Players: Do you keep a character journal?

[howandwhy99]

As a Player do you keep notes for your game in-character or even out-of-character?

Namely, things like who you know, what you have done, where you have been, what you think is going on, records of good strategies for different situations, goals, plans, marching orders, what you think your magic items can do, cool uses for equipment, questions you're looking for answers for, etc.

I think these are an outgrowth of the old Character Record Sheets. So maps and sketches of items count too. In many games I've played Wizards and other spellbook casters need one just to keep track of what their spells might do.

What I am not talking about is a storyhour, though a journal could be posted as one. I view these as notes of your exploration of the game world in-character or not.

 

[fba827]

somtimes yes, sometimes no.
depends on the PC, the campaign, and my level of free time

 

[Lanefan]

To me, a "journal" does mean something like a story-hour as told from the character's viewpoint. I don't keep one of those when playing; I've tried it, and found that the work involved just gets in the way of actually playing.

But maps, notes, etc. relevant to the adventure at hand: absolutely. They usually get filed deep away once the adventure's done, however; I don't bother, for example, tracking over the long term every potion I've met or every spell I've seen.

And notes etc. on magic items I own and-or what's in the current party treasury: again, absolutely. But once the treasury's been divided it too gets filed away, and people are responsible for recording their own possessions.

Lanefan

 

[Jhaelen]

Yep!

In one campaign it's in-character: It's basically the bard's memoirs who also happens to write for the Sharn Inquisitive (in Eberron).

In the other it's out-of-character: It's just a travelogue, but it's eesential because we only meet about once a month, and it would be impossible to remember what happened in the last session(s) without it.

 

[Slander]

I always try to keep an in character journal when I'm a player for a campaign. While I write them in "story-hour" fashion, I do make it a point to write out tactics (successful and unsuccessful), questions, and the like. My group typically gets involved in multi-year campaigns, and I know I'd get "lost in the campaign" if I didn't maintain a record. The story-hour format just makes rereading my notes a bit more palatable.

For one-shot or short duration one-offs, I typically don't keep any record at all, or at most, just rough OOC notes.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Sometimes, depends on the character.

Currently? Yes, see sig.

 

[Umbran]

I'm an "other".

For long-running campaigns, I will often keep session notes - not really a journal, just a few bullet points on where we were, what we did, what we fought, and what we got. This goes a long way in alleviating the question of, "where did we get this magic widget that we've been carrying around for four months without identifying it...?"

I only keep an in-character journal when the character calls for it.

The best in-character journal I've ever seen was written by my wife, for a Deadlands game. Her character's husband had died, and she'd moved out west to escape the surrounding circumstances, right into the midst of Deadlands-style horror. The journal was comprised of letters to her husband she never sent. Damned good writing...

 

[diaglo]

yes.

see the story hour in my sig for some examples of it. of course, the old days i used to keep in all in a real journal, 3 ring binder or notebook.

 

[maddman75]

Our group uses one for Hunter: The Vigil. The game is heavily inspired by Supernatural, which features 'Dad's Journal' as a research tool for various monsters.

The group shares a journal, with players writing in it during the session. This makes it a rather haphazard and chaotic book, as a different person makes each entry. It servers two purposes in the game. First, it has game mechanical effects. There's somethign in the game called Practical Experience, sort of a communal XP pool. Normally you gain bonus PXP for learning something new about a monster. In this case, they gain it when they write it in the journal. The second function is as an actual research tool. After all, if they write down four things they learned about fighting ghosts, maybe they'll want to review it a month later when they face a ghost again.

 

[Tale]

I can't imagine using one. Thinking over my current campaign, such seems silly.

Here's what I imagine it would be like:
So I was sitting at a table, minding my own business, drinking tea, when Hobgoblins burst in and start trying to kill people. They just kept coming and coming. Whatever. Some guards show up and drag me and a few other people outside where we find an Ogre trying to burn things. What a dick.

Following day:
Some councilman, I forget his name, wants us to go looking for kidnapped townfolk. He seemed to be a bit of a .

Following some leads, we find out they were taken to Castle Rivenroar. On the way, Penden... whatever. The Elf Wizard guy twist an ankle. I laughed at him. Good times.