A player’s campaign journal: 30 prompts for between sessions

By Brenn and Lindsay, the two writers who built Inkling

A campaign journal is the difference between “wait, who was that?” and walking into session fourteen knowing exactly which debts your character owes. Here is a habit that takes ten minutes, thirty prompts for the nights you do not know what to write, and what to do with it all when the campaign ends.

Most campaigns meet every week or two, some once a month. That is a lot of time for a name to slip away. On EN World, players who keep a character journal describe all kinds of formats (memoirs, travelogues, unsent letters) and more than one says a journal is close to essential once games get far apart. The same thread is honest about the downside: the effort makes some people quit. So before the prompts, a habit that keeps it light.

How do you keep a D&D campaign journal without it becoming homework?

Split it in two. During the session, keep a dump page. After the session, tidy it into an entry. A long thread on the D&D Beyond forums about taking notes as a player lands on this same rhythm: scribble in the moment, clean up a day or two later while it is still fresh.

What goes on the dump page, in any order, no full sentences:

• Names, spelled how they sound. “Ess-ka-DEE, harbor master, hates the guild.” Correct the spelling later.
• Places. Where you went, where someone told you not to go.
• Promises and debts. Who you owe, who owes you, what you agreed to.
• Loot. Anything odd. The strange key is always the one that matters.
• Questions. Anything you did not understand. Mark them with a “?” so you can ask.

Then, within a day or two, spend ten minutes turning that into an entry. The prompts below are for that part. You do not need to answer all thirty, or even three. Pick one that fits the night.

30 prompts for your campaign journal

In character

1. Write tonight’s events as a letter to someone back home who will never read it.
2. What did your character notice that nobody else in the party did?
3. Describe the moment your character was most afraid, in two sentences.
4. What does your character regret saying tonight, and what did they actually mean?
5. List what is in your character’s pack right now, with one line on why each thing matters.
6. Write the toast, prayer or curse your character would say before the next day’s road.

Out of character

7. Three things that happened, in order, one line each. (This is your recap if someone missed the session.)
8. What was your favorite moment of the night, and whose moment was it?
9. What did another player do that you want to remember to tell them was great?
10. What do you want to ask the DM before next session?
11. Which ruling or rule came up that you want to look up, so it does not slow things next time?
12. One thing you would like more of next time, and one thing you would like less of.

Relationships

13. Which PC does your character trust most right now? Has that changed since last time?
14. Which PC does your character understand least? What would they ask them by the fire?
15. Name one NPC your character liked and one they did not trust. Why each?
16. Who does your character owe, and who owes them? Update the ledger.
17. Write the short conversation your character wishes they had with another PC. (Ask that player before you share it.)
18. If your character wrote home tonight, who would it be to, and what would they leave out?

The world

19. Describe the place you spent the most time tonight in five details: a smell, a sound, a color, a person, a rule.
20. What did you learn about how this world works? A custom, a law, a price, a superstition.
21. What rumor did you hear, and who told you? Do you believe them?
22. List every name you heard tonight, spelled the way it sounded.
23. What does your character think the BBEG actually wants? What would change their mind?
24. Which place on the map does your character most want to see, and why?

Looking ahead

25. What does your character want from next session? What does the party want? Are those the same?
26. Which loose thread are you most worried the party will forget?
27. What would your character never do? Is that still true after tonight?
28. Where is your character’s arc right now: closer to the lie they believe, or to what they actually need?
29. One small goal for you as a player: talk to the quiet NPC, let someone else lead, try the plan you have been sitting on.
30. If the campaign ended tonight, what would your character’s last line be?

Prompt 28 only makes sense if your character has an arc to measure. If they do not yet, our guide to character arcs for D&D characters shows how to build one without knowing the plot.

Should your party keep a shared journal or private notes?

Both, and they do different jobs.

• A shared party journal holds what everyone needs: the names and how to say them, active quests, loot and who is carrying it, and a short recap of each session. TheGamer’s campaign journal tips suggest keeping each recap under a page, adding a pronunciation guide, and leaving room for the in-jokes, which turn out to be what people treasure later.
• Private notes hold what is yours: your backstory secrets, anything only you and your DM know, guesses you do not want to spoil, and your character’s feelings about the rest of the party.

A shared journal works best when one person keeps it each session (rotate if you like) and posts the short version where everyone will see it. A missed session is the moment it earns its keep. Our session recap you can read aloud in 90 seconds is a good shape for that short version. RolePlayingTips has more ideas in six tips for great campaign journals.

Why a journal matters most after a long break

Every group hits a gap: holidays, a new baby, a move. Over on EN World, a DM asking how to restart after a multi-month break got the same advice again and again: a short “previously on,” a glossary of NPCs, and players recapping first. A player with a journal can do all three. You become the person who remembers where the strange key came from, and that makes the first session back feel like a return rather than a restart.

The Alexandrian makes a related point about the role of a campaign journal: it is how a campaign survives pauses and how new players get up to speed.

What do you do with the journal when the campaign ends?

Make it a keepsake. Put the entries in order, fix the spellings, maybe add the map, and print it. A campaign that ran two years deserves more than a folder of notes. If you want to go further and turn it into fiction, our guide on turning your D&D campaign into a novel starts with exactly this pile of entries.

One courtesy: the other characters in your journal belong to the other players. If you plan to print copies for the table, ask everyone first. If it is only for your shelf, still ask before you post any of it publicly.

How Inkling fits

Inkling is a writing app, and a campaign journal is writing. You can keep quick entries in the daily journal, or keep one story per campaign and add to it after each session. If you like it tidier, a project binds stories into ordered chapters, so each session becomes a chapter.

• “Previously...” recaps. When you come back to your journal after a gap, Inkling gives you a one-paragraph recap of where you left off, made from your own entries. It never writes the journal for you, and you can switch it off entirely.
• Goals. Set a small writing goal, like a short entry after every session, and let it keep you honest.
• A private read-only link. Send your journal to the party with a link. Nobody has to sign up, and they can leave notes in the margins (“it was Eskadi, not Eskady”).
• Print your story. When the campaign ends, Inkling makes a booklet PDF you can print at home or send to a print service like Lulu.

What Inkling is not: it is not a VTT, it has no dice, stat blocks or battle maps, and it is not a document the whole party edits at once. The share link is read-only with margin notes. Keep your character sheet and VTT for the game, and keep the story of it here.

Inkling is an independent writing app. Dungeons & Dragons and D&D are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC. Inkling is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Wizards of the Coast.