Players that don't keep track

[Barendd Nobeard]

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.

I think this might work better if the player with the lowest initiative keeps track. S/he will be very motivated to get through the initiative order quickly to get to her/his turn.

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

Players HAVE to keep track of their spells. Mostly because it's too much trouble for the DM to do, but secondly because otherwise even if they are honest, sooner or later someone will be tempted to use an unnusual spell because it's needed.

We've always kept track of our own spells faithfully and honestly, which is why when I noticed the new cleric in the party wasn't making a spell list and could just cast spells all day so long as the DM didn't catch on, I complained to the DM outside of the game. The next week, he'd had a word, and the problem was sorted out.

But money and general encumberance? Nah. Too much accounting, not enough fun. As someone else said, so long as you're not carrying three prisoners over your shoulder, it's fine.

 

[Leopold]

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.

horrible idea...The DM keeps track of INITs as you must roll INIT for your monster and you can have them take 20 or rotate as you see fit. No sense having the PC"s knowing when you gnollish spellcaster is going to blast the barbarian into tapioca.

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

an accounant that works.

1 player will keep track of spells prepaired and cast

good god this person is fubar'd! I let them keep track of their spells, they haven't cheated me and I don't cheat them. I let them tell me when they run out or what have you and they have been good on that so far. They've run out several times and it's great to see the sorcerer go in there with his spiked chain because the tanks are near death and the cleric is all done with his healing and buffing spells...

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

unless you know your players are cheating you then this just takes the fun out of seeing the look on the players face when they start hitting single digits. This also complicates matters with who knows how many hit points someone has when in reality they have no idea and should NEVER know unless someone cries out in battle "I AM HURTING BADLY HERE!!!" Another bad idea..

 

[Tortoise]

Resource management

Normally I'm not too worried about everyone keeping track of rations, and the like, but for scenarios where these things will factor heavily into PC decisions I get very detailed.

I ran a Pulp Fiction style adventure that jumped all over the place in the chronolical order of the scenario and planned well ahead on how to keep track of it all.

I bought some inexpensive multi-colored sticks to represent hit points, used index cards with spells, potions, and scrolls written on them in different colored ink, etc.

In order to reign in the tendency of players to say "but if I had known this, I would have used spell/item such-and-such at time x instead of time z" I made them turn in the item or spell card and explained that if they didn't have it available earlier it's because they chose not to use it earlier.

This allowed the events to make better sense chronologically when looking back over it all in the order it would have actually happened.

I had no arguments from the players and the adventure went well.

I think in the future though, I will insist that players keep better track of gear/supplies/spells/etc. since I plan to factor these things into adventures more often.

It is also something I need to get better at as a player instead of being haphazard about it.

 

[DM with a vengence]

Frankly, this has always ticked me off. I don't track arrows, rations, or encumberance except in the most general terms, such as two weeks without resupply or carrying eight suits of fullplate.

For treasure, I'm using a system where they have a "loot bag" and whenever they kill something I give them a notecard with the treasure on it, and then they can keep it in the bag or paperclip it to their character sheet.

But what annoys the friggin HELL out of me is that they don't track HP, spells, or even XP. New rule, If I don't see it on your charactr sheet, then you don't have it.

Oh yeah, look up all relevant abilities before gameplay. If you have Sneak Attack or Precise Shot but don't know how those come into play, then prehaps we can trade those out for some extra ranks in Climb or maybe Skill Focus: Thumb Twiddling.

Sheesh!

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Welpers...

I gotta say that I honestly believe I have one of the greatest gaming groups ever.

Not only do they keep accurate count of just about everything (I let 'em slide on the rations and general encumbrance so long as it doesn't become a necessary plot point or get out of hand), from spells to hp to arrows, but they're quite cooperative when it comes to storyline and character backstories. They're also very good roleplayers who like a bit o' hack-and-slash on occasion (which fits my D&D style perfectly). We spent a large portion of our session last night with PC to PC interaction after a particularly emotionally harsh test by a celestial.

I love my group.

 

[Victim]

I don't really care about stuff like rations, arrows, etc. Even at lower levels, the expenses quickly become trivial. As long as the players can occasionally resupply, they'll usually be fine. In special situations, like a long wilderness trek, I might keep track, but after telling the players.

However, spells must be kept written down. Once upon a time, another player in a 2e game was essentially spontaneously casting using the entire Wizard's Spell Compendium. Since I was playing another wizard, I found it doubly irratating. The best character sheets I've seen for spellcasters have pages of spell lists for marking down spells known and prepared. They're especially awesome for clerics since they have so many spell choices.

 

[Pielorinho]

Victim, I wanna suggest a great way of keeping track of spells. I do it playing a druid; it'd work even better with a wizard (because of fewer spells).

I have an index-card box dedicated to my magic. Each possible spell has a different card, which I've written out myself with a description of all salient points of the spell (writing it out helps me learn the spell's quirks; if you want, you can cut and paste from the SRD into a Word document, or you may be able to find spell cards on someone's Web site). I have different-colored cards for different-level spells: blue for 0th, green for 1st, yellow for 2nd, etc.

I also have a box of multicolored paperclips, each colored keyed to a spell level (blue for 0th, green for 1st, etc.) I put a number of clips in my spell box equal to the number of spells of that level I get.

Preparation of spells consists of putting clips on the tops of spell cards. Each clip represents one preparation of that spell.

When I cast a spell and it's active, I put the clip on the side of the card and put it out in front of me to remind me. If its duration is measured in rounds, I move the clip down one row for every round it's active. The cards I have have 10 rows, making it easy to mark time.

Finally, I've got similar cards made up for monsters I might want to summon, wands I might use, and the like. It really saves on looking things up in the middle of battle, and it's not too too much preparation.

Daniel

 

[Kichwas]

"if it's not on paper, it didn't happen."

That's a good rule of thumb.

I'm tempted to say things like "You ran out of arrows / gold / whatever" to see if they were tracking them...

Of course, I've also had players who refuse openly to track things like gold, encumberance, and so on.

There isn't much you can do there but kick them out or let them get away with it.

 

[Chimera]

Worse yet is the guy who, when you say "it isn't on your character sheet, so you don't have it" says "Fine" and furiously begins writting things on his sheet. Then insists that he now has those items.

I don't play with him no more...