Stephan Hornick
Community Goblin & Master of the Archive
Platinum WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
Borderland Explorer
I am one of those GMs that regularly writes session summaries for me and my players.
I think it is easier to write session summaries as a GM than as a player, because as a GM I planned a lot of the events that happened in the session and went through the most important things already vividly several times in my mind even before the session.
A player on the other hand just experiences it one time.
I appreciate it if a player writes a summary. Their point of view is important and tells me as a GM a lot of things. Also, if it is written in-character (which I definitely prefer) it adds to the world, it is usually a great read and a fantastic contribution to the story.
I usually give away additional CP / XP / Karma / or whatever your system has to offer for those players that do this little extra work.
But it doesn't mitigate my need for a GM summary.
So let's now concentrate on a session summary created by a GM.
The purpose is for me to...
What are your approaches to session summaries?
I think it is easier to write session summaries as a GM than as a player, because as a GM I planned a lot of the events that happened in the session and went through the most important things already vividly several times in my mind even before the session.
A player on the other hand just experiences it one time.
I appreciate it if a player writes a summary. Their point of view is important and tells me as a GM a lot of things. Also, if it is written in-character (which I definitely prefer) it adds to the world, it is usually a great read and a fantastic contribution to the story.
I usually give away additional CP / XP / Karma / or whatever your system has to offer for those players that do this little extra work.
But it doesn't mitigate my need for a GM summary.
So let's now concentrate on a session summary created by a GM.
The purpose is for me to...
- Keep track of what happened during the session.
- Keep track of names of NPCs, places, items, factions, etc.
- Keep track of acquired items, used items, remaining food, hit points, fatigue points, mana points, wounds, afflictions, DCs, spell durations, etc.
- Keep track of the timeline, dates, festivities, moon cycles, weekday, months, seasons, saintsdays, etc.
- Keep track of world events, rumors, clues, etc.
- Keep track of descriptions of NPCs, places, items, etc.
- Have a summary that is easy to access at a later time
- Have a summary that is nice to read for the GM, the players, and even for publishing or showing other GMs and interested parties
- Have a summary that can be used for analyzing session structures, adventure structure, campaign structure for future learning
- Have a summary that I can go through afterwards to take out descriptions to copy and paste to the NPC or place profiles, note that I introduced (spontaneously) new elements of the world, to which I can then add world information in other sections. E.g. I mentioned recently "dynosauric raptors in the Bitter Plains " in one of my summaries, so I created a new sheet for those and added four different kinds of those raptors, I wrote a short story about them, and made up a faction that is working with these, and then I got raptor riding nomadic elves in my world. That is a great procedure, me thinks!
- Motivate players to go back to the summaries to read up on the past or previous sessions, to look for clues that they may have overheard or overseen or that only become evident to them after several sessions later
- Also, I use it to memo for myself (in a hidden section) future loops or ideas
- And I make it editable by my players to add information (in their own section) for correction, missed or confused parts, but also for their ideas on what is going on, their realizations or opinions
- (EDIT) I write them as a reminder for my players between sessions, to excite them for the upcoming game.
- (EDIT) And also very important to me: They need to be exciting to read. I want the reader to somewhat relive the emotional rollercoaster that we played through. To catch the mood, so to speak. For me, for my players, and for potential other readers.
What are your approaches to session summaries?
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