I follow the AngryGMs approach and find it works very well for my group, leading them nicely into the action for the current session: http://theangrygm.com/the-art-of-the-recap/
-
The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
D&D 5E When writing a session recap up how clear do you make the clues?
- Thread starter bedir than
- Start date
Rhenny
Adventurer
I like writing session recaps and keep summaries of nearly all games in my campaigns. In the recaps, I do clarify and add detail when it would make sense. I acknowledge that it is difficult to accurately recreate exactly what happens during a game and I rely on my memory mostly to just reconstruct what is essential for the narrative.
Clues are important. It is so important that the most important ones, ones that the PCs would focus on and remember, be foregrounded because it is very easy for players (the actual players) to forget important information that their PCs would know. That's how I handle most summaries and even in game DM narrative.
Clues are important. It is so important that the most important ones, ones that the PCs would focus on and remember, be foregrounded because it is very easy for players (the actual players) to forget important information that their PCs would know. That's how I handle most summaries and even in game DM narrative.
The_Gneech
Explorer
I generally summarize the "big scenes" of the night, putting any significant player action and information they found in it. I also write up a short "intro" that I try to send a few days before the session, that reveals NPC actions or motivations or other things that might set up context or create anticipation for the next session. I used to go a little nuts with the intros... I try to make sure they're only 1-2 pages these days. ¬.¬
You can see my current Keep On the Borderlands game recaps here: http://the-gneech.livejournal.com/tag/keep on the borderlands
-The Gneech
You can see my current Keep On the Borderlands game recaps here: http://the-gneech.livejournal.com/tag/keep on the borderlands
-The Gneech
ProfessorGadget
First Post
I don't normally do recaps either unless it's been over a month since last session. I just give out the, you were here and this was the last fight you had. My guys take pretty good notes during session which makes it easier for us
Sword of Spirit
Legend
We use a shared online Excel workbook as a place to track certain information (inventory for each character, primarily--which lets us track weight and carrying capacity and such and have it all auto-calc if you do something like drop your backpack). Amongst that is a sheet for Rumors and Information. I sometimes just copy and paste my own stuff on there, but my preference is for the players to write things up in their own words. I have columns for the information/rumor, the source, and any notes.
I started keeping track of rumors/information like this because I had given certain information through conversations with NPCs in earlier sessions, but the players either weren't paying enough attention (which would be odd since they were talking to the NPCs) or more likely just forgot the info. Later on the information became relevant, and they insisted I had not given it. I don't usually have friction like that with my players, and I just assumed they were right and I had forgotten it or said it unclearly in an abrupt transition (it happens), but after it happened more than once, and one player vaguely recalled that I had in fact given certain information, I started doing this to make sure that crap doesn't happen again. Since I started that, I also started giving them a ton of rumors (true and false) they may or may not decide to pursue, and they get recorded here.
For my personal records, I make an entry for each session and keep track of it in a database. It includes a variety of common information based on a template I made (PCs present--which is more important to the story than players present, real date, campaign world dates covered, XP awarded, and whatever events or notes I want to make). I use this as my personal review for a session. I also have a simple WordPad file with ongoing events and other notes I can keep track of, which I keep open and update regularly during and after play.
At the start of the session I generally ask a player to give a review of the previous session. I do this because we play online (we use TeamSpeak for voice, and I broadcast video of myself, but it is still a lot easier for players to drift off with the automatic disconnect that comes from not being in the same room--our group is aware of this because most of us used to play together in-person before moves happened.) I also encourage them to look at the list of rumors/information, and if there is something I feel their characters might have on their mind that doesn't come up, I bring it up also.
In the latter case, I try to include a variety of important and not-so-important information, to keep them guessing so they don't get the idea that the DM is always going to review what was important. Since this is a very sand-box sort of campaign (the players make the story, rather than follow any sort of adventure path), it's important they know this.
