One problem I’ve encountered with various groups over the years is that either none of the players takes notes, including tracking things like treasure, XP, and the names of important NPCs they’ve met, or select players keep notes and don’t share. This leaves it up to me, as gamemaster, to keep track of everything, to remind them of things, and to take on an additional role as scribe and bookkeeper.
As an experiment, I created a Player Knowledge book for the Skullport Tales campaign. I took a report folder, put in some blank notebook paper, and wrote headings at the top: “XP”, “party treasure”, “people”, and “places”. To see it, I printed some pages with the names of NPCs and locations around Skullport that their knew or knew of, along with current XP and coinage. I threw it out onto the table, stating it was free for any or all of them to read and add to.
At the end of the game session, I got it back with all sorts of new notes in it. I hold onto it, and I can use it in conjuction with my own notes to design new adventures and write my actual play reports. To keep them reading it, I add a little bit of new information every week, whether it’s an NPC, a tavern, a shop, or a rumor or bit of gossip.
Soon I’m going to introduce hero points (from the Pathfinder Advanced Players Guide), and will slip a chip into the inside pocket of the folder; the first person to open and read the folder gets the chip. I’m also going to start rewarding people who add to the book by awarding them an extra hero point.
To me, this is a good way to get players more immersed in the world and participating in recording the campaign history. It’s working well so far, and it may become a permanent part of my gamemaster’s toolbox.
Any thoughts on how you would translate that to an online game? One of the advantages of the system you started is that it is pretty “in your face” in that you put the notebook right in front of them. Online, that feeling is much more difficult to generate.
I’ve been trying to figure out a way to incentivize my players into taking and, more importantly, sharing their notes.
Posted by Gerald | August 30, 2011, 11:10 amOne word, Gerald: “wiki”.
You can do similar things with Obsidian Portal, but when I played around with it way back when I didn’t like the TOS that said they had the right to publish your content. I may have misread that, or it may have changed. I have used Wikidot, and know people that use WetPaint, as wiki notebooks for online games.
I’m going to be awarding hero points for contributions. As I take the folder home between games, I can check to see who added to it and give them points at the start of the next game session. I may also award points during the game, if they get stuck and someone says “hey, check the player knowledge folder!”.
Posted by Berin Kinsman | August 30, 2011, 12:58 pmI agree that a wiki or other type of communal content tool should be the ideal solution, however I find that in practice it’s still primarily me (the DM) doing all the work and the players contributing from time to time.
What I really like about your solution, and one of the reasons I think it works, is because it is effectively “pushed” at the players. For example, I usually get feedback from my players when I send an email because that’s a “push”. However, I rarely get feedback from my players from communal sites like a wiki because that’s more of a “pull” technology – that is, the players each have to individually go to the site to see the information. With the email, they just get it, like it or not.
I suppose it’s really more about the right incentives. If I can get my players so involved in the scenarios and world that they have their own drive and motivation to participate, that’s when I’ll likely get the involvement I’m craving.
So, off to be a better and even more exciting DM!
Posted by Gerald | September 2, 2011, 2:23 pmI really like this idea. It combines the best of both worlds in a lot of ways. I usually do a session write up of what happened, but that’s mostly for my own notes/memory/GMing analysis.
I also think that the idea of a wiki is a good one, but in addition to, not instead of the physical book that can be handed around. As an educator there is a very well documented evidence that the physical act of writing is better for memory than typing, which will make it more likely that players remember anything they put in the book. And it also keeps any problems with tech-distraction “off the table”…so to speak.
Posted by ShadowAcid | August 31, 2011, 3:57 am