State of Stationery 2026-07-07
Up on the Mountain, After the Flood was supposed to take just one Kokuyo B5 Campus notebook, but that quickly proved unfeasible so that campaign is now across three Campus books, split roughly into "Lore", "Mechanics", and "Log". So far having a separate "Log" book for a campaign seems like a good idea, it's getting a little tricky having notes from the sessions of the unblogged Fabula Ultima campaign mixed in with my prep notes1. Something to consider for the future. Pens for Up on the Mountain are two sets of Pilot G-2 gel pens, one in blues ("the colors of productivity")2 and another in purples ("the colors of creativity"3). Pretty good so far. Ink's a little thick, I have to be a little mindful of drying times in the Campuses but I can see why the G-2s are apparently the most popular gel pens in the world.
Unblogged Fabula Ultima campaign is in a Kyokuto F.O.B. Coop B5 cross grid notebook. The paper's good, takes ink well. I prefer a cross/dot grid for my campaign notebooks because it lets me have maps and notes neatly(ish) on the same page. The Campus notebooks do have guides so you can turn the lines into a square grid, but it's just not as convenient.
Pens for the unblogged campaign are Pilot Acroball ballpoints and it seems those color sets are getting harder to find which is worrying because those are really good ballpoints. I also have a set of Zebra F-301s that I want to really like but the ink in those just doesn't seem as vibrant.
Another project I have going4 is in some Oxford stone paper notebook I picked up over a decade ago (that I kind of hate) with Writech Swirl rollerballs. Unfavorable impressions of a set of Pilot Precise V5s almost made me swear off rollerballs for good but the black pen in that set redeemed them before I ran it out of ink. The Swirls have been really good so far, and haven't had a problem with the stone paper. That notebook is almost done and I'm looking to replace it with a Leuchtturm1917 411. We'll see if I still like the Swirls on that.
I also have a set of Writech Ombre gel pens in black/light blue/blue/purple and a set of Uni-ball ZENTOs with all black ink. Both are in 0.7mm when I think I prefer 0.5mm but no real complaints about either.
Next pen pick up will probably be a set of Papermate Inkjoys, either ballpoints or gel pens I haven't decided yet. Maybe some Pentel EnerGels.
Favorite pens overall remain Zebra's Sarasa Clips with the vintage colors.
Maybe I'll pick up another stack of Campuses to use as logbooks for future campaigns. The fact that they're short and lined shouldn't be an issue for that use-case.↩
I'm a little miffed because one of the pens in that set has terrible ink but when I saw the same pack out in the wild the other day that pen had a different ink. At least Pilot wised up I guess.↩
This whole thing smacks of Gender.↩
Watch this space.↩