Session recording methods?

[Bodah]

Looking at the many story hours on the boards got me curious as to what methods everyone uses to get their story hours written down. I ask because lately my group has wanted to get our campaign down into writing.. but we are unsure what methods will work well. Tape recorder seems like it might be a good idea, but sorting out all the voices in order could be difficult. Do any of you just go off memory of the session and fill out what you cant remember with your own creative writing? I suppose another method could be having someone with a laptop at the session typing it down as it happens. That could be quite a distraction for that player while he is trying to game as well though.

So what are some methods that story hour authors out there use to get the campaign down into writing?

 

[ciaran00]

We all use a common set of notes that each of us takes turns to write. We have an accepted format of information (things that should be written down and not).

We use Wiki software (see my sig) to collect and cross-reference it. Making tape or a video will only make you not want to go back through it after the game. Summarise/organise/collect as the game is progressing; it will reduce your workload significantly.

ciaran

 

[Kichwas]

I give 50 * level XP per session a player writes a journal for.

As a result, I have a record from multiple points of view:
http://arcady0.topcities.com/Kalamar/index.html
http://www.kenzerco.com/forums/showflat.php?Board=kalamarstoryhour&Number=312122

 

[Piratecat]

We now tape our sessions on a small tape recorder that can tape at half speed (making a 90 minute tape into 3 hours.) It makes it MUCH easier to go back afterwards and figure out what happened.

I expected people to be self-conscious; truth is, it didn't bother a single person.

 

[green slime]

We now tape our sessions on a small tape recorder that can tape at half speed (making a 90 minute tape into 3 hours.) It makes it MUCH easier to go back afterwards and figure out what happened.

I expected people to be self-conscious; truth is, it didn't bother a single person.

That wouldn't be because the "small tape recorder" is stolen CIA equipment, the same size as a flyspeck, and taped to the underside of the table?

 

[Piratecat]

Small is small. They do sort of wonder why I ask them to talk into the empty Coke can, though.

Sagiro also tapes his games. I stole the idea when I realized how well it was working for him.

 

[der_kluge]

I keep meaning to take my digital camera and take a picture of the battlemat during battle sequences. I've no real interest in recording the conversations, because for my story hour I'm mostly interested in the gist of the conversation, not the ver batim conversation.

But, the battle scene with the minatures is worth a thousand words for describing the action. I just haven't remembered to take it to the game yet. And we use a lot of minis, have a big battle mat, and I have lots of little toys and props that I use, so a lot of our combats end up looking really cool.

 

[el-remmen]

One of my players keeps a "quote log" - getting down the gems of the various bits of dialogue and important things said by NPCS and PCs.

Another keeps a general log, which includes a round by round break down of combat.

I find it extremely useful in the writing of a story hour and they both include some note of the same event every once in a while so I can cross-reference.

And of course, I have a calendar I keep of events as DM.

 

[D+1]

No story hour but it's usually not too much of a problem to take notes either as DM or player. As DM I need to keep up my campaign timekeeping anyway. Although that's mostly just notation of days of travel, destinations, and general activities it's not hard to get into more detail about what specifically was encountered, character motivations, in character discussions, specific notes about the flow of combats, etc.

Players will often keep notes of NPC names, riddles and clues, unique details I give out about the campaign world, etc. so it's not hard for them to simply fill in the gaps with a full character or campaign log.

As DM I tend to get caught up in the more immediate tasks of running the game and completely forget about "timekeeping". When I do I sit down as soon as possible after the game and catch up. I find that if you can do it AS it happens you're FAR better off than trying to remember it a day or two after the game. For myself at least I forget small, but important details.

What I'd recommend then is to keep notes during play, and then go over them again soon afterward filling in the descriptive gaps, then later you should be able to write your game logs, story hour and other game fiction based on that. It should be all you need (except for actual fiction-writing skills).

 

[diaglo]

i get out the slabs of granite and chisels.

but i enjoy OD&D