Role Playing Tips - By Johnn Four
6 TIPS FOR GREAT CAMPAIGN JOURNALS
1. Reward All Contributions
Although journals are their own reward in the long run, an
immediate incentive from the game master can help a player
pad the possible short term pain or lack of enthusiasm for
keeping a campaign journal. Give out experience points, hero
points, or story points relative to the size of the
contribution. Also consider a few good luck or good kharma
bonuses, such as automatic successes, fortunate events or
pleasant surprises.
2. Make The Journal An Event & It Will Become Its Own Reward
Make the journal a celebration of the players, GM and shared
campaign experience. Integrate it during play and make it
important. i.e. "Reading of the Scrolls" at start of
sessions to review last session's PC antics; ask players
when they request information from the campaign journal that
they do it in-character; the GM can request journal
information in a flattering and grandiose manner to
acknowledge the player's journalizing dedication. Have fun
with it and make it part of the play.
3. Keep The Journal Interesting & It Will Keep The
Interest Of The Journalizer
Instead of a boring chronology of events, make the journal
interesting by writing from the character's point of view--
including his/her prejudices, opinions, insults and
compliments. Add personal comments about other characters in
the journal: their feats, high points, low points. It makes
it entertaining for everyone to read and for the
journalizer to write. And if the other party members
disagree with his/her opinions, well, they can just start
their own journal now can't they?
4. Take Brief Notes In-Session And Flesh Out Afterwards
During sessions, just focus on grabbing the important
details and flesh things out during slow periods or after
the game. Use point form notation, mind mapping or page
spidering to capture the main points quickly without
interrupting your play.
From: M. Sapp:
"The most realistic trick I've found is to keep quick notes
and fill in the blanks later that night or the next day. The
following is a quick list of things to jot down. Names,
places, travel time, enemies fought, things found and any
one liners that you really liked; keep these notes divided
by day, follow up on filling in the details after the game
and a nice journal begins to form."
5. Use A Tape Recorder Discreetly & Strategically
From Aric Wieder:
"For the single person or Gm that wants to have their own
Journal to write up that has their own particular flair, a
small tape recorder works the best. Just put it on record at
the times you feel it is important to your Journal and then
compile a journal at the end of each session. The best part
about this one is the fact that you can also record some of
the cool and exciting quotes from the characters about the
villains, situations or strange spoutings."
From: M.Sapp
"...they [audio and video equipment] are simply too
obtrusive and bothersome to be effective. Audio tapes have
to be changed frequently and a tripod for a Camcorder gets
in the way. Extension cords solve the battery problem but
get underfoot. A game session can turn into an 'I love lucy'
skit when the guy playing a barbarian trips on the cord and
catapults your two hundred dollar Camcorder into the dining
room wall."
Lesson learned: use a small tape recorder in a discreet
manner to just record the highlights of a session as they
happen.
6. Commit & Keep Your Self-Promise
Understand that journalizing does take some time and effort.
There is no hands-free technique unfortunately. So make it a
real goal to keep a journal and then do it. Do it every
session and don't get frustrated if you feel you're not
doing a perfect job. Just by keeping up with it your skills
will improve, journalizing will become habit and therefore
much easier. And soon the journal grow and become inspiring
all by itself.
More tips and advice from readers than can be included here
are available at the Roleplayingtips.com web site. A special
thanks to Mark J. Young for his very thorough and valuable
response. This information can be found here:
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/a-journal_tips.html
Have more fun at every game!
Johnn Four