Continuing Mission is dedicated to celebrating the fans who make Star Trek Adventures come alive. Today, we highlight Khairul Hisham who has taken his game to the next level.
For over 30 years, Khairul Hisham has been running and playing RPGs, illustrating RPG books, and now teaching English and running RPGs in class with his students whenever possible. He resides in Perlis, Malaysia with his family. He blogs, sporadically these days, at https://hishgraphics.com/transitorystates/.
Powerful Post Play Reports
One of the things that Khairul does that really stands out is posting post play reports on his website. As a GM who posts all of my play reports and a player, I can say this makes a HUGE impact on the gaming experience.
Post play reports are a handy reference to record all the details put into a gaming session. They alll provide an accurate record of choices players made during the game and conversations that took place. Post play reports make an excellent reference for current players and also new players, who might want to catch up on what happened in your “series”. Think of it like mission logs.
Do you pump out awesome STA post play reports and cool art to bolster your gaming experience? If so, I would love to highlight them on Continuing Mission.
Hit me up at michaeldismuke1 at gmail dot com
Some tips for doing cool post play reports:
- The benefits of playing via text: If you play by email or by an app like Discord, it is simple enough to cut and paste the actual text from GM and players into a document where you can edit it.
- Playing live? Take notes: If you are playing live, keep a computer or pen and pad handy so that you can write down key turning points in the game. It could include a funny or impactful phrase uttered by a player or a detailed description of a scene. You will be surprised how the details will flow back to you when you put it to paper. And your players are sure to help you remember the details when they read through your post play report.
- Don’t wait—edit as you go: Don’t get buried under a backlog of text. Set a time when you will write the post play. Since my group plays via Discord, I clean up and edit the text at the end of the day and drop it into my final document, adding art as needed.
- Store wisely: Store your stories in a place you can get them. I have played a Marvel-based RPG for 30+ years. I have all of the post play reports because I wisely stored them; first, in a Zip drive, then USB, then Dropbox, now Google drive. Don’t lose access to your body of work.
- Use the past to inform the present: I occasionally write a current story that rewards players if they are familair with past stories, which they can reference because they are all written down. No need to rely on memory. They treat them like mission logs, using word search functionality to quickly get to the facts they need.
Christopher Tresize plays Commander Sanada in the USS Pioneer game. He says, “I love the episodes and I’ve even read some more than once. I rarely do that with proper books. They read like stories and, speaking from experience as someone joining halfway through [the campaign], it is so enjoyable reading the seasons before joining and catching up on the great adventures—I alway read an episode once it goes up despite having been a part of it and it is better in that format than if you’d literally written a mission log for the episode.”
Art
Another way to create your own universe, one you can practically touch and feel, is by doing pulling artwork into the game and dropping it into your play reports. This might be a custom show opener, custom avatars, maps of areas your player characters are visiting, or drawings of your characters in uniform. Custom art from once of your talented RPG group members is always appreciated.
Khairul Hisham put his artistic talents to work to make a scene in a gaming session come alive. Can they make these helmet’s standard issue?
Aaron Pollyea, STA writer and would-be Tellarite, states, “Custom art brings a game to life. It allows the players to see something that their limited group has experienced through storytelling. Expanding the mind’s eye into the senses always deepens an experience for players.”
You don’t draw? Not a problem. You can search the web for pictures you can use to describe persons, places, locations, and things in your game.
Let’s See Your Work
Do you pump out awesome STA post play reports and cool art to bolster your gaming experience? If so, I would love to highlight them on Continuing Mission. Hit me up at michaeldismuke1 at gmail dot com to share your post play reports and custom artwork.
Remember, STA allows everyone to write, direct, and star in their own Star Trek show. Khairul and others set a standard on how to memorialize epic adventures. Why keep all this creative energy to yourself. Share it with fellow fans and creators by getting it posted on Continuing Mission!