Character records are very much something of personal taste; over the years I've used hand written notes on A4 sheets and school exercise books, photocopied character sheets from rule books, and even bought packs of character sheets for various systems. I've still got a 1st edition character record hiding somewhere in the recesses of the Vault.
In this more modern age of gaming we've got electronic character records; excel spreadsheets which track various characteristics for us, and sharable "sheets" on D&D Beyond. Whilst the majority of the D&D I play these days is online, I don't like electronic records; they are too intangible for me.
A simple printed out sheet is fine for one shots; but for a long term campaign with a favourite character, then there is a so much to be said for a character journal. And I think the Trinity Know Journals will be perfect for those occasions.
Disclosure: I backed the Kickstarter with actual coin from the Vault. I know Al from Trinity Knot, but I purchased the Journals as a customer.
Enough words. Picture time!
When I decide to use these journals I'll have to make sure I pick a colour that suits the character in question. Now we need to match journals as well as minis, dice and character art for our characters! I can imagine filling some records "in character voice", something which was a lot of fun when we played Castle Falkenstein many many years ago. (As an aside journal/diary writing was a very interesting aspect of that system).
Here's a close up of a cover. Apologies for the slightly lopsided picture, but it's taken on an actual writing desk, so I get bonus points for that.
I like the bold, clear design; something which carries on through the internals. All the art has been produced by Marian (@luckymaggiepie: the pics on Insta are great).
My only quibble is that the covers are *very* soft; I'd have preferred a more sturdy cover material. One of the journals had a minor amount of scuffing on the cover, presumably having gone through the rigours of Royal Mail, and I'm going to have to take extra care to protect the journals if I decide to throw them in the Bag of Holding (aka the rucksack) to take to the club for example.
When we open up, the character sheet is an absolute treat. Never mind the boring numbers stuff, lets start with space for a portrait or Coat of Arms!
There's 10 pages dedicated to the Character Record. Here are a few to whet your appetite. The journal is for 5th edition, but I'm really getting an Old School vibe from it. It's making me think of the old Fighting Fantasy books (Warlock of Firetop Mountain etc.)
After the character details there are 40 "blank" pages for general use. The use of the dotted page design is very clever as they can be used for general notes and decent mapping (5' or 10' between dots as the basis of a grid).
In summary I think the journals are great. I wouldn't use one for every PC (e.g. on a one shot), but for long lived campaigns, and favourite characters these are a real treat. It's a bit like breaking out the best booze when the family visit for Christmas; something to look forward to and savour.
Right, who's running the next campaign? (Oh wait it's me!)
Contact details for Trinity Knot and The Lucky Maggiepie. Go check them out.
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