It allows you to search the
messageboards, send and receive private messages, give yourself a
custom usertitle, turn ads on or off, create a custom style for your
profile, get a nifty badge under your username, and gives you a special
warm glowy feeling! Oh, and it gets rid of this annoying message, too!
The Essential Guide to a GM’s Notebook *Updated 11/10 - Chapter 12*
This thread is a spin-off of BardStephenFox’s excellent “The Fine Art of Winging It” thread. It will be a list of items essential to a GM’s notebook. Before I start the process of listing essentials there is a few things in general to address:
1. Why a notebook?
Well, because you need it that’s why! Well, seriously, the notebook is nothing more than a GM Survival GuideTM to provide you a place to store all of the game materials essential to the current game plus provide you with prep material to add when the characters do something outside of your plans. Organization will save you every time.
And lets face it; they will do something you didn’t plan on. Whether it’s going to a merchant you didn’t consider they needed, or requiring you to roll a skill check or interact with an otherwise nameless NPC, or if they up and decide to leave the road their on and investigate something not in your story. Trust me, they’ll do it.
2. What should I use for a notebook?
I have seen many things used, from index cards to 5 subject notebooks, to graph paper, to 3 ring binders, to laptop computers now days. I recommend a 3 ring binder. It gives you space to add and remove things, the ability to organize it in an order convenient to you, it’s economic, and finally, it allows you to print whatever from your computer and add it directly. You want to print some cool things from a website or copy, paste, and print some monsters from SRD, then have at it and add it directly to your notebook.
3. How much should I put into the notebook?
Well, that is up to you. How much time can you donate to preparation? What will help your game? I have a list of at least 12 things I’m going to list and I hope to add a few more, plus others will hopefully add as we go. But only you can decide what you like and don’t like.
And now...
Last edited by Nightcloak; 10th November 2005 at 02:09 AM..
This is quite the life saver. It may not be the most important to running a game as other essentials might be, but this one covers a subject that is the most annoying. Creating names puts you on the spot and the name you do come up with might end up sounding weird, funny, or the worse of all – invoke a bad pun. Then the verisimilitude of your game is shot, and the players will never let you live it down. And may the gods of roleplaying have mercy on you if the characters find a reason to keep visiting the NPC. Do yourself a favor; don’t consider this essential an “option”. You’ll be happy you did it, trust me.
Remember when 3E came out and you were so geeked over the rules that you bought everything 3E. Including the first release after the Players Handbook, the now infamous Hero’s Builders Guide. You know that book; it’s the one with all the dust on it from sitting on your shelf unused. Go get it, flip to the back, and you’ll find a treasure trove of names. And even better, they are listed by gender and race! Just copy down the names you like onto your list and add it directly to your notebook. It will make the purchase almost worth it (almost). If you have access to a copy machine, just copy the pages, punch it, and add it directly to your notebook.
If you were one of the players out there who didn’t by the book, well that’s OK. You can just do the same thing on your own. Start a list of cool names, say them out load to make sure there is nothing wrong with them (make them PC proof) and write them down. If you can, make a separate list for male and female names, and then a list for the different races your characters are likely to interact with. Don’t forget a few monsters with a language in case a crafty mage decides to start negotiating with that Mind Flayer.
If you are stuck for names, do a web search for names and languages. Scroll through a few fantasy novels you liked for more inspiration. Even go through all those RPG books on the shelf and pick out some cool names. You can even “tweak” the spelling to “file off the numbers” if it may be something your players may know. The important thing is, just start looking at names and let the creative juices roll.
Don’t forget, if you use a name, check it off so you don’t use it again. Make a note in your campaign notes about the NPC and the new name so you’ll remember his name once the players try to go back. Consistency is the other reason to have the notebook in the first place.
Now, the next time your players decide to start random conversations with the city guard or visit a merchant or even question that drow bandit they were suppose to kill, you’ll be prepared.
On the subject of names: There are some PDFs out there that have a variety of names. Elvish, Orcish, Halfling, Roman, English, French, Gaelic, etc. These are pretty big, but they do a good job with regional flavor.
Name sites are a good option.
