Do you track history within your games?

[philreed]

I think it's extremely vital that history be carefully tracked and recorded. The smallest touch here and there, or mention of historical events, can really help bring a campaign to life. This is why a lot of the stuff I use or write has snippets of historical information mixed in.

Trust me on this. Your players will think a lot more of you as a DM if you drop the occasional reference to historical events in your campaign.

 

[Ranger5]

I do so as well. I also try and incorporate historical events whenever possible. Especially the weird mysterious kind that may launch a new adventure.

 

[diaglo]

mostly. a history based on what the PCs know where they are from and possibly what they can gather from those around where they are going.

i don't give them stuff they don't know.

 

[kigmatzomat]

I lucked out and found a great timeline to use for my DL-variant game. It referenced the novels and covers several thousand years. I use it as my base framework when making tweaks to the setting to ensure the public perception of the events doesn't change as a result of my fiddling. History may be written by the victors but the same cities need to be destroyed, kings deposed, etc.

I keep a log of my game. Mostly it's "2 weeks travel to Solanthus - encountered bandits" or "3 days in Blevin's Gap waiting for riverboat." It does a great job of refreshing my memory and adding bits of flavor. "You return to Myreth just as the spring rains end and the forest is a panorama of colors. Despite owning land here for 3 years, you realize you've never seen the flowers bloom."

 

[Arnwyn]

Yes... but thankfully, the FR did it for me.

 

[Methos]

Yes

It is good for me as a DM and it is good for the players since I find it gives them more incentive to role-play since they perceive their characters actually changing the world through their actions.

 

[Aristotle]

I track world history. I do so pretty loosely for most settings, but the creation of a timeline isn't out of the question. I track things that are supposed to happen in the world while the characters are active much more tightly, and typically have a calendar/timeline to let me know when to throw them in. (i.e. I ran a Shadowrun game set years behind the current setting date, so I kept a log of coming events that have been mentioned in every sourcebook and made some mention of them, either in the news or as something that directly affected the characters, as they occured.)

I track campaign history, or I try to, much more closely. I've kept storyhours (on other sites) and am looking at using a wiki to track whole settings and the campaigns that happen in them. (allowing my players to help me track events, and to have the ability to freely search for information on anything.)

 

[fusangite]

If you don't, you end up with a game that's like a TV series with no script bible e.g. Roswell season 2. If you don't keep track of this stuff, your game will soon lose its internal consistency.

 

[MonsterMash]

Yes, but not using a background with so much stuff published about it as the FR or DL makes it easier- its really just campaign or stuff I think should be happening in the background.

 

[TerraDave]

I see two issues.

One is the history of the world, and that is one of the big things we have in our campaign world.

The other is in play stuff. On some level I track and build on it, take notes, etc.

But actually my current campaign is reaching a point where it will tie in to older campaign events (from 5+ years ago real time), and a lot of my notes are in storage...I am starting to get a little nervous,,,