DM's Notes

[thalmin]

Ya know, I forgot perhaps my most important tool. After each session, I type up a 3-4 page "summary" of the events played out in the game. Its a short abbreviated narrative, and includes all the NPCs they met, clues they discovered, battles fought, items found... I try to get everything in there that the PCs would want to remember.

I email this out to my group, and they might get back to me with questions or clarifications. Its been a GREAT tool for keeping us all organized and interested.

-Reddist

I'm gonna yoink this one!

 

[arwink]

Like others, I tend to use a three-ring binder and my computer to keep the majority of my notes together. If you're looking for a place to start and the kind of notes to kee, try Ronin Arts Campaign Planner. Both this and Campaign Planner 2 get a fairly solid workout in my folder.

 

[Berandor]

Word Forms. I've got forms for PC skills I might roll for them, for stat blocks, for hit point tracking, for initiative cards, for relationships between NPCs.

I write out my campaign notes on Word, as well, using bold or underlined fonts to mark important things. I use Word for Handouts (as well as my own shaky hand writing). I write a Story Hour (but even if I didn't, compiling an event list of what happened would be a good idea).

So, err, I use Word (and transform most of it into PDF files afterwards )

 

[yennico]

For any ideas, plots, etc. I use my PC.

Ya know, I forgot perhaps my most important tool. After each session, I type up a 3-4 page "summary" of the events played out in the game. Its a short abbreviated narrative, and includes all the NPCs they met, clues they discovered, battles fought, items found... I try to get everything in there that the PCs would want to remember.

I email this out to my group, and they might get back to me with questions or clarifications. Its been a GREAT tool for keeping us all organized and interested.

I´m a lazy GM , I let my players write the diaries of the sessions in a style their PC would do it (even if their PCs never would write a diary). I award this diaries with extra XPs.

 

[Turanil]

I´m a lazy GM , I let my players write the diaries of the sessions in a style their PC would do it (even if their PCs never would write a diary). I award this diaries with extra XPs.

Great idea! I borrow it immediately! Other than that, I have a notebook where I do write important things that happened.

 

[yennico]

Great idea! I borrow it immediately!

You can borrow it, I have no copyright on this idea I borrowed this idea from the rpg system Earthdawn.

 

[Sieobahn]

I use a binder for each campaign in which I keep all the maps and handouts organised. During the game I have my laptop in which I keep all my notes in text files and DM maps.

After each session I do a write-up and post it on a message board. The board also has posts listing NPC's of interest, and for one game, enemies made which are still alive (which includes an entire city!). I also do this for games I play in.
My players rarely post thier own write-ups, currently we are doing Worlds Largest Dungeon, and the casualty rate is high enough that they are not attached enough to thier characters to bother posting.

 

[yennico]

Ya know, I forgot perhaps my most important tool. After each session, I type up a 3-4 page "summary" of the events played out in the game. Its a short abbreviated narrative, and includes all the NPCs they met, clues they discovered, battles fought, items found... I try to get everything in there that the PCs would want to remember.

One reason why I as a GM does not write the summary is that I might reveal too much information. Even the choice of some words in my writing style can be traitorous.
If one player writes the summary the player can use a personal style fittingly for his PC.
If all players write their own summary you have several point of views.

Edit: spelling corrected.

 

[sir_ollibolli]

I also use Word as a primary tool. (as I do not have notebook I have to use other means during the session)

During play I have a sginature binder where I place a room description per page and i can easily switch back and forth. All the necessary things are written down there. During the session I take down my notes there manually and transfer them to my notes in Word afterwards. A campaign journal is written by a group member (and I give out XP's per journal).

 

[Buttercup]

One of my players takes detailed notes of each session, so I've become lazy in that I rely on her to remind all of us who the players met, how much treasure they have, and what trouble they got themselves into.

I have extensive files on my desktop computer, and generally I organize them like this: For each area the PCs are spending at least a game session in, I have a folder. All the NPCs, maps, plot hooks, random encounters, adventures and handouts that apply to that location go in the folder. I usually color code all the related documents, so for instance all materials from the Village of Sandpoint would have their titles and section headings in blue. Once the pages are printed out this color coding allows me to quickly see which pages go together if things get separated.

I use a 3-ring notebook at the table, which contains the entire contents of the folder for the area the PCs are currently in, as well as the party character sheets, some background information on the campaign world, character creation guidelines and house rules, and usually some pages from previous sessions that still apply somehow (NPCs with continuing stories, ongoing plotlines and so on). All told, the binder will have around 40 pages in it for any given session.

My system is not perfect, but until we spring for a decent laptop (our current one is a wheezing old dog) I don't see myself giving up paper at the table.