I started keeping track of rumors/information like this because I had given certain information through conversations with NPCs in earlier sessions, but the players either weren't paying enough attention (which would be odd since they were talking to the NPCs) or more likely just forgot the info. Later on the information became relevant, and they insisted I had not given it. I don't usually have friction like that with my players, and I just assumed they were right and I had forgotten it or said it unclearly in an abrupt transition (it happens), but after it happened more than once, and one player vaguely recalled that I had in fact given certain information, I started doing this to make sure that crap doesn't happen again. Since I started that, I also started giving them a ton of rumors (true and false) they may or may not decide to pursue, and they get recorded here.
For my personal records, I make an entry for each session and keep track of it in a database. It includes a variety of common information based on a template I made (PCs present--which is more important to the story than players present, real date, campaign world dates covered, XP awarded, and whatever events or notes I want to make). I use this as my personal review for a session. I also have a simple WordPad file with ongoing events and other notes I can keep track of, which I keep open and update regularly during and after play.
At the start of the session I generally ask a player to give a review of the previous session. I do this because we play online (we use TeamSpeak for voice, and I broadcast video of myself, but it is still a lot easier for players to drift off with the automatic disconnect that comes from not being in the same room--our group is aware of this because most of us used to play together in-person before moves happened.) I also encourage them to look at the list of rumors/information, and if there is something I feel their characters might have on their mind that doesn't come up, I bring it up also.
In the latter case, I try to include a variety of important and not-so-important information, to keep them guessing so they don't get the idea that the DM is always going to review what was important. Since this is a very sand-box sort of campaign (the players make the story, rather than follow any sort of adventure path), it's important they know this.
Last edited:
delericho
Legend
Like others in this thread, I don't do written recaps. When doing a verbal recap, though, I do highlight the clues and hooks quite clearly - our game time is pretty limited, so I prefer to keep things fairly lean and efficient, and so while I'm happy to see the PCs spend a session chasing down a dead-end, I'd prefer them not to spend the whole of the next session doing that too.
I have players do session accounts so this doesn't come up really. At most I might do a very short paragraph to help me remember, eg
Finish exploring the Misgivings; Iesha Foxglove's soul is freed to pass on to the Boneyard of Pharasma in the Great Beyond. Returning that evening the group encounter a Varisian family who warn them Bob Teshki's farm has been attacked, Vanessa taken - by Nualia. Group catches the miscreants at the bridge over Cougar Creek. A burly cultist escapes with Vanessa, but the group wipes out Nualia (who briefly kills Neril) and 11 of her Lamashtu cult fanatics, killing 3 yeth hounds while 1 fades away on Nualia's demise. They take her head.
Compare that to player's full account: http://smonscurseofthecrimsonthrone.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/ep-26-2674712-iesha-foxglove-freed.html
Finish exploring the Misgivings; Iesha Foxglove's soul is freed to pass on to the Boneyard of Pharasma in the Great Beyond. Returning that evening the group encounter a Varisian family who warn them Bob Teshki's farm has been attacked, Vanessa taken - by Nualia. Group catches the miscreants at the bridge over Cougar Creek. A burly cultist escapes with Vanessa, but the group wipes out Nualia (who briefly kills Neril) and 11 of her Lamashtu cult fanatics, killing 3 yeth hounds while 1 fades away on Nualia's demise. They take her head.
Compare that to player's full account: http://smonscurseofthecrimsonthrone.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/ep-26-2674712-iesha-foxglove-freed.html
Why!!??
Mostly to stop the baddies raising her I think. Also maybe the 5000gp reward.
Aoirorentsu
Explorer
When I ran an urban campaign, I would write up a session recap in the form of a news broadsheet (I mean it was just a text email, but it had that tone). This served a couple purposes. I would combine summaries of the PCs' exploits with summaries of things happening elsewhere in the city (i.e. that they might be able to participate in next time). But the newspaper was also an in-world institution - the PCs visited it and it did a profile on one of them. They liked the muckraker-ish reporter, etc etc.
So of course, about half way through the adventure the NPC was disappeared and the newspaper was taken over by authorities and became a propaganda mouthpiece. The PCs felt it, and it helped set the stakes of the adventure (undermining said authoritarian government) that much higher.
So of course, about half way through the adventure the NPC was disappeared and the newspaper was taken over by authorities and became a propaganda mouthpiece. The PCs felt it, and it helped set the stakes of the adventure (undermining said authoritarian government) that much higher.
Similar Threads
