D&D 5E (2014) When writing a session recap up how clear do you make the clues?

[Mercule]

We're at an age where we have a ton of stuff going on in our lives. At best, we get to game twice a month. The sessions are sometimes the only opportunity the circle of friends has to chat, so we don't always move that fast. Having something to reference can be important. I use Obsidian Portal to log my game. Sometimes, I'm a bit better than others, but the info goes out there.

Quite often, I use the log as a way to make explicit something that was only hinted/guessed at during the session. I encourage the players to review the site before each session, just to pick up on those things, if nothing else.

I played with the idea of rewarding a player for doing the post, and just coming back to fix any mistakes. Between being a grammar Nazi, the rampant mis-spellings of NPC names (not that I fault them, just OCD), and gross errors on actual events (this one, I do blame on the player, who was known to have questionable notes), I was actually doing more work.

I follow the AngryGMs approach and find it works very well for my group, leading them nicely into the action for the current session: http://theangrygm.com/the-art-of-the-recap/

I've started trying to do this. He makes a lot of very, very valid points. I have a player who gets a bit interrupty, though, so it sometimes gets derailed, especially since it's the same player who had all the errors on the log. Still, at least one of the players has picked up on this and has helped to focus folks while I'm giving information.

 

[orderofthings]

When I do session recaps, I go for all out novelization. I realize that this goes against "The Angry DM"s advice on recaps, and he's right; I do it because I've always wanted to be a writer. My players seem to enjoy reading the things they've done in dramatic form, and I believe that it has had a positive impact on the way they play (they tend to act the way characters in novels do, instead of just whatever goofy thing that strikes them at the moment).
Because of this style of recap, I tend to include everything. If I drop a lead and they miss it during play, there is a chance they will read the recap and decide to double back. It honestly hasn't come up.
The players in this campaign, I must admit, have me spoiled right now. They tend to sniff out the important leads and take good notes, sometimes even surprising me by investigating something I didn't think they picked up on. They are running through POTA like a railroad and it's kinda not my fault.
I do understand that not many DMs have the time or desire to put the amount of writing that I do into their recaps, but this is a hobby after all and writing the recaps might be my favorite part.

Regardless, the Angry DM article on "the art of the recap" is probably the best advice you will find:

http://theangrygm.com/the-art-of-the-recap/

And to see my wrong way of doing it:

https://randomnumbersrpg.wordpress.com/session-recaps/

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Personally I don't do any recaps for the players, they keep their own log, which depending on who was log guy that night and how much bourbon he had can make the weekly recap quite interesting. So they need to find clues and record them if they find them interesting. If they don't keep a good log that is on them, I can't play the game for them.