A Wizard's Bullet Journal

Nadia's head was in her red leather spellbook again.

The wizard had sat down after their fight with the goblins in the cave.  She had started to pen quick notes.  Her inkwell was out and she laid flat on her stomach, writing a tiny script in the blue book.

The rest of the party down looked at the purple-robed wizard, waiting.

"You done yet?"  Bellum, the paladin asked.  Their impatient tone didn't seem to register with Nadia at all.

"Have to add a note or three,"  Nadia replied as she noted down observations from the last spell she'd cast in combat.  "My last casting of Magic Missile was different than previous.  And I might've perfected the force application equation.  At least the light refraction seemed to bear that out."

"What does that mean?"

"Her magic was greener than it's been before,"  Hensam added.  She took the moment of quiet to shine her daggers.

Bellum shot her a glare.  Nadia beamed.  Well, she sort of beamed, her face still buried in the notes she was making.

"You noticed too!  Oh, Good!"  Nadia closed her spellbook, her fingers stained purple with ink.  "This adventure has revealed much about evocation to me.   Can't wait to experiment with more spells!"

Bellum sighed, pinching their nose.  "We're trying to save the village from that black dragon."

"Oh, I hope so!  It will be fascinating to seeing how evocation magic interacts with the dragon's natural magical resistance, Bellum.  Let me know if you notice anything in particular and I'll make sure to credit you later."

"Wizards,"  Bellum growled.

For the Crafty Wizard

One of the first notions I got after starting my own bullet journal was how useful it could be in a tabletop RPG as a prop.  Bullet Journals are a thing from 2015, based on a core idea of an analog planning method.  I tend to think of it as something that ideas and thoughts can be offloaded onto.   Y'know, rather than taking up free space in your own brain.

The phrase "operating system for your journal" also is a phrase people use for it.  IDK how to explain them here, as they aren't the point.

One of my first ideas for adopting a Bullet Journal (or Bujo) is for use by a Wizard.  Or any magic-user.  It might've been idea 10, who knows.  I get lots of these.

What if a Wizard had an actual, physical real-world journal that the player at the table used?  Or any character that casts spells.  Or a Bard's songs.  Or a Paladin's oaths.  This starts from a Wizard thing, but if the character is a "writer" it could fit for them too.  It being a Bujo simplifies the usage, gives them a structure to make it with and expand it.

Every Spell A Collection

The simple parts of a Bujo are some of the modules.  The easiest to adopt is the first: an Index.  Number pages and make the first section of the Journal the Index.  By recording what each section is, the Bujo Wizard (Journamancer?) has a structure that can make the journal prop go from blank paper to something you can actually fill as needed.

The second module useful for the Spellbujo is using Collections.  Collections are just that, collected pages around one subject or thing.  Often people use them to record what books they've read, their budget, for example. Or any of the other random crafty Instagram photos you'll find of Bujos.  We can use Collections like that.  Except each collection is a spell the Wizard would have in their in-game Spellbook.

My thought is each spell should be 2 pages, but each Wizard is unique.  The Conjuror will want several pages on various summonings.  Meanwhile, a Necromancer will want a collection for each corpse they animate.  That's the personalizing part of this of it.

I'm hinting at it here, but each Spell's collection shouldn't only be a written copy of the spell in question.  But it could!  Maybe it couldn't as well.  Who knows.  Depends on how useful you want to make the prop.  Add salt as needed.

My thought is for the Journaling Wizard is for them to use a memorable casting of a spell as a chance to add something.  An observation or addendum to a particular spell's collection.  Y'know.  Magic science notes.

And a good GM, regardless of System, should ask to look at the Spellbook from time to time.  They could offer to let the Wizard alter spells based on their character's observations.  The GM might notice how often the Wizard uses a particular Abjuration.  How the Wizard's notes keep wondering about its use for something different.  Something not in the core books of whatever system they're running.

The GM should alter the spell and give the player the chance to alter their spells through this.  If the player puts in the idea fodder, go with it.  Or not.  Just a thought.

A Clever Bit of Artifice

So this is the fun bit.  Even a bit of work turns the real world journal into the Wizard's Spellbook.  This Prop itself lends itself to dramatically opened, flipped through hurriedly, or whatever motion you could do with a prop at the table.  Play with it.  Some groups might have a grand time with that.

But it gets a bit better than that, I think.  If done right, an old spellbook might outlast the campaign.  In a future campaign, it might return.  The GM might ask for it, and then suddenly, your old Wizard's book is an important plot device in the next generation's adventures.  That book might spend years as a prop, earning its wages as a spellbook.

It also gives you something to remember a good campaign with.  That's another thing.  Sometimes we don't remember the good campaigns.  They end before their time.  Sometimes having some small thing of it in the real world is worth it.

Or not.

Depends on how you write it down, I suppose.