r-n-w Cheat Sheets Review

After doing my review on r-n-w’s individualised character sheets (See Here), I was contacted by the owner and she gave me a whirl at these wonderful Cheat Sheets I saw an interest in. I couldn’t be more grateful so wanted to wait until I had a few sessions of trying them out before reviewing them.

What are they?

They are simply cheat sheets with a lot of information the DM needs to know right at your fingertips, all organised, quick and easy to find. As always, the layout of the sheets is done in r-n-w’s certain art style. I particularly enjoy this simplified art; it looks neat without convoluting the information on the page.

There are three total sheets available as a Cheat Sheet including an environmental hazards sheet, combat and states and conditions sheets. Let’s start off with environmental hazards.

This sheet consists of six different categories of hazards: falling; suffocating; difficult terrain; underwater combat; moving stealthily as a group; and cover. As an experienced player and DM, most of these things I have memorised besides the categories that don’t come up as frequently (how often are you fighting creatures of the deep underwater?). However, having them all in one place if you ever have a player who questions them (or if you second guess yourself) is incredibly handy! Especially falling. I find falling occurs quite often that a quick and easy reference to it is an absolute necessity.

Second, we come to combat. Obviously, this sheet contains vital information to play D&D. But that’s just it…it simply describes what you can do on your turn during combat and any seasoned D&D player should know these things.

As a DM, however, I think keeping a few of these sheets handy for brand new players will really help integrate them into play quickly and easily. Remember how difficult it was at the beginning (decades, years, or months ago), trying to figure out what you could do on your turn? Then another player says, “Well, why don’t you just take the Help action?” and you think, the help action? What is that? Why haven’t I heard of that yet? That’s definitely where this sheet comes in handy.

It’s a very good reference for new players, and perhaps a refresher for older ones who may have forgotten that a combat turn doesn’t have to simply consist of attacking and healing. The sheet itself consists of an explanation of your action, move action, bonus action and reaction as well as: attack actions; cast a spell; disengage; ready; help; make an ability/skill check; dash; attack of opportunity; distract; hide; and dodge.

Lastly, we have the states and conditions cheat sheet. This, I find particularly useful for myself – I’m always confusing which conditions mean which! Thankfully, my DM screen has all of this listed, but I don’t always use my DM screen if I don’t have to. This sheet came in really handy while playing online, too, because I had it at my fingertips so readily available.

This page consists of 14 different conditions and states including deafened; poisoned; incapicitated; petrified; invisible; frightened; prone; grappled; stunned; charmed; restrained; paralysed; unconscious, and blinded.

All-in-all, I always enjoy the design and layout of r-n-w’s sheets. I find them easy to read and yet they add a unique, individual feel to the game itself. Are they particularly useful cheat sheets to me? Sometimes. When my mind becomes muddled with other information, it’s really nice to be able to have this information close by and know exactly where you need to get it.

I highly recommend new players get all of these cheat sheets, especially the combat one! As a DM, I will always carry a few extras for new players as well. For the $2 it costs to purchase these (Here) three sheets it is more than a worthwhile investment!