Ask a GM [02/09/09]: Campaign / Adventure Logs

[templeorder]

A quick update. I've put in a very small incentive to encourage players to journal as well and its worked with very low success. Only 2 of a total of 15 players in three games have done it. So, as a ply test, journaling seems more of a luxury and something the players would prefer the GM's did as opposed to having to do it themselves. The one interesting thing i did find is how different some of the notes were on the same scenarios - but that just reinforces what police already know - eye witness accounts should not be counted on as evidence.

[Obah Bason]

For my real-life game, I've always rewarded players who have done logs or journals on my site for their characters.

Yep, same here. I have a facebook page where my players can add notes on what they thought was important or interesting to them after a game. It actually helps me seeing what they viewed as interesting, and what they dismissed as fluff.

[templeorder]

So, i moved my campaign log to Obsidian Portal, which has a great format to encourage this sort of stuff. I had one player do one journal entry right away. I've had one other player start posting a lot of comments on things. Its become a sort of journal for him, as he posts his comments in character. Its not the big payoff i hoped for, though I have got feedback that the players find it better organized and the experience easier to use than me posting web pages. Nearly all the main players, over 50%, have created accounts and taken ownership of their characters (of course i offered action points as incentives). This is very difficult to get people to do consistently. Some journal to capture a personal moment - something their character especially was involved in. One character made a journal just because he became literate (though it was far more expressive than his nominal skills would have allowed). Personal interest in the contents of the journal seems to most motivating thing - just doing it to have a good player record is not enough - it feels like they expect me, the GM, to do that sort of thing.