Character Management

I completely forgot the single easiest way to reduce the complexity inherent in D&D. This is also a method that would work well for a lot of rules-heavy games where the bulk of the complexity lies in character management.

The solution: A really good character form.

I use the Mad Irishman's character forms for D&D and Star Wars d20 (which I got from rpgsheets.com). These are, quite simply, a godsend, automatically calculating skill bonuses, AC values, and the like. Unfortunately, they require the full version of Acrobat to save, and the sheets have a very few small weaknesses (such as not handling half-ranks in skills). Still, simply by using these forms it becomes much easier to manage characters in complex RPGs. Frankly, I'm sidling over to the view that any company serious about web-support for their game should make available a really good charcter form for players to use.