Dungeon Crawl Classics: The 5x8 Card

I tried making a 4x6 card for Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) and I couldn't. I ended up going to a 5x8 size and this worked a lot better. On the downside, these no longer fit in my notebook journals. DCC puts a lot of extra info on a character sheet, just like B/X and 3.5, things you need in order to play quick and not reference the book, and this information is specific to each class.

The design roughly follows the official character sheet designs, and you will notice things roughly in the same place. AC and HP ended up near the combat info on the far right, but that works since all that info is typically used in combats. The top-center of the card follows the left-to-right fill-in-as-you-go method of the official sheet. DCC has one character sheet per character class, and while they are somewhat similar, they vary in information and structure, with some needing space for spells and other information.

I like games that do not put heavy record-keeping requirements on players, especially if I am playing four or more characters in a game. There are times when I will roll up a four-person party and play. There are games where I want to create several of those parties and run little stories for them.

It is impossible in any game that requires character printouts of 2+ pages of 8.5 x 11 paper. I end up with dozens of PDFs, or stacks of printouts I just do not want to maintain. Starfinder, Pathfinder 1e and 2e, and most newer games fall into this category.

Castles & Crusades remains my best work for a 4x6 card, and the game strips a lot out and makes a compact character card possible. I still need space on here for Base to Hit (oops), I want a space for race and sex, add a column for primary ability checkmarks, and I will probably shrink the save information lines to free up more space.

I also get a feeling while I can do Savage Worlds Pathfinder on a 4x6 card, the game will feel and play better with a 5x8 card for the character. Some games get too cramped on a 4x6 card, and many do not even fit on the 5x8 cards.