What happens when a character sheet is missing?

[Crothian]

So, about an hour till game and the character sheet and all the notes is gone. You've no idea where it is or what happened to it. What do you do?

And yes, I'm in that situation right now. It has been almost 2 months since we played with these characters and I put him someplace really safe.

 

[Ruined]

I've had this happen a time or two as DM and as a player, and its no fun. You can either tear apart your house for the next hour, or go ahead and talk to your DM about recreating the character with best of your knowledge. It sucks, but you need to have some stats down to play with. And if you start soon, the less time you steal from the game. Too bad about the notes, though.

Then look for it afterwards. Things like that have the annoying tendency to pop up right after you need them.

 

[Aloïsius]

Recreate the character as soon as you can.
This way, you will have a brand new sheet, without those cofee/coca-cola/whatever marks.

This and...
"Sure, I had a 12 in wisdom, not a 11 !"

 

[Quickbeam]

I'm one of those people who subscribes to the theory that everything in my house has its own particular space. When I can't find something, it drives me absolutely freaking NUTS!!! With that said, I'd be going from room to room tearing the place apart right now, grumbling under my breath the whole time !

However, I'm pretty darn good about remembering most of the details (stats, equipment, spells, etc.) pertaining to my characters. So I'd just jot down the important info for today's session and review everything with the DM until the character sheet is found. We have a player in our group who occasionally forgets his character sheet (which I realize is not what you did Crothian), and we just make do from memory as needed. You aren't the cheating type, so this should be cool for today.

edit: Good luck finding the original!!

 

[alsih2o]

we leave a regularly updated copy wiht our d.m.

as for your actual situ, figure it our beats you can, explain, start breathing again after the d.m. quits yelling

 

[Kriskrafts]

Every year or so we collect a copy of each character sheet to have on file. I also have a quick one-page master spreadsheet with all of the key numbers (specs, a.c, hit points, etc.) which can be used to throw together a quick character sheet if necessary.

 

[Umbran]

Redundancy is your friend. As a DM, I require all players to keep an updated copy of their sheets filed with me. I keep them with my campaign notes. If the game is running, I have my notes, and thus the sheet. If I don't have my notes, the game isn't running. Very simple.

 

[Surefoot]

What happened to me once is that i lost my notes (it was a notepad A4 size) with preparations for a session, 3 hours before i was to DM that session.

That really, really sucked. I was so frantically searching and and the same time repreparing the session notes it drove me quite nuts. The thing was that I prepared a 4 armed 2 headed gnoll monster 14th level barbarrian/fighter with every little detail painstaikingly thought and figured out, and i missed some pretty important hooks i had thought out over the weeks...

For your character sheet, i'd say start with the scores and go from there. What you can't remember replace with reasonable stuff. Tell your DM before the session and let him (or her) look over your (new) charactersheet. Forget the search, search after the session.

If you don't find your old charsheet, stick with the new one, and make backups... several!

 

[KnowTheToe]

When a player signs to get the required permits for a character, It clearly states that al paperwork must be prepaired in triplicate with one copy being registered at the local County Building. All copies must be noterized by the DM and saved electronically.

Don't get me started on what it takes to get the permit, signatures, references, background checks. I never lose paperwork

 

[arwink]

If people forget their sheets, I usually ask them to play an NPC or a newly minted short term character rather than trying to improvise the old one. It never seems to work somehow.

I'd also recommend keeping electronic copies, either a word file, a PC gen file, or maintaining a rogues gallery on Enworld. Printing again is easier than searching the house.