Common Aggravating Table Behaviors

[Slipperychicken]

You don't back up your data? My character sheet is backed up on my computer at home like any other important document.

[In fact, these days I generally keep it as an Excel spreadsheet.]

If you lose a character once because somebody ripped up the sheet, that's his fault. But if it happens to you a second time, that's your fault.

Personally, I prefer to have those form-fillable PDFs as backup character sheets. I love excel, but it's not always easy on the eyes. I'd also rather have my backup sheet displayed in the same way as my paper one, so I can easily copy one to the other.

There is a player in a game I am currently playing in who, whenever one of her characters rolls a one on a knowledge check, insists that it means they don't know anything. She refuses to accept any mistaken knowledge on their part. It's odd because this doesn't crop up in any other circumstances.

That's why you keep your own copy of their knowledge and perception-related skills and roll this stuff in secret, so they can't argue with you or metagame about it. I actually keep an excel sheet with all their modifiers (columns for each character, rows for which skill, and the relevant numbers are in there with any necessary notes), though you could do something similar on paper. Any roll their characters wouldn't be aware of, I just roll it in secret and tell them what their characters perceive or recall.

If they're really not sure about their PC's first thought being accurate, then they can have their PCs get a second opinion like real people do, and in that case I might give a player a lead like "you're not 100% sure yourself, but you figure the head priestess would tell you this if you asked her". That's one of the big things smart people do IRL: they don't know everything off the tops of their heads, but they recognize that fact, know where to find it, and are willing to take that extra step. For something perception-related, then it's as simple as asking an ally "hey, can you come check this out? I'd like a fresh pair of eyes on this."