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How to Write an RPG Journal – Part V: Inventory

This is the fifth part in my ongoing series of articles detailing the essentials to consider when writing a journal for a computer-based role-playing game. The previous parts are:

Inventory

When I pick up an as-yet-unrevealed quest item, please please please, log it in the journal. I can’t stand it when you find odd items like A Toothbrush with no clue as to its importance. I learned my gaming habits from playing Steve Meretzky games. Did anyone else get caught out by leaving the screwdriver back in Arthur’s house in Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy? Or have their Simpleberry Bush confiscated in Spellcasting 201: The Sorceror’s Applicance? Growing up with those games has left me with a healthy inventory-centric paranoia.

(For those unacquainted with the games in question, you would get these items near the start of the game. They were fairly unassuming and sometimes used for other purposes during the game. They were also required near the end. You could leave them inaccessible locations throughout the game and only find out that you needed them back after days of intensive puzzle-solving.

A distasteful design practice now but apparently acceptable then. Personally, I think that the quality of writing more than made up for those particularly evil, evil, EVIL mechanics.)

A-hem… and back to the topic at hand. Flag up quest items, please. It can be a simple as this:

Found a mysterious flamey feather today. I wonder what it came from…

Short and piques your interest, yet doesn’t give anything away. Much more immersive than World of Warcraft’s utilitarian ‘This starts a quest.’

There’s one thing more crucial than logging the presence of a quest item. It’s this:

Where did I leave the damn thing?

Most CRPGs have an inventory limit. It can be astoundingly frustrating – you drop a seemingly-innocent useless item. Two weeks later you’re happily playing along and you get “Bring me the Helm of Arturoc from Godwin’s Cove”. You think “Ooo, yeah, I’ve been to Godwin’s Cove. I was carrying that Helm around for ages.” And then your heart sinks as you remember clearing all the junk from your inventory back in… where was it again?

This heart-breaking problem is easily solved by another simple journal entry:

Got sick of lugging the silly Helm of Arturoc around the place. Left it in Bethesda.

Hooray! Problem solved.

Check back soon for the quick summary of this article series.