Messy character sheets & messy characters!

[Clavis]

In my personal experience, don't expect female players to care if their characters are missing out on kewl tactical options or ass-kicking powers by not updating their character sheets. In fact, don't expect them to even care about their character's tactical options or ass-kicking powers at all!

I've found that most (although certainly not all) women who play D&D are mostly interested in having a fun time at the gaming table through role-playing and story. I've often found that they would barely bother to learn the rules at all! The social aspect of being with people talking about a series of thrilling events seemed to be what they loved. They certainly weren't the type to study their character sheets when they weren't at the table. Since I am a very free-form style DM, I've never minded. In fact I hate to DM all-male groups.

I've noticed that it can be very frustrating for male players with Gamist or Simulationist leanings to be at a table with the majority of female players (which explains quite a bit about the demographics of our hobby). Of course, I'm certain many people will be able to point to examples of hard number-crunching women that they've gamed with, but I believe my observation is true about the majority of female gamers.

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

My sister, my ex and every female I have ever played with has played like that. I would look at their sheets and wonder what the hell was going on.
At one point I made my sister remake a characters just so I would know what was going on there.
Of course no one compares to one of my former friends (male by the way) who would have a character sheet for one session and have it looking like something he had been playing for years. Not to mention it would get worse and he stapled more and more things to it and he eventually came to the game session with a folder split open from having so much junk shoved it. All for one character.

 

[humble minion]

I used to think I was very competent and organised, because I rewrote my entire character sheet every time my PC gained a level, and stowed all the old ones conscientiously away in my gaming folder.

Then my PC died at level 19, and on going back I realised that for the last two levels I'd been taking the 17th-level sheet out of the folder and playing off it rather than the proper one. That 2d8+8 hp could have made the difference, dammit!

 

[Lanefan]

Let me guess, when you find treasure and the DM says your group found 4 Diamonds, you jot down that your party found 4 gems? Nevermind that you already have notes for other "gems" your group found and didn't appraise yet.

I actually had to train my players to keep better treasure notes so I can identify wtf they're talking about. I don't know how many times my wife found old notes in her notebook and said, "Wait, I have 4 gems that we found somewhere." Then I have to spend 15 minutes figuring out if those are the 4 diamonds that they already appraised and sold, or if that's other treasure that they forgot to appraise.

Truth be told, that problem falls on the DM. You as DM need to record each thing found, and give it a unique "item number". Then, you have to force your players to also record the item number on their treasury list, and on their character sheet once the item is claimed.

Believe me, it sure makes things easier when looking up an item from a few years ago...

Lanefan

 

[Zogmo]

You know what's even stranger?

Are you sure Scribble isn't your wife?

 

[timbannock]

Does she have a sister?

Yeah, married and on the opposite coast. I'll put in the good word if I hear of any relationship issues, though

 

[Oryan77]

Truth be told, that problem falls on the DM. You as DM need to record each thing found, and give it a unique "item number". Then, you have to force your players to also record the item number on their treasury list, and on their character sheet once the item is claimed.

Well I know it's customary on Enworld to immediately blame the DM for any problems in a gaming group. But in this case, I'm on top of my game

I do keep notes of the treasure I hand out. I also ask the players to name items in their notes just like I named it (4 diamonds, 3 pearls, 12 ambers) so I can locate it in my notes when the time comes. I guess you could spend extra time using unique item numbers....but getting players to stick with writing 4 diamonds was hard enough. Then not only do I have to write 4 diamonds on my notes, I have to write 14B also. Convincing them to write 14B would be like asking them to explain grapple rules to me (they'll get confused, make a mess of things, & waste a lot of time). Basically, my unique "item number" is "4 diamonds"

 

[sniffles]

I confess I'm a bit surprised you even look at her character sheet. Most of the GMs I play with rarely see mine. I also find it hard to imagine sticking with the same sheet forever - I hate it when mine gets smudged. I'm on an eternal quest for the "perfect" character sheet design, so I change sheets every time I find a new design I like better.

I should point out that this is relevant to the discussion because I'm female, and I'm also messy. But it sounds like I'm more into mechanics than your wife is.

Really, a messy sheet is mainly your wife's problem. Although you could point out to her that she might get more advantages in play if her scores were current. Does she get frustrated with failing a save or skill check? Remind her gently then that she should keep that info up to date.

It also couldn't hurt to remind her that her character's inability to successfully do certain things does have an impact on the other players and may take away some of their fun. That might be a better way to bring up the topic, since you say she's more interested in the roleplay aspect of the game.

Have you offered to take care of her sheet for her, or does she prefer to do it herself?

 

[Oryan77]

I confess I'm a bit surprised you even look at her character sheet.

I sometimes look at players sheets so I can get some ideas for encounters and plots. I try to use a variety of challenges that give each PC a chance to use their special skills/abilities. I'm not the best wargamer either so I sometimes review their sheet so I can figure out a what NPC should attack which PC & exploit their weaknesses.

Have you offered to take care of her sheet for her, or does she prefer to do it herself?

I'm always offering to help her update her PC but she'd rather spend our free time cuddling then bother with boring stuff like that. So I can't argue with that We'll get it done eventually

I'd rather not do it myself because I want her to understand the rules better. I don't mind doing it, I just want her there so I can explain what I'm doing to her stats.

 

[LonePaladin]

I've pretty much taken over the role of maintaining character sheets for my entire group. My fiancee can't be bothered to update her characters half the time — she claims she'll do it later, since we live together, then doesn't want it brought up the entire week — and most of the other players have atrocious handwriting. One of my players will never live down the time I was looking at his inventory and asked him why he had "five pounds of fleugh". (I really have no idea what it was supposed to be, I just saw something that looked like an FL, with an illegible blur after that.)

For the campaign I've been running, I just made everyone's characters in statblock format (the new one, not the crowded mess they originally put out in 3.# books). The only headache is that I have to reprint them whenever a major change is made (not just leveling up, but replacing or upgrading a vital piece of gear).

When I start my next campaign, I'm not sure if I'm going to keep doing it this way. I'll just have to ask the players and see if they're willing to put forth a little effort to keep their characters up-to-date themselves, or if I should just go ahead and handle it for them. (I hope not, I'm going to have enough to keep me busy.)