Burd's Survival Journals (B41/42)

Burd's Survival Journals

Welcome to BSJ, a journal mod with plenty for players and server owners to chew on (before the zombies do). Record progress in crafted journals, or learn from loot journals found in containers and on corpses.

Player journals preserve skills, traits, recipes, stats, and personal notes. Worn, bloody, cursed, and Yuletide journals can also appear as loot across Knox County.

Supports single-player, multiplayer, split-screen, and controllers on Build 41 and current stable Build 42.

The basic loop

• Craft a Blank Survival Journal.
• Right-click it with a writing tool and choose Record Progress.
• Record what the sandbox settings allow.
• Keep it safe, then reclaim it after death.

Recording and claiming use timed actions. Tools, light, time, capacity, and recovery are configurable.

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What Player Journals Can Hold

• Skills: Earned vanilla and registered modded XP. Fitness and Strength use passive handling; VHS XP is recorded by default.
• Traits: Eligible traits, with safeguards for passive, profession, and mod-controlled traits.
• Recipes: Learned recipes and magazines.
• Stats: Supported records such as time survived and zombie kills.
• Notes: Directions, history, warnings, progress logs, or roleplay.

Baseline restriction separates earned progress from character-creation bonuses. Legacy mode allows all current data instead.

Recovery Rules

Full Recovery mode (set by default) returns progress 1:1. Playing with Diminishing Returns, however, gives you three ways to play: Tracked Per Claim (default mode), Reading Session, or Skill Per Journal. First-read recovery, decay amount per read, and the minimum floor are configurable.

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Journals Found in the World

Worn Journals

Found in world containers. Usually lighter rewards; may hold skills, recipes, traits, and Forget Slots.

Bloody Journals

Looted from zombie corpses. Can hold stronger skills, recipes, traits, and Forget Slots. Each category is configurable.

Cursed Journals

Rare corpse loot replacing a bloody roll. Breaking the seal can cause injury, panic, lost progress, or another curse. See the Cursed Journal guide.

They can be disguised as bloody journals. Cat's Eyes, fieldcraft traits, Park Ranger, or enough Foraging can expose one. Higher Foraging can reveal its omen or exact curse. Thresholds are configurable.

Yuletide Journals

Seasonal worn or bloody replacements containing a Christmas journal and supplies. Use game December, real December, or always on; gift tiers and Krampus authorship are configurable.

Forget Slots

One-time rewards that remove a specific eligible negative trait instead of teaching a new one.

Limited claims: Loot journals can dissolve after a set number of claims. Rewards are global, so two players cannot take the same entry.

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Crafting

Find recipes under the BurdJournals crafting filter or search "Journal." In B42, stand beside a valid work surface.

• Bind a notebook or journal with thread or adhesive recipes.
• Erase a filled personal journal back to blank.
• Rebind loot journals into fresh personal journals, discarding their old rewards.

Thread binding requires basic Tailoring; adhesive is the beginner option. Costs differ between B41 and B42.

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Multiplayer, Sharing, and Admin Tools

The server validates journal ownership, inventory access, claims, XP, traits, recipes, and contents.

• Control who can open, claim from, or write in personal journals.
• Keep personal recovery private while world loot stays shared.
• Cap journal contents and use diminishing returns or limited claims.

Player journals may be reusable per character; loot rewards are consumed for everyone. Restored loot journals can optionally dissolve after recording and relearning.

BSJ Debug Center

Includes journal spawners, player editing, baseline repair, character snapshots, and diagnostics.

Enable Debug Commands is under Sandbox > Journals - Advanced. MP access may be Admins Only, Admins and Staff, or All Players. It is off by default.

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Sandbox and Compatibility

Settings cover recovery, writing, capacity, loot, curses, Yuletide, batches, MP permissions, and compatibility with Traits Purchase System, Adaptive Traits, and Evolving Traits World. Let me know if another mod needs integration.

• Build 41: Single-player and multiplayer.
• Build 42: SP, hosted and dedicated MP, split-screen, and controllers on current stable.

Bug reports should include the game build, SP or MP, and relevant console.txt lines. Debug Center > Diagnostics can enable Verbose Logging.

BSJ works on ongoing saves, but explored containers do not reroll. Removing it can destroy player journals. Back up your save first.

Discussions and Bug Reports | Change Notes