This looks really neat and practical! But I must say, the front of the binder should DEFINITELY have a picture of the character, together with the character's name! That way you can keep it out during the session, and the other players will never forget your character's look and name.
And that's why he says the player can rearrange as they see fit. What he showed us is his default setup. Yours may vary. I do like the idea of a character picture on the front, or some art (coat of arms, character's house, town map). He did not show clearly that he puts the character or player's name on the spine of the binder, and that spine is also a clear pocket where you could slide in art.
@@MonkeyJedi99 Yeah, I never have art of my characters so I wouldn't use it for that. But some friends of mine always make their own character art, so that would be great for them.
This is a fantastic idea. I used to keep the sheets for them, but I've stolen this one and implemented it for my group. I've seen some comments about how the members of the group simply forget to bring their folder. At that point I'd get new players. A good DM puts in a ton of work and effort into making the game great. The least a player can do is to bring his bloody folder/binder. Especially when that binder cost him nothing.
I make my players keep their binders. I'm not their mother, they need to learn simple responsibility. I give them binders at the start of a game but I make it clear to my players, I paid for them, but if they loose them they need to reimburse me for the cost, and then they need to also replace the binder. I like to keep a back up of character sheets on my computer, but it isn't updated after every session. So if they loose their binder they also loose character progress.
@@ABCoLD-AOI I do something similar, but slightly different. Mainly because I hate it when GMs insist on holding on to my sheet. It's more in line with version control systems. Whatever version of your sheet you have is fine, but something only becomes official when it's checked in with me.
@@ABCoLD-AOI I have a folder that I keep all the current character sheets in and I have the players fill out a new sheet every time they level up. Then put all the old ones in a binder. If we ever need to go back a few levels. Its all there. If you get hit by a vampire and loose levels. Just pull out the old sheet. And I keep them all with me.
Among my group -- pretty much any group I've been part of -- I've been _the_ organized one, whether I'm a player or the DM. Even as player I often wind up being the one who holds on to all the character sheets because the DM has a tendency to lose them, and I show up to all the games barring some very rare exceptions where they just play a board game instead. I have a whole backpack I bring with me, where I include pertinent books, writing materials, notebooks (usually only I take notes), index cards, a few extra sets of dice in case someone forgets theirs, extra blank character sheets, and some backup games (such as a collection of unique card game rules and a pack of playing cards). I also have collapsible dice rolling trays. And a vinyl grid/hex play mat that I keep in a map case. I also made wooden player tokens to use as map markers, along with a collection of enemy tokens (20 medium sized, 5 large, 2 huge) where the player tokens are color coded to the character and have the character's name; the enemy tokens are numbered 1 - 10 in two different colors, and are two sized so that there are essentially 4 options for enemy colors. I also wound up buying our DM his own DM's screen.... I didn't really want to share mine. Sometimes -- as a player -- I'll help out other players by maybe printing out the rules for their characters' spells so they won't have to constantly flip through the books, or I might write the rules for some special ability of theirs on an index card I paperclip to their character sheet. I certainly have times where I almost feel like I'm the babysitter of the group, though. And I really wish that when I ran a game I'd have someone among the players doing the stuff I do as a player... even some of it.
Great idea. As an addition one cool thing about those smooth plastic sleeves is you can write on them with both wet and dry erase markers and clean them up. While wet erase might be a pain in the note book, dry erase is great for temporary changes and tracking health, spells expended, etc.
As a GM with some unorganized players this has always been a must but I've never included graph paper and can't believe it never occurred to me to include it. This is one of those things that is so simple but makes everything so much easier and also gives a D and D game a more official feeling. If everything is organized and in a binder it seems to encourage a more serious play dynamic.
Thank you for the folders tip. They were a big hit with my players. They had their character sheets and the cheat sheets I made for their characters handy, paper to take notes on, graph paper to map the tomb. They worked great.
I too like keeping my players organized. Definitely going to add some nb and graph paper... can't believe i didn't think of that! For my 5e group, I also put in copies of their race and class from the PHB since I'm the only one with the books - I highlight the relevant race/class abilities and rolls for them too. I also use trading card protectors for their spellcards/magic item cards. Cool to see how you organize to keep the game running smooth!
One of the joys of having one of my regulars working in a corporate office is that he has a near-endless supply of damaged office materials, like sleeves, folders, binders, all sort of markers and what not. However, it's not about expenses here or savings made on the way. Something that I've learned the hard way is that the best way to keeping track of char sheets is to just collect them in the end of the session as a GM. The next game comes, and you know that the sheets are there. And it's not even about preventing cheating or other paranoid actions like that, but the simple fact I had to often organise games on a fly, forcing me then to improvise or guestimate what was the skills of various characters from my memory of seeing their sheet the last time. This is especially handy when suddenly there is an extra time slot for a game out of the blue, but people will be coming straight from work to the game session, and thus out of their own supplies or even sheets.
Seth pulls out binder with poly sleeves... I'm like, "oh, thank God, I'm not the only person who doesn't trust my players not to spill stuff on their binders!" Seriously though, those poly sleeves are awesome. I'm getting some of the ones made for trading cards to put loot item cards in so my players can keep track of who owns the item and all the details without cluttering the character sheets into oblivion. A quick addition to the D&D players' binders that I use at my table in the game I run for my son: there are class-specific spell books (found the ones we use on DM Guild) that list only spells available to that class, sorted by level, with the complete description of what the spell does from the handbook, so players don't have to sift through the whole PHB spell section to find the ones they can use. This is super helpful in speeding up the turns for casters in combat and reduces the frequency of forgotten or misunderstood spell information/effects. I heartily recommend using these, especially for divine casters that can change spell lists after each long rest.
Folders are great, started using them a few years ago to keep character sheets from getting lost. Thinking about including alphabets for languages players can speak so I can use handouts typed in a draconic font, or dwarven, and the player who speaks it can actually sit there and translate it.
This video, along with your Crit-Hit/Fumble Tables video, is pure gold! I am copying/adapting your work for my own group. One thing I'm adding, because it JUST came up in the game, is the carrying capacity of pouches, sacks, purses, backpacks, etc.
I started this as a player, playing in multiple games at a time in various systems. I now do this every time I run a game, and my new players love it. It makes a handy reference system, a lot less book checking, and nothing gets lost. It also makes it easy to hand off a PC if a player has to step out for a few sessions.
The fact that the cheat sheet is stuck in the front of the notebook, nicely protected is already a GODSEND that I will introduce in my next campaign. That alone will get many headaches out of the way. Especially for cyberpunk 2020.
I also do this, and you would not even believe how amazingly it works! So many times players being confused and/or not being able to remember or find things are completely and totally solved by this.
I really like the concept of the GM providing a personalized binder with all the campaign info + note paper and cheat sheets for each player. As the keeper of all my players' sheets, dice and minis, and the supplier of pencils, markers, and note paper, I'm already halfway there and I think that starting with my next campaign, I'll borrow from you and use this to begin the new campaign.
This is a great idea. I've already been using campaign folders for myself as a GM/DM, but providing the same convenience to the players is something I'm definitely interested in trying out, especially since my groups have a lot of younger, less experienced players who don't necessarily make organization a priority.
Thank you for suggesting this! As a GM, i've noticed a similar problem, to the point where I actually had to start holding onto everyone's character sheets at the end of a session. I love this idea to keep track of everything. Also, this really appeals to my background as a teacher. It feels a lot like giving my students folders, and GM'ing already feels a little bit like teaching as is. :)
I used to wear mine that way when I wore a watch. It lets me check the time or use it as a timer (analog watch all the way!). If the face is inside your wrist, a slight twist lets you see it when driving, writing, cooking, or doing most other things with your hands. On the outside, you have to move your whole arm. I see it worn on the inside by medical people quite a lot.
