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<blockquote data-quote="EricNoah" data-source="post: 2904148" data-attributes="member: 4">I like to run things from a laptop as much as possible and I do tend to write session logs after play, but those of you stressing record-keeping DURING the game -- good suggestion.&nbsp; I am running Red hand of Doom and am finding that using my laptop to keep a combination campaign calendar/event log (a simple Excel spreadsheet) really helps me plan certain things out, and also remember important things later.&nbsp; Say a PC catches a disease -- I can put in my calendar that he needs to make saves on the next few days.&nbsp; The trick is making sure I actually use it and look at it (I'm infamous for writing a bunch of stuff up and then forgetting to look at my own notes during play, thus forgetting a key element or whathaveyou <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />).&nbsp; If I have 10 minutes I can come up with a very decent NPC or three with Etools assuming we're not talking super high level.&nbsp; And with a calculating spreadsheet, coming up with accurate spell lists is not a problem.&nbsp; What I am trying to do, though, is to retrain myself ... allowing myself to say &quot;Yes&quot; to whatever weird things the players want to do, as opposed to saying, &quot;I don't really have that planned, so ... nothing interesting happens.&quot;&nbsp; I also want to retrain my self so that I'm saying &quot;Tell me what you want to do&quot; instead of &quot;Do you do this (X) or that (Y)&quot; thereby automatically limiting their choices. On the other hand... I've had at least one of the players essentially tell me he wants to be railroaded.&nbsp; He may not enjoy my experimental attempt at a free-flowing go-where-you-want campaign!</blockquote>

[QUOTE="EricNoah, post: 2904148, member: 4"] I like to run things from a laptop as much as possible and I do tend to write session logs after play, but those of you stressing record-keeping DURING the game -- good suggestion. I am running Red hand of Doom and am finding that using my laptop to keep a combination campaign calendar/event log (a simple Excel spreadsheet) really helps me plan certain things out, and also remember important things later. Say a PC catches a disease -- I can put in my calendar that he needs to make saves on the next few days. The trick is making sure I actually [B]use [/B] it and look at it (I'm infamous for writing a bunch of stuff up and then forgetting to look at my own notes during play, thus forgetting a key element or whathaveyou :)). If I have 10 minutes I can come up with a very decent NPC or three with Etools assuming we're not talking super high level. And with a calculating spreadsheet, coming up with accurate spell lists is not a problem. What I am trying to do, though, is to retrain myself ... allowing myself to say "Yes" to whatever weird things the players want to do, as opposed to saying, "I don't really have that planned, so ... nothing interesting happens." I also want to retrain my self so that I'm saying "Tell me what you want to do" instead of "Do you do this (X) or that (Y)" thereby automatically limiting their choices. On the other hand... I've had at least one of the players essentially tell me he wants to be railroaded. He may not enjoy my experimental attempt at a free-flowing go-where-you-want campaign! [/QUOTE]

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