Why would a DM want a copy of the players character sheet?
Ralts Bloodthorne
First Post
Some of this will be just rehashing the rest, but I'll toss in my buck-fifty, since 2 cents don't buy squat...
I have a cheater. I check his stats and everything.
(I reroll his stats on my sheet and adjust everything so I can adjust the AC's and DC and damage appropriately-He doesn't think I've caught on yet)
I have a rather expansive software library, one program in particular lets me keep track of and update the PC's enmasse and adjust it subtly. It's kind of fun to do, and since the program prints me out a nice sheet with the updates and changes in red, it makes it easy for the PC's to adjust things.
We play Ravenloft at times, and me having a copy of the PC sheets make it easy to do subtle checks, and nothing makes a player sweat more than to have me look at the sheet and apparently make a change.
I've had a player accidently forget to add a feat, make a mistake on skill points, miss a stat adjustment, etc.
I write all my adventures in-house, so it's nice to have them for reference.
In our "Hard core-immersion" game, the players have thier equipment list and thier appearance written down. Mechanics are my problem as the person who runs everything. They just play, I make the rolls. It's run, they like it.
Most of us have children, and nothing ruins a gaming night quicker than a toddler with a 15th level wizard in her mouth running around the house. When said toddler is caught, she jams the wizard in a diaper full of poop. What a horrible end for that PC. Luckily, I had a copy of the PC sheet, so the PC was saved from toddler-feces-death.
Ever asked a player for a spot or listen check, and the ambush is basically blown right there? I might as well have my goblins wearing neon pink spandex and lime-green mohawk wigs! So a lot of times, I roll thier Spot/Listen/Hide checks for them.
(Another cute trick I've done since I started DMing Ravenloft back about 1989, was to have the players make a bunch of die rolls, and record them on a sheet of paper (in nice columns for d4, d8, d10, d6, d12, and a whole boat-load of d20) that way, I don't even have to roll dice, I just glace at that player's die roll sheet, cross off the next die, and go with it. Makes it easier. I have had players try to hand me sheets of all high rolls, but then I just take the top numbers listed and enter them as the random seed on a program that pumps me out 250 rolls of each die and prints them out, cheating pretty much stopped there)
I've had more than player noticed, when they died, that my PC sheet was different than theirs. It was simple, they'd had things happen they didn't notice (the blessing of a dying diety that they'd aided, the curse of someone they had robbed, a bonus here, a penalty there, loss of XP from this that or the other thing)
Plus, my players don't mind me having a copy of thier PC sheets. They know they can trust me.
I have a cheater. I check his stats and everything.
(I reroll his stats on my sheet and adjust everything so I can adjust the AC's and DC and damage appropriately-He doesn't think I've caught on yet)
I have a rather expansive software library, one program in particular lets me keep track of and update the PC's enmasse and adjust it subtly. It's kind of fun to do, and since the program prints me out a nice sheet with the updates and changes in red, it makes it easy for the PC's to adjust things.
We play Ravenloft at times, and me having a copy of the PC sheets make it easy to do subtle checks, and nothing makes a player sweat more than to have me look at the sheet and apparently make a change.
I've had a player accidently forget to add a feat, make a mistake on skill points, miss a stat adjustment, etc.
I write all my adventures in-house, so it's nice to have them for reference.
In our "Hard core-immersion" game, the players have thier equipment list and thier appearance written down. Mechanics are my problem as the person who runs everything. They just play, I make the rolls. It's run, they like it.
Most of us have children, and nothing ruins a gaming night quicker than a toddler with a 15th level wizard in her mouth running around the house. When said toddler is caught, she jams the wizard in a diaper full of poop. What a horrible end for that PC. Luckily, I had a copy of the PC sheet, so the PC was saved from toddler-feces-death.
Ever asked a player for a spot or listen check, and the ambush is basically blown right there? I might as well have my goblins wearing neon pink spandex and lime-green mohawk wigs! So a lot of times, I roll thier Spot/Listen/Hide checks for them.
(Another cute trick I've done since I started DMing Ravenloft back about 1989, was to have the players make a bunch of die rolls, and record them on a sheet of paper (in nice columns for d4, d8, d10, d6, d12, and a whole boat-load of d20) that way, I don't even have to roll dice, I just glace at that player's die roll sheet, cross off the next die, and go with it. Makes it easier. I have had players try to hand me sheets of all high rolls, but then I just take the top numbers listed and enter them as the random seed on a program that pumps me out 250 rolls of each die and prints them out, cheating pretty much stopped there)
I've had more than player noticed, when they died, that my PC sheet was different than theirs. It was simple, they'd had things happen they didn't notice (the blessing of a dying diety that they'd aided, the curse of someone they had robbed, a bonus here, a penalty there, loss of XP from this that or the other thing)
Plus, my players don't mind me having a copy of thier PC sheets. They know they can trust me.
I'm in the middle of adopting the DMGenie tool to help with running my game, so I had to collect up the player character sheets and look at them carefully for the first time so I could plug them into the system.
