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| Cover art by Tom Wham |
I've reached July 1977 in this D&D product chronology, but evidence suggests that Character Record Sheet came out around April. These aren't the first player character sheets to be made by TSR, but they are the first to be sold commercially. I covered the first ones here, along with The Character Archaic from Wee Warriors.
Finding actual scans, not recreations, of these sheets was a little difficult. These were the best I could manage.
There's nothing too surprising on the front, though I always find it a little odd to see Psionic Strength listed right there alongside D&D staples like the six ability scores; it's just never been a part of my games. I always like a sheet with a space for a drawing though, and this one doubles down on that by also having a space for a "sign or blazon".
The back sheet gives a lot of real estate to equipment and where its stored, affirming old school D&D dedication to encumbrance. The big box for GOLD should probably read TREASURE. I don't know why there's such a large space for Experience, though. It's probably not going above seven figures, right?
RE: Experience, back in the day before calculators were readily available and cheap, most players would actually do the addition on the page. Some would just nite do gains and add them up every couple sessions. Do an XP area became filled with all sorts of numbers. Plus, of course, XP required for next level and XO % bonus...
ReplyDeleteI guess those sheets can get messy and cluttered. I had a habit of making a new sheet pretty much every time I gained a level, to keep things neat and tidy.
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