Character Sheet for Life

[Doughnut Master]

When I'm not playing games, even games that are really difficult, I'm a horribly unmotivated person. So then I considered trying to give real life a more game like feel for it.

What would I really need for this massive, 6,000,000,000 player RPG? Well, what any new adventurer needs. A character sheet. I need a way to record my stats and progress. I need quantifiable goals.

So, I'm starting to work on making this character sheet for myself. But before I go any further, I want to check if something like this already exists. Perhaps someone out there has already made one of these, and with a better design than I had planned.

Now I ask ye, oh forum: are you familiar with anything like this? Alternatively, any suggestions on features to include?

[DeadManSleeping]

While it's not exactly what you're looking for, the smartphone app "Epic Win" is basically made for turning your life into an RPG. You have to be able to come up with your own goals, though.

[Doughnut Master]

I figured I'd have to do that anyway. Unfortunately, I'm poor and can't afford those fancy schmancy smart phones.

[Lady Moreta]

I've never heard of one before, but I would suggest giving google a shot just in case. It sounds like something others might have thought of.

I mostly just wanted to say that it sounds like a fantastic idea and I'm wondering if my husband might find it appealing. He has motivation problems as well...

[KingOfLaughter]

This sounds like an interesting thing to do myself. =] Why not use a modified DND sheet?

[Tyndmyr]

God, if something magically statted me out, I'd instinctively start optimizing it. It'd be fantastic

All we need, really, is for the body area network to finally become commercialized and for much, much better brain mapping.

[grimbold]

you can already guess at some stats based on stuff in the PHB
IQ is generally accepted to be INT score*10
Also encumberment rules can give you your strength
your DEX can be guessed at with your speed

[Eloel]

you can already guess at some stats based on stuff in the PHB
IQ is generally accepted to be INT score*10
Also encumberment rules can give you your strength
your DEX can be guessed at with your speed

D&D is horrible at modelling anything RL-related though. We'd need a new system.

Homebrewers of GitP unite! You have nothing to lose but a couple stamina points!

[SDF]

You could always use the overly complex, confusing, and offensive FATAL system. Because isn't that what we all deal with in life anyway?

PROTIP: Do not use, look at, or be near the FATAL system at anytime.

[DeadManSleeping]

You could always use the overly complex, confusing, and offensive FATAL system. Because isn't that what we all deal with in life anyway?

PROTIP: Do not use, look at, or be near the FATAL system at anytime.

But...but I don't have the tools to measure some of those things!

[Doughnut Master]

you can already guess at some stats based on stuff in the PHB
IQ is generally accepted to be INT score*10
Also encumberment rules can give you your strength
your DEX can be guessed at with your speed

I like the idea of using carrying capacity for determining strength.
Constitution- Your overall health and endurance.
Dexterity- Balance. Eye hand coordination. Reflexes.
Intelligence- Book smarts
Wisdom- Street smarts, common sense, insight.
Charisma- Erm. Charisma.

I suppose all of these stats would be malleable too, as most of them can be changed through hard work. (Which is kind of the idea)

[Dubious Pie]

Nab GURPS. It has everything. Ever.



Even that.

[Ikialev]

Try FATAL, it's an incredibly detailed and realistic simulation of life.

[Lord Loss]

Try FATAL, it's an incredibly detailed and realistic simulation of life.

No. No it is not. It a terrible, unspeakable thing that should never be mentioned on these forums. Thou shalt not look into FATAL, Thou shalt not speak the name FATAL, Thou shalt STAY THE HELL AWAY from Fatal, lest FATAL taint these forums and your very mind.

Just use GURPS.

[SurlySeraph]

I don't know of a "fitness" sheet for stats, but the Marine Corps Physical Fitness and Combat Fitness calculators could be useful. Depending on what kind of campaign you're playing.

What about your tax returns? Name, profession, employer, income, assets, dependents, etc. That's a good start for a character sheet.

Make sure to include your class transcript, GPA, standardized test scores, and list of previous jobs.
I don't know whether I want this to be taken seriously or not.

[Incompleat]

Try Chore Wars.

I used it a little in the past, but it gets boring fast unless you are doing it with other people - if other people are up to it, we could create a GiantITP Chore Wars adventuring group

[OverdrivePrime]

I've found that Shadowrun 4 works fairly well for modeling real life. Not perfect, but less of a pain in the rear than GURPS and much closer than D&D. White Wolf is alright, but not nearly granular enough.

[AsteriskAmp]

Try FATAL, it's an incredibly detailed and realistic simulation of life.

You can get negative measures for any body part, that should start telling you it's accuracy. It also felt the need to stat every single inch of your body, from extremities to tumors, passing through genitalia.

As a system it's not even playable. Much less mentionable.

Stay away from it, it's NSF Humanity.

[Delorges]

Try Chore Wars.

I used it a little in the past, but it gets boring fast unless you are doing it with other people - if other people are up to it, we could create a GiantITP Chore Wars adventuring group

Thanks for the link, just checked the site out. Sounds fun.^^ Gonna look if I can use it somehow.

[Ikialev]

You can get negative measures for any body part, that should start telling you it's accuracy.

I agree with everything else, but this is not true, it's like saying that attacking with 1 STR will heal the enemy.

[Heliomance]

you can already guess at some stats based on stuff in the PHB
IQ is generally accepted to be INT score*10
Also encumberment rules can give you your strength
your DEX can be guessed at with your speed

Rubbish. INT is generally accepted to be nothing of the sort. INT*10 has far too flat a distribution for IQ. From my memory of discussions we've had on this subject in the past, I think IQis much closer to (INT+10)*5.

As for being able to work out DEX based on speed, you do realise that in DnD DEX doesn't affect speed at all, right?

[Incompleat]

A precise character sheet is pretty much impossible - physical stats are difficult enough, but mental and emotional ones (yes, you need to keep track of emotions too if your model needs to be at all faithful) plunge this project well into the "forget about it" category.

But given the intended use of such a sheet, I think that we can get away with something simpler - not a representation of the player per se, but rather a representation of (some) of his objectives and of close he or she is to achieving them.

So, for example, instead of "Intelligence XXX", where XXX is, I dunno, your IQ score or some other arbitrary and mostly pointless indicator, you could have something like

Become a nuclear physicist (20%)

or

Juggle 10 balls for at least ten minutes without any mistakes (50%)

Giving an objective scoring to some objectives would still be pretty difficult, of course, but in this way we have at least a baseline - plus, this system can be easily extended by adding subobjectives to a main objective.

I would elaborate further, but you get the idea - and furthermore, I want to take another stab at my objective

Finish that damn paper already (60%)

[RandomNPC]

My wife picked up a book written by the Geek Dad website, basically the greatest hits of the website put to paper. Inside there was a thing for what you're looking for. But it's for parents to do with kids. Basically stat yourself out, set goals, and a 3rd party rewards you with goals. Leveling up is prety much going out and spending money on yourself.