Do you keep your Players' character sheets?

[Bullgrit]

Over the years on message boards, I've seen a few references to DMs collecting and keeping Players' character sheets between game sessions.

I've only once in real life gaming met a DM who did this. When I learned this was the DM's way, I made a duplicate of my sheet to give him, because I want my character sheet, myself -- it's freakin' mine.

Do you, or does your DM keep the Players' character sheets between game sessions?

Bullgrit

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I do, 'cause otherwise the players will loose them and times is wasted redoing character sheets. I'd rather not bother though.

 

[Jan van Leyden]

As DM I've always demanded my players to hand me over their sheets at the end of the session, the reason being simply that I've experienced more than enough players with chronic cases of amnesia or being less than reliable.

Nowadays I'm satisfied with having an up-to-date copy of the Character Builder file.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Yes, frequently.

I keep them so I can use them to design encounters and challenges and other things between sessions that are appropriate to the specific resources of the party. Moreover, it means that if a player should not be able to show next time, we have his or her character sheet on hand so that will not present a problem.

To avoid this problem and make everybody happy, I highly recommend creating a campaign workspace on dndsheets.net and having everybody use that free service to do their character sheets. That way, it always available to everybody, everywhere.

DND Sheets currently supports:

• 4e Dungeons and Dragons
• Pathfinder (3.75e Dungeons and Dragons) [Example]
• 3.5e Dungeons and Dragons [Example]
• 3e Dungeons and Dragons
• d20 Star Wars RPG [Example]
• d20 Serenity [Example]
• d20 Stargate
• d20 Modern [Example]

 

[Crothian]

No, the players are responsible for their own things.

 

[Oryan77]

I've always kept them, but I don't mind if they want me to keep a copy. They just need to make sure the copy is updated.

I've only had 1 player ever throw a fit about this, and I didn't understand why it was that serious of an issue. The reason I keep it is:

1. So I can see if I need to give them more treasure.
2. I can see what treasure I've given so I can give out things they could use.
3. So I can look at what kind of weapons/armor they like to use and I can throw in a similar magic version (or better version) of those items.
4. So I can view their stats and make sure my encounter won't be too hard or too easy.
5. So I can view their stats and make challenges that will make use of their stats.
6. So I can see what abilities they have and I can read about those abilities on my own to refresh my memory on how they work & what I can expect during the game.
7. So I can make sure they calculated everything correct (I trust them and barely ever do this, and would only do this after they level).

 

[amysrevenge]

It's only ever been a theoretical thing for me - has never come up in 20+ years, on either side of the screen, in any of the 5 cities I've lived in or the countless groups I've played with.

 

[Dausuul]

In my college years and previously, players were expected to keep track of their own character sheets. This did mean sheets getting lost from time to time. When a player was particularly absentminded, the DM might demand a Xeroxed copy of the sheet as backup, but players wanted control over their own sheets and DMs seldom wanted responsibility for keeping up with them.

These days, gaming takes place at somebody's permanent residence instead of in some random spot on campus, and we find it's simplest to stow all game-related materials in that residence.

With the advent of my addiction to collecting minis, a simple solution has presented itself: In between games, character sheets go in the "Heroes and Villains" drawer of my miniatures collection (the drawer where I keep the unique humanoid minis that players can choose from to represent their PCs). The drawer happens to be just the right size for an 8.5x11 sheet of paper, so we just stuff 'em in on top of the minis.

Of course, since we all use the character builder, we have copies of our characters' stats on our computers as well. But the sheet remains important for keeping track of stuff acquired and notes taken during play.

 

[coyote6]

I'll sometimes get copies of the character sheets, just for my information. With M&M, I keep my own copies of the characters in Hero Lab. But I don't regularly collect the originals from the players or the like.

I did borrow the full PCs a couple of times, actually. Once in D&D because I wanted to double-check the wealth value of the PCs, and none of the players had time to do it. Another time I borrowed GURPS characters so I could write up interpretations of the characters as M&M characters (for a long arc where the mostly covert/special op-type PCs went undercover as superheroes).

 

[Mallus]

Nope.

(but in our current 4e campaign, everyone posts updated copies of their character to the campaign message board)