A few weeks ago, there was a thread where somebody started mining their spam email for NPC names.
Anyplace you can get names is a good resource. As Nightcloak said, do yourself a favor and take some time to make at least one name list for NPCs.
If anyone wants to add a great product to go with a subject or a website for people to visit, I’ll add it back to the post it references. That way, we can keep all the ideas together for easy reference in one post. Then if someone wants to backtrack later on a given subject, they can just go to that one post and find the product/link immediately.
Location: In the very bowels of Hell (A.K.A. Chicago)
Posts: 536
Don't even get me started on the problems of split second namings. YOU should have seen the looks on my PCs faces when they learned that my bard DMPCs name was "Fredegar Tallcandle". I kept Tallcandle, but the first name is now Vallin, my classic bard name (all my NPC bards have been named Vallin).
This thead is a great idea!
According to this test, I am a Lawful Good Gnome Paladin with the following ability scores:
Str. 10
Dex. 15
Con. 16
Int. 15
Wis. 10
Cha. 12
The test said it, not me. :\
Another issue that crops up in games is when PCs go to visit the local merchant. It may be a sage, an armory, a general store, an alchemical shop, or even the local tavern. You can count on a PC to want to visit a tavern in the wrong part of town or to decide that they really want to find a library for the first time evah…
It’s the GMs Notebook to the rescue! Just like you did with NPC names, with this addition to your notebook you create lists of names for the various businesses your players will visit. Add a few names for the places they never visit. Why? They will. Eventually.
A useful list of appropriate shops to consider is:
Naturally, names should be appropriate to the business. The Silver Rose makes a great name for a tavern or jeweler shop in a well to-do part of town, but would really stand out as the name of a tavern in a seedy area or the name of a leather worker.
Again, be creative. Go through all those books on the shelves for inspiration. There are tons of name generators running around and sites on the Internet.
Write down all those names onto a list. Popular places like taverns and weaponsmiths may need a whole page. Places like the Winemaker may only need one or two names and you can place half a dozen on a single page. If you can find sites on the Internet, all the better! Just print them out, punch 3 holes into the pages, and plop it right into your notebook.
If all else fails, you can always take the easy way out. Look back at your list of NPCs, take a name for the owner of the place, and just add to the name what the shop is. The PCs need to buy a suit of chainmail while visiting a non-descript town that was flavor text before they arrived and decided to “rest a day or two”. No problem, checking your NPC list you spot the name: Radagar.
Bam: Radagar’s Smithy
They want to stay the night. Check your list and bam: The Old Mill Inn.
They flirt with the waitress. Check your NPC list and bam: Serina
This option is like the NPC list above. Just do it. You really won’t regret it.
Great Sources for Names:
Dragon Annual #5 (Annual 2000): This has many great random generators for many kinds of businesses including a separate article just for taverns.
Great Links for Names:
Tavern Generator: Complete with rumors, menu of the day, and the costs are based on the quality of tavern you want! Print tons of places within seconds and add directly to the notebook.
Last edited by Nightcloak; 28th March 2005 at 06:17 AM..
And if you have the money (or have one just lying around) a labtop, I have found, makes an excellent place to store notes. It also makes a good GM screen and alows you to have any number of GM help programs avalable at any time, from name generators to calculators.
__________________ Well, that was fun
"Things arn't as pretty on the inside..."
Spoiler:
"Xen is basically the GMF's goodwill ambassador to the Far Realm" HightCloak
Ever have a player get to town, want to sell an item, and suddenly realize that the item in question was from an adventure months ago. “Ah… was that the gem from the ‘Old Tower in the Woods’ or the gem from the ‘Dungeon of Anguish’?” “No, I think that was the gem I stole from Serina at the Old Mill Tavern 3 months ago”.
Having a simple spreadsheet can save you a lot of time and hassle with just a little organization. I’ve provided mine as an example. You can adjust it from there to fit what you need or create your own that suits your style. If you change the spreadsheet, remember to adjust the printer settings for the page so everything fits.
Using the spreadsheet:
Just print and add to your notebook.
