We played through the beginner game a few times, and have just made characters and this weekend are going to begin our real campaign.

My question is, they all used an editable PDF to build their characters and I feel like they will all want to us them while we play. Has anyone ran into any issues/recommend against allowing this?

Not quite sure how to approach this one, thanks for any help!

what ever the players want.

Tho i really think a hard copy would help them focus more

Shouldn't really be a big issue if the players have a tablet or something, or if they don't mind just running through tons of paper. Otherwise I'd suggest they just switch to a normal blank sheet and a printout of their talent trees.

It is about what the players want...to a point. Sometimes I want to see the character sheet and don't want the laptop passed around to me, or I don't want to get up and go look at the laptop. I like to have my players have a paper copy. Sometimes it's about what the GM wants to. As the GM I don't like having laptops on the gaming table either. I don't want to look at the backs of these computers obscuring the players. Also, when the players feel "bored" they can have a tendency to start surfing the net or doing other things on their computer/phone and not paying attention to the game. I want my players to pay attention, even if thier PC is not directly involved. We all use Oggdudes character generator now and email the character files around, since I still can't figure how to set it up on the web, but we still have the paper copy on the table, and they can update it with a pen for a few times before I print off a new one. That is a lot of paper and ink...

So as the GM set up your table as you want to. You are running the game for your enjoyment as well as theirs, you are in charge of the playing environment, and the set of the table, the players should respect your wishes. I explained to my group why I don't want a laptop on the table, they can have it on a chair next to them. I also don't have a GM screen or anything directly in front of me either. I like that clear line of sight to everyone. After I explained my reasons everyone has been pretty respectful about it, and have very few instances of them playing on the computer or phones during the game.

As a side note here, we did start off with a editable PDF file, after after a few sessions, I put all the PC into Oggdudes program, I found a lot of little mistakes in XP spending, and 90% of them were short changing their own characters by a skill rank or two!!

I personally found the character sheets helpped to keep the details on the table where everyone could see them. Though I imagine theres little issue either way.

I mean we are rather old school, so we use the PDF's to get printouts of the pages, but we also take printouts of any specialisations we buy into and another page just for equipment, because for most of us the provided slot is much too small.

I prefer the dead tree version of the sheet if for no other reason that to write down notes or NPC names and locations. If I made note of that in a separate file, I am less likely to remember the location of that file or even its existence.

The only reason I don't use the tablet at the table is because it doesn't make anything easier. If an EOTE app was ever released by FFG like the Arkham app, I would pick it up in a heartbeat. If it helps keep the game moving, I'm in favor of it. If it slows us down, it's got to go.

So far laptops and tablets haven't been an issue because it's just easier to do it on paper.

Our group uses the Empire Legends character sheet app. I absolutely love it. I don't think I could go back to paper sheets lol. It makes tracking everything Soooooooo much easier. It's free for Android and has a web version as well. For tablets, and even phones that are big enough, it makes referencing your sheet easy. Check it out.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'm going to run this weekend, letting them use their computers if they want and make a decision from there. If it works, it works and that's cool...if not I'll make sure everything gets printed and my players are on the same page.