Character Sheets

Short version: character sheets you complete in your browser, with calculations you can override and versions you can keep as links. Free to use, with no account required. Choose a sheet at Character Sheets or browse the source code.

I’ve played and run tabletop roleplaying games for almost half my life. For all the time I’ve spent doing so, finding a satisfactory way to keep a character sheet has been surprisingly difficult.

Paper has a lot going for it. You can write what you like, wherever it fits, and if the rules at your table differ from those in the book, your pencil doesn’t object. But characters change. Hit points go down and up, equipment comes and goes, and abilities improve. Eventually, you’ve erased a hole in the paper or written over something so many times that you need a fresh sheet. If you want to know what your character looked like three levels ago, you’d better have kept a copy.

The digital alternatives I found were all good, but none of them ideal. Form-fillable PDFs mean finding and installing (and potentially paying for) software that handles them properly, and the same issue as paper with keeping track of which copy is current. Keeping older versions is possible, but managing them is another chore.

Then there are paid services tied to particular games, such as D&D Beyond. Those do a lot of things well, as long as you’re painting within the lines by sticking to the content exactly as published – but boy do they lack the flexibility of paper once you and your GM start getting creative. Even more irritating, with paper I can use a book I or someone else at the table owns – with such a service I’m restricted to just the things I’ve bought on that platform. I really dislike buying a book multiple times just for the sake of a walled garden. And, again, it’s generally tricky to keep older versions.

It’s been almost two decades of irritation. So I’m doing something about it.

Character Sheets keeps the familiar layout of a character sheet and lets you fill it in directly in your browser. It does the arithmetic where it can, but you can type over a calculated value when your game calls for something different. Clearing your entry restores the calculation. A house rule or an unusual bonus doesn’t require creating a whole custom thing in software.

Your character lives in the link. Copy it to keep that version, send it to your GM, or open it on another device. Keeping a link before levelling up gives you the old character to return to, without maintaining a collection of PDF files. The Save version button also makes checkpoints you can move between with your browser’s Back and Forward buttons. Those belong to that tab’s history, so keep the links for versions you want to retain.

There are, at time of writing, sheets for D&D 3.5, D&D 5E (2014), D&D 5.5E (2024), Pathfinder 1E, and Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition. They can also be printed, for games where you’d rather leave the screen out of it. Pick your game and fill one in.