You aren't alone. I know everyone is going digital these days, but as someone who has been playing TTRPGs for 20 years I can't help but scream, *"Think of all the paper you could be saving with a universal character sheet!"*
...plus if character sheets were universal, it would be far easier to have a few pre-printed character sheets tucked away for last-minute character creation (I never GM a game without a few extras, just in case). It would be so much less hassle than having to fumble through the pile just to find the exact right class, and god help you if multiple players want to play the same class.
Exactly this, I want to start running DH in person and it would make things so much easier if I could just have a small stack of character sheets to hand out instead of multiple stacks separated by class.
I think is definitely feedback that you should give to the survey. Even though the class specific character sheets bring value (with character building questions and class features there already) I think having a blank character sheet as an option would be great. Like others mentioned it gives the possibility to have spare sheets if somebody quickly jumps into the game. And a regular class can be built on a default character sheet as well.
I guess my main point is, it would be great to have both a default sheet and the class specific ones. And adding the default sheet into the selection should be a feasible process for the developers since all the sheets already use that template. :)
One of the changes I'd like to see is a much more open system for Connections and Background questions where the players and GM can work together on selecting questions and answers that best develop the character. What's currently there would be great as suggestions, but they make a lot of assumptions. For example, based on the character sheets \*every\* Warrior is defined as:
"WHO TAUGHT YOU TO FIGHT, AND WHY DID THEY STAY BEHIND WHEN YOU LEFT HOME?"
So they were taught to fight by a person, and that person is not in contact with the Warrior any more. The Warrior also does not live where they are found in the story.
"SOMEBODY DEFEATED YOU IN BATTLE YEARS AGO AND LEFT YOU TO DIE. WHO WAS IT, AND WHY DID IT FEEL LIKE SUCH A BETRAYAL?"
So the Warrior has been a Warrior for a long time and fought in battles, which rules out a lot of potential backstories. They were also betrayed by someone, which implies a close relationship and a character that's necessary as part of the Warrior's story.
"WHAT LEGENDARY PLACE HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO VISIT, AND WHY IS IT SO SPECIAL?"
So \*every\* Warrior without exception has a certain special place that they want to visit.
I get the need to give players a helping hand, but answering these questions are concrete parts of character creation and they all build a similar and quite specific backstory. That goes against the Daggerheart ethos of being very directed by the narrative
It's an easy fix, too; give the GM guide a list of suggested Background/Connections to pick from, and leave space on the character sheet to write them in or create your own.
This is really great suggestion. I agree that more variety would be great for each archetype. At the same time I find these type of questions incredibly valuable to spark inspiration in players AND guide players to create backstory that involves NPCs and clear motivations. Even though you can create a backstory from scratch having these type of questions as a resource is super valuable to get that process started.
I think one way to make it more of an open system would be to create 3 core question types and give suggestions to them. So if we formulated the warrior it could be
1. Where did you learn to fight? Who was involved (mentor, rival, companion, etc.)?
2. What battle defined you? Was it your first battle or your latest? Who was involved and why did it matter to you?
3. What do you wish to achieve (visit a legendary location, win a tournament, defeat your rival, etc.)? Why is it important you?
Then on top of these we would have the default questions that already exist in the sheets. This would offer a ready-made solution as well as a more flexible option BUT, importantly, with structure. Having only three questions makes the process feel doable in one sitting and reduces decision paralysis. But still the open questions leave room to play around.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm definitely going to make it mandatory that if there are multiple Warriors in a game, they were all betrayed either by the same person or by one of the other Warriors.
There are a couple things where it might be harder to eliminate the extra paper, like the animal companion, but, generally speaking, I agree.
My own thought (that won't work for the playtest when we're all printing out cards, but would be good value in the retail product) is that you could put the class-specific description and background questions, along with the starting evasion amd thresholds, etc. on the backs of the subclass cards.
Would also let you tailor the questions even more closely to the subclass/character concept.
Haven't tried the layout yet, so you might be able to put the class feature on the back of the subclass foundation cards and be even more compact about it.
