How do you approach record sheets?

How do you approach record sheets? What do you put and where? We generally use a template we have for the journal... and very few ability fields filled out (HP current and max and AC)

Player Name: Character Name: AKA: Class: Race: Alignment: Level: Handedness: HP: #@1st AC: AC Surprised: AC Shield-less: Height: Weight: Age: Max age: Handedness: Abilities Value Hit Dam Wgt Press Open Bend Notes Strength Value React Missile Defense Notes Dexterity Value HP Shock Resurrection Poison Regenerate Notes Constitution Value Lang Level Chance Max I mmunity Notes Intelligence Value Defense Bonus Failure I mmunity Notes Wisdom Value Reaction Notes Charisma Weapons Weapon #Attack Attack Adj. Dam Adj. THACO Dam SM Dam L Range Weight Size Type Speed Notes: Movement Speed Weight Penalties Notes Base (race+dex) Light Enc. (-1/3) Moderate Enc. (-1/2) - 1 penalty to attack rolls Heavy Enc. (-2/3) - 2 penalty to attack rolls and AC penalty +1 Severe Enc. (1) - 4 penalty to attack rolls and AC penalty +3 Special Abilities and Attacks List Pick Pockets Open Locks Find/Remove Move Silently Hide In Shadows Detect Noise Climb Walls Escape Bonds Base Race Dex Armor Level Total Proficiencies Skills and Languages Weapon List Non-Weapon List Languages List Memorized Spells NA Gear Item Location Weight Henchmen/ Animal Companions Name AC Race/ Class HD/ Lvl #AT THAC0 Dmg/Effects HP Abilities Money -gp

The formatting is just very hard on Roll20... And if we use a macro we often throw the table with it. !broll 1d100 Rouge Skills /w gm Pick Pockets 70% /w gm Open Locks 40% /w gm Find/Remove 30% /w gm Move Silently 50% /w gm Hide In Shadows 45% /w gm Detect Noise 20% /w gm Climb Walls 60% /w gm Escape Bonds 40%

Thanks Stephen for sharing your methods & character sheet format. So far I've been remaking different sheets in different campaigns, by hand every time, and that is tiresome. I may try copy-pasting your format for my next blank player sheet. Nice thief abilities table / worksheet you have there, for tallying all the modifiers that apply. I noticed you have "Escape Bonds", is that a custom thief ability in your campaigns? Alternatively some DM's ask you to make the character sheet on Myth-Weavers website. It lets you link to a webpage (HTML) character sheet, that's outside Roll20, but just in another web browser tab. Along those lines but different, a 3rd method, if you have the 2E Core Rules CD, that has a character maker, which lets you export the sheet in several formats including HTML (display the sheet in a web tab) or "Plain Text" which you can copy-paste into a Roll20 Journal. I've done that method too, for getting the text in Roll20 interface, but it's not particularly formatted with tables and such, just lines of text with spacing for the entire long char sheet. The upside of this is, it is somewhat easier to Edit without risking messing up your table rows & columns.

"Escape Bonds" is in the optional rules (see Purple Worm , specifically Thief (Skills and Powers) ).... The reason I post this because the Roll20 record sheets are touchy and a pain... and... I am thinking about creating an API around 2E rules to generate a record sheet.... and thinking through what is "must have", "worth having", "nice to have", "might as well have" and "too f*cking hard."

Just a start on the API script.

So the API allows for some better formatting and ability to quickly reproduce... Now just have to work out what should be standard abilities and skill macros.

<a href="http://www.myth-weavers.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.myth-weavers.com</a> has a solid record sheet creation system for 2e and later games

Yes, those are really nice. Still, I am not a fan of going off site (two lazy I guess) and then you have build all the macros.