You are very generous to your players with keeping track of their rules and sheets and inventory, and I feel it is each GM's option to be as generous to those players as they like. However, I feel it's also a legitimate GM option for the GM to say to the players: "Keep track of your character and your items." And if they don't, then the decision is left to the GM (Usually, "if you don't have records of that, you don't have that."
I do love binders, and that seems like a good option for a long-running campaign with lots of lore and stuff, and I especially like the idea of having separate handouts for each player with things like combat notes and stuff that they're likely to have to look up to have a refresher on. If there's only one main book, it kind of gives each player a mini-PHB. What a great idea! That said, I always give my players the option to hand *me* their character sheets and stuff, and pretty much without exception, they've taken me up on that, so we don't have a big problem with lost and messed-up character sheets. I keep all my own notes in a binder, and I have those little plastic sheets with colored tabs on them that also have a pocket, and that's where I keep their character sheets and notes. At the beginning of each session, I open the binder and hand out all the pockets and then they fill them up and hand them back at the end. I have a small group, so I'm able to color-coordinate them as well; one player has the green folder, and his character's place in initiative order is the green clip (I put paper clips across the top of the GM screen to indicate initiative order), and his map marker (we don't have a lot of figures so we mostly use game pieces and dice on a map) is the green piece, I have green notes for stuff related to his character, etc.
A lot of my players keep their character data on their phones or tablets. I've not yet had a player show up without their character sheet. They will forget dice or miniatures, but that's pretty easy to compensate for. Personally I use the 3 ring binder system just as you described it, because I am old school and just like to have physical copies of things. I also use a similar system for keeping my adventure notes and modules. (For some reason I can't work with the data if it's in a PDF). My players don't tend to keep maps when they play. I think that might have to do with coming from a video game background. After I threw them in a very complicated Judges Guild dungeon scenario, they started to understand the value of keeping their own detailed maps. To save them from loosing these, I just hold on to them in my campaign binder. Great video!
You inspired me here. Stopped out at Sam's Club this very morning and picked up a pack of small binders to give out to my players during next weeks session.
Nice video. My groups have done this for decades, using card handouts for some items too, but with the DM usually keeping the folders. Also the players are encouraged to write a little adventure diary, told from their character's perspective and we'd then use those for the recap at the start of the next session - useful for those campaigns when we only got together for a weekend every couple of months. These diaries are great fun to read through years after the campaign have finished too. Over the years we've flirted with player laptops and soft copies but, in my experience, games just work that much better with good old pen and paper without screens getting in the way. People just seem to like the physicality of paper handouts and it's nicer to write by hand during a game.
The educator in me squeals with delight. As a player, people don't understand what a good GM is until they experience a good GM. There are so many terrible GMs out there and they all seem to be at Cons that I attend. :/ .Another option is simply to collect everyone's stuff and hold it for them until the next session. That won't work for every group because obviously lots of people review their characters between sessions. Like your "combat cheat sheet", I created a heavily-laminated double-sided half sheet that summarizes the very basic rules of 7th in an information-rich, organized half sheet so that a book would need to be cracked only for the most detailed inquiries.
I've never had the...um..."pleasure", but I've heard some horror stories about Con GMs. Things like a GM arbitrarily deciding that characters died - with no rolls - because they didn't follow the script (which, of course, the players don't have access to) or having a solution to a problem predetermined to the point that even if the players come up with something the GM hadn't considered it flat doesn't work, no matter how good an idea it is. I've heard enough of those stories that if I ever go to a con I'll not be playing, just observing.
My players also have a similar folder although just for the character sheets, notes and handouts. I have booklets for rules and house rules as well as other references. Another thing that always strike me as weird is that DMs allow players to bring back their character sheets/folders home knowing that they're going to lose them/feed themto the washing machine/etc. After my first game as a DM where half my players lost their everything and another half forgot theirs at home, I just made sure that they keep them in individual folders at my place where the risks of them being sacrificed to the dark gods are much lower. Yeah, sure, this means that players won't feel having ownership of their characters, won't learn about responsibilities, etc etc... but it still beats having to spend 1 to 2 hours every game trying to recreate or create the characters that they just lost.
I always have my players give me a copy of their character sheet. Then if they forget theirs, I have it. I can make notes to keep with the sheets and occasionally cross-check that my updates and the player's updates match.
This video is 24 carat gold! I have since made player folders for my CoC group and am in process of making up more for my Traveller group. Thankyou Seth, your advice is invaluable.
I just watched this video a few weeks back and it convinced me to make my own folders for our CP2020 game starting up. The players loved them, lets hope it continues to be of use. Good tip, thanks!
Great idea Seth. I used to use cardboard file organizers and always ended up with them breaking apart after a few sessions. I also advise against using a two ring binder. They have a tendency to destroy the sheaves due to torque. With remote play, I use an Excel file to store all of the players' characters, and another excel file to store my recurring NPCs.
As a GM I ran IRL the same way, I would guide my friends with ideas on how to maintain their own stuff for each game but would also explain that if lost, so were their characters so would only supply the equipment they would need for a character once at their creation. This was in the 80's when people paid more attention to things. :-)
I caught a sale at like Office Max or Staples like two years ago and grabbed up folders, etc. and even bought labels to mark the character name on the front, printable cards to laminate for the descriptions of spells they've learned, and then fought strenuously against the urge to run, since I'm enjoying playing so much! Now I have a stack of good-intentioned shrink-wrapped paper weights...
Unless my players want to look at their sheets over the week I just keep everything at my place (each player has a big Zip lock bag) Not only does it help keep things organized it helps me plan when I'm able to (with their permission) look over the sheets while I plan the sessions! Thanks for the great tips! :D
Great idea... especially since I’ve been doing it for years. *heh* The only difference is that the folders stay at my house, so that I can check the sheets to look at their items, stats, etc while planning. They have their own copies of their sheets in various media, but by having the sheets with me, I’m prepared if a player doesn’t show up at the last minute or if I need to double-check something while planning.
we employ a central data point system usually, meaning that the players paperwork is all kept in the same place ( usually whomevers house we're playing in) it helps reduce missing character sheets
Fantastic topic and video Seth. I finally gave in and got out the dusty tombs and cigar box full of dice, to teach my kids all about the D&D I played from 1978 to 1992 (1st Edition). I started the family out with their own 2 pocket folder and I'm starting to organize 1/2 three ring binders for them. Because of lack of player resources for 1e I'm giving them all a PDF print out of the (Frank Mentzer) Red Basic Rules Book, Character record sheet, backpack inventory sheet, and chest Inventory sheets. Along with the loose leaf 15 sheets and 10 sheets of graph paper for noted and personal mapping. I have them all leave their folders on the desk in my office, which gives me access to add THAC0 and other charts for their quick reference.
We've used folder/binders for decades as well, but being in IT I create a webpage database with softcopy character sheets. At the end of the session as we are talking the GM updates everyone's character with experience and loot, depending on the system the database will automatically change any level and level dependent abilities. Any and all updates must be done on the softcopy before they are considered valid. Doing it this way automatically calculates weight/encumbrance, upkeep costs, dates, etc... Later before the next session the player logs in to do any updates they want/need to. We also give bonuses to players that keep a diary/log of their characters, and if someone looses a sheet it takes 30 seconds to print an up to date version. It helps that we have a large table that seats 12, so everyone can have a tablet or laptop at the table. Power and network ports mounted under the table so everyone can easily access them and a large flat screen on the wall to share pictures, maps, music etc...
