Do you get attached to your character sheets?

[Amaril]

In my group's current game, I have a character I'm having a blast with who I originally wrote up on an ordinary printer paper character sheet. So far, it's holding up well, though some spots are starting to show a little wear from erasing and rewriting. A couple sessions ago, one of the other players, who's our resident system expert for this campaign, handed me a new blank character sheet printed on fancy cardstock. Even though it was much more durable and better-looking, I initially didn't want to transfer my character over--it felt wrong, like the original sheet was part of the character and the new one wouldn't have his soul, or something. I eventually decided that I'd switch sheets when my character leveled up for the first time, to represent that growth.

Do you guys feel like this about character sheets? My GM thinks I'm being ridiculous, but I can't help but see the piece of paper as something special. I can't be the only one, right?

[BWR]

If a character sheet is getting too old to work properly I will get a new one. I don't get rid of old ones or reuse them unless the character in question was retired so quickly I didn't get a chance to get attached. All my old characters and their sheets are kept.

[Twizzly513]

I felt the same way with my first few character sheets. It felt like it was putting something I had worked on in a different, unfamiliar skin. But after a while of using one sheet, I decided I needed to switch over, and I've felt fine with switching since. I guess it just needs some getting used to.

[KillianHawkeye]

I still keep all my old character sheets, but I have no problem with re-doing them when necessary. For a while when my group was playing D&D 4E, I even kept my character sheet saved as a digital PDF file, so I would print out new copies every time I leveled up or whenever I got a new weapon or magic item that significantly changed things.

[Amaril]

While I'm still intrigued to hear people's answers, it turns out the point is moot in my case, since when I tried to fill out the cardstock sheet, I discovered that my eraser rubs the ink off along with pencil. So I guess I'll be sticking with my old printer paper sheet for now

[Madbox]

I hold on to old sheets but redo them on fresh paper when they get too tattered. I use the old ones as a reference if I need to double-check that I didn't good something up.

[EccentricCircle]

My character sheets rapidly get doodled on, until all the white space is taken up with pictures of my character and their equipment. I've never actually switched to a new sheet so that I had doodling space, but I have deliberately gone for a four page sheet rather than a two page one to give my self more space to chronicle their adventures in the margins.
Naturally all sheets have been kept, except for one when the GM insisted on keeping the sheets between sessions and then stopped the game unexpectedly.

[DigoDragon]

Opposite effect for me. As an artist I keep redoing my character sheet in new, more creative and colorful ways; Cardstock, colored cardstock, fancy layouts, printed templates I modified with art...

[Jay R]

By the time one of my characters appears, he is on an Excel spreadsheet so I can print out a new version each session.

After a few sessions, I've added links so that when he levels up, he "To-hit" rolls, saving throws, and other figured stats update automatically.

Surprisingly, the answer is still "yes". I try to save the sheets used at each session, to have a record of character growth. But I save them, I don't use them again.

[Anonymouswizard]

I once made my own excel sheet and reprinted it every session (it was GURPS, we got CP every session and I generally spent it on skills). Nobody at the table noticed.

I have no problem switching over to a fresh sheet when mine start to get damaged, but I've also generally moved to storing my character sheets in a folder along with campaign notes. I've also thrown away old characters before, had to clear stuff out and they were just taking up a folder I could use for other stuff. I'm highly unlikely to use them again, and if so I'd rather remake than revive them, make them suitable for the new group.

[Airk]

I too am in the "No problems with transferring, but I keep the old sheet" camp. It would feel weird for me to THROW AWAY a character sheet, but moving to a new one is not an issue.

[Jama7301]

I don't throw away old sheets, that would be awful.

I recycle them.

Typically this happens after I lose my folder of character sheets for 6 months. I keep digital backups, so after that, I tend to just use those after the initial sheet.

[Nupo]

I'm usually the DM, so I don't often have a chance to even have a character sheet. When I do, I don't have a problem making a new sheet from time to time if the old one gets too beat up. I did however always save them. I still have one that has a character creation date of 8/29/82.

My wife always keeps them to. I looked through her folder, and the oldest one I could find was created on 11/4/86. It also has written on it "Killed 11/16/86 Bullywugs." I was the DM at the time, can't say I played favorites with my (at the time) girlfriend.

[LordCdrMilitant]

I use digital sheets, and typically never print them. I use printed sheets for one-shot characters I made on the spot, but I'm also a compulsive hoarder, so even then those don't get thrown away and instead accumulate in a box.

[MarkVIIIMarc]

I do the same as many. I edit a PDF every session or two and reprint it. I wish I had saved them all for my current character. Then it would be easier to double check my skills and all.

