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22-579: The first role-playing game published, Dungeons & Dragons (1974), did not include a character sheet. The first one ever published was in the Haven Herald fanzine of Stephen Tihor in May 1975. One month after, another character sheet was released in the APA magazine Alarums and Excursions . TSR published its first set of Character Record Sheets for the basic Dungeons & Dragons game in 1977. This set featured

44-508: A Major Triumph." In the June 1981 edition of Dragon (Issue #50), Dave Nalle reviewed Alarums and Excursions after its 63rd issue (November 1980), and although he found the writing style "a bit stuffy", with a "tendency for the writers to pat each other on the back", he still called it "the top APA publication... This is a very well run APA and features many of the leading thinkers in fantasy gaming." To date, Alarums and Excursions has been

66-455: A cover by Tom Wham and came as a pack of 28 sheets. The first Player Character Record Sheets pack for the first-edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game, designed by Harold Johnson and featuring a cover by Erol Otus , was produced in 1979 as a 32-page booklet, with sheets for fighters, clerics, magic users, thieves, and multiclassed characters. An updated Player Character Record Sheets pack for AD&D (serialized as REF2), with

88-423: A new cover by Keith Parkinson , was released in 1986 as a 64-page booklet. REF2 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player Character Record Sheets is a booklet containing 16 character sheets, with sufficient spaces included to record information for AD&D characters. Each sheet has check-boxes to record how much supplies and ammunition a character is carrying, and space is provided to record brief information for

110-425: A stage ), to focus entirely on roleplaying games, attracting such material away from APA-L . The first issue appeared in June 1975. In addition to removing roleplaying games discussion out of APA-L , the initial aim of the publication was to prevent roleplaying games from becoming so divergent that people from different cities could not participate in games together. The June 2017 issue of Alarums and Excursions

132-722: A winner of the Charles Roberts / Origins Award four times: Wayne Reynolds Wayne Reynolds is a British artist whose work has appeared in comics and role-playing games . Wayne Reynolds was born in Leeds , UK. He attended art college in Dewsbury and Middlesbrough. Wayne Reynolds has continued to produce interior illustrations for many Dungeons & Dragons books and Dragon magazine since 1999, as well as cover art for Deep Dwarven Delve (1999), Reverse Dungeon (2000), Complete Warrior (2003), and several books for

154-481: Is enough space for things like magic items and weapons, but apart from that everything you'd expect is here." Complimenting the booklet's cover art, Davis said "it's got a very nice cover". He felt that the symbols for each spell were "a nice idea", though he despaired that learning how to use them "could be hard work". He lamented that the brown tone used on the sheets would mean that some parts would come out black when photocopied. Although he felt that 16 character sheets

176-451: Is given, meaning a relatively high price "for something that most people could replace with a sheet of A4 ." He concluded: "That sort of price kind of kills the conversation, doesn't it? Well they are very nice sheets, and in presenting the full breadth of AD&D , they look pretty good. Then again, it costs a lot to have that many rule books, and most people have their own variants... How useful are they? The spell checkers certainly aren't;

198-461: Is room for all the numbers and other information necessary, and a box for your character's sketch or symbol." She did note that "However, this is for really simple D&D players: character class is defined as fighter, magic-user, thief, cleric, dwarf , elf , or halfling . The section, 'to-hit roll needed,' does not provide for differing types of weapons - just 10 numbers for the respective amour classes." Barrington concluded her review by saying it

220-717: The Eberron campaign setting. He has also produced artwork for many other games including Pendragon ( Chaosium ), Rolemaster ( Iron Crown Enterprises ), and the GameMastery line ( Paizo Publishing ), and illustrated cards for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game and the video game Hearthstone . Reynolds has also produced numerous covers for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game . In 2014, Scott Taylor of Black Gate , named Wayne Reynolds as #2 in

242-554: The Los Angeles Science Fiction Society (LASFS) began a weekly amateur press association named APA-L . In 1974, with the publication of Dungeons & Dragons by TSR, Inc. , articles and comments about the new roleplaying game began to fill the pages of APA-L , a development to which Pelz objected. Lee Gold took note of this and started a new APA, Alarums and Excursions (the title taken from an Elizabethan drama stage direction that moved soldiers across

