Unfinished Business

Nifft

Penguin Herder

• Dec 4, 2004

• #1

How does your group remember people / events / rumors of interest?

Stuff that either they can use later to their advantage, or that will be amusingly ironic when it comes back and bites them? Names they should recognize, etc. Especially when playing a long (2 years so far) campaign.

Thanks, -- N

 

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Doc_Klueless

Doors and Corners

• Dec 4, 2004

• #2

I encourage note taking. Plus, I take lots of notes. If the players are drawing a blank, I allow a Remember check. It's an Int Attribute check, DC based on obscurity of memory: Did they meet the guy once or a dozen times? Afterall, maybe the character remembers, even if the player forgets.

 

Psion

Adventurer

• Dec 4, 2004

• #3

Nifft said:

How does your group remember people / events / rumors of interest?

Click to expand...

Poorly.

 

P

philreed

Adventurer

Supporter

• Dec 4, 2004

• #4

Nifft said:

How does your group remember people / events / rumors of interest?

Stuff that either they can use later to their advantage, or that will be amusingly ironic when it comes back and bites them? Names they should recognize, etc. Especially when playing a long (2 years so far) campaign.

Thanks, -- N

Click to expand...

Man, you guys just set me up to post links.

Campaign Planner includes forms for the DM to keep track of this stuff.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2097


Player's Archive includes forms for the players to keep track of this stuff.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2154

 

Man-thing

First Post

• Dec 4, 2004

• #5

I've used the campaign planner extensively as a DM.
My players particularly like the sheet:

Session History and Treasure/Xp Awarded

They check it each day when we play and keep them in a file so they can look back at the results.

Both my players and I use the Recent Campaign Events sheet and Unresolved Issues and Leads.

And a whack of the other forms.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

For Importent Npc's I use a format like Phillips' "Fantasy Player Companion: Contacts" to record information to help my npc's remain consistent.

 

IronWolf

blank

• Dec 4, 2004

• #6

As a DM I keep track of things in a master excel spreadsheet with a large number of tabs for different things (quick char stats, NPC's met, XP gained, campaign journal, calendar, etc, etc.) Some of the players keep track of the NPC's also in their own notes which helps out.

In a game I play in, my character keeps a journal which I post to a mailing list the group has. Another player in the same group keeps track of creatures killed, treasure found which in turn makes the DM's job a little easier in that group. (and allows all the players to know where we are at and who we have met).

I will have to take a look at the Campaign planner and Player's archive links. Could prove handy and add a little more organization to what we are doing now.

 

F

fusangite

First Post

• Dec 4, 2004

• #7

Yes. In my campaigns I have the big fat named NPC spreadsheet, the locations spreadsheet and a few other aids to help me recall all the people and places of the game.

My players have expressed considerable delight at recurring NPCs, even highly obscure ones who they somehow run across many episodes later. I think bringing back NPCs, even minor ones in throw-away scenes really adds to people's sense of the reality of the game, irrespective of their connection to the overall plot.

 

S

spunky_mutters

First Post

• Dec 4, 2004

• #8

My group doesn't for the most part. I did keep a campaign calendar which I attached to the player's map pack so they could look back and see what they'd done, or what happened where. They don't look at it, though. I'm working on a more graphical campaign journal to bring our two new players up to speed. I'm hoping they will read it and ask questions about all of the unfinished business.

For the last year (real time and game time) the party has been holding on to an item that will answer most of the questions they have about what's going on, as well as solving some of the frustrations that have caused them to give up on a couple of other plot threads. I'm loathe to direct them, so I just wring my hands silently and let them follow all of the other little threads they find interesting.

 

Voadam

Legend

• Dec 5, 2004

• #9

In the e-mail game I played in and now DM it is set up in a yahoo group where we can search the archives and create files. So when they want the exact warning the old sorceress gave them or that a witch prophesied months before in real time, they can think of a relevant search term and call it up.

Some have also taken to creating text files of "who's who" to keep track of npcs and timelines to keep track of events as they puzzle out ancient mysteries.

The party calls the druid shifter player CSI druidica because of his investigations and how he puts things together.

When I was playing in the campaign I was really into figuring out the plots and did the search and reference actions and compiled the who's who documents. They are really helpful in figuring out plots and having complicated situations make sense whereas in a face to face game I don't think I would have been nearly as on top of the facts and noticed discrepancies to make conclusions like I was doing. I know I would not have remembered as many NPC names and contexts and been able to use them on the spot the same way.

 

Pants

First Post

• Dec 6, 2004

• #10

Psion said:

Poorly.

Click to expand...

Ditto...