Players that don't keep track

[Dagger75]

My players are pretty good about keeping track of there stuff. I got a cleric, druid and wizard and they all keep track of there spells. Same with hit points. I have no archer types in the group so arrows are not a problem.

One guy also keeps tracks of the treasure and then they split it up afterwords.

 

[Tsyr]

My DM's stopped doubting me as a player a while ago... I've sorta got this head for things... IE, DM asks for Bob's current HP, I respond before Bob can read the number off his character sheet. Same with arrow tallies, spells per day, etc.

Of course, I'm also able to run combat with only looking at the battle map once, and just keeping track of everything mentaly too.

It's a gift or something, I can't explain it. My short term memory is outstanding.

Could I be dishonest? Sure. But my DMs trust me, and I rather like that, so I'm not going to misuse that trust.

 

[vox]

Some stuff we let slide...

While we (players) track our spells, hit points and magic item uses, I don't think any of us track how many rations or arrows we use. Then again, I have a druid w/+12 wilderness lore and +5 PS:cook so I think that we kind of assume that we can eat off the land if we are travelling and we pay a monthly upkeep that covers basic living expenses while in towns.

I do keep track of masterwork arrows, though.

In short, if it doesn't seem like it is ever going to be significant, we don't worry about it; if we were going on some big, multi-month trip through the wilds I guess we'd need to track how many arrows we used.

 

[Guilt Puppy]

I play the "let the players worry about it, and trust them method." So far, they haven't tried to bend the rules: It's not a competition with me, so if they cheat, it's not like I lose out. Not that they ever have cheated, to my knowledge...

For spells: I have all my spell-casters keep a "default spell list"... If they don't specify what spells they memorize, that's the one they use. They tend to keep good track of what spells they've cast.

For wands, etc: These are powerful items, so even with fifty charges you need to keep track. At one point one player hadn't been, so I rolled a d20. "You've used 12 total charges," or something. It was about right.

For rations and arrows: They have a default number they're assumed to re-stock up to in town. Two weeks for rations, I think... If they're out of town for over two weeks, then, they run out of food. They're supposed to keep track of ammo, and I usually don't check: If they've been using a lot of ammo, I'll ask them for their running total... If they don't know, it's d20 time again (20 is their standard for ammo)

Carrying capacity: Every once in a while I'll make them recalculate this, then I'm lenient on it until it becomes an issue. They normally keep horses so it's not much an issue.

 

[Buttercup]

If it ain't written down, it didn't happen.

The DM needs to be insistant. I had a guy do this. I finally stopped it by halting the game until I SAW him write down that he had taken three points of damage.

No spells written down? Guess you didn't prepare any.

I have a feeling I'll have to do this at some point.

 

[blaster219]

Last night, I ran a Dragonstar game. I was keeping track of the number of Tanarukk pirates the PC's had dispatched when I overhead the players talking IC that "that was the 7th one". I realised at that point the combat wombat was keeping tally "for XP purposes".

 

[Shallown]

It depends.

When the players are being lazy then I usually just say.. Well that was the last one"

If they have just been busy playing / involved with the game I usually guestimate. My players are pretty trustworthy and might be into min/maxing or powergaming but strictly within the rules. They don't cheat, or if they do they don't get caught.

The party usually has a party treasurer. When I play it is normally me but the campaign I am in now I refused and am making someone else do the work. I'm just busy playing my character.

Later

 

[maddman75]

Well, reading some responses has (as I had hoped) inspired me a little bit.

I think next game, I'm going to do things a little different. I'm going to assign each player a record keeping task for the session, and i will rotate the responsibilities or randomly assign them each week.

Some of the things I think I'm going to have them do:

1 player keeps track of initiative for all the combats for the evening. OR... maybe the character with the highest Initiative roll for the encounter will keep track.

1 player keeps track of all treasure and items aquired, and who has them, where they got them.

1 player will keep track of spells prepaired and cast

1 player will keep track of all characters current hit points.

Hmm... what else should I delegate to them?

The first two are good ideas. I do them myself. I'm running the game, anything I can delegate will only help matters. I have one player that is our designated initiative keeper and another that generally writes down the treasure. If its something that someone needs and can be ID'd easily, they might do it right then. Otherwise they distribute items when they can figure out who can use what the best.

Spells and hit points are the responsibility of the player.

Oh, and Buttercup - I only had to do it once. Though I kind of like the 'Well, I'm just keeping track of the dragon's hit points in my head' approach.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

A long time ago, I came up with a nifty little sheet. Well, OK, I didn't come up with it, I altered the one in the DM's Helper book and I still use that.
It has spots for HP, stats, saves, gear, ect ect ect. I also has some areas that help me keep track of time.
See, my players write down what they think the damage is that they took, and I write down what it really is. We've had the barbarian drop suddenly, and the mage scream all through the battle that he was getting butchered.
It's not that I don't trust them, but they get excited during the combat sometimes, and the honestly forget to write something down. I, on the other hand, keep close track of everything.
We roll to see how many arrows fired get broken or destroyed, we keep track of how many days rations did salt-curing that wild boar and finding that patch of wild potatoes add.
But, we do it seperately. I keep track of decay, and what the HP totals really are (one game we played, all they had was name, gear, and spells written down, I kept track of everything else) and how well they are doig.
My little cheat sheet also lets me keep track on initiave.

Short version of the rambling BS?
Create a DM Cheat sheet. Use it. It works. Update it at the beginning of each session.

 

[Pielorinho]

I definitely don't enjoy the bookkeeping aspect of the game very much. When I run a game, I don't track normal ammunition or rations, or even the 2gp here, 2gp there nature of purchasing services in town. I only track encumbrance in the broadest terms -- no carrying three prisoners over your shoulder unless you've got your strength pumped way up. I'd much rather spend time having chitchat between the PCs and NPCs than tracking every dot and tiddle.

Other things I do require tracking of: spells, initiative, potions, large treasure amounts, etc. All of these except initiative are tracked by the individual; I highly encourage nonspontaneous spellcasters to track their spells with index cards, and initiative is tracked by myself or by a player using the index-card method.

Daniel