Journaling the Game
Journaling the Game is your ticket to ditching the same old, tired templates and stepping into a roleplaying experience that’s actually going to meet your needs. Part of The Simple Approach to Roleplaying series, this book digs into every corner of roleplaying, serving up solid advice for players and gamemasters alike. Forget those boring, one-size-fits-none character sheets and cookie-cutter worldbuilding forms. Journaling takes the best of bullet journaling, Cornell Notes, and the spirit of journaling games, turning them into a unique, custom tool for your roleplaying adventures. Whether you’re knee-deep in intrigue, battling epic foes, or forging legendary alliances, Journaling brings something fresh to the table. Any genre, any setting, any game (not our own), journaling can be easily adapted to do whatever you needed it to do. Perfect for fans of reclaiming their agency through creative solutions, it’s the snappy upgrade your favorite hobby needs. Ready to level up your roleplaying game? Journaling is where the fun begins!
Navigating This Book
This sourcebook is totally optional. You don’t need it to run any of our stuff, but it’s here if you want to spice things up. It’s system-neutral too, so throw its elements into whatever roleplaying system you’re using. Need help converting things? Check the notes at the end. And if you’re looking for more, grab the Lightspress Handbook. It’s pay-what-you-want (which for most people means free) wherever you got this.
This book’s packed with examples across different categories to show what you might want to capture in a journal for later. We’re not trying to show off our own creativity here, just giving you some ideas so you can make this process work for your own roleplaying journey.
You don’t need to read this sourcebook cover-to-cover either. If you already know bullet journaling or Cornell Notes, skip those sections and go straight to the chapters that actually help. I get that some people lose their minds when a book with 250+ pages includes stuff they already know, but that’s just life. We want this book to be useful no matter where you are on the experience ladder.
This Book Includes
In these pages you’ll find:
Journaling: This section introduces the concept of journaling in roleplaying, showing how it enhances immersion, boosts creativity, and keeps your adventures organized. Integrating journaling into your sessions helps you create narratives that are personal, unique, and deeply engaging.
Bullet Journaling: This guide explains how to adapt bullet journaling methods specifically for roleplaying. It covers everything from setting up your journal to tracking session notes and character arcs, providing a flexible, organized way to manage your game while encouraging creativity.
Learn how to apply the Cornell Notes system to your roleplaying sessions for better organization. This method helps capture key details, ensuring nothing important is missed and allowing easy reference to past events, character developments, and plot ideas.
For Players: Practical journaling tips tailored for players, designed to deepen your character’s story, track their growth, and enhance your roleplaying experience. Keeping a detailed record of your character’s journey brings greater depth, nuance, and personal investment to your role.
For Gamemasters: Journaling becomes an essential tool for gamemasters, offering a reliable way to manage game details, plot progression, and pacing. Whether your campaign is short or long, this section shows how journaling can streamline your role and keep your stories engaging and cohesive.
Settings: Learn how to use journaling to build and expand your game’s setting, from creating detailed lore to documenting the ever-changing world your characters explore. This approach ensures that your setting remains consistent, detailed, and immersive throughout your campaign.
Characters: This section explores journaling techniques for character development, helping you flesh out backstories, track relationships, and maintain a dynamic, evolving character. Documenting your character’s motivations, actions, and interactions allows for more meaningful growth.
Factions: Use journaling to track the complex relationships, motivations, and conflicts between factions in your game. This section shows how keeping detailed records can help you navigate and manage the intricate political landscape of your setting, ensuring clarity and readiness for the next twist in your story.
Rules: Discover how journaling can help clarify, simplify, and even customize game mechanics to better fit your play style. This section demonstrates how an organized journal makes the rules more accessible, ensuring that everyone at the table can easily reference and follow them during play.
Worldbuilding: Unleash your creativity by leveraging journaling to build and detail your game’s world. Whether you’re designing grand cities or intricate cultural details, journaling helps you create a living, breathing setting that is filled with possibilities for your players to explore.
