Character Sheet

[LivingTriskele]

I thought I’d share the character sheet I’ve been working on for my BRP thing.

[Ian Absentia]

Very nice.  And extra points for creative use of Papyrus!

You have me very intrigued with where you're going with this:

...as it sort-of-maybe resembles an idea that I've been noodling over, too.

[Edit: I noticed that it appears to tie into Allegiances.]

!i!

Edited July 17 by Ian Absentia

[LivingTriskele]

Thanks Ian. I was on the fence regarding Papyrus.

Psychological archetypes are a major theme of the setting, and I’m using a combination Allegiances and Passions to reflect that. 

Edit: And... I just found a typo...

Edited July 18 by LivingTriskele

[Susimetsa]

I have some mixed feelings of 1) high appreciation of your skills at designing an airy and pretty character sheet and 2) utter envy. 😛

Edited July 18 by Susimetsa

[Lloyd Dupont]

Gorgeous! 🙂

[Ian Absentia]

On 7/17/2024 at 8:15 PM, LivingTriskele said:

I was on the fence regarding Papyrus.

Aren't we all?

Several thoughts:

1) This is really lovely stuff.  I found an academic piece online -- is this yours?  Is the graphic art yours?

2) Is this an elaborate home campaign, or is this something you're looking at releasing publicly?

3) This is an unsolicited critique, so take with a grain of salt.  The character sheet appears to be a kitchen sink of every rule option in BRP, particularly the full spectrum of powers options.  I'm unfamiliar with the setting, but might a focus on one or two versus all of them help focus player choices?  Similarly, all of the "simulationist" options in BRP make for a steep on-ramp for most players.

All of this because you posted a pretty character sheet.  Shine on!

!i!

Edited July 19 by Ian Absentia

[LivingTriskele]

Hey Ian, I really appreciate your interest, questions and critique of my work. It’s totally flattering. All the artwork is mine. You mentioned an article—could you please forward me a link? I’d like to check that out.

I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to give you the long answer.

Decades ago (so long ago it’s embarrassing) I started working on a multiverse RPG setting inspired by Gnostic mythology, and modeled after (my interpretation of) a psychologically unbalanced mind. I called it Majinine the Four-Cornered World—the three lower corners were the domains of the gods of reason, strength, and shadows (subconscious), respectively. The top point (corner) was the domain of the king who ruled over them all.

I described my setting to a friend who suggested that I read a book (King, Warrior, Magician, Lover) that used a similar model to describe archetypes of masculinity (though I believe they can be applied to both genders). After reading that book, I made some adjustments inspired by that text, but added the Prince of Masks (a god capable of flipping the other four gods on their heads—capable of inadvertently inspiring them to be the worst possible versions of themselves).

When Chaosium announced their recent Design Challenge I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t try, so I went through my ancient notes and slapped a submission together. In retrospect, I don’t expect my work to do well against the other 194 submissions (I think mine is too broad strokes). But, regardless of how my submission does, the process of working on it inspired me to finally finish this thing, and hopefully release it publicly. Working on this character sheet sort of galvanized that decision for me, actually.

Regarding all the options on the sheet, it’s true—there’s a lot there. That’s partially because I’m hoping to finally convert my D&D group to BRP and I know what they like (options). They like rules and complexity. I’m hoping that clearly written character generation guidelines will help circumvent any confusion. The cool thing about BRP is that it’s so customizable, and I’d like to think other players will be able to take this setting and make it their own, regardless.

Edit: I meant to include that you’re not the first person to mention the density of the sheet. It got me thinking it might be a good idea to provide a different character sheet layouts for each of the four character power levels. Also, there are some setting-specific skills that maybe should be limited to specific power levels. That might even things out overall. 

Edited July 19 by LivingTriskele