Should Character Sheets Have That Space For Portraits

[hawkeyefan]

I think if there’s space for it, sure. But if it’s a choice of a portrait space or something else, I’m likely gonna go with something else. If removing it declutters the sheet, then I think that makes sense.

I want a character sheet that’s easy to reference above all else.

 

[Nakana]

Depends on how busy the rest of the character sheet is. If it’s got a lot of stuff squeezed in I’d rather get rid of it to allow for better spacing of everything else. Usually if I attempt to sketch my character it’s on another sheet of paper anyway and I’ll use that space for notes or something.

 

[Acmegamer]

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 that are way more important things to spend all that front-and-center page space.

GURPS is a good example of a character sheet I quickly tweaked due to the wasted space in the center when I often needed more room for "things", things being mechanics notes, inventory, history whatever.

So we'd at first take that sheet and photocopy with a blank sheet over the silhouette, and then take a ruler and pen and put horizontal lines through that now fresh clear area and make more room for information.

Of course later we totally did a new version of character sheets that my friend renamed JURPS for Jim's Universal Roleplaying Show. Caustic bastard was always giving me a hard time as GM. Really good character sheets though despite his sense of humor. lol

It wasn't until recently with DCC rpg that I started putting pictures in the character portrait area.

 

[Rich H]

Waste of space for me. If I want pics of characters then they are separate, so they aren't limited by a shitty little square or rectangular box on a sheet, and therefore produce better results. And you can also, with a separate pic, hold them up and pass them around - rather than show all your stats, stuff about your character, etc.

 

[Teotwawki]

To me, this is kind of a 3rd page sort of thing. If the character sheet has a third page, that's a great place to have the portrait box.

 

[TristramEvans]

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.

that was me as a player

 

[Baulderstone]

If someone at the table drawing what is happening in the game, it's a pretty sure sign it's a good session.

 

[Sable Wyvern]

I don't recall any player ever making serious use of a such a space in any of my games. A few probably doodled some stick figures. However, I suspect enough people outside my groups use them to justify including them.

That said, completely aside from any discussion of portrait spaces, I find the majority of official character sheets for every game I've ever played to be just barely good enough at best, and mostly they're pretty crap.

These days, I make a gsheet character sheet for every game I run, tailored to what I know we will actually need, including any houserules in action, auto-calculating as much as possible. I do not include a portrait space, but players are welcome to insert images anywhere they want.

 

[Sharrow]

To me, this is kind of a 3rd page sort of thing. If the character sheet has a third page, that's a great place to have the portrait box.

If there's to be a portrait box on a multi-page sheet, I'd put it on the front, along with all the character description stuff that isn't mechanics heavy. Then have all the mechanics stuff on later pages.

Last time I designed a custom character sheet from scratch was some time in the 90s, for a AD&D2 game that used a lot of the 'Payer's Option' material and a bunch of house rules. Page one was a summary (Class, level, stats), plus description and a spot for the character portraits that one of the players did for us. Page two was back story and notes/diary (which for some players rolled over to pages 3&4), then there was a full write-up of the character's game stats. Then equipment (which started out small, but ended up huge, as my players of the time loved to accumulate stuff. Finally, the last page, which was a combat summary - AC, HP, saves, etc. with plenty of room for damage, etc. to be noted down, crossed out, etc. In play most of the time only the last page needed to be handy.

 

[saskganesh]

It's nice to have white space on an otherwise cluttered character sheet. I'm all in for portraits (and I can draw a little bit), but most character sheets are crap.

 

[Dr Jack]

I like 'em, but I don't use 'em or consider them obligatory.

 

[Black Vulmea]

I don't usually have that kinda room.

 

[TristramEvans]

I don't usually have that kinda room.

View attachment 81676

all my NPCs are on index cards - stats on one side, character portrait on the other

 

[Baulderstone]

These days, I make a gsheet character sheet for every game I run, tailored to what I know we will actually need, including any houserules in action, auto-calculating as much as possible. I do not include a portrait space, but players are welcome to insert images anywhere they want.

I use Google docs for all my sheets now. Both the GM and player always have instant access to the sheet, which is great when the GM needs to make a secret roll or look at someone's character between sessions. It's not going to get lost between sessions. If a player isn't entirely happy with the sheet, they can easily move things around. I use the pageless setting, so the sheets are infinite. There is plenty of room for a player to copy in the full rules for all their special abilities. And most relevant to this thread, it's easy to paste in a character portrait.

 

[Bunch]

I voted "Nay" because I only ever use them for Superhero RPG's. Outside of that I don't think it has ever been a feature I cared for and it takes up space.

 

[Malckuss]

Nay. Not enough room to do a portrait justice and it takes up space better used for rules stuff. If you need a pic, print one off on a separate page.