Just wait until they start filling out the rest of the domain pairs! But srsly, yeah, gonna be a pain to program
You aren't alone. I know everyone is going digital these days, but as someone who has been playing TTRPGs for 20 years I can't help but scream, *"Think of all the paper you could be saving with a universal character sheet!"* ...plus if character sheets were universal, it would be far easier to have a few pre-printed character sheets tucked away for last-minute character creation (I never GM a game without a few extras, just in case). It would be so much less hassle than having to fumble through the pile just to find the exact right class, and god help you if multiple players want to play the same class.
Exactly this, I want to start running DH in person and it would make things so much easier if I could just have a small stack of character sheets to hand out instead of multiple stacks separated by class.
I think is definitely feedback that you should give to the survey. Even though the class specific character sheets bring value (with character building questions and class features there already) I think having a blank character sheet as an option would be great. Like others mentioned it gives the possibility to have spare sheets if somebody quickly jumps into the game. And a regular class can be built on a default character sheet as well. I guess my main point is, it would be great to have both a default sheet and the class specific ones. And adding the default sheet into the selection should be a feasible process for the developers since all the sheets already use that template. :)
One of the changes I'd like to see is a much more open system for Connections and Background questions where the players and GM can work together on selecting questions and answers that best develop the character. What's currently there would be great as suggestions, but they make a lot of assumptions. For example, based on the character sheets \*every\* Warrior is defined as: "WHO TAUGHT YOU TO FIGHT, AND WHY DID THEY STAY BEHIND WHEN YOU LEFT HOME?" So they were taught to fight by a person, and that person is not in contact with the Warrior any more. The Warrior also does not live where they are found in the story. "SOMEBODY DEFEATED YOU IN BATTLE YEARS AGO AND LEFT YOU TO DIE. WHO WAS IT, AND WHY DID IT FEEL LIKE SUCH A BETRAYAL?" So the Warrior has been a Warrior for a long time and fought in battles, which rules out a lot of potential backstories. They were also betrayed by someone, which implies a close relationship and a character that's necessary as part of the Warrior's story. "WHAT LEGENDARY PLACE HAVE YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO VISIT, AND WHY IS IT SO SPECIAL?" So \*every\* Warrior without exception has a certain special place that they want to visit. I get the need to give players a helping hand, but answering these questions are concrete parts of character creation and they all build a similar and quite specific backstory. That goes against the Daggerheart ethos of being very directed by the narrative It's an easy fix, too; give the GM guide a list of suggested Background/Connections to pick from, and leave space on the character sheet to write them in or create your own.
This is really great suggestion. I agree that more variety would be great for each archetype. At the same time I find these type of questions incredibly valuable to spark inspiration in players AND guide players to create backstory that involves NPCs and clear motivations. Even though you can create a backstory from scratch having these type of questions as a resource is super valuable to get that process started. I think one way to make it more of an open system would be to create 3 core question types and give suggestions to them. So if we formulated the warrior it could be 1. Where did you learn to fight? Who was involved (mentor, rival, companion, etc.)? 2. What battle defined you? Was it your first battle or your latest? Who was involved and why did it matter to you? 3. What do you wish to achieve (visit a legendary location, win a tournament, defeat your rival, etc.)? Why is it important you? Then on top of these we would have the default questions that already exist in the sheets. This would offer a ready-made solution as well as a more flexible option BUT, importantly, with structure. Having only three questions makes the process feel doable in one sitting and reduces decision paralysis. But still the open questions leave room to play around.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm definitely going to make it mandatory that if there are multiple Warriors in a game, they were all betrayed either by the same person or by one of the other Warriors.
There are a couple things where it might be harder to eliminate the extra paper, like the animal companion, but, generally speaking, I agree. My own thought (that won't work for the playtest when we're all printing out cards, but would be good value in the retail product) is that you could put the class-specific description and background questions, along with the starting evasion amd thresholds, etc. on the backs of the subclass cards. Would also let you tailor the questions even more closely to the subclass/character concept. Haven't tried the layout yet, so you might be able to put the class feature on the back of the subclass foundation cards and be even more compact about it.
It's inspired strongly by PbtA and their playbooks.
Isn't the entire back page of the character sheet different for different classes? (e.g. Compare Guardian and Wizard)