Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 5533739" data-attributes="member: 16069">For my online campaign (Maptools & Skype) I save the chat history and then as soon as the game has finished write up a diary version of events, detailing every encounter, all NPCs and locations visited- with notes as to where the PCs are at, also lists with magic items found, and gp liberated- I've done this seemingly forever, or at least since PCs (computers) have been about. I send the updated notes to the players after the session- several ex-players also keep up with the game this way and chip in.For my face-to-face game I employ a hanger-on (usually a significant other or son or daughter of one of the players) to keep notes on everything- we detail every moment in combat (and for RP). See the stat based SH in my sig- I'm an anally retentive so-and-so.Both of my campaigns are based in the Nentir Vale, I have written a nice 15-or-so page intro.My problem is, seemingly, the more I do the less the PCs do- the less the PCs do the more I have to do...My for-instance is it was not uncommon in the early days for the PCs to turn up for the on-line game, memories wiped, and with little or no idea what they accomplished last time- only one of the players always made notes, and then sometimes things got missed.I always recap the previous sessions play but took to doing more comprehensive notes when the delicately crafted sub-plots, turning points et al were just being ignored/forgotten about- not the action but the meaning.Or, the opposite was happening- example, the PCs found a much used (and worn) knife in a abandoned catacomb in Fallcrest (with terribly difficult to read initials on it) along with a hastily abandoned campsite. The PCs had also learned previously that one of the PCs friends had arrived in Fallcrest (looking for the PC) and penniless had been sleeping rough. The PCs spent a fair amount of time trying to find the owner of the knife/campsite. The next session the PCs friend turns up- in jail and charged with murder, they don't ask him about the knife- because they've not connected it, they do however continue to investigate the knife and campsite elsewhere- more or less every session for the next five sessions- in the end spending money to get the local Thieves Guild to look in to the matter- the guild connect the two and one of the PCs 'big' clues disappears. The problem being the PCs were following my notes, anything that gets written down by me they figure is important, the lesson too many notes and... It's difficult to get it just right, just enough for the PCs to see the bigger picture eventually, without making the plot obvious- otherwise we would have to spend an hour at the start every session with the PCs going through the notes trying to work out where next- what's important.Cheers Goonalan</blockquote>

Verification