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Charsheets for Play-by-Post Roleplay

There are many types of character sheets, ranging from the D&D attribute/item/skill matrix, to the biography, to the psychological profile. The question that you as the player or game master have to ask yourself is “What is the purpose of this character sheet?”

 
When starting a forum based roleplay, char sheets are often used to screen players and identify godmoders while preventing Mary Sues. When dueling, a character sheet helps set limitations on “power level” to prevent powergaming. When casually roleplaying multiple characters, good character sheets can help the player manage the various personalities.

Whatever your reason for using a character sheet, make sure that the sheet you use is functional. If it is meant for other players to read, make it concise and informative. If it is for personal reference, make it detailed and well organized. If it is for player screening, make sure you follow the GM’s rules. If you are the GM, make sure that you set a sheet that you actually care about. While a character’s vocation is important, their hair and eye color are often not. An aside to GMs: if you require a character sheet, don’t use it just for screening. Integrate bits and pieces of characters’ histories into the plot.

I generally partake in freeform RPs and thus rarely read others’ character profiles (except for research). I highly doubt that every player takes the time to read mine, so my primary reason is to create a comprehensive reference for my own use. My characters are often of much varied temperaments than I, so roleplaying “what I know” is a rarity. I build my character sheet the same way that I build my character: given a set of personality traits, I produce an anecdotal history that explains why my character has those traits. Alternatively, given an event in my character’s biography I determine the effects on their psyche and demeanor. This reference is a way for me to tell myself what things make up my character, so that when he or she or it discovers a new situation, I can use their anecdotal past to determine their reaction. Just writing down that reference helps me ingrain it, so I might not even return to it.

A criticism I often receive after making that statement calls me out as bland and “too rational, preventing my characters from ever being spontaneous”. If you feel like making that criticism then you are missing my point: if my character is spontaneous or has the potential for spontaneity I will explain that potential via some event or sequence of events in their life. So when he risks his life to save a little girl, he will be thinking back to his sister’s death that no one risked their life to prevent. Or he will be going out of his way to impress a maiden, fooling himself and others that he is chivalrous. When my character leads a battalion into the fray, my history will reflect either childhood board game endeavors leading to a profound understanding of strategy, or perhaps a con-artisan streak leading up to the commanding rank. Or perhaps he will have spent his entire life working towards the position, and has finally reached it.

What these anecdotes allow me to do is extrapolate other details from the situation. Is my character ecstatic or anxious? Is he confident or doubtful? Is he emotionally stable or unstable? Rather than make a random guess I am able to use my character reference to portray truer actions, ones that will certainly affect the course of the roleplay. More importantly, this reference prevents me from living vicariously through my characters and overlaying my own psyche with their abilities. It prevents my lover from forgiving his cheating significant other, and prevents my brute from solving a simple puzzle.

Of course, the character reference is only relevent or useful if you actually use it. If the roleplay is a duel with no plot then the only relevant details are fighting style, ability to taunt, and attributes of the body, then only those features should go on the sheet. If the relevant character is meant to be an extension of yourself then only the physical appearance (for the benefit of others) is a necessary aspect of the sheet. Whatever your purpose for creating a character sheet for a forum roleplay, make sure that your sheet is targeted for a specific audience (or yourself) and that if fulfills whatever purpose you set out for it.

© 2009 The Role Play Academy.