Dungeons & Dragons Character Record Sheets: Roleplaying Game Character Sheets, 4th Edition Reviews

• 32 pages? Hardly...

  
  By AY7XY9E1L6QRW on 2008-07-16
  "Page Count: 32"
  
  Let's examine those "32" pages, shall we?
  
  A Sleeve: Separate full color front and back cover, all about marketing. Blank on the inside. But I guess that's 4 pages, right?
  
  A Folder: Full color front and back cover art. The front art is is the same as on the sleeve, without the text. The back is part of the decorative 4E D&D glyph/mark, and lots of blue. The insides of the folder? A blank space with 7 lines on one side, and the 4E XP table on the other. I guess that's another 4 pages.
  
  The Sheets: 4 two-sided character sheets... 2 portrait style (same as on the WOTC site), and 2 landscape style. Yes, **FOUR** Character Sheets, total. 8 pages.
  
  The Cards: 8 two-sided sheets, lightly perforated, each with 8 cards split between Magic Items, Utility, Daily, Encounter and At-Will Powers. Blank, so you will have to fill in your own details based on your character. So I guess that's arguably another 16 pages.
  
  And there you have it: 4 + 4 + 8 + 16 = 32 pages. Yes, you have to count the disposable cover and its completely blank flipside to get to a 32 page count.
  
  At this rate, I'm surprised they didn't count each of the individual cards as a two-sided page, and jacked the total page count up to 144 pages. Heck, I could get a sharpie and write on the shrinkwrap, and that's another 2 pages right there!
  
  Seriously, 4 two-sided character sheets and 8 two-sided sheets of cards... that's 24 pages and that's being generous, but probably playing by ISBN rules. It's pushing it to throw in each side of the folder as "a page". But it's beyond the pale to count a disposable sleeve that tells me to "Get More at D&D Insider" as another 4 pages.
  
  WOTC, if you were my girlfriend, I'd dump you. And my wife would probably punch you. Then punch me for giving you money. Don't get me wrong, I love 4E. But I can't help but think that the product marketing guru at WOTC has a sign featuring a quote by PT Barnum hanging on their cubicle wall. Please, don't produce more rip-offs like this again, even at $10. It just hurts your reputation, and leads to reviews like this.
  
  

• WOTC has become the monster they had sought to slay

  
  By A1Q4MNIUESQTBM on 2008-07-16
  I have received these with a set of core books from ebay. Had I purchased these outright I would have been outraged! This is one of the sparsest offerings ever! barley enough sheets to start a game!
  
  This is a perfect example of what happens to a company when it makes it big. In the day, WOTC touted themselves as a game company for the player and not the money, citing TSR as the uncontrolled in-passionate corporate entity as the downfall of all gaming as we know it. How the tables have turned! WOTC should be ashamed for offering this! Some folks will buy it simply because they don't know that it is available online at Wizards web site. I have taken the supplied PDF and created a tabloid format that folds in half to 8.5x11 with the inside blank for additional adventure info and they work great! Anybody can do this. you don't need these sheets!
  
  Had they stuffed this with 50 playable sheets it would have been 5 star!
  
  While they are still better than TSR ever was they should should not prey on the uninformed. It seems as if this was created as a cash cow and nothing more. Sad very, very sad!
  
  

• So, um... where's the rest?

  
  By A3EROY7PG8VK4J on 2008-07-15
  Well... it IS in a folder, so... that's cool, right?
  
  Here's what you get-
  
  A folder with a picture on it, 8 pages with 8 cards each for referencing powers and magic items, 2 horizontal character sheets, and 2 regular sheets. That's it... seriously.
  
  Let me give you some advice. Save your money. Copy the character sheet from the Player's Handbook and copy your powers. Doing that will be much cheaper and look cooler than carrying this piece of crap around.
  
  2 stars because it comes in a folder. I'm being generous.
  
  

• Nice folder I purchased.

  
  By AVKPBWXYYYZZW on 2008-07-16
  Pretty much what everybody else is saying. You get 4 character sheets and the power cards. Or you can download the character sheet from the WotC web site and pick up a pack of 100 index cards at your local discount store and write out the same information.
  
  Oh the folder. You can carry you character to the game in it. I think it will really impress your friends, heck your DM might even give you and extra 5 XP because he feels sorry for you.
  