It all seems so different from when our group played Moldvay edition D&D and Runequest in the early 80's. Character sheets were all hand written in pencil on cheap lined notebook paper (no printed character sheets then), and folded up at end of session. It seems amazing now that we never had any issues with players misplacing their character sheets.
1. Love the folder idea. That solves a lot of the problems at my table. 2. Your wife plays? That's adorable! I mean it! 3. Did you know your voice causes ASMR? Very therapeutic.
Seth, can you make videos of your sessions please? Of course, if you don't want to bring your personal games to public it's perfectly fine, we all understand.
One of my favorite "player folder" things is for modern games. Use medical folders and let the player have their characters in a dossier, just keep a two hole punch nearby along with some paper clips. Makes the folder feel in game and like your at an after action report with the players going over the actions of the characters.
We've been using some similar systems at our tables for awhile now. I like your suggestions of the Crit Hit / COmmon flow charts in the sleeve. We've really customized each of our binders as we've gone along so each has become its own beast. Our most recent campaign has also had a common 'Party Binder' for things like world maps, world calendars, house rules. As a table, we've often had the single loot tracker person so party binder started as just a common party log and loot tracking that never left the table so it was always handy in case that designated scribe was not there for a session. We've started making use of some electronic resources to keep our group organized as well. We had a wiki style site for some time before wiki was a thing, tracking important npcs, session logs, other minutae. Attempts to use a wiki since have failed us, but the original has long inspired us to keep trying some of these RPG support sites. Also we've been using Facebook as a social organizer for setting dates for the next session, session summaries, and a repository for reference files. Several players have started storing their characters on devices that are always at their side, though there is a dead trees version that the DM is supposed to have access to and to act as a spare in case of device failure. Have I missed your video on e-tools being used in support of the game? Enjoying the show as always
I have a similar little wallet that I keep D&D stuff in. It has about 6 separate compartments inside it which I have: - All my character sheets (so about 3 or 4 characters) - Spare character sheets for everybody - Spare spell sheets - Spare companion sheets - Spare blank paper - Blank map paper - Notes about the class/race I'm playing as, printouts of skill tables etc. I barely even use the stuff inside it since I rarely use caster classes, companions and as a player I have little need for map paper, but it's nice just to have it all there so if our DM can't come and we decide to do a one shot I can just pass out whatever we need. As for DM'ing, I'll be running my first campaign in the near future and I think I'll steal a few of these tips. We've always used homebrew stuff such as classes and characters (mostly me...I love homebrew stuff), so I'll probably print out a few handouts of my own custom rules or even official rules we often get confused about. Since we often didn't use a lot of official rules since we were learning D&D as we went along thus didn't know things existed, I may put some of those rules we ignored/didn't do properly on the front of the folders so players look at it and think "oh hey, that's a thing I can do" or "lets stop arguing about this rule for the 300th time and just look on the handout".
I've always kept the players' character sheets etc with the gaming books/gear and I got sick of the mess of pieces of paper so I bought a bunch of A4-sized folders with clear plastic pockets to store my stuff and I figured I might as well grab some to stick the players' character sheets, equipment lists, notes etc in. It certainly made handing out the players' stuff easier. The folders have been used by many players for an array of characters over the years - though for my current Cyberpunk game, I'm experimenting with having everything being done electronically with my players using their phones to store all relevant game information (in addition to "passing notes" using Google Chat etc)
Someone posted this in FB today. I didn't realize how much of these Ideas I took and ran with it. I did a group binder, and a separate binder for world fact book. The guy gming now bought us all binders which is nice. even with the group binder, our least organized player was somehow in charge of ship stats and kept losing the sheet because he couldn't be bothered to keep it in the binder.
That is a very nice idea and I would really loved this, if my GM had it when I started my RPG life. Especially the handy rules! I was so annoyed by losing characters, that as soon as I started to be the GM, I kept all the sheets at all the time. They are always at the place where they should be. Next to the GM, the guy you can't play without. Also I can always look up some details. In case I forgot something or want to weave a character more into the story. Every sheet has a paperclip. So you can sort them as you wish. It keeps them together, but you can split them if you want to. (We started with staplers. Bad Idea) We got 5-8 char sheets, depending on campaign. It works.
holly fuck, that's simply genius! not only makes sure everyone is organized, but handing something like that to a player will totally pump they up for the game! i'm totally going to do that!
Everybody I game with just brings a laptop and a notebook. There's a number of wonderful websites, official and fan-made, for creating/tracking character sheets and info, all the game guides and lore books are availavle online, and there's even dice rolling sites (which, we had to use once when literally everybody lost their dice. Even the DM, who's house we were all at, could not find dice). Regardless, I might make myself a few of these folder/binder setups. I have a laptop, but mines old, slow, and I'd much rather have a tangible book with all my stuff in it. Thanks for the idea! I probably have all the stuff needed to create one of these already, so this'll be great.
Dear Seth, Amazing Idea, I am going to do this! I was wondering if you could actually share your PDF of what you put on the sheets so we could possibly print them out as well.
Thanks for the tips. Most excellent. I reiterate could you please share your CoC sheets. It would be much appreciated, sir. Love NPC Jack & the appropriate backgrounds. Keep up the good work.
If you scroll to the bottom of the comments I put a comment with links on the pages I typed up that are close to the same as his. Free pdf downloads too
Yeah, I tried that as well. Then came, 'oh I forgot it/lost it'... Still want to play the same character though.. Out of those situations. It became a house rule. If you have lost/forgot your character sheet. Then leave it here from here now on. A designated place on a bookshelf.. It was not a perfect system, but it seemed to cut down on the whole forgot/lost problem.
Dennis Deal Same here--I tried putting in all the effort to have sleeved handouts and binders for my old group only for them not to even bring the binders. Now I just have my own DM notebook tabbed and sleeved and I keep the players' character sheets. No fuss at the table, far less work and expense for me!
That's why an ex-girlfriend of mine who GM's now uses her all-in-one printer and at the start of every 3rd session she scans everyone's pc-sheet pops them in a single pdf and emails to her group. I never played but when I was dating her I organized the session logs and campaign logs for her because I'm anally retentive, since knowing me she's started documenting everything about her campaigns - paper-based handouts with a pdf copy emailed to everyone, she also uses an iPad to quickly query logs in case the part run into a previously encountered NPC or something. In fact, her group all pretty much use a tablet or smartphone rather than folders.
Such options as emailing them and PDF files were still new.. The old dot matrix printer was slow and would forget what it was printing.. LOL ahh the days before one could scan and print. Though when I started back in 1980. It was all done by hand. otherwise known as the stone age..lol
I'll be super glad when I can start my new job, mainly because I'll finally have the income to do this for the groups I run! Yes, this will help the players, but it'll also help me a ton, since I'll have a way to actually check their sheets between sessions without having to wait on them to respond to random texts and such. (Clearly, I'll be going the route of "leave it with me" for that part to work. lol)
GF of mine had this scheme where she gave out character folders at the beginning of the first session -- but they already had pages with a list of locations and NPC names for players to scribble notes on. It did wonders for PC investment, just because all of a sudden they started calling characters by their names instead of "that guy" or "yo, NPC dude."
I would use the binder idea, but I travel to the games I run at a friend's house (he is more centrally located, and has more room) and I would have to carry all those binders. Instead, I use manila folders for each character, with binder clips to keep things from shifting around, and carry them in a messenger bag with a couple of books, my notes and dice. - The important thing, to me, is that I keep the master copies of the character sheets (as do the two players who also DM, but for their campaigns) and I can scan and share any character sheet anytime a player wants a copy. That way, when Joe or Nancy don't make a session, the characters are still there. - With the two 5E campaigns I occasionally play in, the DM's have us use the .pdf character sheets, and send them a copy each time we level up.