[Sariel Vailo]

Yeah actually i get attached to my character sheet.

[danielxcutter]

I make all my sheets on Mythweavers, and I've never deleted one even if I didn't managed to join the game.

[Aotrs Commander]

No. It's just a record sheet. I replace them every four or five levels (and recommend everyone does the same) - in my case I tend to half-rot them anyway more quickly than most just be general use.

In our group, the DM keeps the character sheets anyway (or at least, the player provides a copy if they want to keep theirs). The one chap that does that makes his own spreadsheet character sheets anyway.

As DM, I make a point to hold onto the previous character sheets for a while (usually until it's time to change over again), just in case stuff doesn't get transferred over or something.

[JBPuffin]

I do the exact opposite - whenever something changes, I toss my old sheet and print off the new PDF. My newest character has actually never left the digital realm (no printer to use at the moment).

[Chijinda]

Still got mine, even after the campaign ended in my character's death. I get way too attached to my characters >_>;

[Max_Killjoy]

I "grew up" with penciled-in character sheets, graphite and erasers style.

And I tend to get attached. I still have character sheets from 20+ years ago filed away.

Many ages ago, I had to stop attending a certain GM's games because he was of the old-old-school "character dies, sheet must be destroyed" belief, and tried to physically seize a character sheet away from me, and angrily demanded it to the point of trying to prevent me from leaving his house when I refused to give it up.

[Sariel Vailo]

I "grew up" with penciled-in character sheets, graphite and erasers style.

And I tend to get attached. I still have character sheets from 20+ years ago filed away.

Many ages ago, I had to stop attending a certain GM's games because he was of the old-old-school "character dies, sheet must be destroyed" belief, and tried to physically seize a character sheet away from me, and angrily demanded it to the point of trying to prevent me from leaving his house when I refused to give it up.

you are a benevolent god than.

[Sariel Vailo]

Ive got all my character sheets dead or not for good reason true resurection they may yet rise.

[JAL_1138]

My character sheets get progressively worn, folded, torn, smudged, and faded until they're unusable. Not out of any attachment, but because after so long in a campaign they've got so many notes they're a pain to redo. Once I finally overcome that bit of laziness and rewrite one I just toss the old one. The information is the only useful bit. I do prefer physical paper character sheets to electronic, but don't get attached to any particular piece of physical paper.

Books are another story; I do get a bit attached to particular books, like my 2e PhB. Not least because I have Larry Elmore's signature on one of his illustrations in it.

[Celestia]

Yes, but only when there's an accident with the glue stick.

[TheYell]

I tend to store my RP stuff, I dislike throwing anything away and frankly up to now we have a bad record of interrupting those games rather than finishing them. I'm not attached to the character sheets themselves as the information, and the extras I make with them: the cardboard lunar clock for my wererat; the sketches of the custom outfit I had sewed up for him in town; the scale model of a monastery in colored pencil on graph paper for my current monk. I would hate to throw any of that away.

[Excession]

Opposite effect for me. As an artist I keep redoing my character sheet in new, more creative and colorful ways; Cardstock, colored cardstock, fancy layouts, printed templates I modified with art...

As a programmer, I do the same thing, but with code. My latest character sheet was LaTeX file that not only formatted the text of everything nicely, it calculated most of the numbers for me at the same time. I kept adding to it over time as well.

In the past I've written HTML/Javascript documents that created 4e D&D power cards for me. Getting the Javascript code to shrink the font size until all of the text fit onto a fixed size card was fun to get working.

[Mr Beer]

I have my character sheets laminated onto large steel rectangles with sharpened edges, so that I can hurl them at muggers, ne'er do wells and recalcitrant party members. I am attached to them, but I find if thrown accurately and with vigour, the lucky recipient becomes even more 'attached'.

[OverdrivePrime]

I love a well-worn character sheet with all the eraser markings, spills, wayward candle wax and the like. I was just cleaning my basement this past weekend and I found two binders full of my character sheets, backstories and game notes from the 90s. Nostalgia city! Lots of AD&D, White Wolf, Rifts, Shadow Run and WEG Star Wars. Good times!

[Velaryon]

I will move to a new sheet if the old one gets damaged or worn out from too much erasing and rewriting (usually hit points, gear lists, or attack bonuses). However, I also keep the old sheet, so sometimes I end up with 3+ versions of a single character if I play them long enough.

I also save sheets after a game is finished. I still have my first 3e half-elf fighter from the 2001-02 school year. I have folders and binders full of NPC sheets from old games I ran, or at least one game that I planned out and then never did get to run.