  

• What The Devil

  
  By AE8LL9S715YTE on 2008-07-18
  Ok. I do like, to some extent, the new 4th edition rules. Be that as it may, this suppliment is almost worthless. Yes I do like the Power Cards that you can write various powers on. HOWEVER. If I recall, in the past, Character Record Sheets suppliments would have a pretty decent amount of stuff for you. The first edition CRS has character generation information, along with key definitions of parts on the sheets, along with lists of spells (which, I guess, the Power Cards replace, but still, the original lists were far more specific instead of blank cards you write on). The second edition CRS suppliment also has character generation information, a fairly good amount of sheets (from character sheets forward). The third edition, I could be wrong, had both general character sheets and class specific character sheets (again, I think that is what it held, hadn't used 3rd edition for a while sooo). What do you get here? The product costs roughly 10 dollars. I would consider 65% of what you get with this product is the cost is the artwork. 20% of what you get with the product is the name D&D. 15% of what you get with the product is the actual "character sheets and power cards." That is to say...Yes, you do, as I said before, get blank Power Cards. But. Horrifyingly. You only get a few character sheets. Count them, 4 character sheets. Weee. Do not buy this product. It is this: Worthless. Photocopy the character sheet in the Player's Handbook.
  
  
• Not Worth the Money
  By A31CULONSICYXJ on 2008-07-15
  The character sheets are not really different from what you can download from WotC's website. They do have landscape format of the sheet, but nothing that can't be done on a home pc with the free download.
  
  The only good thing in the pack (imho) were the power cards. I may actually find these useful, However there are not even enough of these cards for 4 pcs (racial, and class at will and encounter powers will use these up in a hurry). I am certainly not going to pay 10.00 per pc I make.
  
  I don't suggest buying them. Save your money for the DM Screen. Hopefully it will prove more useful.
  
  
• Worst. 4E. Supplement. Ever.
  By A3IEAFQ5CQLES0 on 2008-07-16
  As noted in a prior review, the page count is artificially inflated by counting the folder and protective sleeve that go around the folder.
  
  2 of the 4 character sheets which are included are the exact same as what you can download for free from the Wizards D&D website. The other 2 are the same, but in a landscape format. Nothing really different. I was expecting specialized sheets for the different character classes, but there is nothing like that.
  
  The remainder pages are blank power cards, which can be useful if you want pretty looking cards with nice graphics on their backs. However, a package of index cards and some color markers would be cheaper and as effective. Or look around the internet for a PDF of all powers listed in the PHB; all formatted and ready to print as cards.
  
  Finally, the last item which removes any value from this product will be the upcoming character creator on the official Wizards D&D website. It will allow you to print out a character sheet with a list of powers and their page references for free. Pay the monthly fee for their online tools and it will print out a full character sheet with all the rules for the powers.
  
  I can honestly say, this is the worst $10 I have ever spent. I have no idea how they feel this is a product worthy of anyone's money given that Wizards themselves will be providing more appealing solutions for free.
  
  
  
• *cough* Ripoff *cough*
  By A24UTJU9XAMGGN on 2008-07-17
  This has got to be the lamest character record sheet in history. You get 4 character sheets (two of the exact same in landscape and another two of the exact same portrait) and 8 sheets of blank power and magic item cards - enough for 16 magic items, 16 utility powers, 6 at will powers, 9 encounter powers, and 9 daily powers (barely enough for a wizard at 30th level for some powers). Oh, and the flimsy folder they all come in which won't keep those cards from flying about once you actually separate them from the sheet.
  
  I can't recommend this to anyone and I wrote my first review just to make this warning.
  
  
• Dissapointing
  By A1BFG0RTKZJVHQ on 2008-07-17
  I received this item today from my preorder. It is, at best, underwhelming. The content is great, the sheets clean, the cards functional, the materials nice. The problem is the quantity of content. This product contains a total of 4 character sheets, 2 landscape and 2 portrait. It also contains a total of 64 power cards, dispersed among 8 At Will, 12 Encounter, 12 Daily, 16 Utility, and 16 Magic Item cards. This is enough cards to support, at best, 3 characters that do not multiclass.
  
  At minimum, I had expected that purchasing this product would provide sheets and cards for a standard play group of 5 characters. As it stands, the best recommended usage I can come up with is for each player to own their own copy of this product. That is unacceptable in my eyes. You can achieve equivalent or superior card quality with the numerous do-it-yourself playing card kits available, and the sheets are available free from the Wizards website. In all, do not buy unless you absolutely insist on 'official' products.
  
  
• A Rip-Off
  By A3JD77HFFNRI9S on 2008-07-17
  Seriously... These suck! There is no value for your money here. I'm ashamed I bought them. Read the other reviews for the sparse contents. Save your money and download the PDF from WotC, or better yet, go to ENWorld and get some user made ones.
  
  I'm fed up with Wizards of the Coast, and I was a 4E Cheerleader!
  
