Character Portrait

[Sir Ironside]

Has the time come that the space taken up by the character portrait should be finished? Should that valuable real estate be used for other character sheet related things?

In my experience that character portrait come down to four things

• Left blank
• Some quickly drawn character by that gamer "friend" who has a little artistic ability
• Boredom scribbles
• Calculations

As you see only one of the four utilizes the space for character looks. Anyone else that is serious about how their character looks either pays for a professional portrait or uses an online app to design it themselves. The first option is rarely done, only if they are really into their character and has money to burn. In both cases it is usually a full page piece of art that is added into the character sheet.

Myself, I wouldn't mind if the character portrait area was completely abolished.

My only exception (That I can think of.) is Gone With the Blastwave online comic if it was turned into a rpg. The picture would be a part of the character sheet for comedy purposes.

[Sir Izzy]

Agreed.

I never include a space for a character sketch when I'm making a home brew character sheet. I like to have room for information that makes the game run smoother – the fewer things that have to be looked up, the better.

[Treebore]

My wife and daughter have some pretty good art skills, so our portrait areas get put to use pretty darn often, which then lead to larger versions. I've posted a few of those larger versions in the artwork forum a time or two. But yeah, without an decent artist in the group, they are pretty much wasted space. I used them when my characters got ennobled, etc... and would draw their Coat of Arms in the area. My skills don't go beyond that.

[kreider204]

Ya, I can't draw worth a #%^!, no point in having a space for that on my sheets.

Is there any sort of online (and preferably free) character portrait generator? I remember seeing something like that for supers characters a while back, but there must be something for fantasy.

[serleran]

I don't use it. But, I also think most of a character sheet can be ignored including 90% of the "combat section" and virtually all of the "racial/class abilities" and so forth. All I really need is a name (maybe), a class / level, AC / HP, and a small section for equipment or spells.

Of course it depends on the complexity of the game... for Earthdawn, until I have played it enough, I'd like the larger talent lines so I can remember if X requires Karma use or causes Strain, for example.

[Dracyian]

I have a friend who koves drawing and my younger brother who plays loves drawing so there is normally something in his. However what I am seeing more and more is that if there is a picture in it its with the character sheet having been printed and then google images got ransacked and people pulled images from there. I myself have a lot of art that I liked over the years saved on my computer if I could find a place to keep it just for personal use. There is also people who like to take inspiration from precrafted characters in different genres like people want to make Link from Legend of Zelda and there is no reason they couldn't get a bust of their favorite character artwork and put it in there too.

I think that the trolls if they are going to change it should make two version, one with the potrait and one with out

[finarvyn]

I use the character portrait for any pregen characters I create, particularly if I'm out at a game store or demo somewhere but also many times with my regular group. I do some quick google-fu and find a picture that fits the "style" of the character. For my regular group, I let them find a picture instead if they wish.

In general I don't use minis much, so the character portrait helps to make things more visual.

[Go0gleplex]

I don't use it. When I've drawn characters I'll use a separate sheet of paper so I can do the whole body. But it's been over a decade since I last did that.