One creative Dungeons and Dragons fan has created a new character sheet, and it strikes a strong balance between accessibility and serious style. Graphic designer Tobias Dirnberger chose a vibrant, 70s-style aesthetic for his version of the fifth edition sheet, telling Wargamer he wanted it to “look different than any other character sheet out there”. Dirnberger also shared pictures of his creation via Reddit on September 22.
“I love retro aesthetics and clear straightforward designs so the overall look was easy to find for me”, Dirnberger says. While it was important for these DnD character sheets to be stylish, Dirnberger tells Wargamer that accessibility was an equally important factor.
“I’ve played D&D and other tabletop RPGs since I was a little kid”, he says. “What I always missed was a character sheet that won‘t confuse me and lets me organize my character in a more board-game-like-style. So I thought I should design my own perfect character sheet.” When creating the sheet, Dirnberger “tried to make it as clear as possible for people with dyslexia, ADHD or simply for beginners that get overwhelmed by all the DnD stats”.
To keep the sheet as simple as possible, Dirnberger used separate playing cards to represent a character’s equipment, items, and DnD spells. “Those cards make it a lot more fun to play the game”, he says, “especially for beginners”. “To receive loot in the form of real playing cards is just a much more immersive experience – at least in my opinion.”
While the sheet is finished and available to buy on Etsy, Dirnberger is apparently always looking to improve the product. “I still work on this character sheet and every customer gets a link to a Dropbox folder where they can find the latest improved versions”, he says. “So the community helps to make it better and better.”
You can see Dirnberger responding to fan feedback in his original Reddit post. Here, members of the Dungeons and Dragons community suggest shifting the position of different stats, a new color-blind-friendly color scheme, and more.
In this social media post, Dirnberger also explains that the sheet is designed to work with the new 2024 Player’s Handbook as well as the original fifth edition rules. Apparently, “every file has a 5e and a 5.5e version”.
For more D&D updates, be sure to follow Wargamer on Google News. Or, if you need help filling out your new character sheets, here’s everything you need to know about DnD classes and DnD races.