I hadn’t seen this, fantastic!
I always wrote a recap right after each session because it helped keep a history of what happened and made sure I didn’t lose track of things.
Andyougotablessing andyougotablessing andyougotablessing andyougotablessing…
Three times for three different endings, too!
Four times. They just never released the fourth ending.
The fourth ending is just a red herring.
No shit! Neat!
Protip: First thing you do when the group meets is fix the date for next game night.
First thing you do, when the group is done gaming for the night, is write the recap.deleted by creator
I’d call that a recap. If the players need retelling of the entire session, adjust to the reality and play one-shots.
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Elevates the recap from this
To this
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I started another re-watch this week and I’ve missed hearing Previously, on Battlestar Galactica.
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Best change I made for games was having a fixed schedule. I used to do a “when can everyone meet next?” but it was a disaster of people not responding or actually showing up when they said they would.
Now we just play every Thursday. Quorum is two players*. Anyone who can’t make it, tough.
*Turns out Fate works fine with two players. DND would probably be harder.
Everyone in my group is now in their 40s, living in different cities, with families.
We try to meet once a month, and actually manage 4-6x a year.
But it’s the same group I started out with when I got the Star Wars D6 RPG for my 14th birthday, so we make it work.
I like having a player write the recap, or notes as we go. If they goof something up we follow the notes!
At least everyone is on the same page that way and I don’t have to keep track of my own shenanigans.
“…and then at the end of the session I found a magic item that lets me cast Wish three times per short rest. Oh, was that a goof? Oh well.”
The tradition in my group is for a player to do the recap in exchange for an inspiration token (or a hope in our Daggerheart game). Then the DM fills in gaps.
I do the same thing in pathfinder with hero points. If I don’t have to fill in anything, or only fill in minor details/joke details, I’ll give the entire party hero points too, in order to further encourage paying attention and note taking
I actually really like this, I’m stealing it.
I got it from my first DM, and I met his first DM and I think it may have come from him. Who knows who where it started but I’m happy to pass it on.
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As I’ve started co-DMing the group I’ve also realized that it’s a great way to reinforce the plot points that players may have missed or not seen as important.
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It’s also a fantastic way to steal the superior ideas that your players have misremembered and to reinforce the ones that resonated with them.
One of my groups has the DM giving us some bonus exp for writing a “journal entry”
That’s kinda how Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman wrote Dragonlance. One of them DMed while the other took notes. The first trilogy, at least, was a retelling of the campaign they ran in their brand new setting. Which they made, because at that point in D&D there were tons of Dungeons, but scant few Dragons.