Bluebooking

[chuckdee]

Justin on the Alexandrian has an interesting installment on Bluebooking



I'd forgotten that Strikeforce was where I'd gotten the idea to do that, though my uses have evolved over the years.

Does anyone else use the technique?

 

[Silverlion]

Never done it was never even exposed to it until the internet became a thing. It believe it wouldn't fill my RP needs either since the requires other people's characters to interact with almost all of the time.

 

[Hairless Bear]

I've never heard the term "bluebooking", nor do I know Strikeforce. But I play (as a player, not GM) in a Cyberpunk RED campaign in which we do exactly what is described in the video. We started doing this, because our sessions were short (2 to 2.5 hours), and we felt it will be more efficient if we do some actions offline. It's basically a play by post over discord between the actual sessions (that are also online).

Interesting thing is, that the player from our group that is the most passive during the actual online play, is the most active during the play by post actions.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

Disclaimer: Didn't watch the video as I just...don't watch RPG videos.

But after doing a quick read up on Bluebooking...well, I can't imagine it being satisfying, nor can I imagine me or my group having *time* to do it.

 

[Dumarest]

Doing homework between sessions sounds like an excellent way to make an RPG feel more like a job than a hobby.

 

[Tommy Brownell]

Doing homework between sessions sounds like an excellent way to make an RPG feel more like a job than a hobby.

Yeah, my group is *really* casual. I’m the most hardcore member, and that’s because you gotta have a little hardcore if you’re GMing, especially if you’re not just running by the book, canned adventures.

I don’t think I’d enjoy players who wanted to do something like this consistently.

 

[Dumarest]

Yeah, my group is *really* casual. I’m the most hardcore member, and that’s because you gotta have a little hardcore if you’re GMing, especially if you’re not just running by the book, canned adventures.

I don’t think I’d enjoy players who wanted to do something like this consistently.

Essentially verbatim how I would describe it.

 

[DeadBob]

I'm pretty sure all of that kind of thing is meant to be voluntary.

Although, depending upon the game style, I could see certain advantages for the person blue booking over someone who doesn't if it involved largely off-screen, long-term personal planning.

 

[ffilz]

I'm not sure I've ever done this, but I also feel like some folks were doing it in the early 1980s in college.

On the other hand, I HAVE done some of the out of session stuff via e-mail or discord.

On the subject of "homework"... These days, with 2 hour game sessions, my preference is that character generation, character advancement/training, and shopping happen outside a session as much as possible.

 

[DeadBob]

On the subject of "homework"... These days, with 2 hour game sessions, my preference is that character generation, character advancement/training, and shopping happen outside a session as much as possible.

Fortress building, army/navy development and patrol deployment, spell research, magic item creation, trade route development, espionage activities...

You know, all the stuff that interested me when playing B/X that no other player had an interest in

 

[ffilz]

Fortress building, army/navy development and patrol deployment, spell research, magic item creation, trade route development, espionage activities...

You know, all the stuff that interested me when playing B/X that no other player had an interest in

Oh, yea, all that domain level type stuff.... I haven't really had any campaigns have more than a tiny bit of that...

I should have mentioned magic item creation, it's right in line with shopping. And I'm finally running a campaign that allows that after years of that not being a factor. Not that PCs can do it (well, if someone REALLY wanted to be able to make potions, it's possible as a 4th level Alchemist - I just haven't actually revisited the alchemy rules...). But eventually the casters will make 6th level and be able to make potions...

 

[Gabriel]

I've done it before. Some of that even before I knew the term.

With the first functional GM I gamed with, I started keeping a journal of my character. It was somewhere between an outline of her adventures and a narrative. The GM liked reading it and started writing his own entries for me to respond to in character in between sessions.

I first saw the term bluebooking in the CP2020 GM supplement Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads.

I periodically tried it after that. My personal experience is that most people weren't interested. It required "homework." And those who were interested typically preferred direct 1 on 1 gaming, which was easier, and they were less reserved in that context.

However, one area where it really worked was my starship game of the early 90s. The theme of the game was that it was like an MMO and all the players were playing this game where they were captains of starships exploring/exploiting the galaxy. I had several notebooks which were "BBSes." Players could write "posts" in them between games or even in between their turns during tactical combat. Back then I had an insane amount of energy and drive towards RPGs, so between sessions I'd go into the notebook and reply as NPCs and keep the drama going. It really added something to the game, and added to the scenarios (which were honestly just long dice chucking sessions).

 

[CRKrueger]

Justin on the Alexandrian has an interesting installment on Bluebooking



I'd forgotten that Strikeforce was where I'd gotten the idea to do that, though my uses have evolved over the years.

Does anyone else use the technique?

In character journaling - sure, all the time.
A PC sending a letter - sure, all the time.

PC to PC private communication - the players just go somewhere and talk
PC to GM private communication - the GM and PC just go to talk

Epistolary RPing? Doing stuff offline, like a PbP? No. When Justin's talking about taking your time and "getting the character right" without the immediacy of being at the table, that means thinking about the character. Just not that productive for me.

 

[AsenRG]

Justin on the Alexandrian has an interesting installment on Bluebooking



I'd forgotten that Strikeforce was where I'd gotten the idea to do that, though my uses have evolved over the years.

Does anyone else use the technique?

