A Character Sheet with 288 Boxes

Let's take a look at the official Pathfinder character sheet today, shall we? Let's start with the basic six ability scores:

• 6 scores x 4 boxes (base score, ability modifier, temp adjust, temp modifier)

24 boxes to keep track of so far, beating out some old school pen-and-paper games already. Let's add the rest of the boxes in, all the way up to the saves.

• 4 boxes for HP, DR, current HP, and nonlethal damage
• 3 boxes for Initiative
• 8 boxes for AC
• 3 more boxes for AC, touch flat footed, and modifiers

18 more boxes, bringing our total up to 42 boxes total. So far, this is a pretty comprehensive sheet, let's count up the boxes for saving throws next:

• 18 boxes for save calculations
• 1 more box for save modifiers

19 More, bringing our total up to 61 total. Let's finish up by getting the rest of these down.

• 2 boxes for BAB and Spell Resistance
• 10 boxes for CMB and CMD
• 7 boxes for Speed and Movement
• 5 Blocks for Weapons, each with 7 boxes, for 35

Another 54, for a grand total 115 boxes on the front of our sheet. We haven't hit skills yet, so let's figure those into our total.

• 39 Skills x 4 boxes each, for 156 entries
• 7 'pick a' skill slots
• 5 empty lines for conditional modifiers and languages
• Let's add 2 boxes for Level and XP, they are on the back of the sheet, but they are needed
• 3 more boxes for name, class, and alignment

Our grand total is up to 115 + 156 + 17, for 288 boxes on the front of this character sheet. Granted, to be fair, not every box is used, but we have a character sheet with nearly 300 boxes to consider and make decisions about. Pathfinder evolved from a game that was what, six ability scores, plus a couple more for saves and the like? For comparison, the 1040EZ tax form has 52 boxes. Let's look at D&D4's character sheet for fun:

• 16 boxes for vitals
• 4 boxes for Initative
• 18 for ability scores
• 32 for saves
• 5 for movement
• 4 for senses
• 16 for the attack workspace
• 12 for the damage workspace
• 16 for basic attacks
• 14 for action points and hit points
• 85 for skills
• 17 other boxes for powers, feats, languages, rituals, powers, etc

A total of 239, plus about 10 boxes per power your character acquires (around 11, 17 at max level); so our 30th level character has about 409 stats to track. Let's have some fun and consider Labyrinth Lord's character sheet now.

• 4 boxes for name, class, alignment, and level
• 2 boxes for HP and AC
• 6 boxes for ability scores, with an extra box each for modifier, for 12
• 5 boxes for saves
• 10 boxes for to-hits
• A box for xp
• 2 boxes for other abilties and spells
• A box for weapons and gear
• A box for notes

A grand total here of 32 boxes to keep track of. Basic Fantasy RPG anyone?

• A box for name
• 2 boxes for Level and XP
• The standard 6 x 2 rack for ability scores, for a total of 12
• 3 boxes for AC, HP, and Attack bonus
• 5 boxes for saves
• A box for gear and spells

24 boxes total to keep track of a character, equivalent to Pathfinder's 4 x 6 rack for ability scores alone. Remember, these are all essentially the same 'dungeon' game. Granted Pathfinder has far more options and character builds, some pretty art, more spells, and tons of adventures written for it. It is still supposed to be the same "D&D" game though, and this stems from the bloat of character sheets inflicted on the game throughout AD&D, AD&D2, and D&D3. With each edition, the character sheet expanded to include more modifiers, more places to track numbers, and more hard data about the character that really has little relevancy in the 'adventuring in a dungeon' game these are supposed to be.

This reminds me of the days where personal computers needed several different types of ports interfaces, cable adapters, disk drive sizes, and video standards. The world standardized on USB and the CD/DVD standard, and life got a lot simpler. To be honest, the bloat of boxes on character sheets is due to the complexity AD&D2 and D&D introduced with non-weapon proficiencies and then skills, and then all of the little fiddly modifiers that stuck to the game like lint along the way. I remember the days where a supposedly complex game like the classic Aftermath got absolutely panned for being too complex, and that only has 100 boxes on its character sheet to fill out.

It always surprises me that through the years, the game has got simpler in the OGL clones, and more complex in the versions put out by the big players. Does the world want more complexity? Whatever happened to a game becoming simpler and easier to play in the next version? Good design means throwing out all the junk you don't need, simplifying things, and making the product easier to use.

Apple gets it, it's why you don't see a RJ-232 serial port on an iPad, and worrying about hardware drivers for the thing. It just works, and you don't need to configure nearly 300 settings to get the thing to work. Where is that design theory in roleplaying games? Are we doomed to keep using machines and games that increase in difficulty with every revision, or is there a better way?