D&D 5E Character journals

[psimon85]

I've been playing D&D since 3rd edition and have had some awesome times with various groups.
However the main group I play with have all been through a series of linked campaigns ran by the same DM, these are named the munchkins of faerun.

Naturally this has carried over to 5th edition which we are loving so far. The rules do a much better job at streamlining and clarifying than 3.5 ever did.

A few of my other friends ask me about my roleplaying sessions and I entertain them with our shenanigans. That led to me starting a character journal.....

Has anybody else done anything like that? Just wondering if I'm totally weird or if it's a common thing as I haven't seen many around.

 

[discosoc]

Are you talking about "in character" journals? Stuff like "today was the worst day of my life... ralph the fighter broke his shoulder trying to bash down a door in the dungeon of despair just outside of town, and his screaming caught the attention of a local necromancer." Or character journals that just act as adventure recaps?

 

[psimon85]

Are you talking about "in character" journals? Stuff like "today was the worst day of my life... ralph the fighter broke his shoulder trying to bash down a door in the dungeon of despair just outside of town, and his screaming caught the attention of a local necromancer." Or character journals that just act as adventure recaps?

In character mostly. Sort of a perspective from that character and their thought process of events.
It would give an idea of session recap of course but the main point would be what that character was feeling, why they react the way they do.

The ones I've done so far are a little rushed as I decided to do this after a few sessions so trying to remember what happened exactly is a bit hard. They should become more detailed the closer I get to the current session.

 

[Shiroiken]

I often have my characters write a journal. It helps me in a long term campaign to remember names and minor events. It also helps me stay in character, as periodically rereading it before games will help me remember how my character felt about previous events. Every now and then it can provide a subtle clue that we'd since forgotten IRL (sometimes a single day in game can take many weeks real time).

 

[GainVanquish]

Not something I have done but thinking about this more I think it's something I'm going to do. Think it helps bond the PCs also

 

[halfling rogue]

I've not done 'in character' journals, but my mates and I used to share a wiki where we would give an account of what happened. Each of us covered the same event but it varied from person to person (as everything in the world does) and it gave an interesting take on the night as it sort of highlighted what each player thought was the best part or the most memorable part of the previous session was.

that said, we only did it a handful of times. only a couple of us maintained it after a while, and then it more or less just stopped.

 

[Umbran]

Not for a character in 5e.

In many live-action campaigns, the GMs ask for what is often called a PEL - "Post-Event Letter". This can take many forms, sometimes as in-character journals.

In a Star Wars, Saga Edition game I played in a little while ago, the GM asked us to to journals - the game was organized on Obsidian portal, so we could post them there, hidden to everyone but the GM. I wrote them as a series of... conversations in the character's head, as if he were writing letters to his (missing, presumed dead) father. They were pretty fun to write, and served the purpose of clarifying what my character was concerned about, looking to do, and so forth. It also established the father as a chain the GM could yank if he so chose.

Unfortunately, the practice in the campaign fell apart - most of the players were not interested in the writing, and the GM therefore stopped reading them.

 

[psimon85]

Not for a character in 5e.

In many live-action campaigns, the GMs ask for what is often called a PEL - "Post-Event Letter". This can take many forms, sometimes as in-character journals.

In a Star Wars, Saga Edition game I played in a little while ago, the GM asked us to to journals - the game was organized on Obsidian portal, so we could post them there, hidden to everyone but the GM. I wrote them as a series of... conversations in the character's head, as if he were writing letters to his (missing, presumed dead) father. They were pretty fun to write, and served the purpose of clarifying what my character was concerned about, looking to do, and so forth. It also established the father as a chain the GM could yank if he so chose.

Unfortunately, the practice in the campaign fell apart - most of the players were not interested in the writing, and the GM therefore stopped reading them.

That sounds like real good fun. Sort of this is what my character was thinking in this situation, though his actions may have suggested otherwise.

Shame the group didn't continue so the DM stopped reading.

I was thinking pretty much the same thing. Our DM is pretty darn good and ties things in really well. At the moment my character is kind of racist as he is an Elf that up until now never left Evermeet and never met any other races. Brought up to resent half races, things are proving difficult for him on faerun.

I kind of want to portray his thought process as he meets more people and how he deals internally with these hard ingrained issues.

 

[Sunseeker]

Not in so many words, but my character bought a book so that they could take down notes of their adventurers, much as the player would do out of character. It is humoursly titled "The Scroll of Everything We've $^*(*%^& Up."

 

[psimon85]

Not in so many words, but my character bought a book so that they could take down notes of their adventurers, much as the player would do out of character. It is humoursly titled "The Scroll of Everything We've $^*(*%^& Up."

Yeah I find a few from our group take notes most sessions ooc.
I can imagine that title is appropriate to most circumstances.