MC in game journal (book and quill)

[Larmantine]

Has anyone ever tried this? At first I saw writable books as useless feature but at first i tried to take notes of specific locations, goals, something that i require. And then this turned through a diary of some sort. Afterwards it is quite fun to read.

Here are some in game screens, but its from my recent hardcore Ars Magica and Thaumcraft 3 world, still, you'll get the idea.

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I started doing this with BTW when i needed to write down some specific resources for planned contraptions. Was too lazy to write in IRL. So, do any of you make journals like these too?

[Padfoote]

So, do any of you make journals like these too?

I was actually planning on writing myself massive lists off all the things I finished in a day of playing in order to keep myself interested in my world. Sadly though, motivation and a full auto cow farm stand between me and this goal.

Thanks for posting this though, it's given me the bit of motivation I need to get working on my world again to pull this off.

[Elevatator]

Yeah, I used them in a hardcore mode world.
Normally I write into the diary each evening. I remember things like "I finally found a pig today. I think I will call him Gordon. I gave him the saddle I found, so that I will always know who Gordon is. (If I ever get the luck to find more pigs...)"
One time, I went on adventuring/mining, and from time to time I even wrote about the events in there. Like "I unleashed the power of unstable gravel, and let it fall on a skeleton. It was hilarious."

One of my entrys: "Not only the people of the dead invade these caverns. I found a tall, dark creature. I will call it shadowman. They don´t seem to mind you doing your business. But if you disturb them - just a look into their scary glowing eyes - they will call more of their people. At first, it just looked at me. It seemed it just wanted me to stop watching him, it was like a warning that bad things will happen. So I looked away, and it started to attack me. I thought I could kill it. But it disappeared in the darkness. With two more shadowmen it returned. I ran away, into a small hole, small enough that they couldn´t reach me. I don´t know if it is still watching me from the darkness, I can´t see it. I don´t know what will happen when I attempt to leave this cavern, so I write this down, in case, that if anyone finds it, they will know not to disturb the shadowmen. Don´t even look at them."
And.... I got killed by the Endermen. The world got deleted, but I still remember my last thoughts, and the group of endermen that killed me.
It was kinda fun.

[Kazuya Mishima]

I don't really keep a journal but more or less a rough inventory of cave networks, ravines i find and a count of all my exploratory shafts as i span outward every 8meters with a tunnel from my central shaft starting a new level every 8 vertical meters, I'm trying to lite up everything as my mob trap is really small.

Every tunnel is designated based on its orientation with a central vertical shaft and its cardinal direction.

It's really rough so eventually i would imagine i would have to retype it and put it in more accessible order though. There are no erasers in mincraftia.

[Detritus]

I've always liked the concept of games which write journals about the events in your game as you play, with no player intervention required. It would pick important events over time, and write them into the journal in a poetic way. Then, the journal would either be an easily accessible thing that you spawn with/could craft, or it would be find-able in the world, and could point to the events of a previous life, and would be packaged into the journal on death.

[Sandrew]

I try to trace history by posting notes on big achievements with a date on them (for example, first dung, hibachi, anvil, things like that). Eventually these achievements will be housed in a museum of sorts.

I did try keeping a journal once but I can never find it in me to keep it properly updated. I'll probably try again after reading this thread.

[haphazardnuke]

I have a journal like this in my current world. I decided before I was thinking about a character from another game, and thought "hey, how would they react to suddenly waking up in the world of Minecraft?". I have a general idea of what I want to happen, but I let the in-game events dictate when and how the plot advances. Thinking in terms of character knowledge vs player knowledge (for recipes and game mechanics) is fun.