The new character sheets...

... are FANTASTIC *_*
I'm moved at the tears ç_ç
Thank you, that makes games far more easier to run :D

Seconded! I printed and laminated them today :) Wet Erase for One Shots, woo hoo!
Thanks Sage!

They're really cool! Nice work, Sage.

They're nice, but a few of the appearance options seem to have been removed or misprinted.

Specifically, the Fighter has "Built, Body, or Ravaged Body" and the Thief has "Shifty, Eyes, or Criminal Eyes".

These should probably read "Built, Lithe, or Ravaged Body" and "Shifty, Sharp, or Criminal Eyes"

Doug.

Yup, typos.

There are also a lot of tiny mis-measures and bad joins. I'm not sure anyone else cares, but they glare at me every time. We'll be fixing them.

Thanks for the kind words everyone. I actually wasn't 100% sold on them, glad to know they're well-liked.

I'm probably in a minority here, but I'd prefer to lose the art in favor of putting the stat array in its place. The old playbooks were both a character sheet and a road map for how to make a character -- I could pretty much say, "Start in the top-left corner and work your way down the columns until you're done." Everything was right where it was needed to fill in the blanks.

With these, though, the stat array's nowhere near the stats themselves, which seems... weird.

Also, while I like the character portraits, when they're in the playbooks themselves they look too busy to me. Or rather, they busy the whole thing up more than I'd prefer. I'm also a little concerned that they might be seen as prescriptive rather than descriptive for some players (I've seen this happen a couple times).

I think the same as Mike here. Character sheets would be better without an illustration (or with much smaller). The previous look made easier for players to make a character.

I too find the interaction between the useful bits of the sheet and the illustration too busy and distracting.

Good to know.

As far as the art being prescriptive: so what if it is? I don't quite see a problem with someone saying "oh yeah, that picture is my dude(tte)."

I'd like the stat array to be by the stats too. That's a goal. Unfortunately I haven't found a way I really like to do it.

We'll try to sync up the order of character create and the order of the sheet, but this sheet is build for reference during play. Take armor and HP: your gear in general is less referenced, so that's on the back, but armor gets used all the time, usually in conjunction with HP, so that's on the front, next to HP. Ideally we'll make the order of creation match up with the closeness of the concepts in use and reflect that all on the character sheet.

I also have a NoArt version that I put together for John Harper before he figured out a way of stripping the art out himself, http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3269630/Dungeon_World_Character_Sheets_Artless.pdf.

While I'm happy to provide those, I'd recommend giving the art sheets a second chance. I've found having an image on them to be a boost to creativity, not a detriment. Instead of spending an night looking at numbers, there's a picture of an adventurer right there in your face.

I actually really dig having the character art on there, so please don't take it out completely. Alternate versions to match individuals preference would probably be ideal (assuming that's not a huge hassle).

If you end up with a DW app, would it be possible to have character sheet templates and then upload your own art?

[I actually like the game's art as is but  I could see people liking this type of feature]

[Better yet, individuals could make a set of playbooks with their custom character art to fit the theme of their game and then trade/share their templates, e.g. all viking characters, traditional Indian art, player portraits as character portraits, AW/MH style black/white, etc.]

I have mixed feelings about the character art. I think my problem is that the art reads more like a specific character than an archetypal one, so if I was making choices during chargen that diverged from the art I might feel some cognitive dissonance. (Also, I'm not crazy about the framing of the art with respect to the stat boxes: so many graphical elements poking into the image makes me vaguely uncomfortable, like a jigsaw puzzle with a few pieces missing -- maybe I'm overstating this since my biggest issue is with the Bard's right hand and it's the first image in the package). I understand Sage's point about the gear being referenced less frequently, but my initial reaction was "if the gear was on the first page instead of the second you'd have everything you need for the first session on a single sheet". Overall I thought they were pretty good, though.

As far as the art being prescriptive: so what if it is? I don't quite see a problem with someone saying "oh yeah, that picture is my dude(tte)."

I do. The problem I see is this:

I think my problem is that the art reads more like a specific character than an archetypal one, so if I was making choices during chargen that diverged from the art I might feel some cognitive dissonance.

The flip answer: that's not your character? Well, I guess you get to look at some other art. It's not too different than having the mini that isn't exactly your character, or not having a picture at all.

So that's a flip answer, but really I see what you guys are getting at. Its certainly a difference of priorities: I'd rather have a visually interesting character sheet. The Paladin I'm playing right now? Nothing like the Paladin Em drew for that character sheet. He's bald, for one. Certainly not that armor. But hey, at least I have something cool to look at instead of more text.

We're going to keep iterating on them. In fact just for the people who don't want the art I'm going to put together something special right now.