I’ve always been a fan of spoiling my characters.
You know, getting a painted miniature for the character, buying those ‘special’ White Wolf d10’s for a World of Darkness game, finding suitable props for metagame bonuses…my game alter egos deserve the very best. And now with Green Ronin Publishing’s d20 Character Record Folio, I can do just that for my D&D persona.
The Folio, at face value, is little more than a glorified, extended character record sheet. However Green Ronin has provided us with a few extra features, some more useful than others. Let’s start at the beginning. On the cover we have a painting of the Generic Fighter-Like Dude™ holding a torch and looking pissed off, and at the top left corner we have the d20 logo blazoned proudly next to the title. Nothing too spectacular here. The picture is just ok, but it does capture a lot of the dungeon-crawl feel.
On to the interior. The pages are surround by a psuedo-medieval motif, making them look pretty nifty to the passing eye. The first page looks pretty much like the basic Character Record, with statistics and combat abilities. The following pages are filled in with extra-long lists for recording skills, feats, equipment, and the rest. Page 3 is nice, which is partly devoted to character background info, and has a place for an illustration and a coat of arms. Pity I can’t draw. On page 5 there’s a chart showing a Da Vinci-esqe figure, supposedly representing your character, and is accompanied by a list of the rules for magical items worn on the body. You know, only 1 ring per hand, etc. Pretty useful when sacking a dragon’s hoard. The charts and lists go on and on for several pages, for everything from companions and mounts to psionic powers. It can be drudgework filling it all out, but in the process you should find things out about your character that you forgot and/or never realized.
In the final pages, there’s a page devoted to contacts, and two pages devoted to an ‘adventure log’. In a game that features a lot of politics and city intrigue, the contact list can prove invaluable, with places to write down various contacts’ rates, favors owed, locations, and other such particulars. The Adventure Log is something that I personally do not have the patience nor the energy to use, but I’m sure some adventurer out there will. Its more like a Campaign Scrapbook, where you can list the adventure’s major villains and allies, as well as clues you might have unearthed. Lastly, we have a spread of ‘Important Charts’ for experience, attack roll mods, exchange rates, and the Big List O’ Weapons. Very useful if you don’t have the PHB within arm’s reach (but who doesn’t?).
And of course, the d20 licensing agreement is present on the last page. Yay.
All in all, this product can be a nice tool, but I have one very, very big beef with it. What genius at Green Ronin decided to use glossy, smooth paper for the interior!? Sure, it looks and feels nice, but it is almost impossible to make a dark, readable mark with pencil on it. This means I have to either squint to see if my Cleric of Kossuth can cast cure light wounds three times a day, or I write in pen. However, with all the changes in numerical values level by level, that would be stupid. Squinting it is then.
All and all, the Character Record Folio is a good product for those of us who think that our fantasy personas deserve the cutting edge in RPG record-keeping. Except for one big error, this is a great tool for your games.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)