D&D General What goes in your DM binder?

[Oofta]

Too much to fit into a binder?

What actually goes into the binder

• Laminated name tags. More useful for AL games, but even in home games I have a name tag "tent" that people write their name and their PC names, AC, Passive Perception. Because I'm terrible at names and it saves me asking "does X hit". It's laminated so people can just update numbers as needed.
• Big Lists of Names. Towns, businesses, taverns, organizations. NPC names broken down by race and gender.
• Maps of the city and region. I have a big map of my world that's too big to fit into a binder.
• World reference material. List and quick description of gods, a world timeline of major events, a party timeline I try to keep up to date but usually fail, major regions and power players.
• Quick notes I try to take after every session. Simple stuff like NPCs, major turning points. Never more than a few bullet points.

Other stuff

• Dice of course.
• Dry erase mat. I have a couple if I have something detailed I draw ahead of time.
• Markers
• Clay blocks and a few other minor terrain things. I've tried more elaborate stuff but either it takes too long for me or they make it difficult to see. So now I use some things like chairs/tables but usually just draw or throw down clay blocks that I've made for terrain, elevation and things like bookshelves.
• A couple of laser pointers, one for me, one for the person that inevitably sits at the end of the table.
• Pop bottle rings for marking things like concentration and who's affected by a spell.
• Minis. Generally metal/hand painted for PCs, plastic for NPCs and monsters. Occasionally I use tokens, especially for mounts.
• Monster cards (although lately I've been trying online option). I use a template to write monster stats 4 to a page, laminate them and cut them into standard index card size.
• Initiative cards - blank laminated pages used with the monster cards. I write PC names (using wet erase at home) on them and can jot down temporary effects, etc. I can have everybody roll initiative, write on the card then sort. Turn sideways if they're readying, etc.
• Map of the world.

 

[toucanbuzz]

I put together a photo album of my DM binder for a nearly 2 year run of Tomb of Annihilation: ToA DM's Binder 2018-2019

Impressive!

 

[R_J_K75]

Im pretty similar to what others have posted. Calendar, list of conditions, etc, basically somethings that are on a DM Screen. Few things Ive kept in my binder are the card from the Undermountain and Undermountain II boxed sets. Also I have the random professions, street scenes and city random and pickpocket tables from City Systems and Cities of Mystery boxed sets. Last thing I can think of off hand that less standard is a list of random planar location generator. In the case where a dumb player does something stupid and walks through a planar portal I get to determine where they end up.

 

[aco175]

I tend to write a lot of the adventure out like a module. This lets me have most of what I need as far as names and statblocks. I try to keep a random encounter and some NPCs as back-up if needed.

 

[prabe]

I carry stuff to gaming in an old backpack. I have a notebook with two sections: one section for session-plan notes, another for background events and other off-camera considerations. I have a binder with the handouts I want to, erm, hand out--a map and local info if they go to a new place, setting info if it's something they've asked about, that sort of thing. I copy monster stat blocks into index cards, because I haven't been running at home, and that's fewer books to lug around. I have a little spiral notebook that's my initiative book--start of every fight I write the initiatives on a page, in order; after the fighting is finished, I turn the page. I have my dice and a dice tower.

 

[the Jester]

I have a ton of different binders. There's a 3" thick three-ring binder full of monsters; then there's one that has the printed versions of all the adventures that I have run in the current campaign arc (so basically, all of 5e); then there's another that has notes on the setting- write ups of details on the city's demographics, politics, factions, neighborhoods, the races and classes, religion, history, etc. Also, a bit of discussion about the outlying areas.

 

[Odysseus]

maps.
random names.
a quick reference sheet. Which is mostly for conditions.
Price list of potions.
Monster cards,I use the inkwell cards.

 

[MNblockhead]

When I started playing again when 5e came out, I used two three-ring binders held together with binder clips and page protectors with various references (e.g. How to make a dungeon master screen - Tabletop Games World). But I didn't like the height of the screen and I had too many reference pages.

Then as I go more comfortable with the rules, I got the mini version of The Worlds Greatest Game Screen from Hammerdog games (http://hammerdog.com/twgs/) and used a lightly modified version of the inserts created by DM David (http://dmdavid.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/mini_screen_5E_v2.pdf)

Now, my laptop is my DM screen. I have a set of tabs that I open for each game and a couple programs that I use for my 5e games.

Google Chome with tabs open for:

• DnD Beyond Spells
• DnD Beyond Monsters
• Improved Initiative

RealmWorks: I use this to organize and display maps. Was great for in-person games, but now that I'm abroad and running my campaign online I'm looking into VTTs.

Evernote: While Realmworks was supposed to be an all-in-one campaign management tool, I don't find it convenient for taking notes on the fly. Evernote serves as my campaign diary.

 

[Richards]

Since we now play exclusively at my house, I no longer need to bring everything in a backpack with me. So my campaign binder is actually just a series of pocket folders, in which I keep the following:

• My PC tracking sheet, which has each PC/NPC's AC, touch AC, flat-footed AC, hp, spell slots, alignment, level, and ability scores, with space to jot in temporary modifiers (like spells currently in effect on each PC), plus a spot to track initiative for each battle
• My monster stat sheet(s) for the current adventure
• The adventure itself, written up in the same format as Dungeon magazine (some habits die hard), including read-aloud boxed text as needed

I also have a separate folder for the NPC druid (which gets passed to whoever's playing her that particular session). Each player has a six-part folder with the details of their PC (character sheet, attack matrices for their various weapons, a class abilities and feats sheet, equipment listings, and spells/familiars/animal companions/druid wildshape forms/etc. based on their specific class needs). And I have my five card boxes with my homemade initiative cards for the PCs/NPCs/monsters encountered, my under-the-bed storage container with our D&D Minis, my two dresser drawers of homemade battle maps made on the backs of used desk calendar pages, plus a closet full of homemade 3D props/buildings, most of them made of cardboard or poster board.

I also have two bound notebooks for each campaign, one college ruled for jotting down adventure ideas and one of graph paper for the adventure maps.

Johnathan

 

[The Green Hermit]

Since we now play exclusively at my house, I no longer need to bring everything in a backpack with me. So my campaign binder is actually just a series of pocket folders, in which I keep the following:

• My PC tracking sheet, which has each PC/NPC's AC, touch AC, flat-footed AC, hp, spell slots, alignment, level, and ability scores, with space to jot in temporary modifiers (like spells currently in effect on each PC), plus a spot to track initiative for each battle
• My monster stat sheet(s) for the current adventure
• The adventure itself, written up in the same format as Dungeon magazine (some habits die hard), including read-aloud boxed text as needed

I also have a separate folder for the NPC druid (which gets passed to whoever's playing her that particular session). Each player has a six-part folder with the details of their PC (character sheet, attack matrices for their various weapons, a class abilities and feats sheet, equipment listings, and spells/familiars/animal companions/druid wildshape forms/etc. based on their specific class needs). And I have my five card boxes with my homemade initiative cards for the PCs/NPCs/monsters encountered, my under-the-bed storage container with our D&D Minis, my two dresser drawers of homemade battle maps made on the backs of used desk calendar pages, plus a closet full of homemade 3D props/buildings, most of them made of cardboard or poster board.

I also have two bound notebooks for each campaign, one college ruled for jotting down adventure ideas and one of graph paper for the adventure maps.

Johnathan

I like the idea of having the players rotate having the extra NPC. Do you take a turn with that as well, or do you keep her for the players?