GM Tracking Character Stats

[mica]

Unlike other systems it is a bit trickier judging how well characters are doing in a combat or how easy they found it especially with moans and cries at the first 4 endurance loss with an edge. A particularly fierce battle can deplete hope and endurance and have some or all characters close to weary and miserable but on the face of it, with nobody wounded etc look like it was all fairly painless from the GM's end of the table (at least that is what I am told).

As such I was wondering if any GM's track the character's endurance/fatigue & hope/shadow rather than letting players do it themselves? I am thinking with a goon-sheet for the PC's the extra admin may well improve GM response to situations as well as nail all those primadonna cries.

[Hermes Serpent]

Me, I like to 'Crush my players. See them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women.'

I don't keep track of their damage etc but do like to hear them whine when I get a good roll with several tengwars and really dish the damage. My Mirkwood werewolf nearly one-shotted a 80 or 90 point Woodland Elf a few weeks back. The cries of horror and the moans as the Enemies ripped through the party were a thing of beauty.

Still it taught them that even with lots of experience they cannot be rash as the synergy of some enemies is very nasty and they really need brains as well as 5 points in Weapons.

Still I play with adults and trust them to track points and stuff for themselves.

[Rich H]

As a GM I don't track character Endurance, Hope, or Shadow - I have enought to think about! Occassionally though, I do ask how their PCs are coping and often the players volunteer and talk about it so they know how each are coping and will RP such conditions if they can - eg, playing their character as being tired, wearied, moody, etc.

[shipwreck]

I like the "coping" question, I think that's a great interaction.

I have made the characters their players' responsibility with my current home game. They track AP/XP/Hope/Shadow and keep up with character sheets. It's just too much to try and manage. If you're playing by post, then that's different.

[zedturtle]

Yeah, in Play-By-Post, there's often logistical reasons for the LM to keep track (or to try and keep track) of that stuff.

But in a face-to-face game, the players are responsible for keeping track of that stuff... as long as (if I ask) you can tell me where the hero is at in a particular stat, I don't really particularly care about the actual mechanisms used.

Now I do think that there's another implicit question here... how much should the state of the heroes affect the LM's running of adversaries. This is, of course, a long-standing debate with no real answer other than 'whatever the group feels is right'. Note that I said group and not LM... if a LM is someone who thinks that enemies should be played to maximum efficiency and the players feel like the goal of adventuring is to generate a story that they must have survived (otherwise, who would be telling the story in the first place?) then there will be a conflict. It's not anyone's fault, it's just a matter of missed expectations.

[Wbweather]

Running the game on Fantasy Grounds gives me the advantage of pulling up and editing the players character sheets if necessary, but for the most part, I leave all the management of the sheets to them. Sometimes I pull them up secretly to get an idea on where they are at, but most of the time I just ask them to let me know when they are weary, miserable, etc. I have too much to do keeping track of my responsibilities.

[mica]

Good answers - didn't really want the extra admin though it is really handy to see who is miserable and who is weary at a glance (direct the adversaries to greatest theatrical impact etc). As we use the nice sheet with stances, I may add a couple of extra beanies that can be put next to the figures - one for weary, another for miserable.

[Rich H]

Good answers - didn't really want the extra admin though it is really handy to see who is miserable and who is weary at a glance (direct the adversaries to greatest theatrical impact etc). As we use the nice sheet with stances, I may add a couple of extra beanies that can be put next to the figures - one for weary, another for miserable.

Use these!

[Deadmanwalking]

I don't know if our LM actually keeps track, but I do know it would be super easy to do so for Hope, since at the end of every session, we all list how down we are so we can divvy up the remainder of the Fellowship Pool appropriately (well, every session we have a Fellowship Pool left, which is most of them).

So...pretty easy bookkeeping to do for our group, really.

Do other groups not do something like this?

[mirkwoodfalcon]

I don't know if our LM actually keeps track, but I do know it would be super easy to do so for Hope, since at the end of every session, we all list how down we are so we can divvy up the remainder of the Fellowship Pool appropriately (well, every session we have a Fellowship Pool left, which is most of them).

So...pretty easy bookkeeping to do for our group, really.

Do other groups not do something like this?

That rings a bell with my group. At the end of every night they do exactly this.