During the game, when the players get a magic item or an object they wish to save do to an unknown value (like gems or art), then add it to the list. First the name, then the description, then where it came from (incase you need to look it up later), then the date (sometimes relevant in my game, YMMV), the real value, what the appraisal skill tells the PC, then finally any side notes you may need later.
Real Game Example: The players find a longsword. Under #1 I would write:
1. Longsword……..+4 undead bane…….Tower of Madness…….10/31……. <GP value>….. (blank) …….Hilt is covered to hide a phylactery for the Beholder Lich
I tell the players to write a “1” next to the long sword. Later, when they cast identify on the longsword labeled #1, I tell them it’s a plus 4 weapon and lightly put a slash through the +4. Now I now what parts of the weapon have been identified and which parts are still a mystery. If I need more info, then I can always look up my notes from the “Tower of Madness” adventure.
If the players find a gem, I would write:
2. Gem……..Amethyst…….Bandits on the “Road of Kings”…….12/25……. 500 GP….. (blank) ……. Good quality. Rosy coloration.
If the players make an appraised check, I make a roll and write down the “players perception” of 400 GP as I tell the player the result. Now I know what he thinks of the Amethyst and keep that consistent. When he sells it, he tells me he’s selling the Amethyst labeled #2, I know the base it 500 GP for the Gem Cutters appraisal roll.
I guarantee, even though the sheet starts out empty, you’ll quickly fill it up with magic items, gems, jewelry, art, and other odd-and-ends. And when the players finally get around to needing to know more about all that loot, you’ll be happy you have it on hand at a moments notice in the notebook, with all the info ready to roll.
Last edited by Nightcloak; 22nd March 2005 at 05:20 AM..
Location: In the scenic part of Hell: The Village of Barovia
Posts: 253
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nightcloak
[size=3]Start a list of cool names, say them out load to make sure there is nothing wrong with them (make them PC proof) and write them down.
I have to say that saying the names out loud is a must. Also, attempt to rhyme them with anything that a 5 year old might find hilarious. Unfortunately, some PCs out there enjoy tearing apart NPC names (even though said individuals need me to make thier character names for them.)
__________________
Spoiler:
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. -Henry Louis Mencken
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mordmorgan the Mad
Uh...yeah, I looked through all my core books...and, uh...I couldn't find any rules
on "Common Sense" at all. Is that some kinda Rogue ability?
Disclaimer: The above is SARCASM. Just so you know.
This is one of those great posts that is so thorough, and so complete that there's almost nothing to add! All I can say is I've found my prepared lists of NPCs to be invaluable. And mostly they're just NPC ideas with names, not fully fleshed out character sheets. That's not necessary unless the NPC is going to end up being an opponent, or just important in the lives of the PCs.
The magic item/gem and treasure indexing system is also something I've found as necessary. I don't know how many times (going back to 1e) I told someone that the potion of delusion was actually a "potion of flying" ... only to have him use the potion four game sessions later, after which I've completely forgotten that it was false. The same goes for badly appraised gems and treasures. Or heaven forbid they actually put off identifying it for a while ... I don't know how many times I had to ask "umm ... do you remember what room you found that in?" as I'm scrambling through old adventure notes. That's when I developed my system, which involves an index card for the players (with an item number, description and how the item was found) that corresponds to a database in my notes with the real information.
The only one I haven't been using enough is the place system, which I'm now vowing to prepare more fully.
I'm glad people find this useful, that'll encourage me to get more posted...
Quote:
I have to say that saying the names out loud is a must. Also, attempt to rhyme them with anything that a 5 year old might find hilarious. Unfortunately, some PCs out there enjoy tearing apart NPC names (even though said individuals need me to make thier character names for them.)
Yea. I've learned the hard way also. I once set up an adventure (1E) to send the PCs to deal with some dark dwarves in the forbidden "Therra-Ghul Mountains" I thought the name rocked. Ominous, cool, a little Conan like. The PCs took one look at the map and promtly claimed: "Look! We get to go to George Thorogood Mountain" "Oh! I hear that place is bad. Bad to the bone baby!"
They paid, oh did they pay...
Last edited by Nightcloak; 23rd March 2005 at 12:17 AM..
