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How often do you inspect character chronicles or character sheets? How often do you ask for resources?
This is not a discussion about whether it's a positive or negative thing to audit (and definitely not a discussion about whether you are a good or a bad GM if you do or don't audit), but a discussion on what your routine is when you do check someone's stuff.
My routine at the FLGS--
ALMOST EVERY GAME
Ask to see their chronicles. I glance to see if they're keeping the right side columns filled and noting purchases on the sheet. People who don't have their chronicles or aren't tracking get a friendly heads up that they need to do so. Repeat offenders get the hard warning.
I honestly am not looking at boons or exact purchases, I'm just making sure they have their sheets and they're being properly being filled out.
A MAJORITY OF GAMES (2/3rds)
Ask to see their character sheet. I glance to see if the stats (ability, saves, skills) seem generally in-line for the level we're playing. I do a quick look at their weapon and armor to make sure they're about the power level for the tier. Finally, I once over the feats/traits to make sure it looks like they have the right number and none of them are illegal. If they have an unusual build, I ask them what their shtick is and have them quickly explain it to me.
VERY RARELY (only a handful of times)
If they have a very specific feat or item from a rare source, I ask if they own it/brought it. If they don't own it, I let them know they need to own the source and should have it by the next game day (not everyone has the smartphone or resources to make the purchase then and there).
All this is done in a very amiable, efficient way. If there is an issue that needs to be resolved, I try to work with the player to find a solution. I've only had to flat out deny a player their character once (and they were a problematical player for many other reasons).
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In my home lodge with players I know I don't usually do this unless there is a reason to (i.e. the player in question has had issues in the past with record-keeping). At a con, I will look at sheets and ask if everyone has the additional resources for their PCs, but I don't ask to see them until it comes up.
Given the time pressure (especially at cons with shorter slots), I feel that table time is better used on immersion and roleplay than checking someone's homework. Any mistakes or "mistakes" big enough to make a difference usually become apparent in-game and can be dealt with then, but that only affects a handful of games rather than wasting 15 minutes of every table's play time.
(I should add that if I had a great memory and knew most of the rules by heart, I would likely do this more often, but I stopped trying to know everything back when Bestiary didn't have a number after it...)
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1) I do an open request at the start of every game for players to notify me if they are running anything a) The requires a boon, b) Is niche/odd mechanically and might require explanation or c) that they want to make sure I know what it is/how it works. I ask for sources as part of this as appropriate.
2) I have characters do a sign in with things like Race/Class, perception, etc. If I see something on here that requires a source/boon at the table, I ask for it as appropriate. Depending on the scenario, I also may ask to see their character sheet to fill in some info I don't want to ask directly for to avoid metagaming. I use this as an opportunity to do a "random sweep" of the sheet.
3) In game, if I hear anything I don't know off the top of my head, understand, etc. I ask for the source. Doubly so if the player cannot explain to me how it works/expects me to just "know". (I once had to explain to a player that if you do not declare the effects of the spell, I cannot possibly *know* the lingering effects behind it).
I've never had to do a full audit, but I've also never had any instances where a player character prompted one based on what I was seeing before/in game.
That said, if I ever get around to running Eyes of the Ten I'll probably audit the PCs who sit down for it just because there is so much built into a level 12 PC at that point. But I can't really see full, random audits outside of high level play being worth the time.
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I have never audited a character unless the player asked me to or there was something highly suspicious about the character. Almost invariably, the latter was the result of a player not bothering to read the Pathfinder Society Guide to Organized Play carefully enough (or not at all). At least twice I have found players who actually rolled the stats for their characters. Dumping all their gold on a single magic item they couldn't possibly have the Fame for is another thing I have run across.
The above have all been at local gamedays. I doubt I would ever ask for an audit at a Con unless something appeared grievously wrong as slots at Cons are so tight as it is, spending time in the slot to audit characters does nothing but spoil everyone's fun.
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Almost never at the local gameday as we run basically con slots all the time. Before major cons most players ask someone else to audit their characters. In addition I re-audit my characters just before leveling them (especially due to GM credits being applied), and generally have my brother look over them as well every couple levels. I will ask about abilities I'm not familiar with or that seem to be too powerful for the level (things I remember recently included a certain sword adding bonus to a different weapon and the warpriest ability to add to their weapon off the top of my head, oh and once encumbrance and a strength dumped character).
