How do you record your game sessions?

[spyscribe]

I'm the note-taker for our campaign, and honestly, I just let it slide if I'm really getting into a scene with other players or an NPC. The notes are great to have for the story hour and for reference in later sessions, but when it comes down to it, I'm there to play, not to take notes.

I probably loose some good stuff that way, but I'd rather have a good scene at the time than a mediocre one for the record that wasn't so great because I kept ducking out of it to write stuff down. If there's something I really want to make sure I get, I'll write it up the next morning while it's still pretty fresh.

 

[philreed]

Campaign Planner

http://www.philipjreed.com/PJR/archives/000660.html

I'm gonna take the opportunity to plug my Campaign Planner PDF. The link above will give you some free forms that aren't in the PDF and if you follow the product link on that page you can get even more forms at no cost.

The Campaign Planner, I know, has been very useful for DMs who need just a little help in organizing their campaigns.

 

[Silver Moon]

Using a tape recorder is very tedious - games never sound very good on playback. I always keep written notes. I've kept a "Party Log" from the beginning.If I'm DMing I only jot down the best one-liners, remembering other details. If I'm playing I usually have the time to write down more. I also have a player (Celticwolf) who does a great job of reading the final Story Hour and pointing out any errors or omissions that I made. One major key to getting down the details is to log each story prior to the next game while it is still fresh on your mind.

 

[Fenes]

I am usually the DM, so I note down what happens as it goes down. Since I control the adventure I can take the time if needed, but usually it does not hold up the game.

 

[Malar's Cow]

I'm nothing more than a glorified clerk

As DM, I post a game summary to our group website after each game. The players normally have a chance to edit and/or suggest changes to it before it becomes "official". My memory is getting bad, so I sometimes can forget details.

It's been nice to have, because it's becoming somewhat of a short story. If I had enough creative energy, I could probably write it in story format. Ah, for more hours in the day...

 

[Bloodstone Press]

If the game is good, i usually go straight to the computer as soon as it is over and write it out in short hand. I have a good enough memory to remember most every word spoken in the previous 4 hours or so, so there isn't really a need to write it down as it happens.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

I keep in in-character Live Journal...

I try to update it once a week... doesn't always work... so, often times, I will update like 6 times in one week... and go 3 weeks with nothing... but, it's a good way for me to really think through what my character would be doing/analyze her actions to determine how she will act in the future.

 

[zodiki]

As DM I keep a log of all the events and I write on the adventure (when I make them up ahead of time) what happened with each encounter. Between sessions I use this info to create new hooks and update the campaign world as needed. When I'm a player I jot down things of interest to my PC, but don't worry about every little NPC or piece of info we encounter in the game.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Since I'm a tech geek and former video and audio editor, I've kept my eyes open for things along these lines...

I've never tried one of these, but I think that this might be a good way to go if catching those conversations in full is important. This Voice Recorder is only 69.95 and can record 985 minutes. The savings in tape would be significant, and you can transfer sessions off to the PC and burn them onto CD's if you feel like it.

On the higher end of things, you could get a MP3 player/recorder. There are a few that come with built in mics or mic jacks for around $250. If you have a PC handy, recording right onto the HD is a good option too.

You could import the audio into an audio editing program, cut out all the extraneous chatter and get to the important conversations pretty quickly that way, and massaging the audio in an audio editing program would be pretty simple (assuming you have the aptitude for such things).