Keeping count in RPG: The importance of keeping score.

Hello again. This time I will talk about keeping scores. What ever kind of scores you have to keep, grudges, money, items, favours, expenses, etc., it is important to do it as you go.

The best tool for keeping scores are a pencil and a notebook. I like to make a new page for each type of thing to keep score of. This is something I learned after playing with Mmimas Nasnan (my druid) for a few years. I have, right now, about 8 or 9 years worth of notes on her, most of which is not sorted (from the early days), so now and then I come across some loot that we have found and later forgotten. This is especially true with potions and scrolls. So now I have a notebook that have a page for each type of item/loot/score-keeping-worthy-happening and write down the scores as we go.

On really busy nights when I don't feel like flipping through the pages to write down things (or the DM is telling everything we found quickly, or I have forgotten the notebook somewhere) I write everything down on a single piece of paper, making notes for references, values, who got the item etc., behind every item. Then, later when I have a moment to myself, I take out the notebook and transfer the notes to the correct pages.

You can also do this on a computer, using a spreadsheet or something similar. I have actually been working on a document that I can share with Mrs. C, whom plays Cordelia Bukkenback, so she too can have easy access to the records and can add to them as she pleases. For this I am actually using OpenOffice Base to make a database that I can later search, edit and display at my leasure. I will, when i finish it, share it with you here.

Mrs. K