I have a folding clipboard for the current character sheet, a folder for other possibly active character sheets and paper, and a couple of folders to carry characters from now defunct campaigns. I usually print out most stuff that i will need for my character, so i have some nice sized character sheet stacks. In our Tuesday game, i am usually the only one that actually uses paper character sheets, the other 6 usually use some for of electronic character sheets!
i used to do this MANY years ago. some players LOVED it, but others didn't seem to care. i used to have clear index card pages i would give out for players to hold their magic items. i used to print up custom 4x5 index cards for their magic items. the store bought item cards made it too easy for players to cheat. this is a great idea, IMO. but only for the players who want it.
I remember going to a shadowrun session many years ago and forgetting my character sheet. I had to call home to my wife to get my stats. Didn't bother asking for my driving skill because I didn't think I would need it. Turns out that skill came up in the game and rather than calling her back we all just assumed I had a particular score. Turns out my real score was much higher than the one we assumed and if I had known that, we'd have saved ourselves a lot of trouble. Really funny memory though.
Back before cellphones and text messaging I'd image. As a 20-something my immediate thought was just send a few pics. Oh the wonders of modern technology lol.
I print off B&W copies of the race and class sections for each character, then put the character sheets at the front. Staples will bind them with a presentation cover for something like $1.50/ea. That way each player has reference for all of their abilities. They still have to pass around a PHB for spells and such, but it makes things way easier.
Over a decade ago, I got one of those file organizers that closes with a strap, has multiple sections, and can be tabbed however you want it. I gave each player a section for their character sheets, I made a section for handouts, and I'd keep it after the game session. I did this because when I gave my players their own folders, they'd still manage to be completely disorganized, sometimes even forgetting the folder at home when we convened for the game. It's not a big deal if they live close by, but when everyone is scattered to the four winds, it's really annoying. With the advent of sites like Obsidian Portal, I tried to get the players to keep their digital character sheet updated between sessions. Again, some were quite lazy and i'd end up doing it myself just so we have the backup. Now, at least where my long term group is concerned, we just play on Roll20 and I tell them at the start of the campaign that I am not responsible for anyone's character sheet; if they forget to write something in, then it doesn't exist. This includes leveling: if I tell them they leveled and they don't update by the beginning of the next session (since we can only play once every few months), then they will have to play that session as the lower level. Amazingly, it works, and they keep everything - party treasure, personal notes, etc. updated. :/
Great tips for IRL games. I do something similar within Roll20. I set up individual folders for each player that has their 5E shaped sheet and any handouts and non-consumable magic items that belong or are relevant to the player.
I use a Binder, with the following: Character sheet + Item Cards + Spell Cards + Class Reference Sheet + Character Illustration + Handouts + NPC Cards + Session Notes, each on it's own Page protector or card protector sheet. Also each player has a dice tower and dice set
I have been considering buying my players pocket sized note books so they can take notes instead of trying to remember all the details and names that even I forget sometimes. I'm glad all my players are fairly organized though and don't lose stuff. Just wish they took notes.
After years of having my players lose (or just forget to bring) their character sheets and other stuff to my game, I just started keeping all of my players character sheets and other stuff between games. I would hand them out at the beginning of the session and then collect them after our session ended. But I have used the folder/binder idea many times of the years.
This is why I'm glad some systems have gone digital. The only written things I really need are for my notes and my screen, but everyone else can pull up whatever they need through that system's site.
I used something like this, in conjunction with a Group Notebook, which party notes are kept in, such as loot etc. The trick was to nominate a record keeper to take the notes first, a role I usually rewarded with a small bit of XP based on their effectiveness.
If anyone is looking for PDFs of the sheets he has for D&D, I typed up my own copies here are the links are below Movement & Vision - docdro.id/cHoeoqq Common Notes & Rules - docdro.id/u46AO3F Combat Page - docdro.id/Zi1bnCR Character Exhaustion & Conditions - docdro.id/RLR308j Thanks, Seth Skorkowsky the helpful video.
I used to have my players photocopy their character sheets so I would have a copy. Then if they forgot it, I had it in the campaign folder. Then I developed a computer program to keep the sheets in a database (with all equip, exp... everything. Pretty much like D&D Beyond does now, but no graphics) I could print their sheets and a party summary sheet any time. I still have the programing code for my database. (from the mid 1980's) I could easily track the PC status and could detect any cheating (I have no idea why any player feels the need to cheat, but they do it often) ******************* Now I am setting up a small case for each of my characters. Included in the case is a set of dice, figures, (A druid needs a LOT of figures...) character sheet, photocopies of the spell cards applicable to the character... everything needed t play the character.
Google Docs is my go-to, especially if I have offline access. I like being able to update my sheet live - and my DM can see it and correct it as needed, also live.
Imagine someone finding one of those lost handouts. Crumpled envelope on the floor of the buss. Contains blood-soaked letter mentioning human sacrifice. Your local PD must have a "Things lost by Seth's friends box" where they store stuff that turned out to just be rpg paraphernalia.
A great place for cheap stuff is office surplus or electronics recycler. You can almost always find binders, paper, and other organizational materials for pennies on the dollar.
I picked up some folders with built in sheet protectors that I use. That way the players can use dry erase markers for HPs, spell slots, etc. on the sheet protector instead of on their character sheet.
If I ever run an actual D&D game on a table top, I will definately consider doing this for my players. As of now though, my friends and I use Roll20 for our games so I won't need this for now.
I use more advance stuff - every player has his own version of Player guide . In such folder u can find level advancement, all features and spells associated with their class . So instead always borrowing a PG and searching for a page of their class, they have it under their noses. Plus i gonna put some cover art on them and also gonna make custom dice trays \ holders where they can put their dice, item cards and other trinkets inside.
Recently I had the other extreme :-( A friend started a shadowrun group for noobs like me and invested hours guiding us through the character creation, and we all kept good care of the sheets given all the invested time work and "what may happen"-fantasies, yet all we've done was one evening with it.
I hadn't mentioned before, but I think gaming at your table would be a blast.
I wish he was in my town since I would love to be a player in his campaigns
This looks really neat and practical! But I must say, the front of the binder should DEFINITELY have a picture of the character, together with the character's name! That way you can keep it out during the session, and the other players will never forget your character's look and name.
And that's why he says the player can rearrange as they see fit. What he showed us is his default setup. Yours may vary.
I do like the idea of a character picture on the front, or some art (coat of arms, character's house, town map). He did not show clearly that he puts the character or player's name on the spine of the binder, and that spine is also a clear pocket where you could slide in art.
@@MonkeyJedi99 Yeah, I never have art of my characters so I wouldn't use it for that. But some friends of mine always make their own character art, so that would be great for them.
Ever since I took Mr. Skorkowsky's advice, my rp group has been having lots of fun. It really helps.
This is a fantastic idea. I used to keep the sheets for them, but I've stolen this one and implemented it for my group. I've seen some comments about how the members of the group simply forget to bring their folder. At that point I'd get new players. A good DM puts in a ton of work and effort into making the game great. The least a player can do is to bring his bloody folder/binder. Especially when that binder cost him nothing.
I make my players keep their binders. I'm not their mother, they need to learn simple responsibility. I give them binders at the start of a game but I make it clear to my players, I paid for them, but if they loose them they need to reimburse me for the cost, and then they need to also replace the binder. I like to keep a back up of character sheets on my computer, but it isn't updated after every session. So if they loose their binder they also loose character progress.
Half my players would lose the notebook.
