Well I need your guys help, I am not a very good writer but I think a Campaign Journal would be fun about my upcoming Rise of The Runelords game. I’m not sure if it’s worth the time, how could I improve my writing so it would be useful and entertaining to my reader. This is where I need your help I need you suggestions if I should do one and if I do one how should I do it?
So how should I write it up as a narrative or should I try to cover the different characters more in-depth and try to keep some of the dialog amongst players?
Should I focus on the Combats or the non combat parts of the game?
Or should I just write game summaries of what happened during the game?
It all depends on what you want to get out of it in the end. As a player I prefer to write in the first person form the perspective of my character, and I'd focus on one aspect of the game session that related to that character- maybe a specific battle or a the interplay between the other characters or NPCs. As a dm I tend to write a third person recap in the past tense, summarizing the events of the session. However, I also award the PCs xp (50 xp per level for a journal entry from the session) for keeping their own journals, which are done from the perspective's of the their characters. Because I'm doing the main recap stuff, they feel more free to write about whatever they feel like in their journals. As an example, in my current game (second darkness) we have a warforged with an intelligent sword and most of his journal entries are conversations/arguments between him and his blade (usually revolving around his performance in battle). Other characters have focused on having the journals be letters to relative and even the odd poem or song.
Summaries can get a little dull, but I usually try to liven them up by focusing on the most interesting parts of a session and glazing over other aspects. Still, I choose to do a summaries not so much for people that might read them online, but for myself and my players for posterity. I still post them online in case anyone else is interested enough to bother reading them. Of course if you're running a AP it's nice to put up your journal with some comments about troublespots you ran into and changes you made, as this gives other dms running the AP ideas and warning about possible areas that might be difficult to dm. As a result, I tend to read journals that are about whatever AP I happen to be running.
Well I need your guys help, I am not a very good writer but I think a Campaign Journal would be fun about my upcoming Rise of The Runelords game. I’m not sure if it’s worth the time, how could I improve my writing so it would be useful and entertaining to my reader. This is where I need your help I need you suggestions if I should do one and if I do one how should I do it?
So how should I write it up as a narrative or should I try to cover the different characters more in-depth and try to keep some of the dialog amongst players?
Should I focus on the Combats or the non combat parts of the game?
Or should I just write game summaries of what happened during the game?
Here's a suggestion from an admittedly nowhere-near-professional writer. Look through some of the Campaign Journals here. Pick out the ones you like the most. Then determine what you like the most about them. Is it the pulse-pounding action? Or is it the suspenseful story? And do you like the first-person perspective most or third-person? Once you've gotten a few ideas about what you like the most, try to emulate that. Don't worry if you don't do it perfectly. Most of us are NOT professional-grade writers. We all appreciate an act of love, though. I'd suggest James Jacobs' journals of Tyralandi Scrimm and Dungeon Grrrl's Black Days journals for two very different but very satisfying styles. There are plenty of other noteworthy journals, however. James focuses on the thought processes of his own character, telling the story from Tyralandi's perspective. Tyralandi does not sound the same as James does (at least, I hope not). The Black Days journals are from the third-person perspective and focus on what the party does in-game, complete with extra goodness revealed by the writer, who was the GM.
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So how should I write it up as a narrative or should I try to cover the different characters more in-depth and try to keep some of the dialog amongst players?
You'll be the DM in this campaign, right? As a DM, I think it's better to tell the story as a narrator than as one of the characters.
What you focus on is a matter of preference. I suggest to give a certain amount of information on the characters, describing their intertactions between each other and with the rest of the world, enough to make the story entertaining and to allow the readers to get a good picture of the characters. But at the same time, you don't want to put TOO many details, so you don't bore readers who prefer to read about the action. Also, writing the role-playing scenes is very time-consuming. You need to see how much time you're willing to put into writing the journal.
What helps a lot is if one of your players can write notes during the game and then give them back to you as a basis for your journal. Doesn't have to be nicely written or too complete, but at least you'll have a reminder of what happened. What is especially useful to have in notes is the information that the PC's got from talking with NPC's. As a DM, I find it's one of the hardest things, to remember from one game to the next what the PC's know and don't know about the plot yet.
