What do your DM/GM Notes Look Like?

[Woas]

Mine are usually just flow charts and random ideas/points of interests I want to remember/perceived reactions/NPC names written on a piece of scrap paper during play. I've tried using 3-Ring binders and other fancy stuff but couldn't keep up with it during or after a game. Having a binder felt like having yet another rule book in a way for me, and I've come to loathe having more than 1 book for an RPG. So I'd have it there but never reference it or utilize it.

 

[FriarRosing]

I used to plan so much. I had notebooks full of histories and encounters and maps and NPCS and so on and so forth. Any more, though, I just come up with a few names for NPCs, maybe a personality trait or two, and a general idea for something that I think would be cool to happen. After that, I just let the players do what they want, with me filling in the blanks as we go. I'm such disorganized guy, I find it better to wing it, making stuff up on the fly. Though, I can see how some people could really hate that play style. My player's are okay with it. It's kind of a funny guessing game for them, trying to figure out what was planned versus what I just made up on the spot.

 

[Wombat]

Officially I have a three-ring binder ... but I also have extra files (thought pieces) just sitting on my computer ... and in spiral-bound binders ... and in my pocket notebook ... and occasionally on napkins ... and also still stuck in my brain or in conversations.

I tend to generate a lot of paper for my campaigns -- as one of my players said, "Trees fear Wombat..."

 

[Noumenon]

My "GM Notes" is a single page listing the things I want to do in order that session.

1. Intro new Improved Grab house rule
2. Give out karma points
3. PC wakes up in dragon's lair, negotiate
4. Door closes on other PCs (DC 25) & clatter - skeledemon
5. First PC - escape or accept dragon's quest
6. Party reunite
7. out door after cleric
8. Track - 2 miles - soft ground, then hard, if lose trail "grig footsteps everywhere -- dance last night"
9. Ranger's companion circles overhead (Nature DC 15)
10. Return quest reward - if to Lady Arabella - "Want to be sheriff?" if to Sheriff Monte - reward potions CMW CMW and Arabella pouts

As you can see, I'm a big ol' railroader. Although there's a little bit of Justin Alexander's "situations not plots" timeline idea in there too. And in actual practice there was a showdown with the dragon in the middle of step 8 that isn't on the outline because I didn't plan for them to betray him.

The other half of my notes is from during the session -- stuff I didn't plan for and need to remember. I also mark down what time we got through with encounters just so I can evaluate my pacing. (this is from a different session)

hairpin is red coral-shell
11:30 PM in rat tunnels
ogre: shot in plumber's crack
PC uses Sleight of Hand to switch religious symbols
dwarf haunts the well
bard promises wand CLW if his girlfriend gets the hairpin
Sharra & Arlen date: drop anchor in rented boat
3:36 AM Fight with assassin over

All that stuff like campaign history, rules I look up a lot, etc, I don't think of as GM notes -- they're "reference." One place where this blurs is NPCs. I keep each NPC on his own note card and I have his history and attitudes on there, but I also add things to his card that develop during play, like who gave him the finger.

 

[fba827]

Since my current campaign style is fairly "PC goes where they want" type I need to have some ideas for most situations. So, for every session, I basically list down all the nearby or potential places that I think they could go ("the forest west", "plains north" "stay in the city" "use the magic gate" etc) and then (using each place as a section heading) I list under each a basic plot/theme/concept and maybe a typical encounter they might end up facing while there.

i keep it all very disjointed (after all, it only has to make sense to me) and somewhat brief (just enough to remind me of what i envision, i'm not writing a novel here). Lots and lots of bullet lists and phrases instead of sentences.

i keep it in electronic format (and have my laptop with me when i DM, but i do this only because i can usually glance at my notes and know what i need to know... if i couldn't do that, they i'd actually print it instead)

Any section that doesn't get used gets copy&pasted in to the next set of notes in case the PCs go there the next time! Or gets recycled if there is no chance of it happening anymore (i.e. if one of my notes was about how the king would give a speech on a certain day and if the pcs were in town they'd hear it -- well suppose the pcs weren't in town so they missed that, so any encounter ideas i had for that would get recycled in case i ever had to have a public speech type situation again).

I also keep another list of random npc names, city names, and tavern names for when i need to come up with a name on the fly.

I do it this way so that for every session all the stuff is in one document. (I don't like flipping around documents on my laptop isn't as easy as flipping documents on my desktop). But if i were dming from my desktop (unlikley to ever happen, but just saying) then i'd actually have seperate files for each potential location. that way i don't have to copy & paste over for each session.

 

[Ariosto]

If I write a scenario for other people to use, then what I write is all they know. On the other hand, I have some ability to read my own mind.

So, if I make a note for myself then it is because (1) I consider the information too important to forget; and (2) I'm likely to forget it without a note.

A lot doesn't fall into case (1) because if I forget it then I can easily improvise. A lot doesn't fall into case (2) because it's so firmly established in my mind.

 

[xazil]

I have been using TreePad for the last decade. Basically a file structure of notes inside of one file.

With posting maps and various notes into it, I use one file per campaign.

Also has a nice feature being able to export a file or part of a file to html so making a campaign website is easy. All while still being with the rest of the campaign notes.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

For my next campaign, I'm experimenting with TiddlyWiki. It's self-contained and easy to learn, and seems to roughly model how my cluttered brain works - but with a handy search bar .

I'm using two tiddlywikis. One is the players' reference: known world info, NPCs encountered, handouts and pics, houserules, and campaign log. Hopefully, players will also use it to store (or link to) their character info.

The other is GM-eyes-only, and contains "secret" campaign info (maps, NPC and item identities, timeline of events outside PCs influence, modules run, undiscovered areas of the setting, etc). It also hold ideas for future story arcs, houserule ideas, as well as random inspirational bits: names, pics, verses, websites, statblocks, yoinked ENWorld bits , and the like.

I really like it so far, though i've just gotten started with it. YMMV.

 

[catsclaw227]

Add another OneNote devotee. I have a tab for each of the adventures of the Scales of War AP, plus side pages for each encounter area and for treasure parcels, side treks, images, etc.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Holy carp. you can print a character into One Note from the CB.

Forget Macs now for me. ;-)