For campaign mode games, I audit the characters at the start and keep track (loosely) of purchases and loot in addition to knowing people's feats and such.
If/when I end up running one of the retirement arcs I'll probably do full character audits.
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I used to ask for the players' most recent chronicle as well as give out small simple stats cards (that include a simplistic mechanic question)...
Until at PaizoCon i sat down to run and no player had their chronicle sheets.. including a VC and his son.
I just ask for any quirky bits now, as its better to not put myself in that situation.
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I have been audited only when preparing to play eyes of the ten, I have had additional resources checked exactly three times, once was for a fairly obscure trait that the GM was unfamiliar with, the second was checking source for the Jingasa of the Fortunate soldier, just wanted to see watermarked coverpage of Ultimate Equipment, and the final time was with the Body Guard feat, as the GM was unfamiliar with how it worked, especially since there were two of us with it at the same table.
I have done a full audit only when I ran eyes of the ten myself, and have otherwise never asked for additional resources.
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Playing at my FLGS, the typical attitude is only to audit items of concern. For example, my level 3 character was audited for the purchase of an adamantine weapon, which I had proper documentation for on-hand. Roughly a 3 second audit, honestly, and one of the other players even stood up for me on that ("He has practically no other gear"). Frankly, we spend so much time talking about our characters out-of-game that there's no particular need to audit most of the time.
That said, we also have 2 VOs at this store regularly and people who are regularly tapped to help new players with rules questions before/during/after sessions, so there's minimal concern. We help each other stay compliant.
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Self auditing can be very helpful. Found a mistake twice on my main on two separate times.
There is a kid who plays in our area that has questionable totals sometimes when rolling attack or damage but his dad is reliable to help audit how his son got the total he came up with.
I have not been full blown audited in being asked to hand over the character sheet, the chronicle sheets, or both. When my fighter was in his last scenario before lvl 12, the gm did ask for an explanation on how my fighter's ac was so high (33 AC). I willingly explained
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Practically never.
The one time I recall where I did was for an online game where a player was playing as a kitsune before they were officially made available to everyone in Season 6. Said player had the race boon for it, so no worries there. It wasn't even a full audit, I just wanted to see the boon and sheet while scratching my head as to why a recently made low level character would be using the boon weeks before the start of Season 6.
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When my fighter was in his last scenario before lvl 12, the gm did ask for an explanation on how my fighter's ac was so high (33 AC). I willingly explained
I don't really consider that auditing. I do it all the time and I fully expect the GM (and sometimes players) to ask me how my 3rd level Paladin has an AC of 30, how my Cleric seems to have an inexhaustible supply of Fireballs, how my Magus has a +18 Initiative, or how my Investigator gets to add 2d6 to his Acrobatics checks. Anything that seems really high or really good is likely to get questioned, if for no other reason than the questioner wants to know how to do it himself.
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I recently encountered a player that rolled his traits and story feats using the background system in Ultimate Campaign. But that was with me as a player and I told him after the game about the additonal resources page and basically hardly anything but traits and retraining were allowed from that book. Another player (while I was playing) openly admitted to not owning any of the books while playing a gunslinger and wondering if the GM was a stickler about that kinda thing (I face-palmed at that).
As a GM I never felt the need to audit much. Someone brings up some interesting combinations of rules that doesn't sound too implausible, I make a note of it to check up on later after the game on my own time and bring it up with the player on next game day. Between busing/walking to the various PFS locations in my city, setting up maps, tables at the venue (especially to keep Magic the Gathering players from snatching up everything), shuffling walk-ins who didn't sign up via Warhorn or orientation for absolutely new-to-PFS folks, and babysitting a bunch of grownups that GMing often devolve to, I don't have time to audit anything before or during the game.
I sometimes encounter obviously non-PFS-allowed feats/traits/alternative racial traits/item, I explain it, say it's not usable, and if I got time, help them find a replacement between encounters. If not enough time, then at the end of the scenario. I find the Inventory Tracking Sheet and filling in the non-GM parts of the chronicle sheets the main things that are falling between the cracks in player bookkeeping and I do pause the game to go through it.
If I learn that anyone doesn't actually own the book for whatever they're using, I'll let 'em finish off the scenario, then explain that next time they play that character they'd need to bring the book/watermarked pdf to show they own it. I only make 'em do that once as I remember all my repeat players so far and I don't require/want them to lug around books unless they want to for their own referencing purposes. Though they're on their own with other GMs in my city.
