How Do You Organise Long-haul Campaigns?

[aco175]

I started a campaign recently with taking the Forge of Fury module from the Yawning Portal book and inserting it into the Phandalin region. I have a page of notes and a bubble map showing ties with NPCs and various organizations that mostly get the PCs from levels 1-3. The intent was to start a new campaign and play the module sparing me the work. I have not planned much beyond the FoF module since the PCs will be around 7th level and not sure if they want to continue playing the same PCs. I just have a few sentences about the cult of the dragon and another bigger threat to the region once the PCs complete the module. I will plan something in depth if the players want to continue and lead that way.

 

[aramis erak]

With that in mind, I wanted to ask the residents of EN World how you organise your DM/GM/ST/Referee notes when you're running a campaign that's been going on for a while (let's say more than 10 games). Did you pick an organisation format and stick to it all the way? Did you get fed up with your random notes and manage to bring them all together midway? Is your campaign still a collection of barely intelligible notes? How do you do it?

I generally keep notes in a notebook and/or type them.
Mostly, NPCs I put on abridged character sheets, with notes on goals, location, and plans. Places, I make note when events should affect them.

Occasionally, especially in Star Wars or Traveller, hooks players left fallow get done in the background by a different group at that point in the timeline... and that's mostly from memory, not any particular notation.

Of late, I just write session reports on RPG Geek...

 

[Lanefan]

With that in mind, I wanted to ask the residents of EN World how you organise your DM/GM/ST/Referee notes when you're running a campaign that's been going on for a while (let's say more than 10 games). Did you pick an organisation format and stick to it all the way? Did you get fed up with your random notes and manage to bring them all together midway? Is your campaign still a collection of barely intelligible notes? How do you do it?

There's different types of notes and records, and each works best with a different kind of organization.

For setting info, maps, game logs, records, etc.: The Internet Is Your Friend. Set up a website dedicated to the campaign; make player-side info public and hide the DM-side stuff, and update it every week with the latest session log (point form will do!). You can use the same site to make up individual character pages if the players give you info for such.

For at-the-table DM info e.g. various tables, houserules, etc., binders work fine.

For on-the-fly game notes e.g. events, xp awards, magic item details, etc., I use old 8.5x14" fanfold computer printer paper flipped sideways ("landscape" style) and have developed a consistent format over time for what goes where on the page: xp track goes along the top with a horizontal row for each character and a vertical row for each encounter; item list goes down the right-hand side of the page; session notes start below the xp matrix, and the bottom edge is left for scrap notes and-or monster h.p. tracking.

Tracking treasury items is a key element. For this we devised an item numbering system, where everything found gets a unique number such that it can be tracked down later if we need to know what it is and-or does, or what it's worth. I-as-DM take complete notes, the players write down what they know as they learn it through field-testing or ID spells or whatever. A hypothetical sample starting at item number C-54 might look like:

Player notes:

C-54 nice longsword, shiny, jewelled hilt, strong magic, detects something? (Raven is carrying)
C-55 two small gems (in BoH)
C-66 shield, magic, plain wooden medium (Korgi is using)
C-67 fancy book in strange script - arcane formulae? (in BoH)
C-68 wand? moderate magic, iron stick 1' long, carvings at one end (Mavis has in pack)

DM notes (I'd use shorthand and abbreviations, here it's shown longhand):

C-54 Longsword +1, Detects Traps 10' radius if wielder concentrates for 1 minute (3850 g.p.) (Raven)
C-55 2 gems (24 g.p. total)
C-66 Shield +0 except +2 if used by a Druid (2100 g.p.) (Korgi)
C-67 book of recipes, written in Sumerian, looks imposing but is worthless
C-68 Wand of Magic Missiles, 23 charges, rechargeable, "Firework" command word carved into it (7400 g.p.)

All I have to do later is sum up somewhere which item number ranges came from which adventure, as party treasuries are usually evaluated and divided evenly by value after each adventure.

 

[kenada]

I’ve tried a few things over the years (RPG-specific sites like Obsidian Portal, Scrivener, paper notes, VTT notes, etc). What I use for my current campaign and have settled as my preferred style are paper notes. Even when I run online, I have my notes spread out in front of me on my desk. I find the spatial organization (being able to put something in a particular spot and have it be there) much more useful than trying to organize a bunch of random windows in a VTT or trying to navigate around a document or site.

I use two major organizational artifacts for my notes: an accordion file and a binder. For free-standing stuff (maps, blank sheets, character sheets, etc), I use the accordion file. For player-oriented notes in particular, I keep them in folders that I can hand to the players, so they can organize their things how they want. The other types of notes are put in pockets for that type of notes. I used to have more of my own notes in there, but I’ve moved them over to the binder. The non-player stuff is now mostly blank sheets (exploration trackers, character sheets, etc).

My binder is the main part of my notes. It opens with a page reminding me of my agenda and principles (PbtA-style) and is then broken down into sections by function. There are sections for factions, my hex key, monsters, NPCs, and settlements. I keep past notes in the front pocket. My current session notes go in a blank space at the bottom of the exploration tracker. After the session, I update my reference documents and print out new versions as necessary. These are laid out in Affinity Publisher. If I need to brainstorm ideas, I use Scrivener and Scapple, but the final product is always something physical.

