Campaign Journals

[Wangalade]

When I play any rpg I always keep a record of what happens. I know several other people who also do this, i.e. my sister keeps a character journal from the pov of her character. My records are never as detailed as hers are, but I still do it for later reference/inspiration. My issue is getting my players to keep a record. There was a time when I kept a record even when I GMed, but I found it to be too time consuming. None of the players in my current group actually record anything on their own. I tried picking a player and telling him to keep track of stuff, but that didn't feel right because I don't want to force that on anyone. so mostly there are no records, which can cause problems with not remembering what happened last, not remembering the name of an npc or town, or even repeating scenarios because I thought they hadn't finished it yet. I have found campaign journals to be extremely useful, even if just notes jotted down.
SO my problem is how do I provide incentive for my players to keep campaign journals? I've seen/heard of very few. the most popular being extra xp. I have recently been awarding xp once a campaign journal is written, but it is still sporadic. How do you keep track of a campaign? How do you get other roleplayers to keep campaign journals?

 

[Jhaelen]

Our group also keeps a campaign journal, which is crucial since we only meet about once a month. Our DMs soon established that whoever was writing the journal would be granted bonus xp, although I don't feel it's necessary.

 

[Lindeloef]

As a DM I am also often bummed out, when my players don't remember stuff. And most of them don't keep notes. I tried to make them do notes but that didn't work out. So I make them do a recap at the beginning of each session, of what happened last time.
Thank god for our newest member in my current group, who takes some detailed notes. So atleast one of the players know their stuff and thereby the group.


I like to plant upcoming stuff early on in the campaign. So lots of hints, that players can view back and in hindsight, it all makes sense. Of course my players don't connect these ever... but to be fair, who remembers stuff that some crazy DM mentioned on the side a year ago. So I only do it for me nowadays cause I have a blast with that.

On the next Campaign, where we try out sharing DM duties (with [MENTION=20307]Jan van Leyden[/MENTION] and one other Person), we wanna have a Campaign wiki. There players could add information to characters they meet or put up other notes.
Though I am very pessimistic that most of them will use it...

 

[Dioltach]

In my group only one player takes notes. If she can't make it to a session, the rest of the group spend forever trying to remember what happened. I've given up any hope of anyone else keeping notes. As the group's DM I usually remember most of what happened during the last session, but I'll make short notes of names, particular situations, and sometimes whether a PC is low on HP or spells at the end of the session.

To be honest, if a player doesn't want to keep a record it's pretty much impossible to convince them to. At a certain point RPGs become a mindless diversion from everyday life, and anything that involves actual work on their part meets with resistance.

 

[Grogg of the North]

As a DM I send out a campaign newsletter before each session. It usually consists of a Last Time / Next Time section so it reminds everyone what was going on.

As a player, I'm usually the one taking notes on who people are and what's going on where. I've done PoV journals before with mixed reactions. "Dude, that was awesome!" to "OMG! That's way too long!"

 

[Dungeoneer]

I give out tokens during my games which can be redeemed for things like adding +1 to a roll, recharging a spent power or rerolling the dice entirely. I have started asking for re-caps of the previous session (via email) in exchange for tokens for the next, and have so far never failed to get a brief re-cap out of at LEAST one player, sometimes 3-4.

Ask for POV recaps, the players enjoy coming up with those and they often make for hilarious reading. Yes, they are a bit slanted in terms of their viewpoint but they are much better than nothing.