Player 1, the most rules-knowledgeable of the players in the group, had allocated too many skill points, and was stacking a shield bonus with bracers of armor.
Player 2, the second most knowledgeable, had bought a magic shield, but had not annotated it on his sheet except under AC, causing an exchange of "Your AC is wrong, no it isn't" emails.
Player 3 had given himself an extra attribute point at character creation (we use the point-buy system), and the adjustment nearly disqualified him from his prestige class.
Player 4 it turns out is not really into keeping records, and had not allocated any skill points for several levels. Also found out that, since she doesn't like fighting with the others for her share of the magic items, she is quite magic poor for her level and the baddies I am throwing at them, but is sitting on a huge wad of cash.
Player 5 I am still working on, but looks good so far. However, he does have the effect of standard buffs and bardic music included in all his base stats, presuming that they will be in place.
Conclusion: Double checking is good. Even if you trust your players (which I do), they make mistakes that may or may not be in their favor.
Player 1, the most rules-knowledgeable of the players in the group, had allocated too many skill points, and was stacking a shield bonus with bracers of armor.
Player 2, the second most knowledgeable, had bought a magic shield, but had not annotated it on his sheet except under AC, causing an exchange of "Your AC is wrong, no it isn't" emails.
Player 3 had given himself an extra attribute point at character creation (we use the point-buy system), and the adjustment nearly disqualified him from his prestige class.
Player 4 it turns out is not really into keeping records, and had not allocated any skill points for several levels. Also found out that, since she doesn't like fighting with the others for her share of the magic items, she is quite magic poor for her level and the baddies I am throwing at them, but is sitting on a huge wad of cash.
Player 5 I am still working on, but looks good so far. However, he does have the effect of standard buffs and bardic music included in all his base stats, presuming that they will be in place.
Conclusion: Double checking is good. Even if you trust your players (which I do), they make mistakes that may or may not be in their favor.
Maybe someone mentioned this, but I didn't see it.
Forget the player forgetting to bring his sheet. What if the player ain't there at all, but the party was in the middle of something?
I don't run a strict attendance game -- we're adults, most of us work at tech companies with sudden emergencies, and we meet every week, so getting nazi-esque about people showing up would be unnecessarily rude. Consequently, about one session out of four, someone ain't there. Having an up-to-date character sheet would make things MUUUUUCH easier when the party scout, the one with the absurd Spot check, needs to scout off ahead on his own, while the scout's player grumbles over Perl script a few miles away.
-Tacky
Forget the player forgetting to bring his sheet. What if the player ain't there at all, but the party was in the middle of something?
I don't run a strict attendance game -- we're adults, most of us work at tech companies with sudden emergencies, and we meet every week, so getting nazi-esque about people showing up would be unnecessarily rude. Consequently, about one session out of four, someone ain't there. Having an up-to-date character sheet would make things MUUUUUCH easier when the party scout, the one with the absurd Spot check, needs to scout off ahead on his own, while the scout's player grumbles over Perl script a few miles away.
-Tacky
Y'know, sometimes I wonder why **players** have character sheets. 
I mean, if you described yourself, you'd probably use descriptive adjectives like "weak" "medium" "strong", rather than numbers and stats. Kewl magic loot would be described as "The wonderous blade of hoo-hah that slew a dozen villagers", rather than a pluswun weapon. You wouldn't have an acronym alignment you announced, and everyone would have to guess it.
Then again, I mostly GM.
Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^
I mean, if you described yourself, you'd probably use descriptive adjectives like "weak" "medium" "strong", rather than numbers and stats. Kewl magic loot would be described as "The wonderous blade of hoo-hah that slew a dozen villagers", rather than a pluswun weapon. You wouldn't have an acronym alignment you announced, and everyone would have to guess it.Then again, I mostly GM.
Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^
Psychotic Jim
First Post
Another reason is that having mutliple copies in multiple people's hands provids insurance should a player lose his character sheet. This has happenend so many times so we made it a game policy.
Agamon
Adventurer
I don't just keep a copy, I keep the actual sheets. There are a few reasons for that:
1. A few of my players are not very reliable. They tend to forget and/or lose things, PC sheets would be missing every session.
2. At least one of my players is not very honest. This makes it harder for them to make a change here and a change there.
3. Between sessions, I update electronic versions of the sheets for the campaign webpage. If I don't have the sheets, I can't do that.
I don't have a copy of the sheets for during play, I just have necessary info for each PC marked down on my DM sheet.
1. A few of my players are not very reliable. They tend to forget and/or lose things, PC sheets would be missing every session.
2. At least one of my players is not very honest. This makes it harder for them to make a change here and a change there.
3. Between sessions, I update electronic versions of the sheets for the campaign webpage. If I don't have the sheets, I can't do that.
I don't have a copy of the sheets for during play, I just have necessary info for each PC marked down on my DM sheet.
Skarp Hedin
First Post
I do the same as Staffan -- always done it that way, and sheets have been lost and/or forgotten -so many- times that it became pointless to let the players hang on to the sheets.
We'd never get to play any D&D that way
We'd never get to play any D&D that way
