A Frank Discussion on Character Audits

[Sammy T]

ARGH! wrote:

(stuff)

My first post wrote:

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.

[Matthew Morris]

I've never done a full audit.

I've asked for some questions, and offered clarifications when we found a mistake. (No, you can't have darkvision on your elf, Scared tattoo is a luck bonus not a racial bonus.)

I did get a warm fuzzy last night. One of my fellow gamers took the scared tattoo race trait on his character, and a trait to increase his will save. When I suggested he take Fate's Favored instead (because of the tattoo) he pointed out he didn't have Ultimate Campaign so he couldn't.

Because sources seem to be checked rarely, he likely could have gotten away with it, but I wanted to give a shout out to someone who plays by the rules.

The hardest thing for me to keep track of are the ITS. In large part, because I go through so much alchemical stuff on them.

[Kadasbrass Loreweaver]

My experience as a player when playing at GenCon and a local Con, and when playing with other groups has been audits are rare. So I usually don't do them unless something comes up that prompts one.

As a GM, my group has a few younger players, and a few new players, so there has been a handful of book keeping issues and misunderstandings of the material. This is generally what prompts an audit of a character or their chronicles.

I've found characters that didn't use their full 20 points when making an char or didn't get a feat at level 3. I audited our youngest player when he died in the Arena of Aroden cause I refused to believe he had so little gold (Neither I nor the other GM ever approved that many purchases so I knew he had the gold on his sheets), in the end only 800 was needed for someone else to rez him.

On the flip side I've had to audit our other young pathfinder after he discovered the summoner and made one with a bunch of credit from the Dragon's Demand. I will admit I don't have a bunch of experience dealing with summoners but something seemed off so I had to preform a few audits with him over the summer. There were some mistakes from misreading the materials.

Now I let the more experience players help keep track of things with the newer players. Though I still have issues with book keeping with the younger pathfinders.

[Ryzoken]

ARGH! wrote:

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.

By discussing things before the game begins, the flow of play is interrupted less. Players absolutely have power over their characters, within the rules of the system. Part of my role as GM is arbitration of rules, so yeah, I feel it necessary to act when I believe rules are potentially being broken (willfully or not.) As far as conflict and adversarial-ism, I maintain a respectful tone and work with players to correct rules issues to minimize hurt feelings and hassle.

Audits aren't personal. Don't make them be.