Recording a session sounds like the answer to note-taking: nobody has to write anything, and nothing gets missed. In practice, most groups end up with a folder of four-hour audio files that nobody ever plays back.
A recording is raw material, not notes. This guide covers how to get a recording worth having, how to turn it into a transcript, and how to turn the transcript into something the table will actually read.
Ask the table first
Before you record anyone, ask everyone, every time someone new joins. Some players are fine being recorded; some are not, and some will play differently knowing the mic is on. Agree on a few things up front:
- Who keeps the recording, and where it is stored.
- What it is for. "To write up the session notes" is a different promise from "to post online".
- When it is deleted. Most groups only need the audio until the notes are written.
Recording people without their agreement can also be against the law, depending on where you play. Asking first avoids that question entirely.
Getting a usable recording
At a physical table
- One microphone in the middle of the table is usually enough. A phone propped up on a book works better than a phone lying flat among the dice.
- Keep it away from noise: the dice tray, the snack bowl, the speaker playing background music. Ambient music is the single biggest reason transcripts come out garbled.
- Do a ten-second test. Record a few seconds of everyone talking, then play it back before you start.
Online
- Use the call's own recording or a bot built for it, so every voice comes through cleanly. Recording each player on a separate track makes the transcript much more accurate if your tools support it.
- Ask people to use headphones so the recording does not pick up echoes of the game music or other players.
Either way
- Say the date and session number at the start of the recording.
- Go round the table once. Each player says their name and the character they play: "Sara, playing Wren." It puts everyone at the table on the recording, and the transcript has the character names spoken clearly at least once.
- Name the character when you act. "Wren checks the door" says who did it. "I check the door" only does if the transcript knows whose voice that was, and most do not.
- Pause for breaks. An hour of pizza conversation is an hour of transcript nobody needs.
- Back it up straight after the session, before anyone records over it.
From audio to transcript
Transcription tools have become good enough that you no longer need to type anything yourself. Most can handle a long recording, and some will tell different speakers apart. A few things make the result better:
- Expect the names to be wrong. Fantasy names are the hardest part of any transcript. "Brom" may come back as "Brahm" or "broom". Keep a list of the campaign's names handy so you can fix them afterwards, or give it to the tool if it accepts one.
- Speaker labels are approximate. Players talk over each other, and characters' voices are not the same as their players'. Do not rely on the transcript to know who said what.
- Out-of-character talk is in there too. Rules discussions, jokes about last night's TV, and pizza orders all end up in the text.
From transcript to session notes
A transcript of a four-hour session can run to 30,000 words or more. Nobody is going to read that, so the last step is the one that matters: turning it into short notes.
- Skim for the beats. Look for moments when the party arrived somewhere, met someone, decided something, found something or fought something.
- Drop everything out of character. Rules lookups, breaks and side conversations go.
- Fix the names against your campaign's list.
- Write it up in a few short sections. The session recap template is a good shape: what happened, people, places, loot, and open threads.
- Keep the best line. Recordings are very good at catching the quote everyone laughed at.
Done this way, a recording is the best backup a note-taker can have: you can check exactly what the merchant said about the map, or settle who promised what to whom.
Recording is a backup, not a replacement
Even if you record every session, keep a few rough notes at the table. A handful of lines written in the moment, such as the shorthand in the note-taking guide, tells you what mattered, which the audio cannot. When you sit down with the transcript, those notes are your map through it.
Delete what you no longer need
Once the session notes are written and checked, you probably do not need the audio. Deleting it keeps the promise you made to the table, saves space, and means nobody's offhand comments live forever in a folder somewhere.
If you use RealmBinder
In RealmBinder, you can upload the session audio and it transcribes it, asks about anything it could not place, and drafts a session note for you to review. The audio is deleted after transcription. The characters, places and items in the note become entries for the whole group, just as with notes written by hand.
The advice above still applies: ask the table first, get a clean recording, and keep a few notes of your own as a check on what the draft says.