As an Adventurers League DM, I find myself teaching D&D a lot -- often to people who have no concept of what D&D is, or even what an RPG is for that matter.
Things came to a head last month when I taught D&D to three of my young nephews who very much love CRPGs, board games, and genre novels, movies, and television. Nevertheless, as soon as I handed them a 5th Edition pregen, their eyes glazed over -- the same look I've gotten time and time again over the years at conventions and in stores. And even though it's followed by an explanation of the rules, I'm only human; my explanations can range from succinct to confusing depending on where I am mentally when this all takes place.
THERE HAS TO BE A BETTER WAY!
Solution: I put my ten years of professional graphic design experience to use and made a character sheet for beginners. What went into this project is a lot of back and forth between new and old players alike; grognard or otherwise. It's come a long way from the first version, but this is it. It's done and ready to be used.
This sheet is meant to replace the pregens while providing an eye-catching, logical layout, as well as giving context to the rules by placing in-line explanations. It is meant for absolute newcomers, but can be useful for people who have a hard time remembering certain rules. It is not meant to be used past Level 1, nor is it meant to replace the DM, who should be on hand to provide answers to questions that the sheets will naturally bring up. It is also not meant for custom characters, though I have included blank versions as during its creation that was an often asked for addition. This also means I have no plans to provide form-fillable versions.
In the PDF is the five pregens from the Starter Set in 11x17, 8.5x14, and 8.5x11, each in full color, black & white, and printer friendly.
I hope this is of some use to the people out there who want a quicker, easier way of teaching D&D 5th Edition!
Lastly, as we are in the digital age, I will never consider it "done." So if anyone has any critiques or suggestions, please feel free to post them!
Color, Printer Friendly, and Black & White in 11x17, 8.5x14, and 8.5x11
Update to v2.1: Nothing major. I left-aligned the boxes on the bottom of the back page and added some writing-friendly areas to the blank sheet in the color pdf.
Update to v2.3: Someone made a suggestion that I move the spellcasting values for the cleric and wizard outside of the text block and into a similar style as armor class, hit points, etc. I thought it was a great idea -- and it looks fantastic!
these look great I was actually of thinking of making something similar but more along the lines of the pathfinder beginners box sheets.
These were printed on a3 sheets and when the players were comfortable that the didn't need the information at the side the could just cut them off and were left with a fully functional standard sheet.
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Update to v2.4.2b: Fixed halfling speed.
Color, Printer Friendly, and Black & White in 11x17, 8.5x14, and 8.5x11
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BxTaDcSMIkaaOThQMGRNcG82aDg
Update to v2.1: Nothing major. I left-aligned the boxes on the bottom of the back page and added some writing-friendly areas to the blank sheet in the color pdf.
This is brilliant! Thank you!
Update to v2.2: Fixed a few errors (you'd think they'd all be gone by now). Uploaded 8.5x14 and 8.5x11 versions.
Update to v2.3: Someone made a suggestion that I move the spellcasting values for the cleric and wizard outside of the text block and into a similar style as armor class, hit points, etc. I thought it was a great idea -- and it looks fantastic!
Update to v2.4: Spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, and missing spellcasting info on the 8.5x11 sheets. Everything is combined in one file now.
Update to v2.4.2: The descriptions of the six abilities were mixed up on many of the sheets. That's fixed now.
Update to v2.4.2b: Fixed halfling speed.
these look great I was actually of thinking of making something similar but more along the lines of the pathfinder beginners box sheets.
These were printed on a3 sheets and when the players were comfortable that the didn't need the information at the side the could just cut them off and were left with a fully functional standard sheet.