Also, in my group, we record our games, so I can listen to the recording later when writing my log. It's very useful because then I can just transcribe word for word what was said in some key discussions during the game. It's quite time-consuming that way, so I don't do it all the time, but it's another tool that's available if you have the setup for it.
Should I focus on the Combats or the non combat parts of the game?
That's really up to you, and what you feel your readers will prefer. I find that writing about combat is a lot faster and easier than writing role-playing scenes. Also, you don't need to describe every single combat. For readers, the most entertaining aspect is of course to see how your group is going to handle the most dangerous/unusual encounters.
Or should I just write game summaries of what happened during the game?
Depends what goal you have for the journal. If it's just a tool for you and your players to keep a record of what was done, and to refresh your memory at the start of every game, a summary is plenty enough (and actually works better because the information is more condensed). If you're writing it for the entertainment of people on the boards, it's worth it to write something more entertaining to read.
Good luck with your game! :)
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I only just started my campaign journal for The World's Largest Dungeon (shameless plug,) but I've decided to write it in a style that is both summary and descriptive narrative. I'm the DM for the game so I don't really have a character's perspective on things, and it's a really long adventure with players starting at level 1 and, hopefully, advancing to level 20 so I don't have time to mince words. I'm still trying to throw some humor in there and detail the more suspenseful moments of the game, but I'll be skipping over alot of the minor battles and tedious exploration that is bound to occur. Maybe something like that can work for you?
I would advise posting two or three times per session, rather than putting up a single "monster" post each week as I have been doing on my latest journal. Smaller, more numerous posts tend to attract and keep other readers intrest for much longer than larger posts, as I have learned from experience. My earlier journals were divided into two or three posts per session. My Praxeum journal entries, however, have been running to about 7 A4 pages of ten point text per post and have received about a sixth as many comments per entry as my Khyber Rising journal did.
Secondly, try to find a narrative voice. Develop a style that suits you overtime rather than trying to cram your entries into someone elses format.
I will say though that you should spend as much time as possible working on your posts and avoid another of my recent errors -publishing the game notes raw and largely unedited. Try to give the flavour of a combat rather than dishing out a blow by blow account as I have done in Praxeum. The Praxeum journal suffers from a round by round narrative, which means constantly cutting from one characters action to the next in the intitiative order. That deliberate mistake came about due to time constraints. Given that I am a published author (by which I mean people pay me to publish my work), Im actually embaressed about the quality of my Star Wars Journal. At the time I started writing it I felt I had no choice but to publish my campaign notes raw and largely unedited (except for spelling) due to the pressures of my "real job" and other, paying, writing projects. Big mistake.
If you want folks to read your journal, put as much time and effort into it as you can spare. No-one expects a journal to read like "A Game of Thrones", but people can tell if your not putting your back into something.
Contrast the journal entries for my old WFRP game, here: http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/gaming/campaignJournals/bein gATrueAndHonestAccountOfTheTrialsAndTribulationsOfSeigfriedVonSchwimmerByGo spardOfNuln
With the ones in my "The Praxeum of Master Thesoom" journal and you'll see what I mean about effort.
And finally, make sure you pick a good, eye-catching name. "The Praxeum of Master Thessom?" What was I thinking.
Try to pick a name that invokes the themes of your campaign, while giving readers an idea of the setting. I mean really, looking at the title of my campaign, would YOU think it was an al-Jedi StarWars campaign?
Basically, take Praxeum as a good example of what to avoid in a campaign journal. I truly believe that only myself and the other players ever bother reading it. Folks might overlook one or two of these flaws. But no one will overlook all of them in a single journal.
Good luck. I will be reading your journal with interest.
I'd say you have to answer the question: "Who am I writing this journal for...myself? My players? The members of Paizo?"
Your players already know what happens in the game...they are living it! And you, as the DM, know what happens and what is going to happen since you are running it. Your outside audience is just that - an audience who is tuning in to read about your game. Once you figure out who you are writing for, then you can decide if you are going to narrate, write in character, in third person, scribble notes, etc.
I've never kept a campaign journal, but I do write my games out fairly thoroughly along with player input. When I post, I take the player's responses/actions/comments and incorporate them into what I call group posts, thereby making the players a part of the story that I am telling. So, in that way, I write for myself, my players, and anyone else who wants to lurk and follow along.
Well I started my Journal I dont think its very good but its a start im doing it an Entry per day