Help! Destroyed Character Records!

[Adam J Wells]

I just had the worst thing happen ever in my life... At least, sort of.

I had paint in my backpack on top of my pathfinder society record sheets. THe paint got crushed and took out all of my records for two of my characters, including their character sheets.

Only some of the sessions have been reported, and many of the sheets they had were GM credits i had, but did not report properly in the system.

What do I do if I want to resume playing these characters, or should I just dump them and move on with life?

SIncerely,

A miniature painter.

[Arnim Thayer]

If you have access to the scenarios that you ran and received GM credit for, you can easily recreate those Chronicle sheets. The XP, Prestige, and GP are pretty much static for those. For the ones that you played through, you can check the statistics for that character by going through your Paizo account. See who the GM was. If you can contact him/her, they may be willing to re-issue Chronicles, especially if they still have the reporting sheets.

I have had to do this only twice for local players. It's a a hastle, but it is fixable.

[Adam J Wells]

Michael VonHasseln wrote:

If you have access to the scenarios that you ran and received GM credit for, you can easily recreate those Chronicle sheets. The XP, Prestige, and GP are pretty much static for those. For the ones that you played through, you can check the statistics for that character by going through your Paizo account. See who the GM was. If you can contact him/her, they may be willing to re-issue Chronicles, especially if they still have the reporting sheets.

I have had to do this only twice for local players. It's a a hastle, but it is fixable.

So I just have to reissue my own GM sheets, and lose ones I can't get re-issued.

I assume i have to un/re-level the character so he matches surviving chronicles as well, and hold sheets that he doesn't qualify for per the standard GM rules?

[Michael Brock]

The ones you can't get re-issued, email me about, and I will help get them to you.

[Arnim Thayer]

If the Chronicles you didn't get GM credit for are registered, no "un-leveling" is required. If you can get the GM to reissue you a Chronicle based on reporting information (all GMs can access the sessions they have registered!) for the ones missing, even better. Last year, I lost the Chronicle sheet for Midnight Mauler when the Missouri VC ran it for us at our local convention. An e-mail later, and he had mailed me a new copy. Contact the GMs who ran the scenarios you are missing; they should be willing to help.

Step by step...
1) Go to the My Account tab at Paizo after logging in.
2) Scroll until you find words Pathfinder Society and click on it.
3) Find the character in question and click on his/her name.
4) Click on the Sessions tab. This will show when you played/ran what and will show who your GM was. (If you can PRINT this page for reference.)
6) Contact the GM. If he is local, hey, no problem! If not, an e-mail to them might help. If you can't find an e-mail address, see if your closest VC has the ability to track them; I know that Mike Brock is able to at Paizo.

There ya go! Hope that helps.

[Dennis Baker]

Adam J Wells wrote:

I just had the worst thing happen ever in my life... At least, sort of.

If this is in your top ten list of worst things, you are either very lucky or very young.

[Adam J Wells]

Dennis Baker wrote:

Adam J Wells wrote:

I just had the worst thing happen ever in my life... At least, sort of.

If this is in your top ten list of worst things, you are either very lucky or very young.

I lead a charmed life, what can I say?

[Adam J Wells]

Okay, so i got things resolved pretty much. Since my own records are terrible (I didn't actually report into the system which characters I was assigning sheets to, silly me. >_<) I followed the process Michael put up as well as I could. I'm reproducing my exact steps here for future reference (mainly my own, but others may find this useful, just in case!)

1) Use the Persona Page for the character to determine which chronicles you have backed up. If you haven't

How to access the persona page:

Spoiler:

1) Go to the My Account tab at Paizo after logging in.
2) Scroll until you find words Pathfinder Society and click on it.
3) Find the character in question and click on his/her name.
4) Click on the Sessions tab. This will show when you played/ran what and will show who your GM was. (If you can PRINT this page for reference.)
6) Contact the GM. If he is local, hey, no problem! If not, an e-mail to them might help. If you can't find an e-mail address, see if your closest VC has the ability to track them; I know that Mike Brock is able to at Paizo.

2) Recreate the character using standard Pathfinder Society Rules at level 1.

3) Contact each of the GMs you've played with to arrange for replacement chronicles, if possible. If you can't get them, contact your Venture Captain for what to do next.

4) Begin applying sheets in chronological order, if possible. Unfortunately, you must skip sheets you do not qualify for (See end of post).