Srsly G is right. We are doing the same. Everything in the GM's storage
You make them leave the notebooks with you in between sessions, of course.
@@ABCoLD-AOI I do something similar, but slightly different. Mainly because I hate it when GMs insist on holding on to my sheet. It's more in line with version control systems. Whatever version of your sheet you have is fine, but something only becomes official when it's checked in with me.
@@ABCoLD-AOI I have a folder that I keep all the current character sheets in and I have the players fill out a new sheet every time they level up. Then put all the old ones in a binder. If we ever need to go back a few levels. Its all there. If you get hit by a vampire and loose levels. Just pull out the old sheet. And I keep them all with me.
@@blg020 having back up iterations is a good idea for a lot of reasons. Good thinking.
Among my group -- pretty much any group I've been part of -- I've been _the_ organized one, whether I'm a player or the DM. Even as player I often wind up being the one who holds on to all the character sheets because the DM has a tendency to lose them, and I show up to all the games barring some very rare exceptions where they just play a board game instead. I have a whole backpack I bring with me, where I include pertinent books, writing materials, notebooks (usually only I take notes), index cards, a few extra sets of dice in case someone forgets theirs, extra blank character sheets, and some backup games (such as a collection of unique card game rules and a pack of playing cards). I also have collapsible dice rolling trays. And a vinyl grid/hex play mat that I keep in a map case. I also made wooden player tokens to use as map markers, along with a collection of enemy tokens (20 medium sized, 5 large, 2 huge) where the player tokens are color coded to the character and have the character's name; the enemy tokens are numbered 1 - 10 in two different colors, and are two sized so that there are essentially 4 options for enemy colors. I also wound up buying our DM his own DM's screen.... I didn't really want to share mine.
Sometimes -- as a player -- I'll help out other players by maybe printing out the rules for their characters' spells so they won't have to constantly flip through the books, or I might write the rules for some special ability of theirs on an index card I paperclip to their character sheet.
I certainly have times where I almost feel like I'm the babysitter of the group, though. And I really wish that when I ran a game I'd have someone among the players doing the stuff I do as a player... even some of it.
Great idea. As an addition one cool thing about those smooth plastic sleeves is you can write on them with both wet and dry erase markers and clean them up. While wet erase might be a pain in the note book, dry erase is great for temporary changes and tracking health, spells expended, etc.
Great idea. I get mad at my players because they "misplace" sheeets/handouts all the time. I will start doing this.
As a GM with some unorganized players this has always been a must but I've never included graph paper and can't believe it never occurred to me to include it.
This is one of those things that is so simple but makes everything so much easier and also gives a D and D game a more official feeling. If everything is organized and in a binder it seems to encourage a more serious play dynamic.
Thank you for the folders tip. They were a big hit with my players. They had their character sheets and the cheat sheets I made for their characters handy, paper to take notes on, graph paper to map the tomb. They worked great.
I too like keeping my players organized. Definitely going to add some nb and graph paper... can't believe i didn't think of that!
For my 5e group, I also put in copies of their race and class from the PHB since I'm the only one with the books - I highlight the relevant race/class abilities and rolls for them too. I also use trading card protectors for their spellcards/magic item cards.
Cool to see how you organize to keep the game running smooth!
Great idea, and a hallmark of a truly attentive GM to identify the need and take it on yourself.
One of the joys of having one of my regulars working in a corporate office is that he has a near-endless supply of damaged office materials, like sleeves, folders, binders, all sort of markers and what not. However, it's not about expenses here or savings made on the way.
Something that I've learned the hard way is that the best way to keeping track of char sheets is to just collect them in the end of the session as a GM. The next game comes, and you know that the sheets are there. And it's not even about preventing cheating or other paranoid actions like that, but the simple fact I had to often organise games on a fly, forcing me then to improvise or guestimate what was the skills of various characters from my memory of seeing their sheet the last time. This is especially handy when suddenly there is an extra time slot for a game out of the blue, but people will be coming straight from work to the game session, and thus out of their own supplies or even sheets.
Seth pulls out binder with poly sleeves...
I'm like, "oh, thank God, I'm not the only person who doesn't trust my players not to spill stuff on their binders!"
Seriously though, those poly sleeves are awesome. I'm getting some of the ones made for trading cards to put loot item cards in so my players can keep track of who owns the item and all the details without cluttering the character sheets into oblivion.
A quick addition to the D&D players' binders that I use at my table in the game I run for my son: there are class-specific spell books (found the ones we use on DM Guild) that list only spells available to that class, sorted by level, with the complete description of what the spell does from the handbook, so players don't have to sift through the whole PHB spell section to find the ones they can use. This is super helpful in speeding up the turns for casters in combat and reduces the frequency of forgotten or misunderstood spell information/effects. I heartily recommend using these, especially for divine casters that can change spell lists after each long rest.
Folders are great, started using them a few years ago to keep character sheets from getting lost. Thinking about including alphabets for languages players can speak so I can use handouts typed in a draconic font, or dwarven, and the player who speaks it can actually sit there and translate it.
This video, along with your Crit-Hit/Fumble Tables video, is pure gold! I am copying/adapting your work for my own group. One thing I'm adding, because it JUST came up in the game, is the carrying capacity of pouches, sacks, purses, backpacks, etc.
This is great. I am a new DM and we are three sessions in. We haven't lost anything but I see the value for the players.
I started this as a player, playing in multiple games at a time in various systems.
I now do this every time I run a game, and my new players love it. It makes a handy reference system, a lot less book checking, and nothing gets lost.
It also makes it easy to hand off a PC if a player has to step out for a few sessions.
The fact that the cheat sheet is stuck in the front of the notebook, nicely protected is already a GODSEND that I will introduce in my next campaign. That alone will get many headaches out of the way. Especially for cyberpunk 2020.
I also do this, and you would not even believe how amazingly it works! So many times players being confused and/or not being able to remember or find things are completely and totally solved by this.
I really like the concept of the GM providing a personalized binder with all the campaign info + note paper and cheat sheets for each player. As the keeper of all my players' sheets, dice and minis, and the supplier of pencils, markers, and note paper, I'm already halfway there and I think that starting with my next campaign, I'll borrow from you and use this to begin the new campaign.
This is a great idea. I've already been using campaign folders for myself as a GM/DM, but providing the same convenience to the players is something I'm definitely interested in trying out, especially since my groups have a lot of younger, less experienced players who don't necessarily make organization a priority.
Thank you for suggesting this! As a GM, i've noticed a similar problem, to the point where I actually had to start holding onto everyone's character sheets at the end of a session. I love this idea to keep track of everything. Also, this really appeals to my background as a teacher. It feels a lot like giving my students folders, and GM'ing already feels a little bit like teaching as is. :)
Call of Cthulhu: See watch worn on inside of the wrist: Roll for sanity.
Or they are a pilot
I thought exactly the same
thats a military style of watch wearing...removes glare and keeps it facing you if you shoot right handed
Gremlin Hunter my non military office job mom wears them that way XD
I used to wear mine that way when I wore a watch. It lets me check the time or use it as a timer (analog watch all the way!). If the face is inside your wrist, a slight twist lets you see it when driving, writing, cooking, or doing most other things with your hands. On the outside, you have to move your whole arm.
I see it worn on the inside by medical people quite a lot.
You are very generous to your players with keeping track of their rules and sheets and inventory, and I feel it is each GM's option to be as generous to those players as they like. However, I feel it's also a legitimate GM option for the GM to say to the players: "Keep track of your character and your items." And if they don't, then the decision is left to the GM (Usually, "if you don't have records of that, you don't have that."
