PC Logs

[Imagus]

I like this one too...

We did have something similar once: a friend of mine guest-starred as the Romulan counterpart to the player first officer. The idea was that he would be a recurring character, with this guy always play him.

The player opted to do a Romulan version of personal logs. Then he went one step further, got hold of an old laptop computer, whipped up a Romulan Windows desktop theme, and spent most of the session typing reports to the Tal Dian in a somewhat sinister fashion...

It added a lot to the game!

[Greg Davis]

That sounds cool, Imagus!

I'm glad that so many different people think that logs are a cool idea. In fact, I'm somewhat surprised that LUG didn't recommend doing something like that in the rules. Heck, they may have, and I just missed it.

If I had any sort of design skill, I'd try and whip up some sort of "Personal / Department Log Entry Form", as a game aid. If nothing else, it would be useful for keeping notes during an adventure.

As to the laptop use, our group occasionally uses our graphic calculators as PADD's, and as Tricorders. It works good as a roleplaying tool.

Of course, my group is something in between a tabletop group and a live-action group...so maybe we're just a little weird!



Greg

[Calcoran]

Do we use PC logs? Well, yes, by all means! For one thing, we found out that without logs, we were often unable to remember key elements from previous sessions ... that's even more embarassing for me as I'm supposed to be the GM . No, we don't have a memory problem, but we tend to have rather long games (over the week-end: Saturday 12-14 hours, a bit of sleep, then sunday 6-8 hours), but way too seldom (once every 2 or 3 months). Writing logs helps keeping last adventures in mind.
On the other hand, writing logs for a 20 hours session can be cumbersome at times, so I award experience (1-3 also) for those. Players usually write one log every 2 sessions, and I sometimes write one, either their commanding officer's, or any other character's which I feel could offer an interesting/unforeseen insight. With 3-4 players, this gives us an average of 2 logs per session, which helps covering most of what happened during the session.
It also helps roleplay, for sure, but IMO my players have yet to find their own style ... or get accustomed to the traditionnal "Trek Log" style for the logs to convey the right feeling. I think what you suggested (breaking down the log into several smaller pieces corresponding each to a day or the end of a shift) could help us there ... I'm going to suggest it to my players .

The only thing that's sometimes a bit frustrating for me (as a GM) is seeing how much the players tend to forget from what's supposed to have happened to their characters. Or how often they tend to get it wrong ... gosh, how can I be <I>that</I> bad at describing things?
The funny thing is that I had never noticed how bad it could get until we began to use those logs
...
Just wondering: has any other GM here ever felt something like that too?

[Greg Davis]

We've experienced that too, Calcoran. If it helps, I'll pass along what we did to remedy the problem of a player not paying adequate attention to the game.

In our group, the player that controls the medical officer used to have attention issues, to the point that she'd actually fall asleep during the game. Well, she didn't want to be the odd person out, so she'd write her log entries, using her only partially complete knowledge of the adventure.

Well, after a few adventures where this occured, Starfleet came to investigate the ship. It appeared that her log entries didn't match up with the log entries for other officers that had taken part in the same situations, so Starfleet felt that there was sufficient reason to investigate, since it was possible that there was some sort of cover-up or discrepancy occuring.

After that, and the character getting into a fair amount of trouble, she began to pay quite a bit more attention.



Greg

[Calcoran]

Actually, I don't recall reading anything about logs for PCs in LUG books. I got the idea from Ambre diceless RPG, which quantifies rewards for different types of reports, novels, or anything the players feel like writing/drawing/and so on that he feels might enhance the gaming experience of the campaign. I thought it would be well suited for Trek, as TV episodes often begin or end on one of the main cast's log.

[Calcoran]

About players not paying adequate attention to the game ...
We had this sleeping problem a lot when we were student and used to play at night (8PM till 3AM, once or twice a week), and 2 or 3 of us used to doze off a bit after 1AM ... though never at the same time, so we had always 3 players fit at any time . Now that we're working, we have to wait for the week-end to play, so doziness is not as big a problem , but strangely enough, misunderstandings seem to happen rather more often than it did. I wonder it it's because logs make them more obvious, or if it's simply that they do happen more often ...

Anyhow, I can hardly want to punish my players for not paying attention or getting it wrong, after all everyone is there to have fun. Maybe it's just us getting old ... and deaf too . Maybe roleplaying needs training and we're not training enough! Maybe I'm loosing my GM skills! Aaaaargh!

