The Pen is Mightier than the Sword
Writing in D&D is a surprisingly important function for players. It can take many forms, whether it be note-taking, writing your background story, or if you’re writing a blog, It always amazes me that Stephen can come up with an idea, processes it for a couple of days, then writes it up the night before. I usually start writing Monday or Tuesday for this lovely Friday post. I struggle throughout the week, start and stopping, jotting my ideas down in my notebook, rewriting parts of the post over and over again. The worst-case scenario is when I have to scrap everything and rush through an entirely new idea. This happens more than I would like. Sometimes it’s my lack of understanding of how the mechanics of the game work, while other times, and I run out of coherent thoughts to write. Hopefully, I can put the article aside until I have more time to think about it, and I have currently had three just sitting on the sidelines waiting for me to come back to them.
Enough of the whining. Instead, let’s talk about when you should use your writing skills in D&D. Whether or not you want to is completely up to you, but as a player, and can come in very handy throughout your campaign.
Character Background
In our campaigns, we must write down something resembling a character background and give it to the DM. In all honesty, I found the process tedious and didn’t complete this task for my first campaign in 5e. Instead, I had a brief conversation about my character’s upbringing and why he became an adventurer. It was boring and trite, but at least I wasn’t an edge lord. The DM took some notes so he could tailor some of the character’s history into the campaign. I, of course, promptly forgot half of the information I gave him. I had to be reminded what my character’s history was, leaving me slightly confused about what was going on and embarrassed that I had half-assed the process.
Writing a solid background allows a good DM running a homebrew campaign to incorporate your character's past into the story. Not only does it provide the DM with a source of inspiration, but it makes the player feel like an important part of the story. Stephen makes sure that everyone is the focal point of one chapter of the campaign (Yes, he is still our DM. He’s a control freak who loves to reign over every aspect of the game, and we love him for it.) Usually, there is a single character who is the overall focus of the entire story, and I have to imagine it’s the individual who wrote the most interesting background, allowing him to use his creativity and imagination to make a fun and captivating campaign
A couple of other things to keep in mind when writing your background story. Writing too much about your life before becoming an adventurer, while not as bad as not writing anything at all, can also be a bad thing. I wrote about the importance of not having your character’s background being so amazing that it overshadows any monsters you slay any obstacle you overcome. Your character’s fame and glory are supposed to come during the adventure, not before it.
Some people have a hard time coming up with a background. Any number of the textbooks, whether the Player’s Handbook, Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron, or Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, can provide you with a starting background. You can use one of these backgrounds exactly how it is written or use it as a template to create your own unique story. There are also countless homebrew backgrounds to draw inspiration from. So if you find yourself drawing a blank, do a little reading first, then put your pen to paper and start creating your story.
Taking Campaign Notes
Before you get started slaughtering kobolds, buy yourself a notebook and pens or pencils in real life. Sure, you can use a quill, but remember, sometimes you can overdo immersion. Starting with the first session, write down notes. Your penmanship can be atrocious. Use bullet points or one long rambling paragraph that is 3 pages long. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is you get down whatever information you may think is important or can be useful later on.
During that first session, you’ll find yourself writing a lot. That’s ok. In fact, it’s a good thing. You don’t know what’s critical to your survival yet. As time goes on, you will get a better feel for what needs to be jotted down as you get used to the DM and his story style. You may even have a DM that is like that teacher in school who would tell you, “This will be on the test, so you so be writing it down.” Whatever the case, you should be able to figure out what you need to put down in your notebook.
Once the session is over, take some time as soon as you can to translate your scribbles into a useful format. I find that my notes start clear, precise, and neat. By the end, it is a messy quagmire of words that cryptographers couldn’t understand. This is why it’s important to take a few minutes immediately after you’re done to re-write your notes. Your short-term memory will be able to remember what this jibberish means, but if you wait a couple of days, there is a good chance you’ll have no idea what it says or why you wrote it down. Whether you copy it into a new notebook or type it into Google Docs, get it done while still fresh in your brain.
Now that you’ve got your notes in a presentable fashion make sure to distribute them to everyone! During the session, it may be difficult for you to remember something from a couple of months before you wrote down a crucial piece of knowledge. With everyone having a copy, the odds increase greatly of someone referring to them and saving the day. We also start with a quick recap of what happened in the previous session, so everyone is up to speed with what is happening. This is great for older adults like me that can barely remember their name when they wake up every morning.
So break out that pen and paper and get ready to start writing, as it turns out that D&D isn’t just about killing mind flayers and casting fireballs.
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