Bluebooking

[Carjack]

I've seen several mentions of the use of bluebooking during and between roleplaying sessons in a couple of Guardians of Order books. Who has done this and exactly how did it work? How did your players take atvantage of it and how did it make your game better?

[JDCorley]

I've done it - one player loved it and had a ball, the rest put forth minimal effort and complained that they hated it. Gaming, to them, is a social activity, and just writing stuff down in a bluebook about gaming is the height of pointlessness.

Be sure that your players will enjoy it before you do it.

[Steve Kenson]

Originally posted by JDCorley
I've done it - one player loved it and had a ball, the rest put forth minimal effort and complained that they hated it.

That was pretty close to my experience. Certain players love bluebooking, others don't care for it.

These days, I generally encourage players interested in bluebooking type activities to set up PBeM "side games" outside of the regular tabletop game, which seems satisfy the desire for writing out solo character stuff without it eating up face-to-face game time.

[PeterAmthor]

I've used bluebooking for certian types of games. Mostly for those that seem to have a lot of in game down time. This helps me keep track of everything that the players are trying to do by looking over their books. That is if the player is actually trying to accomplish something.

Next time I run D20Modern COPS I will be using it for sure. It will, again, help me keep track of stuff and give a little more feel to the game, writing down arrests and such. Heck I already make them set in pairs beside each other if they are partners in the same car.

[Carjack]

Maybe I didn't explain myself well enough. How do you approach bluebooking? You show up at your game with a pile of notebooks and say what? I'm really not sure I'm interested in doing it, but I'd like to understand how it would work, or how it is supposed to work.

[The Eye]

can someone describe "bluebooking" first? i have a guess, but i'd rather know what everyone is talking about.

[David Goodner]

I've never done real bluebooking, which involves, I believe, actual notebooks passed between player and GM while they're together.

But just about all the games I play now involve some level of e-mail between players and the GM to cover downtime events and stuff that, while important, doesn't need to take up game time.

We also use it to flesh out background events and stuff like that (like doing a Storyteller system Prelude, but in the middle of the game)

David G.

'Bluebooking' was first described by Aaron Allston in the Champions supplement "Strike Force". The 'blue book' in question is a standard (in the U.S.) blue book used to answer essay questions during exams. Instead of using it to figure out whether you passed or failed, the blue book was used for in-character dialogues, especially of the sort that many (presumably male) gamers might find uncomfortable.

[PeterAmthor]

What we call bluebooking is the players keeping a log of what their characters are doing during downtime as well as keeping track of notes and what they've accomplished.

Last time the favorite was the composition notebooks like those used in the movie Se7en.

Also the player can catch the GM between games and hand their book over so the GM can approve or disapprove whatever it is they want their character to be doing. I also had the rule where I could collect the books to take notes for myself in case I forget something that happened in that nights game.

IIRC the earliest version of 'blue-booking' was in the antedeluvian "Superhero 2044".