On non-game hours, if local players message me on Facebook or via the local PFS Facebook group page, I'm cool with going over everything with the player within the Core rulebook and whatever sources they own to help out with their character: traits, classes/archetypes, feats, skills, ability scores, and numbers adding right. I typically help out with basics for the first time, get them to play the character at least once to figure out the feel of what they want with the character after actual play experience, then help 'em out in depth afterwards.
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Most of our GMs or store coordinators get there early for game days to answer any questions, check characters for newer players, etc. When new FAQs come out or playtests roll into actual content, we'll take more time before games to talk about them. But once the tables are mustered, there's just no time for detailed character audits.
We try to schedule audit sessions before major conventions, but we usually only do full audits on request (e.g., by the player or a GM who had questions about the character). I have seen one instance where some new players at a location hadn't leveled up their characters, so we scheduled a session to audit the players at that location, but that was pretty unique circumstance (one of the regular GMs had built characters for a lot of new players; when he moved away, the newest of these players didn't know what to do).
More often, we find errors that hurt the character instead of help them, so it's usually to the player's benefit to get their character audited.
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I too agree that the time constraints at large events makes auditing nearly impossible
my big thing is I ask if they have any major Shenanigans that they feel I should know about and then I move on from there ... most of the time what ppl believe are shenanigans are some of the bottom tier power level stuff that 90% of Big time GM's are aware of
I have had 1 instance where I probably Should have audited a character since the math was not lining up (still not sure how a bard can put out +8 to hit and damage - 6 I get ... 8 not so sure) but it was an online event and it was my fault for allowing it to slip through the cracks
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I only ask to see a character sheet or chronicles if something seems off: A very expensive item on a low level character, suspiciously high bonuses, etc. Most of the time if I question someone's character it is so I understand the mechanics, not because I think they're trying to pull a fast one. Almost every time I do find something amiss, it's an honest mistake.
I did refuse to seat someone for a table once because he had no chronicles and his "character sheet" was a few scrawled lines on a sheet of notepaper. We never saw the player again, which only convinces me more that shenanigans were involved.
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Almost never, except when something is out of place.
For online games, I'll ask for a link to each player's character sheet, which I'll glance over for anything out of the ordinary.
It'll be a great day when we find a way to do away with Society chronicle folders. The Inventory Tracking Sheet was a step in the right direction, and since I use text files for my character sheets, I just created a new section under everything else that is basically an ever-flexible pseudo-ITS. I already do a similar thing for boons I receive, and I'll likely do something similar for faction cards.
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Level 1-3, almost never
Level 4-8, rarely
Level 9-11, often
Level 12+, I've usually done the work at one of the earlier levels.
I'm pretty much the exact opposite. I almost always audit the low levels but taper off as levels get higher. If players make mistakes in character creation or in early feat/gear selections that tends to compound as time goes on (either in their favor or against it).
High level audits take a long time to complete so unless it's a scenario scheduled long in advance (Eyes) I ask to make sure they have chronicles and ITS, then ask if they do anything "unusual." I also ask for explanations of particularly high rolls.
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at the game table? while other players are waiting to start the game? Never.
I do often set up special meetings (over dinner, or an hour or more before the game, or in Stake and Shake at 1 in the morning after a game...
One-on-one things (like audits) I tend to do one-on-one - not while other people are "burning game time".
This seems to be the crux of the issue. Generally a surprise audit of the group will take the entire time slot. Or at least so much that you have no time to get anything done.
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I ask only for things that seem "odd", but that is mostly how some mechanics of an obscure Archetype or Class I have not played are handled. We have nearly none fullaudits in our area, I have checked some Lv1 Chars with Attributes that seemed too low and correctet them but we only ask if you have the book in question. This is a huge help for myself if I show up to a gameday or evening and have 4+ Chars with me so i would need to pack all hardcovers and many softcovers to cover all things for them.
For my own characters I do an "audit" everytime i use a new Charactersheet and it is not unusual to find your skillpoints a bit off (mostly to low... that human bonus)
But as some other posters already said, it helps if you play with a smaller group of people and talk outgame about the chars, so that mistakes are either not made or corrected very quickly (my own -2 used a racial not legal which was correctet the fist time I told the group about the concept.
