What's the correct way to do bookkeeping for player consumables? On the chronicle sheet I see "items bought" and "items sold", but not "items/charges consumed".
Does this mean that - for instance - buying a potion of invisibility is a one-off expense, and that once you buy it you can use it again and again in each scenario you play?
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If I buy something like a potion, I mark it down on the chronicle sheet as a purchase and put a little checkbox next to it. When I use the item, I put an X in the box and that means the item has been used up. I also track it on my character sheet for convenience. However, potions, scrolls, charges on wands, etc., once they are used, they are gone just like in a normal home game.
If you want to use another dose, you would need to buy it again.
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What's the correct way to do bookkeeping for player consumables? On the chronicle sheet I see "items bought" and "items sold", but not "items/charges consumed".
Does this mean that - for instance - buying a potion of invisibility is a one-off expense, and that once you buy it you can use it again and again in each scenario you play?
There is no uniform way of doing it, so you might see players bookkeeping in different ways. What I do is when I use a potion or scroll I purchased, I cross it out on the Chronicle sheet on which I documented it. As for wands, on the Chronicle sheet on which I purchased it I write the name of the wand and the number of charges, then I make a hash mark next to the charges for each one I use. When the charges are used up I cross the wand out. If I buy multiple potions or scrolls I draw boxes next to the purchase, one for each item I bought. Then as they are used up I fill in the boxes.
Venture-Agent, Indiana—Lafayette
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A HUGE part of organized play is Honesty. Players are expected to track the use of their consumables as they use them and either reduce the number of specific used consumables on their character sheet or replace them between scenarios.
Potions, scrolls, wand charges, torches, alchemists fire, etc are all one use items and the price listed in the appropriate book or on a chronicle are to purchase a single item (or charged wand).
For me, I have a sheet that I keep to the side of my character sheet during play that I use to take notes on the scenario and track my consumables. Before play I list all the limited use items and powers that character has and tick them off as they are used. I keep these sheets with my chronicles for that character.
for example:
Consumables
4 Cure Light Potions II
3 Torches I
1 Anti Toxin
5 1st Level Spells (sorcerer/bard) II
not only does this help me to track my gear it helps as a reminder to the gear and abilities for that character.
Hope this helps.
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It would be nice to have a space for this on the chronicle sheet somewhere, especially since it seems a lot of sheet real estate is wasted atm.
For now, in the "items sold" box, I think it also says items lost/destroyed? So I just put used/destroyed items in there, selling for 0 gold atm. And I also put used wand charges in there. I see Doug and others do it differently.
Concerning consumable like wands, lets be honest here, GMs have a real hard time tracking stuff like this, even in a home game. There are lots of things I think about (as GM), AFTER THE FACT, even when I right stuff down. I know other GMs have not properly enforced tracking stuff on my sheets, it's all honor system.
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I do basically as Doug described above, drawing little checkboxes next to consumables on the chronicle sheet on which I purchased them, though there's scant room to do so, unless you have tiny handwriting.
The problem is remembering you have purchased items when you need them. Flipping back through past chronicle sheets you suddenly realise - hey, I had an oil of bless weapon I could have used to fight that creature in the last encounter ... if only I'd thought to look :(
I seem to remember Living Greyhawk having an item record sheet. It was one sheet for recording any item purchases for each character. You'd write which chronicle sheet number you purchased the item, and which chronicle sheet number you consumed it. These worked well, keeping everything on one sheet.
Would be nice to have a sheet like this in the back of the Guide to Organised Play, or as a separate download next to the Chracter Sheet download, though I suspect someone in the community could create such a sheet, if someone hasn't already done so. Even the old Living Greyhawk item record sheets could probably still be printed and used for this purpose, for anyone who still has access to those from past campaigns.
Cheers,
Stephen (DarkWhite)
Pathfinder Society 4-Star GM
Venture-Captain, Australia
Venture-Captain, Missouri—Cape Girardeau
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For a new player, I recently made a "Cure Light Wound Wand" item card on a 3 X 5 index card with 50 little boxes on it. He crosses them out as he uses them. I also made a "Wayfinder" card for him to remind him of its abilities, as well an index card for his Tiger Mask (from Assault on the Kingdom of the Impossible!) for the same purchase. This has been a big help to him for tracking. I'm thinking a few Potion cards would help too; he could turn them in or flip them over if he uses them.
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I write the item in the purchases box when I buy it, make sure I have it on my character sheet for use during play, and track its use, initially, on my scratch sheet for the game.
At the end of the session, once I erceive my Chronicle, I mark in, along with the Day job amount if the GM hasn't annotated it already, the various used consumables on the sheet, usually in the last Tier white space.
That way, I know when I bought the item (on which Chronicle), and I know when I used it (again, which Chronicle), but actually don't have to search my Chronicles every session for each PC to determine whether THIS PC bought that Potion of Flying or not, yet.
Of course, the main issue I have is that HeroLabs seems to add numbers differently than I do, so I need to recheck all my math. Again. Which gets ugly for my PC at 9.2...
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I seem to remember Living Greyhawk having an item record sheet. It was one sheet for recording any item purchases for each character. You'd write which chronicle sheet number you purchased the item, and which chronicle sheet number you consumed it. These worked well, keeping everything on one sheet.
I actually have started using those for my characters after I got going with my Crossbowman. Tracking different types of ammunition (regular, silver, etc.) was way too tricky otherwise. It's served me rather well.