Adventures & Campaigns: Organize your campaigns and sessions with journaling techniques that keep everything on track. This section ensures your stories remain cohesive, engaging, and unforgettable by providing strategies for maintaining continuity and keeping players invested in the narrative.
Reference: Finally, this section offers a comprehensive guide to creating a customized reference system tailored to your unique roleplaying needs. Whether you’re streamlining your notes or building a detailed compendium, journaling allows you to craft a tool that is as flexible, creative, and useful as your imagination demands.
The Simple Approach
To understand this book, you need to know the context in which it was written and the philosophy that runs through it. At its core, The Simple Approach emphasizes the elements that truly matter in roleplaying: narrative depth, character complexity, and player agency. While plenty of systems are still obsessed with combat, loot, and grinding, we know roleplaying can be so much more. This system is all about immersive storytelling, meaningful choices, and characters you actually care about. Whether you're uncovering espionage secrets, solving a gripping mystery, or diving into the complexities of romance, The Simple Approach offers a fresh take on traditional genres like fantasy, science fiction, and horror, along with modern and underserved ones like crime, dark academia, and espionage.
Narrative-Based Mechanics
At the heart of The Simple Approach are narrative-based mechanics that are easy to learn and designed to grow with you as you play. They let you tweak what’s here and even add things we haven’t thought of yet. The journaling system replaces those one-size-fits-none character sheets, giving gamemasters a flexible tool for organizing worldbuilding, adventure design, and session notes. Every character, setting, and adventure becomes a unique creation shaped by your choices.
Seamless Integration and Flexibility
The Simple Approach isn’t just a standalone system. You can blend it seamlessly with other Lightspress publications to create one-of-a-kind experiences or bring elements from other systems into your Lightspress game. If you want to use our material with your favorite system or setting, go for it. The free conversion notes in the Lightspress Handbook give you the flexibility to play how you want.
Our Philosophy
We believe the true essence of roleplaying happens around the table, where creativity and collaboration come alive. It’s not about a book, a brand, or a company. It’s about the people playing together, creating something special. Our focus on cooperation, interaction, and investigation ensures that every session is more than just a game; it’s a journey filled with compelling adventures and meaningful connections. We stand by our belief that the heart of roleplaying is found in shared experiences and stories crafted by the players. This philosophy drives everything in The Simple Approach and underpins our commitment to delivering content that champions the true spirit of roleplaying, free from superficial constraints.
Commitment to Creative Freedom
This philosophy also guides our belief that creators should own their work and not be beholden to licensing terms that only benefit fickle corporations. We draw inspiration from historical, mythological, and literary sources, tapping into our shared heritage to fuel creative exploration. We maintain full copyright ownership, ensuring that our work stays independent and true to our vision. Using style guides to keep a cohesive voice and narrative structure, we deliver exceptional content free from external influences, preserving the integrity and creative standards of our work.
Accessible and Affordable Roleplaying
We’re committed to keeping our games affordable so that more people can enjoy them. Our focus isn’t on producing overstuffed, expensive books filled with art to collect dust on a shelf. We’re here to create material meant to be played, not displayed. You won’t find us chasing awards or turning our games into glorified coffee-table books. Our goal is to facilitate roleplaying, pure and simple, keeping the price points low so you can focus on the game, not your wallet.
Stay Connected and Join Us
If you’re tired of the same old grind and ready to try something that actually respects your input, then The Simple Approach is calling your name. We’re not just offering a game. We’re inviting you to join a movement, a way of playing that values your time, creativity, and agency.
For more on The Simple Approach and our unorthodox take on roleplaying, visit lightspress.com. Subscribe to our newsletter, The Manifesto, for updates on new releases, roleplaying advice, and a healthy dose of our opinions. If you’re ready to embrace something different, download the free Lightspress Handbook—your guide to what we’re all about.
258 page. PDF and epub files included.