Kinda, but not quite. That's happening naturally in PbP when you have someone who's more active than others, to the point the GM runs a side adventure for him or her (it's usually a her, IME).
And the whole thing is basically a PbP, too.

But these days I don't run PbP. Instead, can I suggest that for regular live groups "BlueDiscording" would be more useful, especially with the more active members?

In fact, every group that sets up a private Discord server is already using this technique - including in its original form (but not format). Exactly how much use it's going to see would, I suspect, depend on the inclinations of the group's members. Possibly not much, possibly all the time.

 

[chuckdee]

Doing homework between sessions sounds like an excellent way to make an RPG feel more like a job than a hobby.

It's not really homework if it's enjoyable. It's a lot like solo play also, and there's been more than one case where a minor inconvenience the PCs dismissed became a larger problem for them because of the practice.

One of my other favorite stories to tell about my campaigns - the PCs were going into the Temple of Elemental Evil and wanted hirelings for red shirts. They treated them terribly, but one, improbably, survived. He became their lucky charm- their mascot. And rolling for his reactions, he was delusional was all I could figure, because he put up with it, and considered himself one of the party and an adventurer.

One day his luck ran out, and they left him for dead. I was intrigued by this character I'd developed over a couple of adventures with them, and what happened to him, so I started playing him solo.

A few years later, the PCs started to run into trouble. First it was small things. One of their safehouses got raided because of unpaid taxes. Their weapon order from the blacksmith got lost. They had some items confiscated, and 'magical tests' proved that they had been used in a robbery (and indeed they had). Those charges were the start of a downhill slide that had no reason nor rhyme behind it. They were finally able to get whispers of a new power in town that didn't like them. They started making moves against this power, but it was like fighting smoke, as their stratagems failed, and things got worse for them.

They finally figured out it was their old hireling, now grown up into an adventurer, and harboring a grudge. He became one of the longest running, most frustrating and rewarding opponents that they faced. Anytime something would go wrong, they'd blame it on him and spend time trying to tie it to him. The funny thing - in reality, one of their stratagems had succeeded, and he'd died, hoisted by his own petard as he didn't treat his hirelings any better than they'd treated him.

 

[Spellslinging Sellsword]

This is the only bluebooking that I've done.

Bluebook - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Marshal Lucky]

I thought this thread was about the real Blue Book:

 

[Rated Aargh]

Years and years and years ago, I did a full-on ‘zine for my campaign, complete with articles and fiction, and I encouraged my players to contribute there, as well. It was like an extreme form of bluebooking, and I’m amazed I didn’t fry my brain from doing so much extra work.

As much as I’d like to see my players putting this kind of detail into their characters and digging into the setting, I don’t see any of them doing so. It’s hard to get together under the best of circumstances, and when we do, it’s generally one-and-done adventures before moving on to something else we’d like to try. Occasionally, there’s a follow-up, but usually not.

If I were playing in someone’s involved game, I’d consider it for myself, but that’s because I enjoy being creative. But, as some people have said in this thread, it’s too much like homework to catch on.

 

[drkrash]

I've used it extensively since 1989. How much I use it in any given game depends on the game though. I ran an OSR hexcrawl and we used nothing like this. But both of my major soap opera supers games used it a lot. My group used it a lot *more* before marriage and kids came around.

In the game I'm trying to wrap up now, I have 2 players who have not used it ever in the 4 years of this game, 2 players who have used it infrequently...and one player who has written dozens of pages of essentially collaborative fanfic of her character. She loves it, I don't mind contributing.

It also helps her these days as she wants the character development, but our 4-hour sessions tend to be 75% fight scene.

But I've had enough soap opera for a few years. I want next game to be simpler in this regard.

 

[Allen Varney]

When the late Aaron Allston devised the bluebooking technique for his decades-long Champions Strike Force campaign, it was largely for the benefit of just one player (Luray Richmond, who played Lorelai). The two of them filled stacks of bluebooks with Lorelei's offscreen relationships and conversations. I believe a couple of other players (out of dozens) also briefly used bluebooking. The technique is really intended for a particular, rather rare kind of player.

 

[ffilz]

When the late Aaron Allston devised the bluebooking technique for his decades-long Champions Strike Force campaign, it was largely for the benefit of just one player (Luray Richmond, who played Lorelai). The two of them filled stacks of bluebooks with Lorelei's offscreen relationships and conversations. I believe a couple of other players (out of dozens) also briefly used bluebooking. The technique is really intended for a particular, rather rare kind of player.

Makes sense. I know in college, some players and GMs would have extensive one on one or a few on one "sessions" not at the usual session time. A bunch of us would hang out in the student union during our free time (or even light study time). Chit chat, card games, board games, informal chat about a campaign, and these one on one sessions would happen during this time. Those one on one sessions met a lot of the same needs that blue booking met, and it is because of these that I think there might have even been some blue booking going on. This was in the early 1980s.

One thing to consider is that in this time frame, many RPG players had also played Diplomacy which probably is one inspiration for the idea.

 

[Allen Varney]

many RPG players had also played Diplomacy which probably is one inspiration for the idea.

I certainly believe Diplomacy players practiced some kind of bluebooking even in primordial gaming days. But based on my years-long acquaintance with Aaron Allston, who is credited as the originator of the technique as it applies to RPG campaigns, I guarantee Aaron never played Diplomacy (he might have shuddered at the idea), and it's unlikely he would have known of the Diplomacy community's practices.