How many NPCs will you go through in a session if you have to wing the entire thing? I would say at least a dozen for a start. Then do a dozen for each gender, and each race. That is a short list of names that you can refer to quickly. When you are bored, grow your lists larger and use them whenever you need them.
Location: In the scenic part of Hell: The Village of Barovia
Posts: 253
Quote:
Originally Posted by LilMissKittyn
How many prepared names would you probably need?
As has been said, lots. Best thing to do isn't so much try to think of names, but write down any names that you hear/see (in movies, books, TV shows, real life, whatever).
__________________
Spoiler:
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. -Henry Louis Mencken
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mordmorgan the Mad
Uh...yeah, I looked through all my core books...and, uh...I couldn't find any rules
on "Common Sense" at all. Is that some kinda Rogue ability?
Disclaimer: The above is SARCASM. Just so you know.
I'd recomend a full page of male and female human names (unless your running an all elf or underdark campaign or something unnusual) plus a half a page for each common race the characters may bump into. Then a final page of odd names.
But seriously, as many as you want. The more often you play, the more you'll want on hand. But if you don't have the time, then just a few can be a real life saver.
But the more you have, the more of a confort zone you'll have, and the less often you may need to update the list. But this is your notebook so build it to suit your style of gaming and to fit your needs. You can have lots of pages and highlight cultural differences if you want, or only one 1/2 page of names if thats all you think you will ever need.
Maps are the great joy of being GM. Come on, how may of you reading this open up a new adventure and immediately flip to look at the map? I bet it’s most of you. I know I do. Maps are just plain cool. Be they maps of a dungeon, a tower, a castle, a ship, a city, or an entire continent, it doesn’t matter: They’re cool. Ravenloft was a great 1E adventure. It was the first real integration of dungeon crawl, plot, and horror into a D&D adventure. But what blew me away was the 3D map of the castle. That map just rocked.
Maps are cool. They are also essential to running a game. They also happen to be the most time consuming and a biggest pain in the dice bag to design on your own.
When drawing a map, it can quickly go nowhere, become pointless, or worse, you get “writers block” unless you spend lots of prep time to know everything you want out of the map and the adventure. Designing a cool map to include everything needed plus extra cool stuff you want is beyond this thread, but suffice to say the prep work is time intensive.
Then you need to draw the map. And then you need to finish that map. Finally, you’re a GM, which means you are a creative assertive type who knows what the “vision” is of your map/adventure/campaign. If you’re like me, you’re not always happy with how things look. Thus starts the fun process of redoing the map. “I’ll only tweak it a bit!” Wash, Rinse, Repeat…
Time that would be better spent on adventure design and world creation; you don’t have to be Tolkien and create the elven language just to write your version of Lord of the Rings!
The last five paragraphs are nothing more than me dramatizing a point made very subtly in the other three posts. The notebook is a time saver, but save your self even more time by getting the work pre-done for you when possible. Someone has spent the time making lists of medieval names, or generators of inns, or has created spreadsheets for you to use. A lot of people with the skill, time, and access to great equipment have also made some great maps. Remember, that’s why we love to flip to the map first when we buy an adventure. Someone got paid to make that map and odds are it’s really cool!
That map is just waiting for you to use it. Just because your characters are not going to adventure in “Undermountain” anytime soon doesn’t stop you from copying parts of that bad boy, mark a few changes, and then send your characters into your new adventure “Sea Caves of the Kuo-Toa”. They’ll never know they are really walking through downtown Skull Port on the 3RD level of Undermountain…
If you have been playing a while, you probably have tons for books on the shelf just ready to be cannibalized for the cause. If you are new to the game, there is plenty of used bookstores out their with old discount adventures waiting to be mined and the internet will become your best friend. If you’re a real gamer geek, then you’ve already abused all three options.
There are TONS of websites with maps. Maps of medieval Europe, castles, catacombs, tombs, ships, towers, and on and on. If it interests you, then it interested someone else even more, and they most likely put it onto the web. But it gets better, there is plenty of gamer sites out their with maps also. Just check out the link to the Wizards site for some great old adventures free for downloading. Tons of maps are just waiting for you to turn them into modern masterpieces.
