Keeping a Campaign Journal

Keep one!

Rotate the responsibility to keep it updated between sessions among the players.

Use in-setting paper and writing implements.

Grant character goodies for a well kept journal.

Use it as a handout in other scenarios.

Y/N?

>Keep one!
Yes
>Rotate the responsibility to keep it updated between sessions among the players.
Yes but don't force it on people who don't want to
>Use in-setting paper and writing implements.
Hassle, do not want
>Grant character goodies for a well kept journal.
Yes, but either to the entire party or keep the goodies to stricly roleplay-related ones.

Reminds me of the quirky Victorian Fantasy RPG Castle Falkenstein from the early nineties, where every player was expected to keep a journal in-character instead of a character sheet. I've had a few players who would be into that (hell, I had one who basically wrote a novelization of our campaign just for fun), but it's too much of a hassle for most players.

I just really wish there was some kind of record. A lot of work goes into a campaign. But to get it ready to publish would require much more work. And recording audio produces hours upon hours that need editing or at least indexing. A player journal really is the easiest way.

So it's the beginning of a new campaign. The players have just finished their sheets. Then the GM gets out a blank moleskine travel notebook, nib, and inkwell, hands them to the players, and explains the rotation and rewards.

Why doesn't every group do this?

Because it's pretentious and assume that every single player is a decent writer?

How is it pretentious? What is being pretended?

You don't have to be a decent writer to keep a protocol. Do you believe clubs and parties hire writers to document their meetings? You just pick someone who keeps notes and compiles them in the end.

Now that's work, of course it is. And it doesn't have to be fun if you don't want it to be. But you seem on the edge of a tantrum and I have to wonder why. Does this idea seem threatening to you in any way?

Why would you need to be a decent writer? It's not a bloody Curriculum Vitae.

I do keep a campaign "journal" updated between sessions. Half because I want a record, and because my memory sucks ass.

> in-setting paper and writing implements

Yeah no thanks I'm not wrecking my quill pen and ink.

> Grant character goodies for a well-kept journal

Yes... kinda like the Pathfinder Society handing out luck points to the people who showed up to their convention wearing Pathfinder shirts.

> Use it as a handout in other scenarios.

Not really? The rest I agree with though. It'd be cool to keep a nice Moleskine notebook, I might do that for some future campaigns.

>43 session
Holy fuck!
Grats on such a long running campaign.

Mine's been running for years, but I'm lucky if we manage a session every other month.

The notes are great. But not something that invites frivolous reading. I want something that's also a prop.

>Keep one!
yes
>Rotate the responsibility to keep it updated between sessions among the players.
everyone should be responsible for keeping their own
>Use in-setting paper and writing implements.
yes and transpose to digital later if you want cause the typing sound is annoying. later using a tablet to search a one note of your shit in game is useful
>Grant character goodies for a well kept journal.
i would say no cause that forces players to do something they might not want to do but i do think that being able to remember something that happened or a character from like 6 months ago should be deserving of a reward here and there
>Use it as a handout in other scenarios.
up to you

i believe i miss read the in setting writing thing. i meant write it down with a normal pen or pencil and turn it to digital later. writing a journal with a quill and ink well would obviously be retarded

Alright, so nobody likes ink. What about pencil?

Seems reasonable that adventurers and explorers would carry something that is fast and reliable, if not as high in contrast. And even if pencils are a thing of the industrialization, coal has been used to write since before papyrus.

So would a setting compatible looking pencil be good?

You could also go back and fix things.

It's not even my longest.

My longest is an 8 year D&D 3.5 campaign with my dad and brother (I'm still a part-time worker living at home at 22 so...) started it when I was 13 or so, DMing for just my brother, then for just my dad. Was terrible at first but it got better, characters developed, went on epic journeys. Now it's close to concluding but my brother has lost interest in RPGs, so I'll have to win him over so we can go back to it. They're only 11th level too, cause we did 1/4th or 1/6th of normal XP gain so it felt more "realistic"

I do have lots of spiral notebooks I took notes in during session (and recorded initiative / hp of monsters) and I have one for the Pathfinder campaign I am running for friends. But Savage Worlds has playing cards initiative and no hit points so I don't really need a notebook. At most I scrawl down a few things on an index card that I think I might forget later.

But my handwriting is trash

Well write slowly. It's a page, and you have a week at least.

"Sorry professor GM, I left my journal at home."

No XP for you!

My handwriting remains trash regardless of speed, it's just a different kind of trash.

Well it doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to be legible. And that's just effort.

my illiterate barbarian kept a fingerpaint journal

Was it written on bottoms on wenches across the cities he traveled through?

>Rotate the responsibility
This never works. Unless people are contractually obliged and paid for it. And even then it doesn't work always.

I have been thinking about characters like that.

One idea is to fashion potato stamps to decal enemies slain and meals had.

>Keep one!

The GM of whatever system you're playing should keep a journal where he writes down happenings, results of encounters, etc. for future references, sure. I started doing this recently for the game I'm running, since we play so seldom that we often forgot what happened the previous session. I have a small notebook I bring with me where I write down simple notes about what's happened in the current session, and on-the-spot notes for future sessions. Then I expand and digitalize it by writing all into my Campaign document on my computer.

Should players also have a journal? Sure, if they want to. Anyone can keep a journal, but it's a lot easier for one person to keep track, and often the one in most need of that information is the GM.

>Rotate the responsibility...

It only takes one person to forget it at home or to lose it. Better have one person be trusted with it all the time, rather than ship it between several people. Games shouldn't feel like homework, not everyone is a writer..

>Use in-setting paper and writing implements.

I'm all for props, but I'm a pragmatist. I print out stuff like letters, official decrees, etc. in fancy fonts so it feels more genuine, but when it comes to secret messages I just have some papers that I hand out written with a pen.

>Grant character goodies for a well kept journal.

Might as well give out goodies for who brings the tastiest snacks each session, or who spends the least amount of time on their phone. I give out a bonus-point once per character per session for when my players role-play well or do something very cool in the game, but that reward is just a +1 on any roll whenever they choose to use it. I don't reward meta-gaming.

>Use it as a handout in other scenarios.

I don't hand it out, but I read out loud from it. I give a brief description of the previous session and what's led them up to here.

Just use a pen. Less hassle, dries faster, and less likely to bleed through the pages