I wanted my players to feel their characters. Meet W&W Sheet. (Patreon)

Hey everyone!

A character sheet is somewhere a player spends a lot of their evening. They open it to choose a spell, look for something in their backpack, or find out how much trouble they're in. I wanted those little visits to feel like spending time with their character.

I wanted a wizard's sheet to feel like it belonged to a wizard. I wanted equipment to have a place on a body, and a place inside a bag. And, somewhere along the way, I became rather attached to the idea that the little people on the map should be able to breathe.

That became W&W Sheet, a new character sheet for Foundry VTT's dnd5e system, and the first piece of a new family of modules I'm building around the games we play.

I've made a little video for you up top. Give it some sound if you can. Then come back, because there are quite a few things in here that I'd love to show you properly.

A first beta, for this community. This is version 0.9.0, and things will break. There are rough edges I already know about, which I've listed below, and others your tables will help me find. It needs Foundry VTT V14 and dnd5e 6.0 or newer.

One thing I want to say openly: I used AI tools under my direction for the illustrated artwork, and for the art and music in the teaser. If you'd prefer different artwork, you can replace your sheet's crest and portrait frame, and the GM can turn off the illustrated class art for the world. I'll explain a little more in the credits.

A little of your character in every corner

The twelve classes each have their own colors, illustrated portrait frame, and crest. The whole sheet takes on that identity, while the layout stays familiar from one character to the next.

Multiclass characters belong here too. The class with the most levels leads the appearance, with your original class breaking a tie. The heraldic description remembers all your classes, and class-linked features, resources, and spells keep their own class colors.

You can also choose another of your character's classes to lead the look in edit mode, or bring your own crest and frame. I want this to feel like your character, including when your idea of them is different from mine.

Twelve classes, with a shared layout and an identity of their own.

The sheet follows what happens to you

When your character is bloodied, the edge of the window turns blood red. At 0 hit points, Death's Door appears with your death saves. The corners mark your tier of play, and light up when you reach a new one.

Your token sits in a small medallion beside the portrait, so both can have their place. And if you have a looping video for your portrait, the sheet can show that too.

When your turn comes around

There is a very particular pause that happens when someone is ready to do something wonderful, but first has to work out what they still have left. I wanted the sheet to help with that part.

It opens on the Turn tab. Your options are organized around your Action, Bonus Action, and Reaction, and those mark themselves as you spend them, whether you use an activity from the sheet, chat, or a macro. They reset at the start of your next turn.

An opportunity attack made from the Reaction column spends your reaction. Movement follows the token's path in combat, including difficult terrain. Extra Attack gets little diamonds to show the attacks remaining, and concentration and conditions stay close at hand.

The sheet also gives reminders for the 2014 and 2024 spellcasting rules. These are reminders, not locks. Your table still gets to make the call.

The attack happens on the map, and the Turn tab follows along.

Where did you put that sword?

I wanted equipment to feel like something a character carries. A sword in a sheath. A shield in a hand. A bedroll taking up an inconvenient amount of room.

The Gear tab gives you an armorer's mannequin with places for what you wear, hold, and stow. Drag the sword into a hand and you can see where it belongs.

From the sheath to the hand, right on the mannequin.

Your containers have their own storage, including a grid for the backpack. Pick an item up, press R to rotate it while dragging, and find a place for it. Escape cancels the move. Searching for an item highlights the containers holding it, and you can drag items out to another sheet or onto the scene.

Different containers can use grids, lists, or counters. A quiver doesn't need to behave like a backpack.

The grid measures space. The system still handles weight. The GM chooses whether the grid is off, visual only, or enforced. Visual only is the default: it warns when something doesn't fit, but lets you keep playing.

A small packing problem. R turns the bedroll while you're holding it.

And who is carrying all of this?

This part matters a lot to me.

A blank biography box can be a surprisingly difficult invitation. You know there's a person in there, somewhere between the ability scores and the equipment, but being asked to write their whole life can make it harder to begin.

The Biography opens with Beyond the name. It offers smaller places to start: your character in one sentence, what someone notices at first sight, what drives them, the road so far, and the people who matter.

There is room for images and a longer story too. Every field is optional. One good sentence can be enough for tonight. The rest can grow at the table.

A knight without a lord, still keeping an oath nobody remembers. Sometimes a sentence gives you somewhere to begin.

And the care goes through the rest of the sheet. Details, Features, Spells, Effects, Special Traits, and Bastion have all been rebuilt in the same visual language, with the dnd5e system's behavior underneath.

Then the little people on the map started breathing

This is the Marionette, and I have to admit that watching it work makes me very happy.

It already brings movement to the token image you have. Breathing at rest, a step while moving, a lunge when attacking, a flinch on damage, a glow when healing, and reactions to spellcasting and conditions. These follow what happens in the game.

It works with tokens for every actor type, including NPCs, even when you're using another sheet. The GM can control the reactions, and each player chooses Full, Reduced, or Still motion for their own view.

You can stop there and use your existing images. Or you can add your own artwork for individual states, which is how I made the characters in the teaser.

The examples below use custom animated art. The Marionette plays the matching animation as the character moves, attacks, takes damage, or falls.

Custom artwork, responding to a real attack in Foundry.