Journaling the Game is your ticket to ditching the same old, tired templates and stepping into a roleplaying experience that’s actually going to meet your needs. Part of The Simple Approach to Roleplaying series, this book digs into every corner of roleplaying, serving up solid advice for players and gamemasters alike. Forget those boring, one-size-fits-none character sheets and cookie-cutter worldbuilding forms. Journaling takes the best of bullet journaling, Cornell Notes, and the spirit of journaling games, turning them into a unique, custom tool for your roleplaying adventures. Whether you’re knee-deep in intrigue, battling epic foes, or forging legendary alliances, Journaling brings something fresh to the table. Any genre, any setting, any game (not our own), journaling can be easily adapted to do whatever you needed it to do. Perfect for fans of reclaiming their agency through creative solutions, it’s the snappy upgrade your favorite hobby needs. Ready to level up your roleplaying game? Journaling is where the fun begins!
Navigating This Book
This sourcebook is totally optional. You don’t need it to run any of our stuff, but it’s here if you want to spice things up. It’s system-neutral too, so throw its elements into whatever roleplaying system you’re using. Need help converting things? Check the notes at the end. And if you’re looking for more, grab the Lightspress Handbook. It’s pay-what-you-want (which for most people means free) wherever you got this.
This book’s packed with examples across different categories to show what you might want to capture in a journal for later. We’re not trying to show off our own creativity here, just giving you some ideas so you can make this process work for your own roleplaying journey.
You don’t need to read this sourcebook cover-to-cover either. If you already know bullet journaling or Cornell Notes, skip those sections and go straight to the chapters that actually help. I get that some people lose their minds when a book with 250+ pages includes stuff they already know, but that’s just life. We want this book to be useful no matter where you are on the experience ladder.
This Book Includes
In these pages you’ll find:
Journaling: This section introduces the concept of journaling in roleplaying, showing how it enhances immersion, boosts creativity, and keeps your adventures organized. Integrating journaling into your sessions helps you create narratives that are personal, unique, and deeply engaging.
Bullet Journaling: This guide explains how to adapt bullet journaling methods specifically for roleplaying. It covers everything from setting up your journal to tracking session notes and character arcs, providing a flexible, organized way to manage your game while encouraging creativity.
Learn how to apply the Cornell Notes system to your roleplaying sessions for better organization. This method helps capture key details, ensuring nothing important is missed and allowing easy reference to past events, character developments, and plot ideas.
For Players: Practical journaling tips tailored for players, designed to deepen your character’s story, track their growth, and enhance your roleplaying experience. Keeping a detailed record of your character’s journey brings greater depth, nuance, and personal investment to your role.
For Gamemasters: Journaling becomes an essential tool for gamemasters, offering a reliable way to manage game details, plot progression, and pacing. Whether your campaign is short or long, this section shows how journaling can streamline your role and keep your stories engaging and cohesive.
Settings: Learn how to use journaling to build and expand your game’s setting, from creating detailed lore to documenting the ever-changing world your characters explore. This approach ensures that your setting remains consistent, detailed, and immersive throughout your campaign.
Characters: This section explores journaling techniques for character development, helping you flesh out backstories, track relationships, and maintain a dynamic, evolving character. Documenting your character’s motivations, actions, and interactions allows for more meaningful growth.
Factions: Use journaling to track the complex relationships, motivations, and conflicts between factions in your game. This section shows how keeping detailed records can help you navigate and manage the intricate political landscape of your setting, ensuring clarity and readiness for the next twist in your story.
Rules: Discover how journaling can help clarify, simplify, and even customize game mechanics to better fit your play style. This section demonstrates how an organized journal makes the rules more accessible, ensuring that everyone at the table can easily reference and follow them during play.
Worldbuilding: Unleash your creativity by leveraging journaling to build and detail your game’s world. Whether you’re designing grand cities or intricate cultural details, journaling helps you create a living, breathing setting that is filled with possibilities for your players to explore.