5) If you have one, have your regular Coordinator or DM look over the character restoration, and sign off on it on your next chronicle sheet with them. It may be helpful to have the DM double-check math before he signs off or allows you to play. I know i'm not the only one that gets excited when building a character, and my math tends to get off a lot the longer between math checks.

6) Send an e-mail to thank EVERYONE That helped you get your character back!

The only problem I've noticed is that I cannot apply some of the sheets I've played in, because of my own silly record-keeping. Seeing as I'm unable to do this, should I hold them like I would for GM Credit, or just outright skip the sheets?

[Arnim Thayer]

Send me your e-mail and I'll be glad to share the Session Tracking sheet we use. It lets you mark off each scenario as GM or Player separately. If you have more than 1 character, instead of just checking them off, fill in the character number (i.e. 01, 05, etc.).

[Adam J Wells]

I made the world's smallest one EVAR:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NzMA6b3UU-b9OG3hj9tWOCeOBELMU7gCpBD01fk shVs/edit

Since, y'know... i'm all about efficiency.

[Don Walker]

Adam,

These instructions are great. Note: for Pathfinder it is GM not DM which is trademarked for D&D.

For the Chronicle sheets that weren't reported, check with the GM, they may be willing to issue a new one and then get that game reported. If the scenario has been retired, contact your nearest Venture-Captain. They have the ability to report retired scenarios to update player records.

[Arnim Thayer]

Don Walker wrote:

For the Chronicle sheets that weren't reported, check with the GM, they may be willing to issue a new one and then get that game reported. If the scenario has been retired, contact your nearest Venture-Captain. They have the ability to report retired scenarios to update player records.

Even I didn't know that! Good to know... I have a DM who ran Asmodeus Mirage before it retired, but forgot to put his number on the Tracking sheet for GM Credit. I might be able to fix that for him then!

[Adam J Wells]

Don Walker wrote:

Adam,

These instructions are great. Note: for Pathfinder it is GM not DM which is trademarked for D&D.

For the Chronicle sheets that weren't reported, check with the GM, they may be willing to issue a new one and then get that game reported. If the scenario has been retired, contact your nearest Venture-Captain. They have the ability to report retired scenarios to update player records.

Interesting trivia, that. I didnt know that they had actualy trademarked that!

Oh, the ones that werent reported were from me dming, and it seems cheesy to go back and apply them now. That, and I really dont feel like slogging through all that again. It makes my mind hurt thinking about it.

On a related note, this has left one character with exactly three sheets he doesnt qualify for. Should I reapply him in a level when he can take them, or just dump them? This is stemming from me not cheesing it up with the dm sheets.

[Jussi Leinonen]

One more reason to wish that GMs could deal out chronicle sheets electronically through paizo.com...

[Adam J Wells]

Jussi Leinonen wrote:

One more reason to wish that GMs could deal out chronicle sheets electronically through paizo.com...

That would create nightmares i'm sure we're not willing to deal with... then again, it could really help. I think its something for the VCs and the Coordinator to look into at some point in the future - but be warned the resources involved may be pretty epic, and the potential for abuse is pretty high.

Apparently this keeps getting flagged for FAQ inclusion. I'm going to look at how other Living campaigns approach re-builds in this sort of situation, because what caught my attention with this process is that I now have the opportunity (though cheesily) to respend gold at the level my character is now at, which seems bad. Part of the balance that comes from levelling the character up is that you have to spend gold incrementally.

I'm hoping we can find a way to handle this that doesn't let players, say, skip to the +3 Furious Greatsword because they didn't have to buy all the potions and wands on the way up.

This would be a similar concern for dead/hurt characters spending prestige on the way up. Rebuilding shouldn't result in 'extra lives'. I'd hate to see this sort of official stance get developed, and then people abusing it... :(

Just a thought.

[Vinyc Kettlebek]

This type of situation is a good example of why all players should have a backup copy of their character and chronicle sheets. Every time you level or when you earn a new chronicle sheet, copy it. Put the copies into a file folder somewhere safe. Anything happens to the original and you can just make a new copy, and use them to rebuild your character. If you have the means you could also scan the newly added sheets and make a digital copy.

An alternate method is just to make a barebones notes sheet. A log sheet with room to note the scenario, convention, gm name/number, xp, pp and gold earned, and items used/sold/purchased, If you get rid of all the empty space on a chronicle sheet, you could fit the necessities of 6-8 scenarios on one page.

Now neither set of documents could be used instead of the official chronicle sheets, but having them would make retrieving a destroyed/lost character easier.