How good at note-taking are your players?

[hunter1828]

Well, my question, of course, was how good at note-taking are your players, not how detailed is the information you give your players.

My players are the types that want...nay, demand...that type of information. That get a wicked sort of evil pleasure from asking me the name of every stablehand, peasent farmer, and caravan guard they meet. I've taken to keeping lists of random names so I don't go "Uhhhhh..." so much when they ask these things.

One of my players keeps track of every combat...round by round...just because she wants to. They have lists for their gems, lists for their coins, lists for their mundane items and lists for magic items. They have maps and heraldic devices, sketches and plans of action from adventures and locations long past.

I never asked them to keep track of things like this. All I really care about is that they have a good idea of where we leave off each session and the names of MAJOR characters. The rest is completely their decision...and it amazes me.

hunter1828

 

[hunter1828]

I know personally I don't want to stop and ask the DM to clarify the exact roles (and spelling, hello) of the 3 names he sputtered out in one sentence.

Ha! That's funny. If I had penny for every time one of the players stopped the game to ask me how to spell something, I could buy all the game books I don't currently have but want! I usually just say "Spell it like sounds." and go on.

hunter1828

 

[DanMcS]

Ha! That's funny. If I had penny for every time one of the players stopped the game to ask me how to spell something, I could buy all the game books I don't currently have but want! I usually just say "Spell it like sounds." and go on.

Yeah, well, sometimes it's a result of a bad experience. A group I play in was stymied for quite a while a few sessions ago because we mis-spelled the name of an NPC. We had a note intercepted from the villain, whose initial was "G". We met an NPC named Jerendene. Only we didn't spell it right, the darn woman's name was Gerendene, and the DM thought it was funny we couldn't figure out his *!^%##& clue. He let us in on it after a while, but now we insist he spell names and stuff for us if it's a common regional word, one our characters would know how to spell.

Holding up a game session for a clue based on an initial. What the heck?

 

[diaglo]

Ha! That's funny. If I had penny for every time one of the players stopped the game to ask me how to spell something, I could buy all the game books I don't currently have but want! I usually just say "Spell it like sounds." and go on.

hunter1828

i spell it how my character thinks it sounds. which can mean a totally different name. but i play a kenderlike halfling so who can blame me.

i keep a player's journal. check the story hour in my sig.

 

[Shallown]

My Players are not the best note takers in the world.

I run very much off the cuff games meaning I have very general ideas to what is happening or can happen. This allows the players to affect the world at large.

As far as notes they need to take to bea part of that world it usually boils down to write down the name if the Npc is important to you. If you don't care who the king is don't bother but if you plan to talk to that pickpocket contact you better write their name down or next time they will be curiously absent.

My players know up front that I seldom write down squat for notes I have a list of like 5 names for my entire campaign. That's all I need since the players are responsible for all the rest. If they want to talk to thier armorer who is commissioned to make their MW plate they had better know his name or else chances are they will end up talking with his apprentice or someone else since I didn't write down the name.

I know in some way it should be part of my GM job to make notes but I just don't. My mind is not best suited for that. I tend to remember lots of details as long as they aren't names. This is true in game and in real life. I do keep a calender and gave the same calender to my players and I keep notes as to what happens everyday in the game but more as a tool to keep track of time and help pace the game somewhat. I do occasionally jot down a name but for the most part just list encounters and where they were.

Later

 

[Eccles]

My players are a lot better than they used to be.

2 of them keep journals (although without the xp reward, I don't reckon they'd bother).

Another has since taken over the records of the party treasure. Alarmingly, before this they would lost huge quantities of magical equipment, just through poor record keeping...

 

[Enkhidu]

As a player, my habits vary on note taking. For example, I'm currently playing a character that I have played as having a bad memory, and therefore don't write things down as a player in order to reinforce that trait. On the other hand, the player of the group's bard writes everything down he can, so he can bring up some obscure bit of info when he needs to.

In the past, I've played rogues who knew every bit of treasure the party has come across (and as a player kept copious notes to simulate his knowledge), wizards who catalogue every bit of magic (with notes, again), and played at least one character who kept a diary in game, and wrote it as such. So with me it depends on the character in play.

 

[Kemrain]

In my game, the GM has asked us to keep notes on his game, and awards us XP directly from reading our notes. It slows down game just a little (Because one of the players insists on writing and writing and getting back up to date after not taking a note for a half hour.. grr) but not much, and it helps us remember all that's happened. If you read those notes, you'd have a pretty decent idea of what sort of things have happened since the beginning of play.

Because we'll get no XP if we don't take notes, we're really incented to do it, and it really helps in remembering things. Those with visual memories (such as myself) will remember an event better if they can write it down. It only takes a few seconds to take passable notes, and you have a window into the past at your fingertips. I'd keep notes even if I didn't get XP for it.

- Kemrain the Noted.

 

[Wombat]

Note taking seems to be hit-and-miss in every group I have ever had. Equally, much like students, they tend to focus on matters in their notes that were not part of the main plot, but some terribly minor point that caught their interest instead.

This is why I tend to take a lot of notes as the GM...

 

[Arnwyn]

I have one player who's quite good at taking notes. The other six are disgraceful.