I've taken to keeping an in-character journal during my games (and yes, my character also keeps a journal :) ).
Does anyone else do this, or am I the anomaly here?
I'm thinking about using a journal I got a bit ago and setting up star charts in it's pages and filling the different locations with chemical formulas.
Take a guess what the character will be.
I'm thinking about using a journal I got a bit ago and setting up star charts in it's pages and filling the different locations with chemical formulas.
Take a guess what the character will be.
A barbarian?
You're not an anomaly. There's a section of the forums dedicated to campaign journals. Many of these are written in-character, by one character.
A barbarian?I'm thinking about using a journal I got a bit ago and setting up star charts in it's pages and filling the different locations with chemical formulas.
Take a guess what the character will be.
Incorrect, An alchemist. The power of the stars and various astronomical event factored into the study of classic alchemy, the forerunner of chemistry.
My wife and I take turns doing this. One of our characters is the in-character chronicler for a given campaign. In one of our old D&D 3.0 campaigns, it happened to be my Wizard who was keeping the journal. I amused myself by letting his raven familiar make a couple of the entries (he couldn't write, of course, but he could dictate.)
It's sufficiently useful to the group that the GM awards bonus XP to the character doing it.
It's also useful as a means of remind players what's been happening in the campaign, especially if your group meets irregularly. Sure, things are colored by the view of the writer, but hey, they at least then remember the name of whomever it was that just screwed them over last session :)
I do it as a GM and as a player. It is not always a journal, sometimes it takes the form of the front page of a local paper near where the players are located or a story that unfolds as the campaign progress, etc.
I had a lot of fun creating the "Endhome Gazette" while GMing Barakus from Necromancer/Frog God a few years back. Sometimes the articles reflected stuff the characters were involved with, sometimes plot hooks, major NPC's, etc.
Incorrect, An alchemist. The power of the stars and various astronomical event factored into the study of classic alchemy, the forerunner of chemistry.A barbarian?I'm thinking about using a journal I got a bit ago and setting up star charts in it's pages and filling the different locations with chemical formulas.
Take a guess what the character will be.
I knew that it was either an alchemist or the outside money was on the old astronomer class from Dragon. So I decided to go with Barbarian in a test of Poe's law, figuring that no-one could take that guess seriously...
...
And you knew all that and baited me into replying like this, didn't you? You magnificent B******!
Incorrect, An alchemist. The power of the stars and various astronomical event factored into the study of classic alchemy, the forerunner of chemistry.A barbarian?I'm thinking about using a journal I got a bit ago and setting up star charts in it's pages and filling the different locations with chemical formulas.
Take a guess what the character will be.
I knew that it was either an alchemist or the outside money was on the old astronomer class from Dragon. So I decided to go with Barbarian in a test of Poe's law, figuring that no-one could take that guess seriously...
...
And you knew all that and baited me into replying like this, didn't you? You magnificent B******!
Astronomer class, do tell?
Astronomer class, do tell?Incorrect, An alchemist. The power of the stars and various astronomical event factored into the study of classic alchemy, the forerunner of chemistry.A barbarian?I'm thinking about using a journal I got a bit ago and setting up star charts in it's pages and filling the different locations with chemical formulas.
Take a guess what the character will be.
I knew that it was either an alchemist or the outside money was on the old astronomer class from Dragon. So I decided to go with Barbarian in a test of Poe's law, figuring that no-one could take that guess seriously...
...
And you knew all that and baited me into replying like this, didn't you? You magnificent B******!
Dragon 340, Feb 2006. Page 36, Master Astronloger prestige class.
Summary: Full caster, bonus feats, rapid spell prep when can see stars, bonus casting spells against targets who's star-sign you know, change the positions of stars and planets to communicate with other astrologers, spontaneous metamagic. Capstone: 1/day align the stars in your favor for +4 caster level and DC AND +50% numerical (range, duration, area, damage, healing, targets, ect).
All in all pretty badass. Issue also includes stuff on Horoscopes in D&D (Pre pathfinder).
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Don't forget the Magus of the Starry Host from Green Ronin's TESTAMENT setting (the official "Biblical Adventures" setting to date) - the class is frustratingly executed, unfortunately (every new spell you learn after the few you start with requires a special stargazing pilgrimage that has to be made on foot and can't necessarily be folded into your other adventures, though in a passing nod to how such things worked before 3rd Edition, it does say that the DM should give you experience for learning spells in this manner), but there's still enough there to hack it the rest of the way into working.
Astronomer class, do tell?Incorrect, An alchemist. The power of the stars and various astronomical event factored into the study of classic alchemy, the forerunner of chemistry.A barbarian?I'm thinking about using a journal I got a bit ago and setting up star charts in it's pages and filling the different locations with chemical formulas.
Take a guess what the character will be.
I knew that it was either an alchemist or the outside money was on the old astronomer class from Dragon. So I decided to go with Barbarian in a test of Poe's law, figuring that no-one could take that guess seriously...
...
And you knew all that and baited me into replying like this, didn't you? You magnificent B******!
Dragon 340, Feb 2006. Page 36, Master Astronloger prestige class.
Summary: Full caster, bonus feats, rapid spell prep when can see stars, bonus casting spells against targets who's star-sign you know, change the positions of stars and planets to communicate with other astrologers, spontaneous metamagic. Capstone: 1/day align the stars in your favor for +4 caster level and DC AND +50% numerical (range, duration, area, damage, healing, targets, ect).
All in all pretty badass. Issue also includes stuff on Horoscopes in D&D (Pre pathfinder).
Interesting, I was somewhat basing my own plan off the old Geometer prestige class. Something about that always called out to me about the stars.
I never did any in character writing as it seemed really time consuming, but I'm actually keeping one now as a DM for my Slumbering Tsar campaign; a giant topic of them here for that game inspired me. I get the feeling its something that I'm going to be glad I did later.
I started keeping a journal a few years back of everything that happens during a session. I also include the in-game date and if we leveled up. I should write the actual date of each session too... I make a point to mention each PC by name in each journal entry.
Anyways, reading aloud the previous journal entry at the start of a session helps us keep our brains in the story. I can look back to remember a name or place too. They might be fun to read years from now too.