Adventures & Campaigns: Organize your campaigns and sessions with journaling techniques that keep everything on track. This section ensures your stories remain cohesive, engaging, and unforgettable by providing strategies for maintaining continuity and keeping players invested in the narrative.
Reference: Finally, this section offers a comprehensive guide to creating a customized reference system tailored to your unique roleplaying needs. Whether you’re streamlining your notes or building a detailed compendium, journaling allows you to craft a tool that is as flexible, creative, and useful as your imagination demands.
The Simple Approach
To understand this book, you need to know the context in which it was written and the philosophy that runs through it. At its core, The Simple Approach emphasizes the elements that truly matter in roleplaying: narrative depth, character complexity, and player agency. While plenty of systems are still obsessed with combat, loot, and grinding, we know roleplaying can be so much more. This system is all about immersive storytelling, meaningful choices, and characters you actually care about. Whether you're uncovering espionage secrets, solving a gripping mystery, or diving into the complexities of romance, The Simple Approach offers a fresh take on traditional genres like fantasy, science fiction, and horror, along with modern and underserved ones like crime, dark academia, and espionage.
Narrative-Based Mechanics
At the heart of The Simple Approach are narrative-based mechanics that are easy to learn and designed to grow with you as you play. They let you tweak what’s here and even add things we haven’t thought of yet. The journaling system replaces those one-size-fits-none character sheets, giving gamemasters a flexible tool for organizing worldbuilding, adventure design, and session notes. Every character, setting, and adventure becomes a unique creation shaped by your choices.
Seamless Integration and Flexibility
The Simple Approach isn’t just a standalone system. You can blend it seamlessly with other Lightspress publications to create one-of-a-kind experiences or bring elements from other systems into your Lightspress game. If you want to use our material with your favorite system or setting, go for it. The free conversion notes in the Lightspress Handbook give you the flexibility to play how you want.
Our Philosophy
We believe the true essence of roleplaying happens around the table, where creativity and collaboration come alive. It’s not about a book, a brand, or a company. It’s about the people playing together, creating something special. Our focus on cooperation, interaction, and investigation ensures that every session is more than just a game; it’s a journey filled with compelling adventures and meaningful connections. We stand by our belief that the heart of roleplaying is found in shared experiences and stories crafted by the players. This philosophy drives everything in The Simple Approach and underpins our commitment to delivering content that champions the true spirit of roleplaying, free from superficial constraints.
Commitment to Creative Freedom
This philosophy also guides our belief that creators should own their work and not be beholden to licensing terms that only benefit fickle corporations. We draw inspiration from historical, mythological, and literary sources, tapping into our shared heritage to fuel creative exploration. We maintain full copyright ownership, ensuring that our work stays independent and true to our vision. Using style guides to keep a cohesive voice and narrative structure, we deliver exceptional content free from external influences, preserving the integrity and creative standards of our work.
Accessible and Affordable Roleplaying
We’re committed to keeping our games affordable so that more people can enjoy them. Our focus isn’t on producing overstuffed, expensive books filled with art to collect dust on a shelf. We’re here to create material meant to be played, not displayed. You won’t find us chasing awards or turning our games into glorified coffee-table books. Our goal is to facilitate roleplaying, pure and simple, keeping the price points low so you can focus on the game, not your wallet.
Stay Connected and Join Us
If you’re tired of the same old grind and ready to try something that actually respects your input, then The Simple Approach is calling your name. We’re not just offering a game. We’re inviting you to join a movement, a way of playing that values your time, creativity, and agency.
For more on The Simple Approach and our unorthodox take on roleplaying, visit lightspress.com. Subscribe to our newsletter, The Manifesto, for updates on new releases, roleplaying advice, and a healthy dose of our opinions. If you’re ready to embrace something different, download the free Lightspress Handbook—your guide to what we’re all about.
258 page. PDF and epub files included.
