We've played three or four missions in our Rogue Trader campaign and are looking to resume it again after a 4-5 month gap. The group are finding it difficult remembering the details of our contacts, what systems we have right to, what resources planets have and what trade operations we have in place.

How do you guys go about recording this? We have loose notes, but I'm thinking of making a table of information of some sort.

Personally I use Obsidian Portal, updating after each session. No style template for Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader characters yet though, which is something of a shame.

A wiki is always a good way to record campaign information so that you can cross-reference it and also allow player input. There's a link to my campaign's wiki in my sig if you want to take a look.

I create wikia pages and use them and update as needed. Which is to say, I have a template page for my game which has hasn't started. It's not complete by any means, it's easy to learn and add new information. As an added bonus you can do offline roleplaying as well.

A friend is running his Star Wars game and has extensive use of the wikia.

My link to my unstarted campaign is here:

www.rtlegacy.wikia.com

As an example.

I personally use a cellulose based analog wiki for my recording. No electricity needed, only a graphite tipped stylus.

korjik said:

Is there an app for that?

tbh i think its the players responsibility to keep notes on contacts, tho i am horrible myself when im a player. but generally if our group dont keep notes then its our problem.

Players need to write a bit but it helps in the long run to keep track of details.

I use the same method as korjik. Hey, if its silly and it works, it isn't silly. (I am reminded of the story that NASA spent $1.3 million dollars US developing a pen that would write in orbit, so their astronauts could take notes. Evidently, conventional pens require gravity to function and don't work in zero gee. The Russian space program, on the other hand, issued their cosmonauts pencils.)

Actually, I'm the one who takes brief notes during session and emails out a write-up afterward. However, I'm the GM, and that means the notes have to be brief and quick to avoid disrupting the flow of the game. It takes a bit of practice to get right.

Cheers.

- V.

Thanks for the input folks. I really like the look of the wiki thing, it seems very useful, but aren't sure how much time I will have to produce something like that. I'll give it a go though for sure.

Our group has 4 players just now and 1 to join soon, and to be fair, they all make notes during games. The problem is, I am the only one of the group who goes into more detail with the games (writing character backgrounds), looks up stuff for the GM etc. The others tend to play it as just something to do, so I would end up being the one to produce anything of detail.

I have a wiki i use (here: calixis.pbworks.com/w/page/12938925/FrontPage ) but i haven't updated it for ages.

More often i use huge amounts of written material in Word. I usually have access to a laptop while i play but try not to refer to it that often. I have detailed notes on the players ships, military forces, most important NPCs (Such as their factors, Astropaths, allies and enemies), notes on the star systems that they operate out of, plus of course, plot for where they are going, who they'll meet and so on.

I also have a large amount of general information, pre-generated ships, pre-generated bad guys, aliens vessels, etc, just in case my players make a detour and i somehow need to throw a bunch of orks at them.

I'm lucky in this respect in that as a GM i love to write material for my game. I have more plot than i can use at any one time and enjoy writing more. This lends a certain flexibility when my players go off the rails (i.e. every session).

Vandegraffe said:

[Off Topic]

The NASA Pen story is a popular urban legend and, while fun, is completely untrue.

www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

[On Topic]