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Ever just redo a players character sheet?
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<blockquote data-quote="delericho" data-source="post: 3250578" data-attributes="member: 22424"><p>Agreed. Simply presenting the player with a redone character sheet with no prior indication that this was going to be done is rude. Saying "there are a bunch of mistakes on the sheet, would you like me to redo it?" is acceptable. The DM insisting that the sheet be redone and corrected (either by the player or someone else) is also acceptable - it is his role to ensure adherence to the rules. However, that still requires a dialogue - the DM should not simply redo the sheet without seeking input from the player.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The table rules at my game are such that all character sheets are maintained by me, that I keep the game-copies between sessions, and that we use a common format for character sheets.</p><p></p><p>My reasoning is as follows:</p><p></p><p>1) Sometimes, players can't make it to sessions. This sucks, but it happens. As such, as DM, I require the use of the most up-to-date version of the character sheet - and that means the one that the player uses during the game session. (A lesser reason is that before we instituted this rule, players would forget or destroy their sheets with distressing regularity. Since I keep all my gaming materials together, I have forgotten the sheets exactly as often as I've forgotten to bring my rulebooks/adventures/dice to the game, which is precisely never.)</p><p></p><p>2) A common format for character sheets is a massive speed increase, especially at higher levels. This means that if a player can't find the information he needs for whatever action is at hand, I can tell him precisely where on the sheet it is located. And, on those rare occasions when I don't know, there are four other players at the table. Chances are one of them knows. (And before you ask why it matters that Bob knows where your spells are listed on your sheet, I'll answer: when you're not there, someone is probably going to run your character, either Bob, or me as an NPC. Either way, finding things on your sheet is an additional hassle we don't need.)</p><p></p><p>3) The sheets are done with pdf forms for two key reasons. The first is so that they can be placed online, which is occasionally useful (and would have been exceedingly useful this week, when a drink was spilled and destroyed two sheets). The other reason is that three of my five players have attrocious handwriting, and two of those can't spell worth a damn (not their fault, but the effect on the game would be significant were the sheets not re-done).</p><p></p><p>4) Until Monday, only one of my players owned so much as a Player's Handbook. Therefore, it is unusual for characters to be created and levelled without some sort of a mistake creeping in. Having me redo all the sheets periodically means that most of these mistakes get caught, and the player gets to fix them. This, however, is a very minor reason - the mistakes are generally trivial, and if a player wants to deny himself a feat or stat increase, then that's his prerogative. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>The truth is, this has never been an issue for my group. The players like having nice clean sheets at every level, they like having access to their sheets online, they like not having to remember to bring anything other than themselves to the game, and they like being able to level up by just making the choices, safe in the knowledge that the mechanical bits and peices (BAB, saves, hit points, total modifiers, etc) will all be taken care of.</p><p></p><p>If a new player were to absolutely insist, then of course they could maintain the sheet themselves. They would still be required to use the common sheet format, and to make sure I had a copy that was bang up to date, though.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="delericho, post: 3250578, member: 22424"] Agreed. Simply presenting the player with a redone character sheet with no prior indication that this was going to be done is rude. Saying "there are a bunch of mistakes on the sheet, would you like me to redo it?" is acceptable. The DM insisting that the sheet be redone and corrected (either by the player or someone else) is also acceptable - it is his role to ensure adherence to the rules. However, that still requires a dialogue - the DM should not simply redo the sheet without seeking input from the player. The table rules at my game are such that all character sheets are maintained by me, that I keep the game-copies between sessions, and that we use a common format for character sheets. My reasoning is as follows: 1) Sometimes, players can't make it to sessions. This sucks, but it happens. As such, as DM, I require the use of the most up-to-date version of the character sheet - and that means the one that the player uses during the game session. (A lesser reason is that before we instituted this rule, players would forget or destroy their sheets with distressing regularity. Since I keep all my gaming materials together, I have forgotten the sheets exactly as often as I've forgotten to bring my rulebooks/adventures/dice to the game, which is precisely never.) 2) A common format for character sheets is a massive speed increase, especially at higher levels. This means that if a player can't find the information he needs for whatever action is at hand, I can tell him precisely where on the sheet it is located. And, on those rare occasions when I don't know, there are four other players at the table. Chances are one of them knows. (And before you ask why it matters that Bob knows where your spells are listed on your sheet, I'll answer: when you're not there, someone is probably going to run your character, either Bob, or me as an NPC. Either way, finding things on your sheet is an additional hassle we don't need.) 3) The sheets are done with pdf forms for two key reasons. The first is so that they can be placed online, which is occasionally useful (and would have been exceedingly useful this week, when a drink was spilled and destroyed two sheets). The other reason is that three of my five players have attrocious handwriting, and two of those can't spell worth a damn (not their fault, but the effect on the game would be significant were the sheets not re-done). 4) Until Monday, only one of my players owned so much as a Player's Handbook. Therefore, it is unusual for characters to be created and levelled without some sort of a mistake creeping in. Having me redo all the sheets periodically means that most of these mistakes get caught, and the player gets to fix them. This, however, is a very minor reason - the mistakes are generally trivial, and if a player wants to deny himself a feat or stat increase, then that's his prerogative. :) The truth is, this has never been an issue for my group. The players like having nice clean sheets at every level, they like having access to their sheets online, they like not having to remember to bring anything other than themselves to the game, and they like being able to level up by just making the choices, safe in the knowledge that the mechanical bits and peices (BAB, saves, hit points, total modifiers, etc) will all be taken care of. If a new player were to absolutely insist, then of course they could maintain the sheet themselves. They would still be required to use the common sheet format, and to make sure I had a copy that was bang up to date, though. [/QUOTE]
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