Field Reports

[lunasson]

I was just wondering if anyone has tried this and if so if it was worth it. So I’m thinking about having my players write up field reports after each adventure that their characters would send in to their supervisors in their respective guilds. Just wanted to get another perspective before implementing this.

[Kaptin Keen]

Earthdawn has this as a standard. Whenever you visit Throal, you can record your achievements at the Royal Library, and build your legend. There's an XP bonus, and it's a clever little tool to keep players engaged (it needs to actually be written down).

[Elvensilver]

Never tried it, but I love the idea. Then again, I also like writing long campaign journals.
It should help the players getting invested in the world, get a better grip on their character's motivation and sentiments, and later remembering what they did.

Most important thing, though: ask your players if they want to write such reports.

If nobody is motivated, drop it. If some of them don't want to, you should maybe change your plans.

Some of your players getting bonus xp while others don't may imbalance the game in the long term.
Maybe give some other reward, for instance, favors from somebody inside the character's guild they're reporting to.
Or only demand one report for the entire group, so the players can split the work if they want. Even if you don't particulary like writing reports (might feel like homework), it's ok if you only have to do it once every four seasons. And, after all, reports can be as short or long as the player wants them to be.

"Today the green dragon fell before Robin's spells and my sword, while the rest of the group cowered in fear. We got the baronet's crown back, and also a totally sweet magical suit of plate for me." - that's a totally valid field report, after all.

[Faily]

As long as players feel its fun and not a chore, go for it.


I remember in Vampire many years ago, we wrote journal entries that the GM read (I think we got a minor XP reward for it too? It's been so long I can't remember now). Not everyone did them though, as not everyone had the time, or remembered. And for some it was a chore.

[RedheadDev]

If they're at all open to the idea, then they'd probably come to find out that this is a fantastic way to remember all the little details of each session. Would really help to drive home everything that happened, and there'd be less "wait who was this guy again?", "Remind me why we came here?".

I've also got to second the idea of plot rewards rather than xp rewards. Plot developments/advantages are much less likely to cause jealousy or feelings of unfair-ness, as some people may just not enjoy the reporting.

[Telok]

In Paranoia failure to correctly file a report on time is evidence that you may be a commie mutant traitor. As such it may be grounds for immediate clone termination or, worse, more paperwork.

If I'm nice I have copies of form for them. Not that they're nice, neat, logical, rational, or come with any useful instructions. But then... Paranoia.

[Squire Doodad]

It sounds interesting, but only if your players all want to do so. No one wants to go to DnD to feel like they're doing another job. Having them describe their reports orally to check it off might work just as minor roleplaying, but on the whole ask your players if they want to do this before trying to make it be a thing they can do.

[denthor]

Cleric of Baccob hand wrote a journal, then used sending to relay field reports.

[SimonMoon6]

In several games that I've run, I've offered bonus experience to players who did anything supplemental for the game, like writing up the events that happened during a session or (since one player was more artistically inclined), illustrating important moments from a given session. This was occasionally extended to illustrating possible future plot ideas, things that might happen.

Since it involved bonus xp, nobody was hurt if they didn't get any, and anybody who wanted some could get some. (Generally, I only had one person writing and one person illustrating.) But I don't know that it would've worked as well if it was mandatory for everybody.

Rewarding those who choose to do so and not punishing those who don't seems to work pretty well in my experience.

[Darth Credence]

...
"Today the green dragon fell before Robin's spells and my sword, while the rest of the group cowered in fear. We got the baronet's crown back, and also a totally sweet magical suit of plate for me." - that's a totally valid field report, after all.

In the episode "Prodigal" of Stargate Atlantis, Ronon (played by Jason Momoa) had to do mission reports for the new commander. He didn't want to, but finally ended up dictating one into a recorder. The report, in its entirety, was "Mission report. Michael invaded Atlantis, tried to blow it up. We stopped him. End of report."

As to whether the reports themselves are a good idea, it depends on the players. I just write session reports myself as the DM, as a short story describing the adventure, and then distribute it to them. I enjoy doing it, and they have the notes they need. I could absolutely see them getting details wrong if they tried to write up a report, and then I'd have to decide if I wanted to correct them so they had the right info, or allow them to be wrong. I have had times where they were all running with something they thought they knew, but were wrong about, and eventually I made them all roll an intelligence check to see if they could remember what actually happened. I've also retconned what I knew because it was easier than trying to get them to forget what they were wrong about (that was whether a dwarf was male or female - they took it to be female based on the name, even though all of my notes said male, and I'm pretty sure I had always said male.)

If I was a player, though, I'd certainly be all over writing field reports. Heck, I'd be writing up my own notes regardless, and if it had meaning in the game, so much the better.