ALTER ARMS CHARACTER SHEET UX/UI CASE STUDY

Pros​:​

+Versatility: While primarily geared towards combat, the system is granular enough to allow players many different approaches to solving a problem.

+Accessibility: The game has been at the center of a recent resurgence in interest in tabletop games, due in part to pop culture embracing it. The majority of people know what Dungeons & Dragons is, if not how to play it.

+Sense of Progression: The game has a character progression system that allows players to greatly change their character's playstyle in a variety of ways. 

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Cons: ​​

-Bookkeeping: Character creation and a portion of gameplay requires players and the GM to reference multiple materials in order to determine how an individual character operations. Character sheets can include multiple pages as players need to be able to keep track of different special attributes of their character's race and class, as well as the rules for the multiple abilities that they can use.

-Limited Setting: The majority of D&D 5th Edition content is strictly based in a sword and sorcery setting. Supplemental materials provide additional scope, but people who are interested in anything outside of a fantasy setting must look elsewhere.

-Overabundance of Mechanics: The long history of D&D has led it to having many different mechanics that have been introduced and abandoned over subsequent editions. Among most groups, the majority of them are neglected so players can have a more streamlined experience. 

Pros:

​+Prioritize Character Interaction and Thematics: The system forgoes a randomized means for adjudication, instead basing gameplay mechanics on an economy of tokens given to players for performing certain actions and given to the GM to perform certain actions. There are no attributes on the character sheets to keep track of. Character sheets are a list of actions and the reward/cost for performing them. These actions are all thematically appropriate and encourage interaction between players.

+Zeroes-in on Tokusatsu Tropes and Incorporates Them into Mechanics: The actions and economy both are heavily based around the tropes of tokusatsu, guiding players to play roles appropriate for the setting and the stories that are common within.

+Pick-up and play: The rules are very straightforward, with the majority appearing on the character sheets.

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Cons:

-Not ​​Built For Mechanical Variation Between Character Classes: Each character class has the same mechanic of giving and receiving points in exchange for actions performed. The system is built to reward players for telling the story, and the only variations between characters is how the game expects players to tell the story.

-Limits Itself To A Single Subgenre: Tokusatsu is divided into different subgenres, the most popular of which is arguably sentai, such as Power Rangers. Henshin is focused on emulating this subgenre, encouraging teamwork and other tropes, but does not include any options that would allow for solo characters seen in other subgenres of tokusatsu such as Metal Heroes. 

-Focus On Collaborative Narrative That Requires Heavy Investment From Players: The focus on storytelling and reliance on economy of points to produce the narrative means that players have to be highly invested at all times in order for satisfaction. This can put more pressure on players than they may wish.

-Limited Instructions: The rules can be difficult to decipher, with central mechanics needed to be inferred from the way individual character rules are written.

Pros:​

+Versatile System That Allows For A Wide Variety Of Actions: Players have a number of ways to describe their character, which can greatly change the way they play the game.

+Gives Feeling Of Impactful Transformations: Characters travel to different realities and inhabit new bodies while there. These new forms are meaningful because the characters generate their attributes immediately before inhabiting them. These new forms can be vastly different from the original, giving players new ways to play.

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Cons:

-Transformations Are Disposable: Each transformation is generated before inhabitation, and abandoned once the player is done with them. This means players don't have a consistent relationship with the form that they can revisit. It's basically a tool that is only used once. 

-Requires A Lot Of Paperwork To Keep Track Of Character Details: Each new form requires a new character sheet, meaning players and the GM have a lot more to keep track of as the game progresses.

Pros:

​+Versatile system that allows for a variety of actions: The storytelling-based system has various results for adjudication built into the options available to the player, meaning that any action can fail, succeed with a conceit, or be a resounding success.

+Little required work outside of game sessions: All rules are written on character sheets, meaning that players and the GM have very little bookkeeping to do before playing.

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Cons:

-Simple mechanics limit unique interactions from one setting to another: The options available to the player are limited by the setting, meaning that players are confined to the sheets for what kind of story they tell.

-Every session requires a number of documents to be available: The list of options available to the player must be made available during the game session, which is complicated by the fact some rules are written on character sheets, or supplemental rules lists.