Group Adventure Log

[Darksyde]

Just wondering how you guys handle these. Been trying to decide how strict I feel like being. I tend to end up with one or two players that do the majority of the work. I've definitely considered requiring everyone write /something/ from session to session to get their portion of Log Legend Points. Is that reasonable or just being picky so long as any of them turn in something for the log?

[Jason]

I would say that it is something that is up to your group.

In game wise... the Thoral Library is paying you for your journals and the stories of what you do is spreading your legend which impacts the whole group. Now I could reasonally see, if only one or two people were writing the logs, they could skew the legend toward the writers.

[Flowswithdrek]

In the early days of playing Earthdawn, my whole gaming group took it in turns to fill in a group journal. This was fun because often one of the group would then read what the previous person had written and contradict it in an in character style, perhaps even suggesting they were horror tainted for having written such drivel. When the group dynamic changed, we went to individual journals. Now the dynamic has changed again and only one of the characters writes a journal, and yes they get more silver and legend points than the other players who can't be bothered. I encourage my players to keep a journal, but don't press the matter. As a GM a character journal is a great tool. You can see how your plot lines are being interpreted and if have taken the bait or if they are going off in a tangent. It might be lazy, but it also means you don't have to take as many notes

[The Undying]

Adventure Logs should serve a purpose to the players. At a minimum, they should probably be a recorded of a significant people, places, things, and actions. That way, they can reference back as a reminder. If you want to help encourage that as a GM, you can just not prompt them with reminders about things during play, but that can be unfairly detrimental to both play groups that don't meet often and the GM relying on continuity to provide drama and interest.

Ultimately, though, you shouldn't force players to do something they don't want to do. As GM, you have the right to reject entries - they don't need to be epic tales written with lavish flare, but pretty sure the Library would reject something that said "went north, killed people, returned a thing" or similarly useless for their purposes.

Back when Earthdawn & I were dating, I ended up keeping the group journal since my companions couldn't be bothered. I actually kept two, both in-character. One was the public one that we submitted to Throal, and one was private. The GM had access to both, and the private one served as a way to help him understand how I was interpreting some of the more risque stuff we were doing as well as how I justified some of the directions I was taking my character. My companions complained form time to time about the public one, while Shale liked to call "the Eristed show," but I told him to pound sand: Erist is no scribe, it is a journal, he writes in the first person, with emphasis on what happens to and around him, rather than flowing prose about how his friend routinely smashes things and ignoring how Eristed is frantically wedging a cadaverman's jaw away from his neck because it slipped through the front line. I shared some of the material, in various forms, over on the "Adventurer's Journal" subforum. Then, Earthdawn broke my heart, and the journals turned back into minimalist bullet points until we stopped.

If you'd like to see an example of one table's rotating log duty, jump over to Panda's Gaming Grove.

[Dougansf]

We use Obsidian Portal to keep logs. Tha author gets a reward, and the rest of the party gets half that reward. If someone else adds to the entry in a meaningful way, they can earn the other half of the reward.

That's in addition to personal journals.

[Tattered Rags]

I'm resurrecting this thread because I have a highly related question about handling group adventure logs.

How do you handle handing them in? When do you grant the LP, when it's written or when it's handed over to a scholar at the Library? Do you roleplay any of these exchanges (e.g.: the first time they do it)?

Associated, I have an idea to do something like what Panda does and add a scholar's commentary, but I want to build some player attachment to that. (Granted, haven't even played session 1, so I'm getting ahead of myself.)

[Slimcreeper]

I haven't read this in a while, and I must say I love Flowswithdreck's contribution about characters reading a log that another had written to recap the session!

The downside of tying it to returning it to Throal directly each time is that it ties your group to Throal. You may want to be more free wheeling than that. The motivation from the legend and silver will lessen if it's not very immediate. I think a lot of groups just give the reward at the time of writing. If you want it in game, I would have Throalic traveling scholars posted in every major settlement authorized to issue payment.

[Tattered Rags]

If you want it in game, I would have Throalic traveling scholars posted in every major settlement authorized to issue payment.

Whoa, this makes a lot more sense than what I was originally thinking (some magical post). I mean, the scholars could be using magic to convey the logs back, but the layer of a scholar in between the players and the Library is what I wanted.

Thanks! Ideas are a-coming.

[Mataxes]

In my old "Riders on the Storm" game from the late 90s, the group rotated journal duties and I would award Legend when the player turned in their entry.

They group did turn copies of their journal in to the Great Library, but I never tied the legend award to that event. (And in my game, the ties to Throal were never a problem -- the group worked for the crown many times and even were awarded property in one of the Inner Cities as a reward for one mission.)

[Tattered Rags]

I think they were talking about adventure ties to the region. That is, hard to be in the badlands if you keep having to return to Throal.

Or is that what you meant, too?