How do you organize your Home Brew?

[Edgewood]

I have been DMing the same D&D campaign for over 7 years and during all of that time, I have amassed an endless collection of notes, maps, NPC's, new magic items, discarded characters, self authored and published adventures, etc, etc. Some notes are on my computer, some are handwritten and many of the maps are hand drawn. What isn't written down, is stuck in my noggin for future reference (how I do this, I'm not too sure but it works..most of the time).

Lately I have looked at my campaign and realize that I need to get it more organized and accessable, not to mention having to write down some of the background notes I have stored in my head. So I was wondering, how do other DMs organize their information? Do you use a binder, computer, journals, notebooks, a combination?

I'm just looking for some innovative ideas (outside of any campaign planners you can purchase).

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I am going to shill for Ronin Arts's Campaign Planner series. I have found that having forms can help impose form on my chaotic mumblings. Campaign Planner 2 in particular is very, very useful that way. The most important thing for me is that by going over what forms I have not used I can figure out what still needs to be done.

The Auld Grump

 

[Crothian]

It is in 6 binders, with about 200 pages each, and many many computer files. It includes not only setting info but campaign information from each of the 6 campaigns run in the word.

 

[pogre]

Mine is organized on my cpu. I created a table of contents with links to the various documents and maps.

 

[Jdvn1]

So I was wondering, how do other DMs organize their information?

Well, that implies I'm organized, which might be a stretch.

Do you use a binder, computer, journals, notebooks, a combination?

I'm just looking for some innovative ideas (outside of any campaign planners you can purchase).

Combination. Sorry, I don't think any of my ideas are innovative. The coolest features I have are a small website and a bound sketchbook. No lines so I can include drawings and text wherever necessary. Often both on the same page in order to illustrate a concept or thing. I like my sketchbook.

Although... the sketchbook is setting-only information. Campaign and character information is necessarily separate. The idea is that my setting book is Read-Only, ideally.

 

[A'koss]

I've often wondered about the feasability of speech-to-text programs like Dragon Dictate and the like. I have hundreds and hundreds of pages of handwritten and memorized Homebrew stuff I'd like to get into the computer in as easy a fashion as possible.

Has anyone had any experience with these?

 

[Jdvn1]

Never used Dragon Dictate, but ... I think it was called ViaVoice. It was a while ago, but it wasn't very good at all. Long callibration time, then there were still tons of errors and you had to go pretty slowly... bad experience over here. I started by writing down notes in shorthand, then fleshed everything out. Basically, get the ideas out as fast as you can so you don't lose them. Then elaborate.

 

[reason]

...

I'll shill for any of the free publishing software - much of which you can run on your own machine if you so desire. Anything that lets you categorize and search is good; that means you can just drop information in any old way, assign categories to your own best advantage, and benefit from the software doing all the hard work for you (i.e. sorting, categorizing, searching, etc). I use MovableType for this sort of thing, but any similar package would work.

Reason
Principia Infecta

 

[STARP_President]

At the end of my last campaign, which had been going for 5 years, I'd moved past a backpack full of ring binders. What with all the folders, loose bits of paper, maps etc, I was literally luggin' that damn campaign around in a suitcase.

 

[Gez]

Or... ganize? What crazy word is that? What does it mean?