit (). I am not sure if that it poor Internet form or not, but I think it's a fun topic.

So, about that like blank space, usually on the top right of a character sheet, intended for the player to draw their character, how do you feel about it? Genius idea or waste of space?

I am fan. It's doesn't really matter if it's a terrible scribble or a photo cut from a magazine; it is an efficient way to convey what your character is like beyond just numbers. I would not force it one anyone (thought I it was kind of cool that Over The Edge used to require it), but having the space there acts as a gentle encouragement to give it some thought.
 
For online sheets I guess? Why not. Graphics are fun and, perhaps more importantly, they can be a handy shorthand for description. The idea needs some curation with mixed groups though. It's not so cool when people insist on going off piste in terms of genre and feel.
 
I'm going to rock the boat and say "nay".

I've never used the portrait space and none of my friends have either. I've occasionally drawn my characters, mostly when I was younger (particularly for TMNT), but not on the character sheet. Give me more space to record my crimes and misdemeanors instead!
 
Fenris-77 said:
For online sheets I guess? Why not. Graphics are fun and, perhaps more importantly, they can be a handy shorthand for description. The idea needs some curation with mixed groups though. It's not so cool when people insist on going off piste in terms of genre and feel.
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This answer, for me. Character art for a f2f feels like a silent condemnation of the lack of my art skills. On the other hand, if I can AI prompt it I love that space!
 
Kage2020 said:
This answer, for me. Character art for a f2f feels like a silent condemnation of the lack of my art skills. On the other hand, if I can AI prompt it I love that space!
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I just grab images form the web and covert them into tokens and portraits. I haven't gone the AI route yet, but I think that's actually a fine use for it.
 
I don't really mind, tbh. But I always liked seeing what other people drew on their character sheets. It just gave me an insight into how they viewed their character, which in turn helped my own impression of their characters too.

Addendum: Even if people don't like drawing, I still think it's a great space for grabbing a pic from a movie or some other source to use as inspiration.
 
I don't use them, but I've always enjoyed when other people fill them in. When I was in 5th and 6th grade, the Elfquest RPG, of all things, became a fad at my school, and lots of kids, even non-gamers, would draw characters from the guidelines on the character sheets.
 
First the character sheet has to have everything you need, with sufficient space. Second is have correctly sized, good contrast pics in the book for those who want to trace something. If you're going to have double sided character sheets put a blank spot on the place opposite the portrait spot, call it 'notes' or something. That's for those who want to trace, use ink pens to color, or just have a tendency to press hard.
 
I tend to grab my ruler and fill in the blank space with inked in lines so I can than pencil in other information I might need. Once in a while I'll actually put a picture in there, so moo.

Here's my DCC rpg cleric, where I did put a picture in which I felt fit him. He had good stamina but 'meh" strength so I went with a sort of stout sort who enjoyed his drink and food but still had endurance.

1714534700301.png
 
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IMO, character sheets should allocate space to information that is essential for play.
There is, of course, the view that character sheets are personal, and therefore should hold anything that helps establish the uniqueness of that character.

You can do both.
Just have the portrait section double as the notes section. People who don't prioritize a portrait or simply can't draw can choose to fill the space with reference information (or adventure notes) that may not have a home elsewhere.
 
When I run MLP games, I specifically set time in the character gen process for people to draw their ponies and their cutie marks. It helps that the players are usually inherently excited to do this, of course, but it also gets across that these aren't bipeds and gets players thinking about the verbs they'll use.
 
I think I'm like many other folks here. I sometimes use the boxes and sometimes not. I've hand drawn portraits, used something appropriate I found searching through Pinterest or a Google Image search, or used something I prodded AI to make that was good enough. Of course you want room for all the info you need on a character sheet and space dedicated to a portrait could get in the way of that, depending on system. What I really find endearing, however, is... outside of RPGs, how many times are adults asked to draw pictures like kids do? Like, maybe you got good at drawing, but even janky amateur drawings are endearing and usually a little funny, and that's just part of a good time.
 
Don't particularly use them myself, but I certainly don't mind that the space is there for people who do. And besides, it's not exactly wasted space since it's literally an empty box that you can use for whatever you want.
 
I really miss having an artist in the group. I had a roommate who would play with us and she was a compulsive artist. She would be actively drawing while playing, so everyone got a character portrait and cool scenes would be memorialized.
 
SavAce said:
I think I'm like many other folks here. I sometimes use the boxes and sometimes not. I've hand drawn portraits, used something appropriate I found searching through Pinterest or a Google Image search, or used something I prodded AI to make that was good enough. Of course you want room for all the info you need on a character sheet and space dedicated to a portrait could get in the way of that, depending on system. What I really find endearing, however, is... outside of RPGs, how many times are adults asked to draw pictures like kids do? Like, maybe you got good at drawing, but even janky amateur drawings are endearing and usually a little funny, and that's just part of a good time.
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I had my young kids draw pics of a bunch of monsters for a game several years ago. The idea was that I could show the pictures of the creature to the players after they found a kids drawing pad in game. It made things creepier even with colorful bright portraits drawn in that odd kid style. My kids went off a written description and I let them do it however they wanted. I highly recommend it!
 
I'm ambivalent. I have drawn character portraits for Champions. I have a bunch of Champions characters given to me by Glenn Blacow, each with a lovingly created portrait. Personally I really don't end up looking at the portrait in play or anything. Ultimately that was one of the issues I had with Everway. I bought all these neat art cards, and we used them to create characters, but then their relevance to play was zero.
 
I like having them there, even if I only use them about 30% of the time. I'm shit at drawing.
 
NinjaWeasel said:
I'm going to rock the boat and say "nay".

I've never used the portrait space and none of my friends have either. I've occasionally drawn my characters, mostly when I was younger (particularly for TMNT), but not on the character sheet. Give me more space to record my crimes and misdemeanors instead!
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Yes. I love character portraits, but I don't see a reason for them on a character sheet. The space provided is usually too small for comfortable drawing. It's easier to draw them on the back or on a another sheet entirely. Copy paper isn't that great to draw on anyway.
 
One advantage of the character art sheet, at least with some systems, is that if it is not filled in then it leaves some darned whitespace.

Some character sheets feel like the "efficient" ones that I put together as a teen and had to jam every darned thing on to the page regardless of how much it made your arms swim and write text like a serial killer to fit anything on. O.o
 
Johnny Utah said:
As a related aside, I love it when form-fillable sheets let you insert a piece of digital art in the portrait space.
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Yes, something in the style and size of the portraits from the Baldur's Gate games are excellent as character portraits.

baldursgateportraits.jpg
 
I was working with the Talislanta sheet and just ended up loading it up into Photoshop and then doing a better job of masking.
 
I voted for nay, but it's more of a "No, but." Sheets with three attributes and a trait? That leaves a ton of space for a portrait. Games for children? They love drawing and showing off their characters. On the other hand, while I look back to GURPS 3E's outlines with fondness, I can't deny there are way more important things to spend all that front-and-center page space.
 
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As a teen I always drew character portraits on all of our character sheets, so I feel that are almost essiential.
I love having space for a character portrait if possible, especially on form-fillable sheets that allow me to insert an image.
 
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