Stat Pages / Character Sheets

TyGryph · Post by **TyGryph** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:22 am

This looks like a good place to plant this question, as it really is candidate related.

I have the worst time trying to make stat pages for my personae... partly because they grow and change as I'm writing, and partly because I don't know what really should go on there besides name/gender/parents/siblings/bond.

At some point in time, someone had a blank stats page that was SO comprehensive it was scary. I vaguely remember a swirly rainbowy background on the webpage, but that's about it.

Does anybody remember who made that / where it is (or was?)

Alternately, can some one (or many) throw up ideas of what formats work best and what info is mandatory, what's helpful, and what's NOT necessary or helpful?

JKatkina · Post by **JKatkina** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:39 am

:3 In a stat sheet, the most essential part for me is the personality description. Everything else is essentially filler, unless it's particular important details that the writer wants me to know... but generally yeah, I breeze over everything but the personality description. I just... always want to know I'm not reading the character completely wrong. ^.^;

Astra · Post by **Astra** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 9:51 am

That would have been Arcenciel. And possibly Cy as well since they shared a site at one point ... I've "borrowed" it for a few of my characters but I'm not sure if I still have the original blank one. I can go look, if you want, when I'm done with class. That is such a fun stat sheet, it's good to use also for non-dragoning characters to figure out who they /really/ are.

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:16 am

I usually find that longer character stats pages are tedious and rather annoying-- theyr'e too confining to me. :3 that said, i do enjoy filling them out now and again. I used to have this collection of HUGE personality survays. "Would you do this? What's your stance on that? if -insert hypothetical situation here-, what would you do? Do you like that?" Etc, etc. Very impractical, but very good for figuring out a character-- i've lost those, though, i think. X.x

Post by **Dray** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 10:42 am

I agree with Nessie on this one... while the huge stats pages that include every little thing can be fun, they often seem redundant if you're reading them from an agency-owner's point of view. >.> I'd suggest if you /do/ go with that style, that you put the most pertinent info at the top and then all the details beneath it? (The pertinent stuff being their name, gender, species, personality, appearance, and any other info that won't be covered in the story.)

TyGryph · Post by **TyGryph** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 12:44 pm

I generally try to cover -everything- in the story, since stat pages/tables were not the norm when I started dragoning. But "Persona Summary" pages along with the story are becoming prevalent, and in some places highly encouraged...

("You walk into a weyr" was on it's way out, and stories were on their way in. My first three dragons were YWIAW-type, and my fourth is a story. *shrug*)

Shard · Post by **Shard** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 12:48 pm

I like having the simple stuff on the stats:

Name, age, parentage, height/weight, hair, eyes, skin, pets, where they live.

A lot of other things will just write themselves if you let em. I love good stat pages, though. And back when there was no Doll Palace, or when it was still in its infancy, Sunshiney was the only place to get a doll even remotely like what you wanted, and even they were a bit limited.

Xenoqueen · Post by **Xenoqueen** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 12:55 pm

I like stat pages as quick reference things, alongside a personality blurb that I can review to refresh myself of what the character is like and make sure--like JKat said--that I didn't interpret the character wrong.

Otherwise I just like the basics. Gender, species, physical appearance, perhaps any unusual abilities the character has. Things I can refer back to for the basic details of the character without having to read through the whole story again, so if I reference the char's appearance or something in the hatching story, I don't get them totally wrong!

DNS · Post by **DNS** » Sat Feb 24, 2007 9:40 pm

-claps- behidn the times, but I found some of the character questionares I was mentioning-

http://www.kadanzer.org/zipfiles/handbook/cdq.pdf
http://www.ifvchicago.com/process/wr_ch ... ions.shtml
http://www.writingclasses.com/Informati ... PageID/106

Those are just for character development and get tedious, but if you've got the time, they can be pretty fun.

Fuzzy · Post by **Fuzzy** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 6:02 pm

I like stat pages, but I primarily look at history, then personality. I need to know where a character's been and what s/he's been through to really 'see' who they are. (I operate on that level in realtime, too.)

Cy · Post by Cy » Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:40 am

Yes, it was Arcenciel. I don't think either of us have the blank floating around anymore =[ I'll ask her if I can get ahold of her, and I'll surf the web and see what I can find.