I'm embarking upon a series of articles about different methods of journaling solo RPG adventures.
I've come up with these 8 methods:
verbal
keeping it inside your head
writing it as if its a novel
journaling
brief notes
drawing
animation
illustrated writing (a book with illustrations throughout)
What methods do you use and how do you do it?
Performance art :) J/k. Writing it down.
ReplyDeleteEdited to add: I've thought, but never tried, implementing an Actual Play Report as a Twine "app". This was after playing a short Scarlet Heroes hexcrawl, and getting killed multiple times.
I was too attached to my character, so each time I died, I wrote an epilogue and started again at the point before the decision that led to my PC's death.
I mostly journal. I like having it in a format where I can return to it and get re-acquainted with the story. However, I am trying a brief notes method right now.
ReplyDeleteNow drawing is not something I've considered... having just played a great game of The Quiet Year (RP-game with map drawing) with my kids, I am thinking it could be fun.
There was a blogger who liked to include hand drawn portraits with his Mythic write ups. I think he removed the blog because he wasn't getting enough visitors, though.
ReplyDeleteI think that if you include dungeon crawling into solo RP'ing, then drawing is actually pretty common. Beyond that kind of sketch, though, I think it's uncommon.
As Alex Yari mentioned, if you include dungeon crawling, which is gaming i do often, then drawing is common as the map alone requires that. But since I write it all down, i suppose hybrid. My favorite approach to record keeping, as a reader, is the fictitious newspaper approach common among solo wargamers who do Imaginations gaming.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, when I'm a player in a social game, i often use drawings to document the session - drawing an NPC or a location in my crude and creepy child-like way.
This is a challenge we all face, so good the issue is being brought up. Experimenting with brief notes, even bullet points, is something I strive to refine; however, things end up always being longer, because I feel like the details make it interesting. Another option of journaling on the briefer side, is to simply save the scribbles of all the mechanical bits (hit points, area map, etc.). I've tried this a few times, and sometimes it's successful. I often snap pics of the notes with my phone and store them digitally.
ReplyDeleteHybrid. I either maintain a two column ledger (game notes on one side, dialogue on the other) or have a running stream of text posts with game info wrapped in spoiler tags.
ReplyDeleteAlex Yari Interesting, one of the tools that I'm learning now is ComiPo, a manga creation tool. I was specifically thinking about using it to illustrate scenes and characters for my next solo run.
ReplyDeleteI must be alone when it comes to keeping it in my head!
ReplyDeleteI have a great memory and strong imagination, so I can usually picture everything from just the Mythic lists I keep.
I've tried journaling or logging a couple of times already and find that method gets in the way of wanting to start play in the first place, and isn't the pace I prefer to play at.
Sometimes a game dies out when I break from it too long, or I do try to pick it up again only to find that I can't produce the same tone it had before. That's just what I risk in order to play the way I want to.
I'd like to say that Mark Mintz from the Mythic Yahoo Group also likes to keep it all inside his head, but I can't remember from sure. I know there were a couple of old members who recommended that approach.
ReplyDeleteDoug Yednock For those who want to duplicate as much of social gaming as possible, that's probably the best way to go about it. I'm pretty sure at least one person in the social campaign I run doesn't even know what's on their character sheet, and more than half the group has no idea what happened the previous session by the time we meet again (we play on average once a month, so lot's of time to forget). I used to write AARs for all of my wargames but stopped because i hated the way documentation (often pictures) interrupted the flow of the game. I really should try to play an RPG without tracking everything (i'd probably still write it up after as a short narrative, but then, i do that when i am a player in a social game too). Thanks for the reminder that it's possible to play solo this way!
ReplyDeleteDoug Yednock Man, I wish I could keep it all in my head. But, between work (computer programming), other hobbies (3D graphics and game design) and domestic life, I have to time share my imaginary spaces. :-)
ReplyDeleteOne issue for me with keeping it all in my head is that nothing feels "set" or "final" unless I commit to it somehow. That often takes the form of writing it down.
ReplyDeleteNot to go too far afield, but i wonder if there is a way to make forgetting (or even that lack of set-ness or finality that Alex Yari mentioned) part of the game play. I have often seen solo wargamers mention that they let time pass between each side's turn so they can forget what their intentions were. Of course, with a wargame, there is generally something that can be left in situ, whereas RPGs don't often have any useful memory tickling artifacts.
ReplyDeletejohn yorio I think that drawing maps sort of points in that direction. The Quiet Year, which Zach Best mentioned upthread, and CHronicles of Skin, probably take that idea even further. I have not played either game, but have read some actual plays. I'm assuming that the drawing they require is not very demanding, so that must be a plus.
ReplyDeleteGetting away from maps, I guess other artifacts like your character sheet, any NPC stats you used, etc, could also go some way towards jogging one's memory.
That lack of finality can be helpful at times. I've put a session together only to realize it lacked inspiration, or derailed the plot to a point that is no longer fun. I can just wipe back to an earlier point if I make that decision soon enough.
ReplyDeleteAfter a bit of time has passed, it can be helpful for me to re-imagine what's happened since the beginning, the way I would tell someone else as if it were a social session. The context of each previous event reminds me of how I used that very same context to drive the story forward.
Doug Yednock Picking up a Ground Hog's Day or Butterfly Effect vibe. :-)
ReplyDeleteLots of interesting thoughts and ideas here.
ReplyDeleteI've tried a brief game with keeping it in my head but I didn't enjoy that game much. I find that by writing it down I enjoy my games better.
With the idea of forgetting things and using that in game. I can see an Elder Horror game working well with that approach.
ReplyDeleteYou forget things because you don't want to remember what you've done and what you've seen...
Aye, one of the perks to solo gaming is you can flash forward and back without disturbing the game for everyone else. Like an informal version of Microscope, you can always branch the story or go back and explore something interesting.
ReplyDeleteFor myself, I typically just write it all out with my own mechanical notes in a different color or font so it's easy to just read narrative. I did recently build this awesome character in MSH and couldn't figure out how to write up his background. I settled on interviews between the authorities and people that have seen or know the hero but not with the hero himself. It sort of describes not just what the hero is like or has done but also carries a strong tone of how different people see him. A young girl he saved versus his partner versus Captain America - these all see him in a different light and writing a session as a sort of "Just give me the facts" interrogation of a goon really appeals to me.
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