Sunday, January 7, 2024

Campaign Journals

There is something about a well-written campaign journal or log that is better than just reading a book.

I've read several over the years, and the single major drawback to reading campaign logs is that they - by virtue of being logs of games played at the table - tend to never reach completion, generally because the game itself falls to the vagaries of life.   So there is no satisfactory ending, just a stop in posting.

Despite this, I love reading them, and as I discovered a new log this weekend - one spanning 70+ sessions - I wanted to share: The Nightwick Abbey Campaign (the author of Nightwick Abbey is at In Places Deep).

You might be thinking that this is livestreamed games in written form, and to a degree that is correct.  At the same time, written logs are so much more, because it cuts out all (or at least much) of the real world, leaving only the in-game fiction. 

So here are some of my favorite campaign logs, and sources for more.  Reading through them will eat up your time, but they are strangely satisfying and certainly inspirational for your own games.

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Favorites:

Idalium, a B/X megadungeon campaign

The Extraordinary Delving and Cartography Company

Appendix P Party in Appendix A Solo Dungeon

Piratecat's Story Hour

The Long Stair part 1 - not exactly a campaign log, though it reads like one

The Long Stair part 2

Note that I am a thesis away from a Masters in Creative Writing.  The fiction I was writing was basically the Long Stair - and then I discovered these two threads and just ... stopped.  There is no way I could continue with that out there, now heavily influencing me.  Such is life.

Second note - Konsumterra has developed a Long Stair-related pdf if this setting catches your interest, there are several session logs at Elfmaids & Octopi, as well.  

Sadly, several of the tales I remember most have long disappeared into the digital graves that all such writing eventually enters.

Additional sources: Dragonsfoot and ENWorld

All that said, what are your favorite written campaign logs or story hours?


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