When we first went online, I tried using the VTTs’ functionality, but it just ended up splitting up my notes into different locations, and it was clumsy to use. Once I get my homebrew system into a state where I can have it printed out, I generally don’t like having a computer or digital device at the table because I find them clumsy and cumbersome to use. They’re just not good enough for multitasking unless you have multiple displays, preferably large; and there’s just no space for that at the table. That’s why (as mentioned above), I use physical notes when running online.

Note that as a player, I use a moleskin (or similar) notebook for my notes. I segment it by date and use the bookmarks to mark the end of the last session. I tried maintaining a table of contents for topics when I first started doing that in a Call of Cthulhu campaign, but I lost that habit pretty quickly.

 

[Yora]

I think the most useful thing to do for a long running campaign is to not make the campaign dependent on any single PC. Every PC should be able to drop out of the campaign without it disrupting anything, and new PCs join in with the same amount of motivation as the existing characters.

On the other end, the campaign should not be set up to head towards one planned final outcome long into the future. The campaign should be possible to wrap up with some kind of decent conclusion at any time, without leaving lots of things hanging in a void. Players should continue to play because they enjoy playing, not because they want to make it to the resolution, that might never come.

 

[Grogg of the North]

My organization is scattershot.

Back when I played in person, I used a Laboratory Notebook, like this. I could draw maps in it since it had the grid and then I would keep all my notes for the next session in there. This was also back when I had time to design everything myself. Dungeons, encounters, etc. Any hand outs for the table I would keep in a regular old folder.

For the last several years, I've been playing on roll20. Now I organize everything in roll20 by chapters with their own subfolders. Usually it's something like this:

Characters

Ch 1. Hollow's Last Hope

Artwork/Handouts
Monsters
Treasure
>B2 Destroyed Fountain

Ch 2. Crown of the Kobold King

Roll20 also allows GM notes for all of the handouts. So while I can give them descriptions of what they find, and allude that some things are magical, I can keep what that item is secret and only visible to myself.

Any notes that I need for myself I have written in a notebook. I've also switched to doing more Adventure Paths and Modules since using roll20. My time to prepare adventures has diminished greatly because of Real Life™. (0 stars, would not recommend) But I've also found that you can take many pre-canned adventures and quickly and easily customize them to your party. The damsel in distress is now the missing uncle of the priest; instead of skeletons we can have zombies to work with the fighter's backstory.

Is it a perfect system? No, probably not. But it works for me at least.

 

[Hand of Evil]

For the longest time I have kept a notebook at the table then placed most of my stuff in ONENOTES (loved the 2010 version) and saved to flash drive. It allows me to Categized and add as I see fit. Have Campaign as Notebook, the Sections of notes like, NPC, House Rules, Characters, Cities, Magical Items, etc. Just keep adding pages as I go. Using 'FLAG' I can look up and build tables of content.

 

[JAMUMU]

My solution has always been Chaotic Notebook. For my current Burning Wheel campaign, I am experimenting with Lawful Office Document.

 

[Malmuria]

I am testing out google sheets on an iPad. My issue with notes is that I find it difficult to remember to use them at the table. Basically, I can have one sheet that is directly in front of me, and I’ll remember to look at, but otherwise I don’t really look through my notes.

 

[Blue]

At the urging of my children, who think files stuck on a computer is "quaint", for both campaigns I currently run I've moved to Google Docs.

One of them had started but not gone particularly far. I had started with a Session prep document (you need to start somewhere) and that became my focus. Each session I would make a copy of last session's prep document. Things I needed to remember but were no longer relevant I'd move to the bottom under a heading "Archive this!". Everything still relevant (plus my character ability notes and loose threads list) I'd then update and add as needed. I would far to infrequently take the stuff in the archive section and move it out to a set of reference documents, like a Dramatis Personae, a Geography document, etc. Oh, and I have some player facing documents, like Party Treasure.

That works-ish. But the quality of that works can be poor at times.

For the most recent campaign I am running, a Masks: A New Generation teen superhero game, I started organized and have been keeping to it.

I have a subfolder for GM notes and a player facing folder, the latter of which is shared with full edit rights to the players and they can add in documents as well as make their own notes. That one includes a Dramatis Personae of everyone they have encountered, big names they would have heard about, and anyone from backstories, organized in a meaningful way not just an A-Z encyclopedia. A breakdown of Halcyon City that they are playing in. A "Story So Far" recap. Any handouts, like What's in the News when we have downtime between episodes, and some general player documents like a copy of the basic moves and the playbooks.

All of those they are encouraged to enhance. They've come up with new villains, put up an interview with one of the heroes, detailed the architecture and such of the city, and have done all sorts of fun stuff.

The GM section is a lot sparser. Mask is PbtA, which is "Play to find out". So I have a document on the team, including individual notes on how to torment and reward them and specific NPC to include. I've got a "Arcs, Hooks, Plots and Ideas" which is for longer term planning, such as it is in PbtA. It's got some broad stroke organization but otherwise is pretty free-form. And then docs on sopme specific fronts, arcs, or whatever that I detailed to the point it needs to be broken out such as "Xmas Issue: Ho-Ho-Horrors!".

Because this PbtA is very much around "who am I and where do I fit in this world" aspect of playing teen supers, the team roster and the dramtis personae actually gets a heck of a lot of attention and updates as the most important parts. Much less than any sort of adventure or session plotting like a game like D&D would want.