[Desslok]

MANY moons ago I was playing in a game where we played ourselves, revived after being frozen into a post-oops Earth with high tech and magic (ala Rifts). Since I enjoy writing as a hobby (and I'll skip over the fun involved in writing porn...) I started to keep a log in character.

The log, titled "Where and Back Again" was an instant hit!!! Almost all my players begged to read my post session additions!!!

Some of the fun in John's game included Nikki, a cute, innocent 'lil D-cupper of a lass who had a knockout body BUT didn't realize she had a knockout 'bod. The main bad guy, Ezekiel, had captured her, and we planned her rescue. My write up went something like this:

"As we drew up our plans, my mind couldn't help but to think of poor little Nikki, held by the evil one. In his secret torture chamber, her naked body writhes against the leather straps, Ezekiel's slimy hands caressing her young, nubile, firm yet soft body. Nikki moaned in a weird mix of horror and arousal, a bead of sweat running down the gentle curve of her bre...um, er, brow..."

Fun, huh?

YES, even Nikki loved it...

What I did was jotted down notes during the gaming; alas, this meant I missed out on gaming participation, but the GM understood. After the game, I re-wrote my notes into something readable. AND next session, the 3 ring binder, thicker, made it's way around players and GM...

ANYHOW, IF you have a GM who is willing to make allowances, and can write well, it is a LOT of fun!!! DO IT!!!

Hmmmm...maybe I should post the whole thing to our gameclub's website?

[khyber]

My brother and I are the primary GMs of our adventures. Instead of our PCs keeping a log, I am the keeper of the Archive (that's what I call our collection of logs).

What I do is tape each game on audio cassette then transcribe the game in the form of a story story (about 20 - 30 pages long). This results in excellent continuity and as a GM, I can use an off- handed comment that a PC made during an adventure and turn it into a whole story.

Currently my Archive contains 230 log files. I also keep a database of all the information included in the logs such as people, planets, technological items, etc.. Soon the database will reach 5000 entires.

This Archive is an invaluable reference guide for me and the PCs.
It has taken me nearly 10 years to get it the way I want.

[Greg Davis]

Damn Khyber...that's dedication!

I don't think I could offer that sort of dedication to a roleplaying game, though I really wish I could.



Greg

[Ineti]

I've never been able to tape the sessions, but sometimes I wish I could have. So many tangents and wonderful one-liners get lost...

In the SW game I'm running now, I have a player who takes copious notes (even to the extent of who hits who in combat and the damage dealt out). I take his notes and transcribe them. He tends to catch just about every conversation or event in the game. I can't tell you how valuable this is, especially when the session veers sharply away from my outline and I resort to ad-libbing scenes.

[khyber]

I used to take detailed notes, but it began to get in the way of playing so I decided to use a tape recorder. A few times I video taped our sessions, but I didn't like watching us just sitting there.

The one disadvantage of audio recording is that when the GM pulls out a picture of an NPC we all know and he just says, "you see this guy." Sometimes it is several weeks before I transcribe the session, so I tend to forget who that guy was. Now I purposely say the name of the NPC to get the reference.

I'm not as dedicated as I would like to be but I've had 16 years of tweaking my logs and database to finally get it the way I want it.

Right now, my group only plays about 5 times a year. For a few years, we would play 36 times a year with most sessions lasting 6 or 7 hours. Real life tends to get in the way now.

[Don Mappin]

Originally posted by Greg Davis
I'm glad that so many different people think that logs are a cool idea. In fact, I'm somewhat surprised that LUG didn't recommend doing something like that in the rules. Heck, they may have, and I just missed it.

We did, it was in the Players' Guide. The entries I wrote up I even stole from my own game that was running at the time. Cless Mora anyone?

Logs (and other player-created aids) are good tools but should be non-compulsory. Remember that not all players are comfortable doing such projects, don't enjoy the extra "work," or lack the skill to do so. Players can become upset if, say, a player with writing skill writes up all these log entries and gets extra XP while the player with no writing skill has no such avenue.

[Ineti]

Originally posted by Don Mappin

Logs (and other player-created aids) are good tools but should be non-compulsory. Remember that not all players are comfortable doing such projects, don't enjoy the extra "work," or lack the skill to do so. Players can become upset if, say, a player with writing skill writes up all these log entries and gets extra XP while the player with no writing skill has no such avenue.

Very true. I kept the XP awards for writing logs and such very modest. The non-writers of the group tended to make up for their lack of XP for writing in other ways; wearing uniforms or bringing a character-specific prop, or role-playing really well (using a character voice and/or mannerisms).