Dungeons and Dragons and the whole TTRPG genre has punk potential - it's a game about socialising, collaborating, and creating, and once you've got your hands on some dice it doesn't need to cost you another thin dime. But like all punk art it's also easily commodified, and there are luxury consumer versions of everything from dice to D&D character sheets on the open market. I won't yuck your yum if you're a dice goblin or stationery fetishist, but I do want to suggest an alternative. I present - the junksheet.
I was inspired to make my first junksheet when I joined a campaign of Mörk Borg, the scandinavian black metal answer to D&D with a screaming cool photo-collage art style (and no systems anywhere near as detailed as DnD classes). There are actually a few different character sheets on the Mörk Borg website, but my printer hates me, and - cool as the official ones were - they didn't really capture the spirit of the Borg, which is a mixture of retro grime and punk disdain.
So I pulled a cardboard box out of the trash, punched it until it was flat, and went at it with sharpies until it carried all the information I needed for my character, in a way that made sense for me.
Honestly, I'm completely converted. Pre-printed character sheets? Not even once. Raw cardboard - preferably lightly chewed - is the only character sheet I will be using going forward. Here, let me compare them:
The virgin D&D character sheet
- Thin, flaccid printer paper.
- Square lines = square mind.
- Too many small numbers - what are they hiding?
- Two sided paper but three sided character sheet - infection vector for higher-dimensional self-creating machine elves.
- Cowardly, symmetrical, ergonomic design.
- Smells like small dreams.
- "Yes character sheet I obey your Numbers and Words".
The chad cardboard junksheet
- Dynamic three dimensional folds reflect character depth.
- Unlimited shape.
- Rewrite destiny with good smelling marker pens.
- Hide your shameful past under glue and fresh cardboard.
- Coffee rings and cheeto stains aren't dirt, they're character depth.
- Large numbers = proud, vengeful.
- Icons > words.
- Eat the parts of your character you most despise.
When you have accepted the good word, burnt your character sheet, mixed the ashes with oak gall and iron to form a coarse ink and then used that to inscribe your first junksheet, come and share your work in the Wargamer Discord community. Or for a roundup of our sanest articles every week, sign up to our regular newsletter.