As a rule of thumb, on cons i would be a bit warier (additional recources seems to be a often ignored document) but for my regular groups i trust them and will only audit for scenariorelevant stuff like carrying capacity for an recent scenario where the mcguffin was quite heavy and youll need to run with it.
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The people I play with form such a small group that there usually isn't any need for audits, we have seen each other's characters grow from level to level and often chat about the choices we're going to make when leveling/buying gear. It also helps that most people keep online character sheets in a wiki, so we can just check there if we're wondering about a build.
I must also admit that I don't have the best eye for math, so I might not notice mistakes even if I read the sheets.
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Level 1-3, almost never
Level 4-8, rarely
Level 9-11, often
Level 12+, I've usually done the work at one of the earlier levels.I'm pretty much the exact opposite. I almost always audit the low levels but taper off as levels get higher. If players make mistakes in character creation or in early feat/gear selections that tends to compound as time goes on (either in their favor or against it).
High level audits take a long time to complete so unless it's a scenario scheduled long in advance (Eyes) I ask to make sure they have chronicles and ITS, then ask if they do anything "unusual." I also ask for explanations of particularly high rolls.
Depending on your method. My method is to review basic statistics (ac, init, th, dm, summon eidolon builds, and spells) check "please identify the game breaking splat book cheese wizz you use, is it on the avail reaources, and do you have that resource. So I dont have to stop action to check on somerhing."
Ususally when I do this it prevents issues that drag in game time.
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I've never audited a complete character, but I do "call shenanigans" on things in play whenever they seem like they can't possibly be right.
Thing is, my shenanigans alarm is set way too sensitive for PFS. The player is virtually always proved to be in the right when I call them out.
I think maybe twice or thrice have I actually called out something banned in PFS or calculated incorrectly. Rare enough that I'm less quick to throw the BS flag, but not so rare that I never throw it.
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Almost never. In home games, I'll sometimes look things over just for the simple math or to see if there is anything listed I'm not familiar with. Since I own all the books, and the rules changed on "owning the books" in a home game, that aspect is not an issue.
In PbP I do a pretty cursory look through for errors, questionable things, and just to get an idea on the character and player. I can only recall one character that I did a full audit, and that's because I noticed a lot of things that where very much illegal, and I wasn't even running that game.
In another setting, like a game store, I'll look everyone's stuff over and try to get a feel for what the player and the character are telling me, but other than that, not really. Not unless I see or feel there is a need to.
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Manager - Archangel Games
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Before we go to a convention (we usually go as a group) we all get together and audit each other's characters. It is low key and we catch each other's mistakes. Otherwise any of our 4 store GM's can call for an audit. When they do it's posted on the groups facebook group so there are no surprises and no one is pissed because they know the start time will be delayed. The gm's work together to get all the audit's done quickly. Like the person posting above this usually happens when the GM's feel someone is playing fast and loose with the rules and as we are playing in a public setting it is less confrontational to check everyone's.
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Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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I have yet to do a real audit, but if I have the time I can usually offer a bit of advice when asked.
Of course in my experience, players often forget a bonus here or an ability there, so they artificially weaken themselves. And sometimes I just can't believe how some (perfectly legal) characters managed to survive to reach level 5+ .
It might be a regional thing.
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one thing I do for myself to make things easier on GM's who wish to do audits is to create an extra Document summarizing anything for that particular character that is from a source other than the CRB itemized by catagory
Race
Trait Feat etc.
as well as any rule thats been FAQ'd (Qinggong Monk, Various mystic theruge early access rules)
the one issue is that for wizards .. it can become a big document
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The important thing to remember is that this is a game, and anything that encourages conflict or slows things down takes away from the experience. I am not inherently against audits, but I do not see the need for them to be very frequent. Looking above me in the thread, though, I approve the GMs who are saying maybe audit new characters to make sure that they are not gimping themselves, in an effort to help them. For the GMs who are saying they audit in some manner before every game, I would recommend avoiding that because it just seems to be an attempt to take some power over their own characters away from the players and furthers the players versus GM "gotcha" trope that simply encourages hostility. Think about this, what does the game gain by you doing this before hand? If an issue comes up during the game, handle it after, or, if it is urgent, make a spot ruling and then come back after to discuss.
Of course, I have only been audited once (someone at the store was caught cheating so everyone got audited by our VL at the time) and have never audited anyone myself.