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<blockquote data-quote="uzirath" data-source="post: 8257312" data-attributes="member: 8495">In the '90s—when I had a lot more time on my hand for gaming—I created a relational database along the lines of what [USER=66434]@ExploderWizard[/USER] mentioned above (12 years ago). It took a while to build the thing, but then it was very helpful. I used it over the course of a 10+ year campaign. It was particularly useful for tracking locations. So I could pull up all the named NPCs in a village, for example. I built it to include GURPS stats if I wanted to, but I usually left that part blank. I could print and export them in a variety of ways. I've always struggled with index cards. I end up pulling them out and then misplacing them. And I always get stymied by the constraints of physical reality (these cards can only be sorted or filed in one way... argh!). A full-on database is a lot of work to maintain and update. A spreadsheet can manage most of this more easily. Could have columns for name, location, faction, personality, etc. And you could even have stats columns that you could use if needed. Or a column for hyperlinks to full character sheets or Google Docs or whatever where you have the most important NPCs written up more thoroughly. With filters, you could easily pull up NPCs from a particular town or faction easily.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="uzirath, post: 8257312, member: 8495"] In the '90s—when I had a lot more time on my hand for gaming—I created a relational database along the lines of what [USER=66434]@ExploderWizard[/USER] mentioned above (12 years ago). It took a while to build the thing, but then it was very helpful. I used it over the course of a 10+ year campaign. It was particularly useful for tracking locations. So I could pull up all the named NPCs in a village, for example. I built it to include GURPS stats if I wanted to, but I usually left that part blank. I could print and export them in a variety of ways. I've always struggled with index cards. I end up pulling them out and then misplacing them. And I always get stymied by the constraints of physical reality (these cards can only be sorted or filed in one way... argh!). A full-on database is a lot of work to maintain and update. A spreadsheet can manage most of this more easily. Could have columns for name, location, faction, personality, etc. And you could even have stats columns that you could use if needed. Or a column for hyperlinks to full character sheets or Google Docs or whatever where you have the most important NPCs written up more thoroughly. With filters, you could easily pull up NPCs from a particular town or faction easily. [/QUOTE]

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