Help Identifying D&D Character Sheet
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Post Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 9:21 am 
 

Hi All.

I am settling the estate of a buddy who played D&D with us back in the mid-1970's.  I have identified everything except these really old character sheets.  I don't remember playing with them, but it was 40 years ago.  I thought y'all might be able to shed some light on the matter.  I think they might be home-made, but they are in a pad (tear off at the top).  I noticed that they have a line for "Energy Points" which seems strange.  Any help you might be able to provide would be appreciated.  Cheers.


Chris.

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Post Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 11:09 am 
 

I've never seen these before, but someone may be able to help you.

My guess is that Energy Points = Experience Points. Especially with the "Present EP" on the next line. Which sorta makes sense if you think of level drain in an XP sorta way, making it less dangerous to PCs :)
But I did want to add, that my brother had a similar, much more generic, tear off pad made of his campaign's character sheets. So that made me think that these could be handmade.

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Post Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2017 5:59 pm 
 

I cannot think of many add-ons that included 12th level spells. However, the ones I can think of didn't have character sheets as they were simply supplements.


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Post Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2017 2:48 am 
 

I would still vote for homemade. No references to copper pieces, redundant coin listing areas, colons in the wrong places, terrible spacing, etc. Look at the top of the special abilities box; you can tell that someone "underlined" the words except for the colons, then underlined the rest. Also, most all of the lines were typed over lines of periods.  If I had to guess, I would say someone tore a blank sheet of paper from a pad and typed it up. If it isn't original ink, they may have photocopied it. I am guessing it isn't ink, since some of the lines are faded/broken in places.


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Post Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2017 12:23 am 
 

Not that I recall seeing one exactly like it before, but I'd imagine a CalTech sheet from 1976 or thereabouts might look like that.

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Post Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 10:31 pm 
 

Possibly Caltech/Warlock, although the 1975 rules already had two extra standard stats, Size and Agility, that you would expect to see on a character sheet like this. The 1975 rules also only list spell levels up to 10 ... for a 40th level wizard (!). The later Complete Warlock (1978) reins this back into 7 levels of spells.

The extra spell levels reminded me of another sheet that was posted over on ODD74, though that one goes up to 16 levels. But the layout of the spell section is somewhat similar - could this be an earlier version of that sheet?
It was identified as a 1979 sheet by a company called The Playing Board, out of Albany CA (Bay Area)
Can you Identify this old character sheet? | Original D&D Discussion


Zenopus Archives website & blog: Exploring the Underworld of Holmes Basic D&D. Holmes Ref: Reference Sheets for Holmes Basic Referees, also compatible with OD&D plus the Greyhawk supplement


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 10:42 pm 
 

Personally I was reminded of a set of spell lists (like the Book of Spells, but that was not it) that had Mage spells going to 12th level.

However, I would still vote for Saskatchewan, Garage-Based, Home-Brewed manufacture.


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Post Posted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 7:54 pm 
 

Agreed it doesn't look like a commercial product, it's likely something that an individual just made, but given that it was gummed into a pad, whoever made this probably intended it work for a substantial local campaign or perhaps a set of different systems. We can tease apart from some of the language and organization what kinds of systems the person who made it probably knew of, and what a reasonable date range is for it. While it may have been made in Saskatchewan, they could get their hands on SoCal systems from 1976 up that way, I'm sure.

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Post Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2017 11:56 am 
 

I was referencing a long standing joke between Mars and I.

A gross oversimplification would be that Mars thinks that if a guy sold any copies of his homebrewed items even if it was 3 copies to his Saskatchewan game store then that means it's an item that we should think of as an actual published work that deserves our collective acknowledgement. Where I hew closer to what Lawrence Schick proposed in Heroic Worlds that an item needed to have more widespread distribution to be considered significant. There is no doubt a happy medium in there somewhere.


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Post Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2017 2:09 pm 
 

Could these be the rare character sheets by Albino Moose Publishing out of Saskamatoon, Saskatchewan?

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Post Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2017 3:15 pm 
 

That's the spirit Mark!


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Post Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2017 10:04 pm 
 

Mars wrote in Help Identifying D&D Character Sheet:Could these be the rare character sheets by Albino Moose Publishing out of Saskamatoon, Saskatchewan?


I heard about these---they used white ink for the company name on the first printing, but due to a printer error, the printer also printed the sheets on white ink, so the company name isn't visible.

Very rare, easily worth $7689.34 if it's a full pad of 18 sheets.

Allan.


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Post Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2017 11:46 pm 
 

grodog wrote in Help Identifying D&D Character Sheet:
Mars wrote in Help Identifying D&D Character Sheet:Could these be the rare character sheets by Albino Moose Publishing out of Saskamatoon, Saskatchewan?


I heard about these---they used white ink for the company name on the first printing, but due to a printer error, the printer also printed the sheets on white ink, so the company name isn't visible.

Very rare, easily worth $7689.34 if it's a full pad of 18 sheets.

Allan.


Pffft... I know a guy in China who's selling some for $23.39.


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Post Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 12:12 am 
 

Very funny grodog and blackdougal, but I come bearing a message for Mars. Your next post is your 6000th, so make it a good one.....


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Post Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2017 7:21 pm 
 

stratochamp wrote in Help Identifying D&D Character Sheet:I was referencing a long standing joke between Mars and I.

A gross oversimplification would be that Mars thinks that if a guy sold any copies of his homebrewed items even if it was 3 copies to his Saskatchewan game store then that means it's an item that we should think of as an actual published work that deserves our collective acknowledgement. Where I hew closer to what Lawrence Schick proposed in Heroic Worlds that an item needed to have more widespread distribution to be considered significant. There is no doubt a happy medium in there somewhere.

It seems the volume wouldn't be as important as the quality, though I suppose they often go hand in hand. If these sheets were homemade, but had some interesting artwork and aesthetics, they would probably garner a fair amount of interest, even with very limited distribution.

  


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Post Posted: Wed Nov 15, 2017 6:24 pm 
 

Hi Guys.

Thanks for the insight on the character sheets.  It sounds like the consensus is that they are homemade - which is probably correct, although somewhat out of character for my buddy who tended to buy all his gaming materials.  

Since I already have an extensive collection, I am happy to donate these sheets to the Acaeum cause - I'm not sure if anybody here is the keeper of lore or would even be interested.  If you want the sheets, let me know - no charge.  I just want to keep them in circulation as part of RPG lore.  Thanks again for the help.  Cheers.


Chris.

  


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Post Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:55 pm 
 

That's awfully nice of you, Chris.  I'll take them off your hands, since I have some ongoing interest in PC sheets in general.   (And I'll scan to post them for everyone else too).  

Allan.


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2017 2:26 pm 
 

cmatney wrote in Help Identifying D&D Character Sheet:Hi Guys.

Thanks for the insight on the character sheets.  It sounds like the consensus is that they are homemade - which is probably correct, although somewhat out of character for my buddy who tended to buy all his gaming materials.  

Since I already have an extensive collection, I am happy to donate these sheets to the Acaeum cause - I'm not sure if anybody here is the keeper of lore or would even be interested.  If you want the sheets, let me know - no charge.  I just want to keep them in circulation as part of RPG lore.  Thanks again for the help.  Cheers.


Chris.


OR....

You can sell them on Ebay!!!

Quite a few home-brew items actually to sell for a few dollars...


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