This advice goes beyond the notebook. This advice is going to be a real time saver across the board in adventure design, campaign creation, and dungeon delving. Get copies of maps, whether it’s downloads or copies of things lying around on the shelf, but get those maps. Copies are good so you can change them without ruining the original. You can always make another copy later if you muck up the current one or expend it on an adventure.
Take all those maps and place them in a folder. Next time you need a map or two for an adventure, just open the folder and go shopping. Don’t be afraid to alter the map, that’s why they are copied. Heck, change the entrance. Fill in corridors that go off the page or add rooms. Change anything. Flip it upside down if you want. It’s yours.
You can still make your own maps, they are great fun to do, or you may need to if you are missing something in particular, but odds are you can find most of what you want if you look around.
Now how does this all relate to the Essential GMs Notebook? You are going to want to keep some maps at the ready in your notebook. What kind of maps will you need? Here’s a short list of great maps to have “just in case”:
Inns
Taverns
Temples
Warehouses
Ships
Towers
Castles
Catacombs
Tombs
Small Dungeons
Small hamlets
Random buildings
Take a minute to think about the kind of games you run and were the PCs are like to go. You may realize that wilderness travel is a big part of your games so you may want a few wilderness sites or bandit camps available. Or you may realize your players get into a lot of trouble in towns, and decide to add a few extra merchant shops or government buildings *cough* jails *cough*
Once you have your list, these are the maps you will want to place in your notebook. That way the next time your players surprise you by starting a fight in an inn, or you decide to drop an assassin on the players while they sleep, or some old flavor text suddenly gets a vote to be explored, you're ready to roll.
While you’re at it, take a minute to grab a piece of graph paper and scribble random squares, circles, and lines connecting them. This advice has been written in the Wizards core rulebook II and it has worked real well for me. Don’t get fancy, just some flowchart type diagrams. They don’t have to go anywhere or serve anything right now. These little diagrams make great little maps in a pinch. I’ve used them for maps of sewer systems, trails through swamps, a forest game trail, and even a pocket dimension once! They serve in a pinch for something minor you don’t need to blow a “good” map on. The players “see” your flavor text, you see the diagram.
Not only will having a variety of maps ready to go be a lifesaver, but also prepping all those maps ahead of time will inspire many adventures to come.
Now, the next time the players decide to start a fight in some small shop or go explore some cave. Don’t pull out your hair. Just pull out your trusty notebook, look them in the eye, and say, “Of course you do…”
We have discussed NPC names. Now it’s time to look at the rest of the NPC: The stats. One of the most time intensive parts of developing an adventure is stating out the monsters and Non-Player Characters the party is going to encounter. With the d20 rule system, you need to apply many factors to rounding out a monster/character: feats, bonuses, skills, different weapons, magic, and so forth.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the d20 system and all the options it gives me. In fact, I own a lot of third-party OGL books do to the extra rules and options they give me. But it doesn’t change the fact that stating out encounters is time consuming, not to mention a little intimidating for the new GM. More importantly, for our discussion, what do you do when the players decide to start interacting with NPCs that were “flavor text” one minute ago? Stopping the game to stat out a bunch of NPCs is not an option. You would lose the players to drinking, a game boy, or a game on TV long before you finished the details. You need stats now before you lose the action.
That is why you have your GM Notebook. It will be stocked full of NPCs ready to go. This part will discuss the higher-level NPCs you may need. The next part will cover all those 1st level NPC types that are encountered everywhere, but don’t necessarily deserve the attention or need for development.
There are three rules to NPCs that will make your life easier.
Rule Number 1: There are two types of NPCs.
The first type is a reoccurring character that the players will meet at least more than once. They are either integral to the story or serve as a bridge for the players to interact with your game world. The evil bandit, his thugs, and his spy at the Old Mill Inn are part of the story. The innkeeper and his daughter don’t serve the plot (unless they are the spies!) but do interact with the players and thus serve the game by creating verisimilitude. They make the world believable to the characters. The reoccurring NPC is
As Nightcloak said, do yourself a favor and take some time to make at least one name list for NPCs.