I do love binders, and that seems like a good option for a long-running campaign with lots of lore and stuff, and I especially like the idea of having separate handouts for each player with things like combat notes and stuff that they're likely to have to look up to have a refresher on. If there's only one main book, it kind of gives each player a mini-PHB. What a great idea! That said, I always give my players the option to hand *me* their character sheets and stuff, and pretty much without exception, they've taken me up on that, so we don't have a big problem with lost and messed-up character sheets. I keep all my own notes in a binder, and I have those little plastic sheets with colored tabs on them that also have a pocket, and that's where I keep their character sheets and notes. At the beginning of each session, I open the binder and hand out all the pockets and then they fill them up and hand them back at the end. I have a small group, so I'm able to color-coordinate them as well; one player has the green folder, and his character's place in initiative order is the green clip (I put paper clips across the top of the GM screen to indicate initiative order), and his map marker (we don't have a lot of figures so we mostly use game pieces and dice on a map) is the green piece, I have green notes for stuff related to his character, etc.
A lot of my players keep their character data on their phones or tablets. I've not yet had a player show up without their character sheet. They will forget dice or miniatures, but that's pretty easy to compensate for. Personally I use the 3 ring binder system just as you described it, because I am old school and just like to have physical copies of things. I also use a similar system for keeping my adventure notes and modules. (For some reason I can't work with the data if it's in a PDF). My players don't tend to keep maps when they play. I think that might have to do with coming from a video game background. After I threw them in a very complicated Judges Guild dungeon scenario, they started to understand the value of keeping their own detailed maps. To save them from loosing these, I just hold on to them in my campaign binder. Great video!
You inspired me here. Stopped out at Sam's Club this very morning and picked up a pack of small binders to give out to my players during next weeks session.
Nice video. My groups have done this for decades, using card handouts for some items too, but with the DM usually keeping the folders. Also the players are encouraged to write a little adventure diary, told from their character's perspective and we'd then use those for the recap at the start of the next session - useful for those campaigns when we only got together for a weekend every couple of months. These diaries are great fun to read through years after the campaign have finished too. Over the years we've flirted with player laptops and soft copies but, in my experience, games just work that much better with good old pen and paper without screens getting in the way. People just seem to like the physicality of paper handouts and it's nicer to write by hand during a game.
The educator in me squeals with delight. As a player, people don't understand what a good GM is until they experience a good GM. There are so many terrible GMs out there and they all seem to be at Cons that I attend. :/ .Another option is simply to collect everyone's stuff and hold it for them until the next session. That won't work for every group because obviously lots of people review their characters between sessions. Like your "combat cheat sheet", I created a heavily-laminated double-sided half sheet that summarizes the very basic rules of 7th in an information-rich, organized half sheet so that a book would need to be cracked only for the most detailed inquiries.
I've never had the...um..."pleasure", but I've heard some horror stories about Con GMs. Things like a GM arbitrarily deciding that characters died - with no rolls - because they didn't follow the script (which, of course, the players don't have access to) or having a solution to a problem predetermined to the point that even if the players come up with something the GM hadn't considered it flat doesn't work, no matter how good an idea it is. I've heard enough of those stories that if I ever go to a con I'll not be playing, just observing.
Hey clutch, as an novice DM i would love to see the half sheet you handed out to your players. Is there a place where you posted it?
Well, they do call then "cons". Maybe if they called them "proventions? I know it's not really a word, but it ought to be.
My players also have a similar folder although just for the character sheets, notes and handouts. I have booklets for rules and house rules as well as other references.
Another thing that always strike me as weird is that DMs allow players to bring back their character sheets/folders home knowing that they're going to lose them/feed themto the washing machine/etc. After my first game as a DM where half my players lost their everything and another half forgot theirs at home, I just made sure that they keep them in individual folders at my place where the risks of them being sacrificed to the dark gods are much lower.
Yeah, sure, this means that players won't feel having ownership of their characters, won't learn about responsibilities, etc etc... but it still beats having to spend 1 to 2 hours every game trying to recreate or create the characters that they just lost.
I'm so glad you went through what's inside those folders! Going to have to do that for my players now.
I always have my players give me a copy of their character sheet.
Then if they forget theirs, I have it.
I can make notes to keep with the sheets and occasionally cross-check that my updates and the player's updates match.
This video is 24 carat gold!
I have since made player folders for my CoC group and am in process of making up more for my Traveller group.
Thankyou Seth, your advice is invaluable.
What did you include in your Traveller folders? I am just getting into the system and would love some ideas!
I just watched this video a few weeks back and it convinced me to make my own folders for our CP2020 game starting up. The players loved them, lets hope it continues to be of use. Good tip, thanks!
Great idea Seth. I used to use cardboard file organizers and always ended up with them breaking apart after a few sessions. I also advise against using a two ring binder. They have a tendency to destroy the sheaves due to torque.
With remote play, I use an Excel file to store all of the players' characters, and another excel file to store my recurring NPCs.
As a GM I ran IRL the same way, I would guide my friends with ideas on how to maintain their own stuff for each game but would also explain that if lost, so were their characters so would only supply the equipment they would need for a character once at their creation. This was in the 80's when people paid more attention to things. :-)
I caught a sale at like Office Max or Staples like two years ago and grabbed up folders, etc. and even bought labels to mark the character name on the front, printable cards to laminate for the descriptions of spells they've learned, and then fought strenuously against the urge to run, since I'm enjoying playing so much! Now I have a stack of good-intentioned shrink-wrapped paper weights...
Unless my players want to look at their sheets over the week I just keep everything at my place (each player has a big Zip lock bag)
Not only does it help keep things organized it helps me plan when I'm able to (with their permission) look over the sheets while I plan the sessions!
Thanks for the great tips! :D
I could see this working out wonderfully with Tales from the Loop where each player gets an appropriate Trapper Keeper.
Great idea... especially since I’ve been doing it for years. *heh* The only difference is that the folders stay at my house, so that I can check the sheets to look at their items, stats, etc while planning. They have their own copies of their sheets in various media, but by having the sheets with me, I’m prepared if a player doesn’t show up at the last minute or if I need to double-check something while planning.
we employ a central data point system usually, meaning that the players paperwork is all kept in the same place ( usually whomevers house we're playing in) it helps reduce missing character sheets
Fantastic topic and video Seth. I finally gave in and got out the dusty tombs and cigar box full of dice, to teach my kids all about the D&D I played from 1978 to 1992 (1st Edition). I started the family out with their own 2 pocket folder and I'm starting to organize 1/2 three ring binders for them. Because of lack of player resources for 1e I'm giving them all a PDF print out of the (Frank Mentzer) Red Basic Rules Book, Character record sheet, backpack inventory sheet, and chest Inventory sheets. Along with the loose leaf 15 sheets and 10 sheets of graph paper for noted and personal mapping. I have them all leave their folders on the desk in my office, which gives me access to add THAC0 and other charts for their quick reference.
We've used folder/binders for decades as well, but being in IT I create a webpage database with softcopy character sheets. At the end of the session as we are talking the GM updates everyone's character with experience and loot, depending on the system the database will automatically change any level and level dependent abilities. Any and all updates must be done on the softcopy before they are considered valid. Doing it this way automatically calculates weight/encumbrance, upkeep costs, dates, etc... Later before the next session the player logs in to do any updates they want/need to. We also give bonuses to players that keep a diary/log of their characters, and if someone looses a sheet it takes 30 seconds to print an up to date version. It helps that we have a large table that seats 12, so everyone can have a tablet or laptop at the table. Power and network ports mounted under the table so everyone can easily access them and a large flat screen on the wall to share pictures, maps, music etc...
