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For me, this question always comes down to the division of labor between players and GMs. On the one hand, taking control of the session recap allows a GM to set the tone for a session and make sure that all the most important plot info is written down. On the other hand, overworked GMs need a break! Letting a player take the reigns as party scribe can lighten the workload. Moreover, in-character journals can be a lot of fun, and you wind up missing out on those when you decide to write all the sessions summaries in the Omniscient GM mode.
So how about it? How do you go about organizing your notes? How do you handle recapping at the beginning of sessions? Give me your best practices, tips, tricks, and you all your finest et ceteras!
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I’ve handled this in a lot of different ways. Still am not completely satisfied with my current approach.
What I currently do is host session summaries on Obsidian portal. After each session I do a detailed session summary from my GM notes. Me providing the Raw details, gives the players more freedom to not tell the whole story but just focus on what was Interesting to their character. Then for every player that posts in response “in character” I gift a 10% discount coupon at a magic shop to that player. I find that without a reward only one or two players post. With it, EVERYONE posts.
The only part of this I dislike is that it is more work for me. Especially since I do my best to make it an enjoyable read and not just raw facts. The big plus of my current approach is that it gives me an opportunity to emphasize important details that some players may not have absorbed during the session.
If I'm a player? I take out my notes from the last session and do a quick summary. A few games I was in, I've even written up a list of "things we haven't checked in on for a while."
If I'm a GM... I do the same.
( deepest of sighs )
What I wouldn't give for a note taker at my table...
We have a private message board; I write recaps of every session from the perspective of one of the PC's henchpersons. My players read the recaps before the session starts.
I also track NPC names, monsters, weaknesses and strategies my players uncovered, etc. in separate threads.
I found that this makes it much easier for players to remember names and not get lost in complex plots. :)
We've done a bunch of different things. But usually one player does some kind of an in-character recap, and the DM summarizes anything they want underlined.
In one campaign, we've got a PC druid who reads from his diary of sorts.
In another, we've got a player who reads a poem recap as if his PC was writing them.
In the past, we've had a familiar who was reporting to the PC's deity.
We've had a cleric of Gorum telling the tale as if it were war-stories.
But basically, at the table, it's always a player in-character, followed by the DM out-of-character.
Usually the in-character stuff is very funny, and also cleverly designed so anyone who attended can recognize what happened but anyone who wasn't there just doesn't get the jokes. It's a bonus reward for attending.
My all-time favorite in-character recap was "the party went to sleep and were uninterrupted." Two players couldn't attend so I ran a special dream-infused six-hour session for those who could... but none of it happened physically. The players had a riot because things were super surreal and over-the-top. And... sort of private.
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I always pick the player with the worst memory for context and have him provide a recap. Then everyone corrects the record
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Well I make my own notes post session because I tend to forget stuff and I work and have a family. So I’ll have my characters interpretation of it. Others in my groups have zero interest in even leveling up at times it seems. But that’s them, frustrating yes but also it’s life: this is my main hobby for others it’s just something to do.