Roleplay character sheet template (copy and paste)

Here are three templates. Copy the one that fits, fill it in and send it.

They’re short on purpose. A partner reads your sheet to work out how to write to your character, and that should take them about a minute. The long version of that argument is in what to put in a character reference. This page is the part you copy.

The short one, for a Discord message

Name:
Summary:
Appearance:
Voice:
Wants:
Won't:

6 lines, and it fits in one message with room to spare. Discord’s own help pages put a message at 2,000 characters, or 4,000 with Nitro. A filled-in copy of this one is nearer 500.

Summary is the line that matters most. It’s the first thing anybody reads, and on re:plyr it’s the line that shows when you paste a character’s link into a chat. Write it for a stranger: what they do, and the one thing that makes them hard work.

The full one, for a Google Doc

For a long story, or a partner who likes to know more before they start.

Name:
Summary:
Appearance:
Personality:
Voice:
What they want:
What they won't do:
Background:
Likes:
Dislikes:
Genres:

Background is the one to watch. Keep it to 3 or 4 sentences, and keep only the parts that change how somebody writes to your character today. A childhood written in full answers questions nobody has asked yet.

The private one, for you

Notes:

One line, and it holds everything you don’t hand over: where you want the story to go, what you haven’t revealed yet, and what you need to remember between replies. Keep it in a separate file from the one you share, so it can’t go out by mistake. On re:plyr it’s a box on the same character, and a share link never shows it.

A filled-in one

This is Mira, the example character every new re:plyr account starts with, in the short version:

Name: Mira Vance
Summary: Carries parcels over the rooftops for people who can't use the roads. Nine years at it, and one rule she broke exactly once.
Appearance: Tall, dark hair kept short, a waxed jacket that has been mended more than once, and a satchel she won't put down indoors.
Voice: Short sentences. Answers the question you asked, not the one you meant.
Wants: The name of whoever paid for the job that went wrong.
Won't: Open a parcel again, or cross to the east bank for any money you have.

Every line gives a partner something to use in their next reply. None of them says where she was born.

Why these lines and not others

• Voice is the line I’d keep if I could only keep one. It’s what your partner is answering, every reply.
• Wants gives them something to push against. “The name of whoever paid” is a scene. “To be happy” isn’t.
• Won’t tells them where the walls are before they walk into one. It saves more trouble than the rest of the sheet put together.
• Likes and dislikes are texture. They’re the first lines to cut when a sheet gets long.
• Genres tell a new partner whether you want the same story before either of you writes a word.

What I left out, on purpose

No birthday, no star sign, no stat block and no family tree. If a detail doesn’t change how somebody writes to your character, it goes in your notes. If their age matters to the story, say it in the summary.

No pictures either, because they don’t paste. 3 or 4 good ones do more than any appearance line, so keep them with the sheet rather than in a folder somebody has to ask for. There’s a way to sort them so they stay findable.

Paste it straight into re:plyr

Every heading above is one re:plyr already reads. Paste a filled-in sheet into Paste a sheet you already have, at the top of the character editor, and it fills the boxes for you. Anything it can’t place goes into Notes rather than nowhere, and nothing is saved until you save it. If you’ve a whole cast in one document, Bring a cast across on Characters finds one sheet per character and shows you what it found first. The guide has the rest.

What you get back is one link. It opens for somebody with no account, it shows the name, the summary and a face when you paste it into Discord, and you can switch it off when you’re done.

You don’t need re:plyr for any of this. A Doc and a Discord message are fine homes for a sheet this short.

Fill in 6 lines tonight. Write the background when somebody asks for it.