Using a Binder to Organize Your Character Sheets
written by Donat P. Fevre
May 15th, 2007 · 1 Comment
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably played in several D&D campaigns, and perhaps campaigns using other game systems as well. And if you are like me, then you’ve probably put your myriad of character sheets into a single manila folder and called that organized. Otherwise, you’re probably just losing character sheets left and right over time.
As I’ve been putting together a couple of DM notebooks, one for my main campaign and another for a one-shot adventure that I’ll be running over the summer, I had a sudden thought that it might be a good idea to do the same with my character sheets. A very simple idea, but that I’m already finding has a profound effect on keeping my characters organized.
All you really need is a plain three-ring binder, a three-hole punch, and page separators. Separators with those plastic tabs that you slip a small label into are probably the best, as you may want to rearrange your sheets every now and then, or even take some out for whatever reason. Use the separators to separate each different character, and labeling them after your characters.
Now with your character sheets neatly organized in a single binder, you can carry it along to all your gaming sessions, whether you’re a player or a DM. This can be great if you’re ever in a situation where everyone doesn’t want to play the ongoing campaign and try something a bit different, perhaps using past characters. You can just flip over to the appropriate character and you’ll be set to go! 
Another awesome benefit to doing this, which I came to realize afterwards, is that you suddenly have an easy resource for NPCs! However, the NPCs based off the characters you’ve created will most likely be important, recurring characters in your campaign, rather than your generic disposable one. This can be a good thing though, as the players may very well have positive reactions to you bringing a character you’ve played before into your own campaign. 
So not only will having a character binder make you a better player, but it will in turn make you a better DM as well.
Topics: D&D Hardware
Great article. I like the idea of carrying old characters to any game.
On an organizational note:
I offered each of the players in my D&D game a bigbinder that had big pockets with room for a set of dice, a few miniatures, and pens and eraser.
It also had plastic covers for the character sheets so they don’t fall apart after a few games.