Dungeoncraft - Information Management

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

So, how do people like the Dungeoncraft articles on Information Management?
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dudc/20080820

I haven't seen any threads yet. Is it all old news to the experienced EN World gamers? Or did people find interesting ideas?

I liked the last installment had a few very interesting ideas on organizing campaign information.
I liked the part of the Google Groups idea about having an online blog for the party. It reminded me of our Banewarrens campaign, where I actually maintained a "diary" of my Kobold Sorcerer to log the campaign progress. I sometimes wish we'd do that more often (but of course, it was also a little "homeworky". )

 

[RichGreen]

So, how do people like the Dungeoncraft articles on Information Management?
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dudc/20080820

I haven't seen any threads yet. Is it all old news to the experienced EN World gamers? Or did people find interesting ideas?

I thought it was a really good article. I'm doing some of the stuff he suggests already but my computer folders in particular make it hard for me to find stuff again - his tips on organizing those were very helpful.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Fenes]

I have been doing most of this for years. I keep my adventure notes on my computer, in Word, but I print the current session notes out.

I keep a campaign chronicle. It's a bit "homeworky", for me mainly because I make rendered illustrations for each session recap. The actual time spent typing my handwritten notes from the session down is rarely more than 1 hour per weekly session. But overall, it helps a lot in keeping the information together, and makes it easier to prepare as well - during the typing I already make notes about open and loose ends, and future developments, and update my NPC, adventure and setting info files. Finding stuff in my files is not that much of a problem, in my experience, because I have it structured like this.

Adventure file:
Chronological, adventure after adventure, often with specific NPC and setting info which gets moved to the general file after this arc/adventure is over.

NPC file:
All NPCs in the campaign, with links to related NPCs.

Setting info:
Detailing locations, laws, geogrpahy and other information, usually a mix of official sources and home-brew/changes.

Campaign Chronicle:
Recaps of each session, illustrated. The latest recap is mailed to the players a few days before the next session.

 

[vagabundo]

They are good articles, definately worth a read, but I am doing a lot of the stuff myself already. I think once you hit the decade mark on DMing you have to solve a lot of the same problems and each solution has to fit your group.

I'm sloppy in my info management, mostly because my group is not picky about the time of year or character/plot inconsistancies and I rarly make glaring mistakes.

However I have found gmail great for keeping everyone up to date and interested in the backstory. I do a little story hour synopsis after our Sunday session and I've found, my very inattentive players, are actually now following the plot - mostly...

 

[Fenes]

My players at least look at the pictures...