Getting knocked down can have its own moment, and so can getting back up. I love that there is room for a character's personality even in something as small as the way they find their feet again.

Corwin has had better evenings. He is getting back up anyway.

You bring the art. There is a place to try it.

I wanted this part to be something people could actually use. Making the character is already creative work; bringing those files into Foundry shouldn't become a second project.

Open the Marionette from the token's right-click controls. Its window has a rehearsal stage, so you can try the movements while you're working.

Your token's controls open its Marionette and rehearsal stage.

You can use still images, videos with transparency, or a sprite sheet arranged in a grid. Mix them if you like. An idle video and a still image for the strike can live in the same set.

Drop your files into the window. Names such as idle, walk, attack, hurt, prone, and get up tell it which state each file belongs to, in English or Portuguese.

If your image or video has a flat green background, the importer can remove it in your browser, prepare the cutout, and put it into the matching state.

A green-background clip goes into the importer.

Then play it on the stage, see how it feels, and save when you're happy. You can adjust the states and, as the GM, build rules in phrases using when and while. Manual gestures are also available from the token controls and the Turn tab.

For background removal, use Chrome, Edge, or the Foundry app, and keep the window visible and in front while it works. Direct uploads need the appropriate Foundry permissions; creating the import folder requires the Assistant role or higher. Players without that access can prepare and download the cleaned files locally, then give them to the GM.

The Marionette also has support for working alongside Automated Animations and Token Magic FX. In the teaser, I let the character's own artwork handle the sword strike and used Automated Animations for the spell effect.

The background is gone, and the strike is ready to rehearse.

And the GM doesn't have to do every goblin twice

Once you've made a monster's appearance, save it as a set. Other actors can share it, and you can mark it for that monster so future imports from its compendium arrive linked too.

There is also an option to apply a set to an entire actor folder, including its subfolders, with a summary before you confirm.

Make one goblin you like. Let the others borrow his wardrobe.

One shared set, with each goblin reacting to its own part in the fight.

A small thing for those of us who play in meters

Here in Brazil, a lot of us play in meters. I wanted movement and ranges to agree with the table we're actually using.

The module converts the underlying distance data, including movement, senses, item ranges, areas, class distance scales, and supported effects. It works for characters, NPCs, and vehicles. New actors can arrive converted automatically; existing actors get a preview for you to review before applying changes.

Ambiguous formulas are left for you to decide. I would rather show you a question than quietly guess what your homebrew means.

This is where this family begins

W&W Sheet is the first piece of a new family of modules focused on the systems we play. I'm starting with D&D 5e, with Pathfinder Second Edition next.

There is more I want to build around this. For now, I want to give this first piece the time and care it needs, and find out what happens when it meets your characters.

A little glimpse of the table I made to show you all of this.Tell me how it feels at your table

Try your own character. Try a multiclass combination. Pack something awkward, take a turn in combat, or see what the Marionette does with the tokens you already love.

If something breaks, please tell me what you did, what you expected, and what happened. Your Foundry and dnd5e versions, the character's class, and the tab you were using help a lot. A screenshot is wonderful.

You can leave a comment here or come to our Wand & Widgets Discord. And please tell me what feels confusing too. A button that technically works but nobody understands still needs my attention.

A little about how it was made

The class crests, portrait frames, Gear illustrations, and the frame around the Marionette's rehearsal stage were made with AI tools under my direction.

If that artwork isn't for you, you can replace your own crest and portrait frame, or the GM can switch off Illustrated class art for the world. That gives the sheets a heraldic shield drawn in code and a plain border, while keeping any artwork owners have chosen themselves.

The teaser's Ray of Frost effect is by JB2A, played through Automated Animations and Sequencer. The module's fonts are licensed under the SIL Open Font License.

Thank you for making room for these ideas in your games, and for making it possible for me to keep working on them.

I hope you open a character sheet, see someone you recognize, and feel a little more excited to sit down with your friends.

With love, from one storyteller to another.

GabúWand & Widgets

Come give it a try

This beta installs from the ZIP attached to this post. It isn't an installation through Foundry's package browser yet.

Download the beta ZIP and close Foundry.

Extract it into your Foundry Data/modules folder. The result should be Data/modules/wnw-sheet, with module.json inside that folder.

Restart Foundry, open your world, and enable W&W Sheet in Manage Modules.

The welcome guide introduces the module. The GM gets a Prepare your table page, including the choice to make W&W Sheet the default character sheet.

Requirements: Foundry VTT V14 and dnd5e 6.0 or newer. This beta has been tested on Foundry 14.368 with dnd5e 6.0.5. V13 and dnd5e 5 aren't supported.

The Marionette and automatic distance conversion for new actors start enabled. Gear starts in visual-only mode. A character token using its portrait can also receive Foundry's dynamic ring. These are choices you can revisit in the module settings.

Only the character sheet is replaced. NPCs and vehicles keep their official sheets, with the Marionette and distance tools available to them too.

The things I already know need more work

A few class illustrations still need another pass, especially the Rogue's crest and the Wizard's, Cleric's, and Bard's portrait frames.

Top-down tokens need rotation unlocked if you want them to turn toward their targets. Some imported tokens arrive with it locked.

Background removal needs a supported browser and a visible window, as described above.

I wanted you to hear those things from me before discovering them in the middle of a session.