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264-633: The Basic, Expert, Companion, and Master Rules sets. A simplified and revised 80-page version of REF2 Player Character Record Sheets was printed in 1989 for 2nd edition AD&D . A set of Deluxe Player Character Record Sheets was published for D&D 3.5 featuring cover art by Wayne Reynolds . Elisabeth Barrington reviewed the 1980 Player Character Record Sheets for Basic D&D in The Space Gamer No. 35. She felt that "They are very neatly printed in large type and fairly well organized. There

286-505: The February 1976 issue of Strategic Review (Issue 6), Gary Gygax complimented the new APA, calling it "an excellent source of ideas, inspirations and fun." Although Gygax felt some of the contributors were "woefully lacking in background", and the quality of printing varied dramatically from issue to issue, he concluded, "For all of its faults, it is far and away the best D&D ' zine , and well worth reading. See for yourself why it rates

308-426: The family and followers for a character, as well as space to record the "Honor" statistic for Oriental Adventures characters. The package also includes 16 pages of Spell Planner sheets, which lists every spell available to several different character classes, and three check-boxes next to each spell to note when a character uses that spell in a day. Each spell also has a set of symbols that provide information regarding

330-525: The other side to record possessions such as weapons and magical items. The 10th Anniversary Dungeons & Dragons Collector's Set was a boxed set published by TSR in 1984. It included the rulebooks from the Basic , Expert , and Companion sets; modules AC2 , AC3 , B1 , B2 , and M1 ; Player Character Record Sheets ; and dice. This set was limited to 1,000 copies, and was sold by mail and at Gen Con 17. Player Character Record Sheets (serialized as AC5)

352-473: The print is too small, and their use not exactly proven. I'm afraid I'm going to have to give a thumbs down on this, Sorry guys." Graeme Davis reviewed the REF2 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player Character Record Sheets for White Dwarf #86. Davis wrote that the sheets have "spaces for recording everything you could ever want to record for an AD&D character ... I'm not sure whether there

374-802: The spell, with a key printed inside the back cover to explain the symbols. This version allowed players to record character information taken from the Unearthed Arcana , Oriental Adventures , and Dungeoneer's Survival Guide sourcebooks. Another version, titled Player Character Record Sheets , was printed for the D&;D game in 1980 and consisted of a 32-page booklet containing 16 character sheets . The 1980 version of Player Character Record Sheets for Basic D&D includes 16 record sheets to help players track game statistics such as hit points, armor class, ability scores, saving throws, and special abilities, with one side to record such numerical information and

396-551: The years, become a testing ground for new ideas on the development of the RPG as a genre and an art form. The idea that role-playing games are an art form took strong root in this zine , and left a lasting impression on many of the RPG professionals who contributed. The 1992 role-playing game Over the Edge was inspired by discussions in A&;E . Over the years, contributors have included: In

418-515: Was "Recommended for Basic D&D gamers." Tom Zunder reviewed the REF2 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player Character Record Sheets for the British magazine Adventurer #6 (January 1987). He commented that "I really wanted this to be a scenario, the cover art is so nice that it could have been great," and added that "Character sheets are something which not everyone really wants to buy, but these are very nice". He notes that no permission to photocopy

440-479: Was not a lot for the money, he predicted that "this product will sell well among AD&D players who like using Official character sheets, and not so well among those who don't". Alarums and Excursions Alarums and Excursions ( A&E ) is an amateur press association (APA) started in June 1975 by Lee Gold ; publication continues to the present day. It was one of the first publications to focus solely on role-playing games . In 1964, Bruce Pelz of

462-400: Was number 500, with a color cover drawn by Lee Moyer and printed by Rob Heinsoo . Each issue is a collection of contributions from different authors, often featuring game design discussions, rules variants, write-ups of game sessions, reviews, and comments on others contributions. Although game reports and social reactions are common parts of many A&E contributions, it has also, over

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484-648: Was released in 1985 for characters from the Basic , Expert , and Companion boxed sets for the Dungeons & Dragons game. The new rules rendered these character sheets outdated. The AC6 set came out almost immediately after this release, which included character sheets compatible with the rules introduced in Master Rules as well. AC6 Player Character Record Sheets contains 16 character sheets and 8 spell roster sheets, allowing players to record character information from

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