What aspects of a Character Keeper do you find most useful during play?

#1

I’m still relatively new to playing games online, and getting used to character keepers. I really appreciate the idea of being able to see everyone’s character details on one page. Given that screen space is a premium, and some games have a lot of detail per character (I’m looking at you DW-and-variants)… I’m thinking about how they might be optimized. (Not that I necessarily have the technical chops do this… but maybe someone who does will be inspired?)

I’m sort of picturing a version of a character keeper where each player has their own “page” with their full character sheet, but it also has a “heads-up” display with the important stuff from the other PCs. And the GM gets a big picture view with everyone’s most-important-to-the-GM stuff.

So…

What do you find most important/useful to see on a character keeper about your OWN character?

What do you find most important/useful to see about OTHER players’ characters?

When you’re GMing, what do you find most important/useful to see in a single place about ALL the characters?

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#2

From my limited personal experience, answers would be:

  • Most useful about MY character: as much as possible, really (stats/traits, moves/powers, etc.). Particularly things that change on the regular (e.g. HP, conditions, inventory, spells prepped). For a game I’m familiar with, a quick list of the moves/powers/traits would suffice… ideally with an ability to expand/hover/jump to the details.

  • Most useful about OTHERS’ characters: Name, pronouns. Picture (though with ability to shrink/collapse?). Role-playing hooks for how to interact with them (e.g. flags, bonds, keys, drives). Conditions or other significant, temporary states. Less important but nice: abbreviated stat array (so I can tell who’s good/bad at things). Maybe the names and triggers of moves/powers (but not full effect), to help watching out for when they might apply. Their inventory, specific powers, XP, spells prepared, etc. are at the bottom of the list, I think.

  • As GM, most useful about EVERYONE’s characters: I don’t really know, as I don’t have enough experience. My gut says name/pronouns/look/collapsible picture. Roleplaying hooks (flags/bonds/keys/drives/etc.). Conditions, current harm/HP. List of moves + triggers, but not full effects. If tracking inventory, maybe level of load (e.g. 8 out of 12 or “Light load”) but no more. Maybe a list of important NPCs/relationships.

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#3

I actually prefer them all on the same tab, both as a player and GM. It makes it so much easier to, at a glance, see what relationships or moves the players want to bring into play. As a player, it also makes it easier for me to build my character to complement the other characters for a more interesting story.

I always put a spot for a character image at the top because that really helps me visualize them.

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#4

I prefer all the PCs on the same tab so much that when tweak a Keeper the first thing I do is copy the PC top line for names into all the other pages. Every Keeper should do this, especially on the notes page.

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