Journaling the Game is your ticket to ditching the same old, tired templates and stepping into a roleplaying experience that’s actually going to meet your needs. Part of The Simple Approach to Roleplaying series, this book digs into every corner of roleplaying, serving up solid advice for players and gamemasters alike. Forget those boring, one-size-fits-none character sheets and cookie-cutter worldbuilding forms. Journaling takes the best of bullet journaling, Cornell Notes, and the spirit of journaling games, turning them into a unique, custom tool for your roleplaying adventures. Whether you’re knee-deep in intrigue, battling epic foes, or forging legendary alliances, Journaling brings something fresh to the table. Any genre, any setting, any game (not our own), journaling can be easily adapted to do whatever you needed it to do. Perfect for fans of reclaiming their agency through creative solutions, it’s the snappy upgrade your favorite hobby needs. Ready to level up your roleplaying game? Journaling is where the fun begins!
Navigating This Book
This sourcebook is totally optional. You don’t need it to run any of our stuff, but it’s here if you want to spice things up. It’s system-neutral too, so throw its elements into whatever roleplaying system you’re using. Need help converting things? Check the notes at the end. And if you’re looking for more, grab the Lightspress Handbook. It’s pay-what-you-want (which for most people means free) wherever you got this.
This book’s packed with examples across different categories to show what you might want to capture in a journal for later. We’re not trying to show off our own creativity here, just giving you some ideas so you can make this process work for your own roleplaying journey.
You don’t need to read this sourcebook cover-to-cover either. If you already know bullet journaling or Cornell Notes, skip those sections and go straight to the chapters that actually help. I get that some people lose their minds when a book with 250+ pages includes stuff they already know, but that’s just life. We want this book to be useful no matter where you are on the experience ladder.
This Book Includes
In these pages you’ll find:
Journaling: This section introduces the concept of journaling in roleplaying, showing how it enhances immersion, boosts creativity, and keeps your adventures organized. Integrating journaling into your sessions helps you create narratives that are personal, unique, and deeply engaging.
Bullet Journaling: This guide explains how to adapt bullet journaling methods specifically for roleplaying. It covers everything from setting up your journal to tracking session notes and character arcs, providing a flexible, organized way to manage your game while encouraging creativity.
Learn how to apply the Cornell Notes system to your roleplaying sessions for better organization. This method helps capture key details, ensuring nothing important is missed and allowing easy reference to past events, character developments, and plot ideas.
For Players: Practical journaling tips tailored for players, designed to deepen your character’s story, track their growth, and enhance your roleplaying experience. Keeping a detailed record of your character’s journey brings greater depth, nuance, and personal investment to your role.
For Gamemasters: Journaling becomes an essential tool for gamemasters, offering a reliable way to manage game details, plot progression, and pacing. Whether your campaign is short or long, this section shows how journaling can streamline your role and keep your stories engaging and cohesive.
Settings: Learn how to use journaling to build and expand your game’s setting, from creating detailed lore to documenting the ever-changing world your characters explore. This approach ensures that your setting remains consistent, detailed, and immersive throughout your campaign.
Characters: This section explores journaling techniques for character development, helping you flesh out backstories, track relationships, and maintain a dynamic, evolving character. Documenting your character’s motivations, actions, and interactions allows for more meaningful growth.
Factions: Use journaling to track the complex relationships, motivations, and conflicts between factions in your game. This section shows how keeping detailed records can help you navigate and manage the intricate political landscape of your setting, ensuring clarity and readiness for the next twist in your story.
Rules: Discover how journaling can help clarify, simplify, and even customize game mechanics to better fit your play style. This section demonstrates how an organized journal makes the rules more accessible, ensuring that everyone at the table can easily reference and follow them during play.
Worldbuilding: Unleash your creativity by leveraging journaling to build and detail your game’s world. Whether you’re designing grand cities or intricate cultural details, journaling helps you create a living, breathing setting that is filled with possibilities for your players to explore.
