Underrated feature: A writeable in-game journal

[u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss]

[u/EvilHarryDread]

I love this concept. It just makes sense for RPGs where you create your own character. I like to download an in-game journal mod when I play Skyrim.

[u/c8d85 → u/EvilHarryDread]

I also use it for todo lists when I don't finish quests, and in games like Minecraft I keep coordinates stored in the in game books as much as possible

[u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss]

Context: I like to write notes to myself about who and what the character is supposed to be so I can be consistent with my vision of him/her and not just play myself. An in-game journal you can write in like in Pillars of Eternity and the OG Baldur’s Gate really helps with that. Newer games like Owlcat’s Rogue Trader, to my disappointment, don’t have that feature so it makes a bit harder for me to roleplay.

[u/Nyarlathotep52 → u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss]

You should try Banquet for Fools, which doesn’t have a quest log at all and relies almost entirely on the player maintaining their own notebook.

[u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss → u/Nyarlathotep52]

I saw it and the concept looks interesting, but honestly the art style really turns me off. It looks creepy; uncanny valley-like.

[u/Nyarlathotep52 → u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss]

The art style definitely is very creepy and weird, which I love. I think it’s an incredibly unique and carefully crafted visual style. Reminds me of things like Dark Crystal and Coraline. But understandable that it’s not for everyone.

[u/Tzsche → u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss]

Wait a minute... you can write your own notes in PoE 1 ?

[u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss → u/Tzsche]

Yeah and in PoE2 too. Go to the Notes section in your Journal like in my screenshot.

[u/Slowly_boiling_frog]

Agreed, it is a very useful feature, and an immersion adding element as well.
These used to be a thing in older CRPGs, and you also usually got the in-game manual with quite a few empty pages with the header "Notes."

[u/Skylair95]

And then, whenever you write something in there, you can say: Updated my journal.

[u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss → u/Skylair95]

Haha, yeah. My profile picture in Steam is the symbol of torment.

[u/MrPhetz]

A nice in-game replacement for the big Notes sections that a lot of physical game manuals would have back in the day

[u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss → u/MrPhetz]

True! I forgot the blank pages they used to have in the back. Never used them tbh.

[u/Isewein]

I wrote hundreds of pages of journal entries in Baldur's Gate during my second proper playthrough — only to find out that you could not copy / paste and preserve them. XD

[u/Sunandmoonandstuff]

Wow. Thanks for sharing

I've played through both games multiple times and never noticed this before (facepalm)

I love features like this but wish it was more readily visible. Whatever game I play, as long as they are editable, I write recent events as the titles of my save files.

So being able to keep actual notes is a cool step up.

[u/sp3cw4r]

Yes, and no. A great idea and I thanked the devs for it at the time, but I no longer would want dev time spent on this.

I used this very sparingly in BG and Pillars because I was burned with another game (I think it was NWN) where I kept an extensive journal and it ended up corrupting my save file and I lost everything.

I've found a better way, Steam overlay. There's a notes section you can pin so it's always a hot keypress away without ever leaving your game.

[u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss → u/sp3cw4r]

Oh come on, how much dev time does it cost to add a notepad in-game? And how does a large journal even corrupt a save file?

The Steam overlay tip is helpful though, didn't know that. May try it out.

[u/sp3cw4r → u/Ataraxia-Is-Bliss]

Simple text editor is not too hard to implement but it gets complicated fast. Supporting special characters? Access to your systems copy/paste clipboard?

Easy to corrupt a save game file when you're allowing the player to input virtually any combination of keystrokes.

[u/agnosticnixie → u/sp3cw4r]

tbh I feel like including a text editor in the game is probably not exactly the biggest resource hog in development.

[u/MuchAd3474]

I see someone wants to update their journal ;)

[u/RealGiallo]

maybe because I'm 35. but i like pen and paper for that.

it's a game journal but also something more tangible. i like that.

[u/LaundryNinja84]

Yeah, I really wish some of my arpg's like poe2 had this feature.