It all seems so different from when our group played Moldvay edition D&D and Runequest in the early 80's. Character sheets were all hand written in pencil on cheap lined notebook paper (no printed character sheets then), and folded up at end of session. It seems amazing now that we never had any issues with players misplacing their character sheets.
1. Love the folder idea. That solves a lot of the problems at my table.
2. Your wife plays? That's adorable! I mean it!
3. Did you know your voice causes ASMR? Very therapeutic.
Liked for the shirt alone. I just provided a file folder that players could stash sheet handout ect. You took it to the next level, and I like it.
Seth, can you make videos of your sessions please?
Of course, if you don't want to bring your personal games to public it's perfectly fine, we all understand.
One of my favorite "player folder" things is for modern games. Use medical folders and let the player have their characters in a dossier, just keep a two hole punch nearby along with some paper clips. Makes the folder feel in game and like your at an after action report with the players going over the actions of the characters.
Thanks for this! It worked great! Added a 20’s drivers license and library card for their characters. They flipped out! Love running this game!
We've been using some similar systems at our tables for awhile now. I like your suggestions of the Crit Hit / COmmon flow charts in the sleeve. We've really customized each of our binders as we've gone along so each has become its own beast.
Our most recent campaign has also had a common 'Party Binder' for things like world maps, world calendars, house rules.
As a table, we've often had the single loot tracker person so party binder started as just a common party log and loot tracking that never left the table so it was always handy in case that designated scribe was not there for a session.
We've started making use of some electronic resources to keep our group organized as well. We had a wiki style site for some time before wiki was a thing, tracking important npcs, session logs, other minutae. Attempts to use a wiki since have failed us, but the original has long inspired us to keep trying some of these RPG support sites.
Also we've been using Facebook as a social organizer for setting dates for the next session, session summaries, and a repository for reference files. Several players have started storing their characters on devices that are always at their side, though there is a dead trees version that the DM is supposed to have access to and to act as a spare in case of device failure.
Have I missed your video on e-tools being used in support of the game?
Enjoying the show as always
I have a similar little wallet that I keep D&D stuff in. It has about 6 separate compartments inside it which I have:
- All my character sheets (so about 3 or 4 characters)
- Spare character sheets for everybody
- Spare spell sheets
- Spare companion sheets
- Spare blank paper
- Blank map paper
- Notes about the class/race I'm playing as, printouts of skill tables etc.
I barely even use the stuff inside it since I rarely use caster classes, companions and as a player I have little need for map paper, but it's nice just to have it all there so if our DM can't come and we decide to do a one shot I can just pass out whatever we need.
As for DM'ing, I'll be running my first campaign in the near future and I think I'll steal a few of these tips. We've always used homebrew stuff such as classes and characters (mostly me...I love homebrew stuff), so I'll probably print out a few handouts of my own custom rules or even official rules we often get confused about. Since we often didn't use a lot of official rules since we were learning D&D as we went along thus didn't know things existed, I may put some of those rules we ignored/didn't do properly on the front of the folders so players look at it and think "oh hey, that's a thing I can do" or "lets stop arguing about this rule for the 300th time and just look on the handout".
I've always kept the players' character sheets etc with the gaming books/gear and I got sick of the mess of pieces of paper so I bought a bunch of A4-sized folders with clear plastic pockets to store my stuff and I figured I might as well grab some to stick the players' character sheets, equipment lists, notes etc in. It certainly made handing out the players' stuff easier.
The folders have been used by many players for an array of characters over the years - though for my current Cyberpunk game, I'm experimenting with having everything being done electronically with my players using their phones to store all relevant game information (in addition to "passing notes" using Google Chat etc)
Great idea. My 5E DM did this with our group, and it really worked well. All my notes in one folder.
Someone posted this in FB today. I didn't realize how much of these Ideas I took and ran with it. I did a group binder, and a separate binder for world fact book. The guy gming now bought us all binders which is nice. even with the group binder, our least organized player was somehow in charge of ship stats and kept losing the sheet because he couldn't be bothered to keep it in the binder.
That is a very nice idea and I would really loved this, if my GM had it when I started my RPG life. Especially the handy rules!
I was so annoyed by losing characters, that as soon as I started to be the GM, I kept all the sheets at all the time.
They are always at the place where they should be. Next to the GM, the guy you can't play without.
Also I can always look up some details. In case I forgot something or want to weave a character more into the story.
Every sheet has a paperclip. So you can sort them as you wish. It keeps them together, but you can split them if you want to. (We started with staplers. Bad Idea)
We got 5-8 char sheets, depending on campaign. It works.
holly fuck, that's simply genius!
not only makes sure everyone is organized, but handing something like that to a player will totally pump they up for the game!
i'm totally going to do that!
Everybody I game with just brings a laptop and a notebook. There's a number of wonderful websites, official and fan-made, for creating/tracking character sheets and info, all the game guides and lore books are availavle online, and there's even dice rolling sites (which, we had to use once when literally everybody lost their dice. Even the DM, who's house we were all at, could not find dice).
Regardless, I might make myself a few of these folder/binder setups. I have a laptop, but mines old, slow, and I'd much rather have a tangible book with all my stuff in it. Thanks for the idea! I probably have all the stuff needed to create one of these already, so this'll be great.
Dear Seth,
Amazing Idea, I am going to do this!
I was wondering if you could actually share your PDF of what you put on the sheets so we could possibly print them out as well.
soradaxter Yeah I would love this!
share it Seth
Agreed
Thanks for the tips. Most excellent. I reiterate could you please share your CoC sheets. It would be much appreciated, sir. Love NPC Jack & the appropriate backgrounds. Keep up the good work.
If you scroll to the bottom of the comments I put a comment with links on the pages I typed up that are close to the same as his. Free pdf downloads too
I cringed so hard when you said the player folded their character sheet. Horrifying!
This is a great idea! I’ll give this a shot to really improve the enjoyment and understanding for my players who don’t own the rulebooks just yet
This was one of the best DM tips I ever implemented. Huge qol improvement
Ironically enough I just started using folders about 3 weeks ago. Good video stay the course.
Yeah, I tried that as well. Then came, 'oh I forgot it/lost it'... Still want to play the same character though.. Out of those situations. It became a house rule. If you have lost/forgot your character sheet. Then leave it here from here now on. A designated place on a bookshelf.. It was not a perfect system, but it seemed to cut down on the whole forgot/lost problem.
Dennis Deal Same here--I tried putting in all the effort to have sleeved handouts and binders for my old group only for them not to even bring the binders. Now I just have my own DM notebook tabbed and sleeved and I keep the players' character sheets. No fuss at the table, far less work and expense for me!
That's why an ex-girlfriend of mine who GM's now uses her all-in-one printer and at the start of every 3rd session she scans everyone's pc-sheet pops them in a single pdf and emails to her group.
I never played but when I was dating her I organized the session logs and campaign logs for her because I'm anally retentive, since knowing me she's started documenting everything about her campaigns - paper-based handouts with a pdf copy emailed to everyone, she also uses an iPad to quickly query logs in case the part run into a previously encountered NPC or something.
In fact, her group all pretty much use a tablet or smartphone rather than folders.
Such options as emailing them and PDF files were still new.. The old dot matrix printer was slow and would forget what it was printing.. LOL ahh the days before one could scan and print. Though when I started back in 1980. It was all done by hand. otherwise known as the stone age..lol
I dont know how to feel about this never occurring to me...
