Re: Public Character Sheets Anyone?
Given that this suggestion wasn't Public Character Sheets for Everyone, or even By Default, but just something a GM could do... I think there are games it could be good for on the face of it, and others where (as suggested in the "lockable Character Descriptions" thread) it might just solve other problems by being usable in different ways.
With that noted, I was leaning against it until I went over to Beta and tested if [Private To... still works in character sheets. But it does, just fine, so the player and GM can have Private to That Character notes for anything that needs to still be kept secret. Eg, say Tiffy wants to have a really smart character who acts dumb, and it's important to the player that she really wants people to believe it, they can put -
Intelligence: 8 {Private to Tiffy: Real Int 18, she just acts vapid}
...And everybody else will just see that her Int is an 8. So you can still have your secrets, even in an open game.
It looks like if the player does a Private to GM note, then even that player won't be able to see it outside of the Edit Screen.
Interestingly, it looks like the GM could also put Private to Biff, say, in Tiffy's character sheet, and Tiffy couldn't see that either. Except in the Edit Screen, of course, where all the formatting breaks down - but for a game with Public, Locked Character Sheets, that has some interesting applications. For instance, the GM could add, {Private to Biff: Int 12? 14? You've noticed she's smarter than she lets on!} ...and Tiffy's player won't know that's in there. Combined with the above note about Private to GM lines, that also means the GM could keep their own notes specific to the PC that only they could see - for example, the details on a not-yet-identified magic item.
So on the whole, I'm a solid +1. It seems pretty simple and at least useful enough, and easily not-done for people who want to not-do it.