It’s easy for the occasional gem or Resounding Mace +1 to slip through the cracks and, before you know it, an entire warehouse of silver candelabra is inadvertantly left to rot on a discarded character sheet or to exist only as rubber shavings underneath a couch cushion. In the case of levelling, you have to manually – and carefully – transfer items, treasure and other tidbits to your new sheet. The potential for human error also lurks around the edges of every formula, and what should be a +4 to hit becomes +2, +6 or nothing at all. Throw in newbies and those six hours alloted for fun, excitment and general orc-slaying are wittled to a paltry four or less. The game comes to a grinding halt as stats are allocated and powers, feats and skills are chosen. Writing out a character takes time – time that a lot of players (and a few DMs) fail to take into account when starting a new campaign or levelling a character. The disadvantages, however, are numerous. This slow, methodical process also allows one to reflect on their choices, and you could argue that a stronger, more rounded character is the result. There’s also something real about writing out your character, as if you’re carving their very psyche with graphite. You can subsequently add a character sheet and dice, in that order. Unless your memory abilities are herculean in nature, you’ll need a 4e PHB too. This sort of minimalism appeals to a wide range of people, mostly because it’s cheap. The old school method has an obvious advantage: all you need, at the minimum, is a pencil and a piece of paper. If this is the case, generating 4e characters is the least of your concerns.įor those of you who scoff at the idea of using a computer to help with a pen and paper game, sure. It also helps that rubbing out stuff doesn’t leave a mark… unless you use white-out on your monitor.