The Campaign Journal Conundrum: I Hate Doing Them As A GM

[Ryltar]

KnightErrantJr, I feel your pain. In my opinion, it would be ideal if players contributed campaign journals, which I consider an essential part of a successful campaign. The problem is how to motivate them, if they aren't already. The easiest way to do so would be to give out XP, but in a campaign such as my own which has done away with XP entirely, it's not really an option. I've tried small things such as a bonus reroll or an item of choice placed conveniently in the next treasure hoard, but that's only been successful about 50% of the time. In the end, I decided to do the journals myself. The difficulty was adjusting to the added burden of having to jot down relatively detailed notes during play, but I've found it saves you a lot of time later. Simply wait for the party to do some RP amongst themselves where you - as the GM - aren't necessarily needed; then use that time to scribble your notes. Or do it in between sessions, as long as stuff is still fresh in your memory.

The bottom line, in my experience, is that having a campaign journal beats not having one at any time, even if you have to write it yourself.

 

[Jared Rascher]

The easiest way to do so would be to give out XP, but in a campaign such as my own which has done away with XP entirely, it's not really an option.

While I've not gotten rid of XP, I do keep everyone, even if they miss a session, on the same amount of XP so that I don't have to deal with adjusting threats up or down based on someone missing a session or two, so I agree, XP would be a great solution if it was an option . . .

 

[Endur]

I recommend a Wiki.

That way anyone in the group can post in the journal and make edits.

Edits are important, because one person may not be interested in everything that happened.

 

[The Shaman]

1. How many people think campaign journals are important resources?

*raises hand*

I kept the 'ship's log' during a Traveller game many years ago, and I still have that little black composition book; re-reading my terse entries never fails to take me back to the encounters like they were just last week.

Keeping a shared reference is also a great way to share the game with others.

2. How many people think that a GM should be maintaining one?

I am the gamemaster for our Flashing Blades game and I keep our adventure logs as part of updating our wiki. I write it out, send it out to the players to review and correct, then post it on the wiki.

My adventure logs are written without frills, a simple accounting of events; I don't try to turn them into stories. This keeps them manageable for me.

3. How many people have one of their player's logging the sessions?

I keep notes as we go; if one of the players wanted to draft his own in-character journal, I'd be very pleased, but I don't expect it of them.

 

[karlindel]

Short answers:

1. I think they are a useful resource for most campaigns, how important they are depends on the campaign.

2. The GM should keep notes on the campaign, and help to fill in any important gaps in the campaign journal, but I think it is better for a player or the players collectively to keep the campaign journal.

3. No one keeps a campaign journal in the campaign I GM, although I play in one campaign where a player keeps an online campaign journal that we all use.

Slightly more involved:

1. I like the concept of a campaign journal, but I seldom see them in use. How useful a campaign journal is depends on how often the players (and GM) refer back to it to help reference the campaign history in the campaign or in the future to reminisce. If one person keeps a campaign journal, but no one else ever reads it, then the campaign journal is not important. If everyone looks back over the campaign journal every few sessions, and asks questions about old mysteries, then the campaign journal is very important.

2. I think it is best if all of the players are involved in the campaign journal. I do not think the GM should be involved, except perhaps to remind them that certain things are speculative, who gave them particular information, or if there is something important that the players left out of the journal. That said, a campaign journal can be a useful window into how the players and their characters view the campaign. That said, if the GM is the only one interested in keeping a campaign journal, then it's up to the GM if they think it is worthwhile.

3. No one keeps a campaign journal in my home campaign or in a superhero game I am playing in. I am in one campaign where we started off keeping a journal, but then neglected it and eventually stopped altogether. I am in a homebrew game where one player keeps an in character journal, and we reference it occasionally to remind ourselves of what we have done already and what we have previously talked about doing.

 

[Wik]

I like how Earthdawn does it - once per game year, the PCs can hand in their journal to the university of throal or somesuch, and as a result, they get XP. The more detailed and interesting it is, the larger their XP total is.

The other way I've seen it done is a group that gives a "tick" each for tasks the group wants - I believe the tasks were "show up", "bring a snack", and a few other tasks like that, and then they had rotating tasks where, if they were done for that session, everyone got a tick - "record initiative", "update the journal", etc.

This was the only way PCs levelled up, so the group made sure these tasks were done. And in a group of four or five players, you'd only have to update the journal once a month or so. Not a tough task, especially once it got started.

 

[scourger]

I just sent out an e-mail bribing my players to write an in character journal for a hero point for each session logged.

I did a similar thing in a game once, and it worked very well. I even collected all the emails in a big word document and had them printed & spiral bound for all the players as gifts. Very fun.

 

[DumbPaladin]

Keeping track of cool lines and the like isn't usually what people need from this kind of a journal ... they usually just want/need a recap so they don't forget important events from the previous session.

If you actually want to keep track of details as specific and minute as this, I definitely second the suggestion of recording your session. I can't think of any other great way to handle that.

If you really just want a primary recap of the session's events, offer to award bonus XP to a player who will become the group's chronicler. Our group awards 5% bonus XP for this task ... we also assign 5% for the party quartermaster, and 5% for the calendar keeper -- both scheduling games and coordinating everyone's availability, and the in-game date.