I just watched a video from “the Alexandrian” about blue booking, basically Journaling between sessions as a way to progress your characters through low story beats and less exciting/more mundane stuff you don’t want to spend time during a session doing but still want to have it be part of your story/campaign. Sounds like something that would be pretty fun to add to a crown and skull campaign to me, maybe a neat way to award hero points for some creative “down time” activities? Anyone else do this in any RPG they have played? I hadn’t really heard of it before I saw this video before but it sounds pretty fun.
Blue booking?
In C&S, it is important to have access to people and resources in a safe area to improve the characters within the story. If they want to do the “Blue Booking” for these events in situations where they don’t have much time to play and want to continue the fun, they can and should.
C&S encourages giving out Hero Points fairly easily in many different ways that make sense to the GM (3 Hero Points are considered a decent event). However, it limits character growth in one important way: Characters must make it to a SAFE LOCATION where they can rest and spend their Hero Points appropriately. This also means that there may be safe locations that do not have the proper Person, Resource, or Equipment to allow the player to improve their character.
In that situation, you can use Blue Booking to allow players to get invested in their world and state what type of involvement they have in the living, breathing world. The more personal and more (Hate to say it like this) “Human” they are, the more likely they’ll gain information and connections to improve their Skills, Magic, and Equipment.
If the Warrior has Muscle at 12 and wants to improve it further, they may need access to a better Gym with a proper trainer and good nutrition. They can have 100 Hero Points in reserve, but if they didn’t spend time making social connections or talking to the Body Improvement Club, they won’t know how to improve. These are great roleplaying opportunities as well as things players and GMs can latch on to.
Pyrix137
#3
Makes sense. I wouldn’t allow players to spend their hero points “blue booking”, but I think they can be awarded something like 1 point for blue booking that actually develops a character. Also, I don’t think I would ask my players to do this between every session. If we’re 2 levels deep in a dungeon between sessions and our last session ended on a “cliffhanger” there’s nothing to blue book, no room for character development when you’re staring at a goblin horde. But if our current adventure/session is in said safe location, I can see “assigning” a blue booking session like go meet a merchant in the village, or speak to the local gym owner, build up social connections.
Anything that develops the character into a more realistic and living creature is always worth Hero Points.
When they can breathe and go drinking or help the Seniors wash bedsheets is always a plus. Give names and personalities to these NPCs as the characters will establish a love or care for them. Use them as hooks, but don’t always put them in danger.
+1 Hero Points for establishing a weekly group of drunks who play Mahjong together at the old Prancing Pony. +1 Hero Point if you try to speed up a mission so you don’t miss your next game session with them.
Pyrix137
#5
Yes, this is what I’m thinking! Added bonus is that some of that good behind the scenes world building falls on the players now too.