Adventures & Campaigns: Organize your campaigns and sessions with journaling techniques that keep everything on track. This section ensures your stories remain cohesive, engaging, and unforgettable by providing strategies for maintaining continuity and keeping players invested in the narrative.
Reference: Finally, this section offers a comprehensive guide to creating a customized reference system tailored to your unique roleplaying needs. Whether you’re streamlining your notes or building a detailed compendium, journaling allows you to craft a tool that is as flexible, creative, and useful as your imagination demands.
The Simple Approach
To understand this book, you need to know the context in which it was written and the philosophy that runs through it. At its core, The Simple Approach emphasizes the elements that truly matter in roleplaying: narrative depth, character complexity, and player agency. While plenty of systems are still obsessed with combat, loot, and grinding, we know roleplaying can be so much more. This system is all about immersive storytelling, meaningful choices, and characters you actually care about. Whether you're uncovering espionage secrets, solving a gripping mystery, or diving into the complexities of romance, The Simple Approach offers a fresh take on traditional genres like fantasy, science fiction, and horror, along with modern and underserved ones like crime, dark academia, and espionage.
Narrative-Based Mechanics
At the heart of The Simple Approach are narrative-based mechanics that are easy to learn and designed to grow with you as you play. They let you tweak what’s here and even add things we haven’t thought of yet. The journaling system replaces those one-size-fits-none character sheets, giving gamemasters a flexible tool for organizing worldbuilding, adventure design, and session notes. Every character, setting, and adventure becomes a unique creation shaped by your choices.
Seamless Integration and Flexibility
The Simple Approach isn’t just a standalone system. You can blend it seamlessly with other Lightspress publications to create one-of-a-kind experiences or bring elements from other systems into your Lightspress game. If you want to use our material with your favorite system or setting, go for it. The free conversion notes in the Lightspress Handbook give you the flexibility to play how you want.
Our Philosophy
We believe the true essence of roleplaying happens around the table, where creativity and collaboration come alive. It’s not about a book, a brand, or a company. It’s about the people playing together, creating something special. Our focus on cooperation, interaction, and investigation ensures that every session is more than just a game; it’s a journey filled with compelling adventures and meaningful connections. We stand by our belief that the heart of roleplaying is found in shared experiences and stories crafted by the players. This philosophy drives everything in The Simple Approach and underpins our commitment to delivering content that champions the true spirit of roleplaying, free from superficial constraints.
Commitment to Creative Freedom
This philosophy also guides our belief that creators should own their work and not be beholden to licensing terms that only benefit fickle corporations. We draw inspiration from historical, mythological, and literary sources, tapping into our shared heritage to fuel creative exploration. We maintain full copyright ownership, ensuring that our work stays independent and true to our vision. Using style guides to keep a cohesive voice and narrative structure, we deliver exceptional content free from external influences, preserving the integrity and creative standards of our work.
Accessible and Affordable Roleplaying
We’re committed to keeping our games affordable so that more people can enjoy them. Our focus isn’t on producing overstuffed, expensive books filled with art to collect dust on a shelf. We’re here to create material meant to be played, not displayed. You won’t find us chasing awards or turning our games into glorified coffee-table books. Our goal is to facilitate roleplaying, pure and simple, keeping the price points low so you can focus on the game, not your wallet.
Stay Connected and Join Us
If you’re tired of the same old grind and ready to try something that actually respects your input, then The Simple Approach is calling your name. We’re not just offering a game. We’re inviting you to join a movement, a way of playing that values your time, creativity, and agency.
For more on The Simple Approach and our unorthodox take on roleplaying, visit lightspress.com. Subscribe to our newsletter, The Manifesto, for updates on new releases, roleplaying advice, and a healthy dose of our opinions. If you’re ready to embrace something different, download the free Lightspress Handbook—your guide to what we’re all about.
258 page. PDF and epub files included.