Talk:Mano a Mano
Compact Characters
Compact characters could be used for NPCs who only need combat stats and a few other qualities and abilities. All of the NPCs in a particular battle could fit on two facing pages of a book, possibly with other information about the battle, which would be convenient for the GM. A bestiary can have lots of playable creatures. Compact characters could fit on cards or leave room for explaining how to do basic actions and roll dice for beginning players. Compact characters can be simpler to create by hand than an SVG file (although SVG files are plain text and this can be automated by a script)
Do we need template CP, speed, agility, power, toughness and abilities? We can easily put them in or leave them out by using the slash-notation (total/template numbers, as in "CP value: 151/105".) Template stats are important for PCs who gain experience but have maximum levels based on their template stats. This is much less important for NPCs. Template CP value is only needed to double-check changes that affect a character's CP. Variability is also important for PC development and much less relevant to NPCs.
Stun and damage are unnecessary. Movement stats can be left out if they are 0. Melee defense may be unnecessary. The best defense of the character's weapons could be highlighted differently. Carrying capacity, equipment mass and even encumbrance may be unnecessary. Offense, control, leverage and even heft are not necessary for minimal combat, but they can be useful for weapons that can be stolen.
A run-on-sentence format is very compact with either typewriter text or proportional fonts:
Steven is a 151 CP, 95 kg adult male human robber. He has 1.6 m height, 1 speed, 0 agility, 3 power, 7 toughness, 2 unarmed combat, 4 one-handed weapons, 2 craftsmanship, 2 hands (hand, 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense), 2 feet (3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense), a machete (sharp, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, 4 attack, 14 defense), 3 kg carrying capacity, 0.5 kg equipment mass, 0 encumbrance, 4 ground movement, 10 missile defense and 14 stamina |
Steven is a 151 CP, 95 kg adult male human robber. He has 1.6 m height, 1 speed, 0 agility, 3 power, 7 toughness, 2 unarmed combat, 4 one-handed weapons, 2 craftsmanship, 2 hands (hand, 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense), 2 feet (3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense), a machete (sharp, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, 4 attack, 14 defense), 3 kg carrying capacity, 0.5 kg equipment mass, 0 encumbrance, 4 ground movement, 10 missile defense and 14 stamina |
One stat or item per line is more like the way I would intuitively create a character on scratch paper:
Name: Steven Age: adult Sex: male Template: human Occupation: robber unarmed combat: 2 one-handed weapons: 4 craftsmanship: 2 Height: 1.6 m Mass: 95 kg Speed: 1 Agility: 0 Power: 3 Toughness: 7 CP value: 151 2 hands: hand, 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense 2 feet: 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense 1 machete: sharp, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, 4 attack, 14 defense Carrying Capacity: 3kg Equipment Mass: 0.5 kg Encumbrance: 0 Ground Movement: 4 Missile Defense: 10 Stamina: 14
The ideal compact character sheet is probably a compromise. This character sheet is like the one-item per line, but it combines the description into a single line and does the same for abilities. (I don't know if changing "height" to "tall" and having an "Equipment:" heading are the best choices.)
Steven is an adult male human. He is a robber by trade. His mass is 95 kg and he is 1.6 m tall.
Speed: 1
Agility: 0
Power: 3
Toughness: 7
CP: 151/105
Abilities: unarmed combat 2, one-hand weapons 4, craftsmanship 2
Equipment:
2 hands: hand, 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense
2 feet: 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense
machete: sharp, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, 4 attack, 14 defense
Carrying Capacity: 3 kg
Equipment Mass: 0.5 kg
Encumbrance: 0
Ground Movement: 4
Missile Defense: 10
Stamina: 14
This character sheet is more like the one-item-per-line, but combines name, age, sex and template into a sentence and uses the sentence format for stats ("1 speed") instead of the colon format ("speed: 1"). It ends up looking a little more like a recipe than a character I would write on scratch paper.
Steven is an adult male human robber. He has: 95 kg mass 1.6 m height 1 speed 0 agility 3 power 7 toughness 151 CP 2 unarmed combat 4 one-handed weapons 2 craftsmanship 2 hands (hand, 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense) 2 feet (3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense) 1 machete (sharp, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, 4 attack, 14 defense) 3 kg carrying capacity 0.5 kg equipment mass 0 encumbrance 4 ground movement 10 missile defense 14 melee defense 14 stamina
The next compromise is more like the sentence format but starts a new line for each new "subject": description, stats, abilities, items, combat stats. This is the most compact of these examples, because it leaves out the extra "is a" and "has a" verbiage of the sentence format:
Steven (151 CP, 95 kg, 1.6 m height, adult male human robber) 1 speed, 0 agility, 3 power, 7 toughness 2 unarmed combat, 4 one-handed weapons, 2 craftsmanship 2 hands (hand, 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense) 2 feet (3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense) 1 machete (sharp, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, 4 attack, 14 defense) 4 ground movement, 10 missile defense, 14 stamina
Notice that any of these formats are a little more compact and often more readable if you use a proportional font, although adding a line break without starting a new paragraph is not always easy (in mediawiki markup this is done with the <br> html tag):
Steven (151 CP, 95 kg, 1.6 m height, adult male human robber)
1 speed, 0 agility, 3 power, 7 toughness
2 unarmed combat, 4 one-handed weapons, 2 craftsmanship
2 hands (hand, 3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense)
2 feet (3 power, 2 attack, 12 defense)
1 machete (sharp, 0.5 kg, 3 heft, 5 power, 4 attack, 14 defense)
4 ground movement, 10 missile defense, 14 stamina
- These last two I think are probably the best compact character sheet design. It's the sort of thing that would fit on a 3x5 card very intuitively, but also the information is well organized and easy to access. Should stamina be next to toughness on this design? -BFGalbraith
Editing Character Sheet
If you change the character sheet format when editing any of the following, you must update the others:
- Blank Character Sheet
- Example Template
- Example Character
- Clone character sheet in the Combat Example!
Be sure you know which character sheet you are updating:
- The template creation example includes both the blank character sheet and the example template.
- The character creation example includes both the example template and the example character sheet.