I'll be super glad when I can start my new job, mainly because I'll finally have the income to do this for the groups I run! Yes, this will help the players, but it'll also help me a ton, since I'll have a way to actually check their sheets between sessions without having to wait on them to respond to random texts and such. (Clearly, I'll be going the route of "leave it with me" for that part to work. lol)
GF of mine had this scheme where she gave out character folders at the beginning of the first session -- but they already had pages with a list of locations and NPC names for players to scribble notes on. It did wonders for PC investment, just because all of a sudden they started calling characters by their names instead of "that guy" or "yo, NPC dude."
I would use the binder idea, but I travel to the games I run at a friend's house (he is more centrally located, and has more room) and I would have to carry all those binders. Instead, I use manila folders for each character, with binder clips to keep things from shifting around, and carry them in a messenger bag with a couple of books, my notes and dice.
-
The important thing, to me, is that I keep the master copies of the character sheets (as do the two players who also DM, but for their campaigns) and I can scan and share any character sheet anytime a player wants a copy. That way, when Joe or Nancy don't make a session, the characters are still there.
-
With the two 5E campaigns I occasionally play in, the DM's have us use the .pdf character sheets, and send them a copy each time we level up.
I have a folding clipboard for the current character sheet, a folder for other possibly active character sheets and paper, and a couple of folders to carry characters from now defunct campaigns. I usually print out most stuff that i will need for my character, so i have some nice sized character sheet stacks. In our Tuesday game, i am usually the only one that actually uses paper character sheets, the other 6 usually use some for of electronic character sheets!
i used to do this MANY years ago. some players LOVED it, but others didn't seem to care. i used to have clear index card pages i would give out for players to hold their magic items. i used to print up custom 4x5 index cards for their magic items. the store bought item cards made it too easy for players to cheat. this is a great idea, IMO. but only for the players who want it.
I WISH I NEW THIS A YEAR AGO! Still thanks for sharing Seth!
I remember going to a shadowrun session many years ago and forgetting my character sheet. I had to call home to my wife to get my stats. Didn't bother asking for my driving skill because I didn't think I would need it. Turns out that skill came up in the game and rather than calling her back we all just assumed I had a particular score. Turns out my real score was much higher than the one we assumed and if I had known that, we'd have saved ourselves a lot of trouble. Really funny memory though.
Back before cellphones and text messaging I'd image.
As a 20-something my immediate thought was just send a few pics.
Oh the wonders of modern technology lol.
@@benjaminholcomb9478 yes, it was probably close to twenty years ago. time sure does fly
"Just a milk run"
I print off B&W copies of the race and class sections for each character, then put the character sheets at the front. Staples will bind them with a presentation cover for something like $1.50/ea. That way each player has reference for all of their abilities. They still have to pass around a PHB for spells and such, but it makes things way easier.
Over a decade ago, I got one of those file organizers that closes with a strap, has multiple sections, and can be tabbed however you want it. I gave each player a section for their character sheets, I made a section for handouts, and I'd keep it after the game session. I did this because when I gave my players their own folders, they'd still manage to be completely disorganized, sometimes even forgetting the folder at home when we convened for the game. It's not a big deal if they live close by, but when everyone is scattered to the four winds, it's really annoying.
With the advent of sites like Obsidian Portal, I tried to get the players to keep their digital character sheet updated between sessions. Again, some were quite lazy and i'd end up doing it myself just so we have the backup. Now, at least where my long term group is concerned, we just play on Roll20 and I tell them at the start of the campaign that I am not responsible for anyone's character sheet; if they forget to write something in, then it doesn't exist. This includes leveling: if I tell them they leveled and they don't update by the beginning of the next session (since we can only play once every few months), then they will have to play that session as the lower level. Amazingly, it works, and they keep everything - party treasure, personal notes, etc. updated. :/
Great tips for IRL games. I do something similar within Roll20. I set up individual folders for each player that has their 5E shaped sheet and any handouts and non-consumable magic items that belong or are relevant to the player.
I use a Binder, with the following: Character sheet + Item Cards + Spell Cards + Class Reference Sheet + Character Illustration + Handouts + NPC Cards + Session Notes, each on it's own Page protector or card protector sheet. Also each player has a dice tower and dice set
I have been considering buying my players pocket sized note books so they can take notes instead of trying to remember all the details and names that even I forget sometimes. I'm glad all my players are fairly organized though and don't lose stuff. Just wish they took notes.
After years of having my players lose (or just forget to bring) their character sheets and other stuff to my game, I just started keeping all of my players character sheets and other stuff between games. I would hand them out at the beginning of the session and then collect them after our session ended. But I have used the folder/binder idea many times of the years.
This is why I'm glad some systems have gone digital. The only written things I really need are for my notes and my screen, but everyone else can pull up whatever they need through that system's site.
I used something like this, in conjunction with a Group Notebook, which party notes are kept in, such as loot etc. The trick was to nominate a record keeper to take the notes first, a role I usually rewarded with a small bit of XP based on their effectiveness.
If anyone is looking for PDFs of the sheets he has for D&D, I typed up my own copies here are the links are below
Movement & Vision - docdro.id/cHoeoqq
Common Notes & Rules - docdro.id/u46AO3F
Combat Page - docdro.id/Zi1bnCR
Character Exhaustion & Conditions - docdro.id/RLR308j
Thanks, Seth Skorkowsky the helpful video.
Seth you truly have the hands of an uncle
I used to have my players photocopy their character sheets so I would have a copy.
Then if they forgot it, I had it in the campaign folder.
Then I developed a computer program to keep the sheets in a database (with all equip, exp... everything. Pretty much like D&D Beyond does now, but no graphics)
I could print their sheets and a party summary sheet any time.
I still have the programing code for my database. (from the mid 1980's)
I could easily track the PC status and could detect any cheating (I have no idea why any player feels the need to cheat, but they do it often)
*******************
Now I am setting up a small case for each of my characters. Included in the case is a set of dice, figures, (A druid needs a LOT of figures...) character sheet, photocopies of the spell cards applicable to the character... everything needed t play the character.
I love your channel my man. I really appreciate what you do.
You write books? Awsome!
Perfect, definitely going to incorporate this into my games.
Google Docs is my go-to, especially if I have offline access. I like being able to update my sheet live - and my DM can see it and correct it as needed, also live.
Imagine someone finding one of those lost handouts. Crumpled envelope on the floor of the buss. Contains blood-soaked letter mentioning human sacrifice. Your local PD must have a "Things lost by Seth's friends box" where they store stuff that turned out to just be rpg paraphernalia.
A great place for cheap stuff is office surplus or electronics recycler. You can almost always find binders, paper, and other organizational materials for pennies on the dollar.
Your videos are always the best and very informative. Keep up the great work.
Paper really helps with everything!
I picked up some folders with built in sheet protectors that I use. That way the players can use dry erase markers for HPs, spell slots, etc. on the sheet protector instead of on their character sheet.
Seth you're a master at game-mastering! Thank you very much :)
If I ever run an actual D&D game on a table top, I will definately consider doing this for my players. As of now though, my friends and I use Roll20 for our games so I won't need this for now.
Love it - I've only seen this recommendation here. You have a lot of great ideas -
This is genius. Thanks for the tips!
That’s a chill tshirt chombatta 😎
I would love to see your Traveller folders. I have thought about doing this for our current campaign.
I use more advance stuff - every player has his own version of Player guide . In such folder u can find level advancement, all features and spells associated with their class . So instead always borrowing a PG and searching for a page of their class, they have it under their noses. Plus i gonna put some cover art on them and also gonna make custom dice trays \ holders where they can put their dice, item cards and other trinkets inside.
Recently I had the other extreme :-( A friend started a shadowrun group for noobs like me and invested hours guiding us through the character creation, and we all kept good care of the sheets given all the invested time work and "what may happen"-fantasies, yet all we've done was one evening with it.