  
  
• Do Not Purchase
  By AXZ1WJRJIUC2N on 2008-07-18
  I am pretty disgusted with the Character sheets package that came today as well. I just cant believe 4 sheets! Arent the encounters based on having 5 players in a party? They could have at least gone the rote of the 3rd Ed and made a sheet for each class with the class info.
  The cover is useless as it falls off as soon as you take off the shrink wrap. Its nice they put the "permission to copy for personal use" on the character shet, but that isnt anywhere else, so some big Copy chains will probably give you grief about putting the cards on a good card stock, and I have no idea what the expense might be for that.
  This was a blatant money-grab. I wish I could give it Negative Stars it is that bad, and I have been a big D&D fan since the 70s. DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM.
  
  
• Another WOTC rip off!
  By A3B3M7X8Q8JXIH on 2008-07-17
  THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS!!!!!!!
  
  WOTC has just ripped off a lot of people. Everyone expected this to be class specific character sheets. It is not. It is the same character sheet you get in the PHB.
  
  
• Do not waste your money
  By A1GLAOBR2KMWG on 2008-07-18
  If I could give this a lower review I would. I was VERY diappointed that I wasted $9.95 + tax and shipping on 4 measley character sheets (that's right...4!!!) that I could have run off a boatload of copies at Kinkos for the smae price. At the very least it would have been nice to see a complete set of power cards or something to enhance the package. Wizards of the Coast has really dropped the ball here.
  
  
• Not What I Expected
  By A33TWWK190LTE1 on 2008-07-20
  If you purchased the 3.5 Character Record Sheets, you know how good this product could have been. With the 3.5 Character Record Sheets, each record sheet was redesigned based on a specific character class. In the 4th Edition Character Record Sheets (this product), you get a few copies of the same character sheet you can print off from the website. You also get standard-playing-card-size cards for keeping track of powers (at-will, encounter, utility, and daily) and a few of the same size cards for magic items. If your group is anything like my group, each person has already created his or her own index cards for powers and magic items, making the playing-card-size cards relatively useless (not that anyone could write small enough to get the information on the playing-card-size cards in the first place).
  
  Personally, I could not believe WotC actually released this product in its current form, and I (like many others) feel that I have wasted ten bucks. As past releases have shown, this product could have been so much better. WotC really dropped the ball with this one.
  
  
• I paid for this????
  By A136VCT8QZZS0N on 2008-07-20
  I am extremely disappointed in WOTC for this offering. It is a simple character sheet and a few 3 x 5 type cards.
  
  I was looking forward to and expecting the product to be similar to the 3.5 character sheet version, which were excellent.
  
  This is something that should be given free to people who purchase the core books. I love the system but now have my doubts about WOTC's business practices.
  
  
  
• Easily the worst D&D product ever...
  By AR4E0RXBG3ZJ4 on 2008-07-24
  And believe me, having been buying them for a long, long time, that takes some doing!
  
  This product, as the other reviewers have pointed out, consists of some card stock "powers" cards that can be filled in (for what purpose, I'm unclear) and 4, count them 4, black and white character sheets - two each of portait and landscape orientation. These are not just similar, but rather identical to, the PDFs you can download from the WOTC website, and probably from many other places as well.
  
  I'm just showing my age, but it never occurred to me when I ordered this very, very poor product it was anything other than a small tablet of paper, thicker than normal office paper, printed in color. Who remembers the old 2nd Edition green sheets? Yeah, like that. But no.
  
  I would highly recommend that you avoid spending money on this product. If you feel you must, get a hold of me and I'll photocopy mine and send them to you for free. OK, no I won't, but that's what they're worth.
  
  
• Is it enough
  By ADNXV2QQ2MAKQ on 2008-08-08
  When I purchased the product, I expected there to be more to it. I believe in all it contained like 5 character sheets, which for the pricing, seemed kinda light.
  
  
• Great sheets!
  By AHY8TBHBGD62E on 2008-07-27
  Just awesome character sheets! D&D is FINALLY back from the death that was that edition between 2 and 4 (can't honestly remember that number, lol)!
  
  
• Worthless
  By A35UOJ8V6QJB5M on 2008-07-28
  I spent $10 on a folder! If you are reading this that means that you can just go to the WOTC website and print out some character sheets from there. The power cards themselves are interesting, but honestly not worth the time it would take you to fill them out.
  
  
• There should be an option for 0 out of 5 stars.
  By A1GC9S434FHJSW on 2008-07-30
  I have to agree with most of you out there. This was, hands down, the worst DnD purchase I've made. I was very happy with the 3.5 Character Sheets. The description says 32 pages. I must have forgotten how to count. "1 2 4 8 16 32. Yeah, 32. Let's just go with that." I just hope I'm not as disappointed with the DM Screen - and more importantly, how well our 4.0 campaigns run.
  
  

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