What's in your DM binder?

[Morpheus]

Almost the Same Except...

I have all of the things that previous posters have said. Campaign notes, lists of names, maps, etc,. etc., etc. The only thing that I have that is different (and I may be branded a heretic for doing so) are the source books that I buy (L&L: Character Primer, Toolbox & Magic by AEG) are ripped apart (!) and placed in plastic sheets for easy viewing and use. I can sort them as I want; taking only the ones that I need or mixing and matching them with other source books. I get a lot more use out of them this way.

 

[grodog]

I really like some of these ideas (and all of them seem like useful suggestions). In particular...

[snip]

I love the idea of having ready-to-go items at hand. I often make up a list of useful names (male and female, different races, etc.), but a tavern with patrons and layout is something I would probably never have thought of. For those situations where the game is bogging down in details, I might also whip up an ambush or combat encounter of some sort -- or perhaps more than one (easy/moderate/difficult, etc.). Very cool.

Thanks I've gotten several good ideas from the other posters here as well!

haiiro, are you the same person who was compiling the feats, skills, domains, etc. for awhile at www.3oni.com?

 

[haiiro]

haiiro, are you the same person who was compiling the feats, skills, domains, etc. for awhile at www.3oni.com?

Yep. I did feats, skills, classes and prestige classes for...about 11 months (briefly tried to do monsters as well). It was a lot of fun, but I found I was spending too much money on stuff I really wasn't interested in -- I bought everything that had something to index in it -- which is why I stopped.

Edit: I just noticed your name (as opposed to your handle), and it sounds very familiar. I think we had some email contact while I was doing 3oni, and I remember it being positive -- but that's about it. Am I way off base?

 

[KnowTheToe]

Re: Almost the Same Except...

I have all of the things that previous posters have said. Campaign notes, lists of names, maps, etc,. etc., etc. The only thing that I have that is different (and I may be branded a heretic for doing so) are the source books that I buy (L&L: Character Primer, Toolbox & Magic by AEG) are ripped apart (!) and placed in plastic sheets for easy viewing and use. I can sort them as I want; taking only the ones that I need or mixing and matching them with other source books. I get a lot more use out of them this way.

If this was not such blasphemy, it would be a good idea. Do you understand you are tearing apart a book? Good god man, what are you thinking!

 

[Balgus]

I found that grinoirs have made a fairly decent compilation of .. oh say.. everything.

I especially love their Arcane magic and divine magic books. It is a compilation of all the spells from various sources. makes looking up spells very easy and convenient.

that has become sort of a "core" book for spells for me. if it is not in there, then I have to think for a minute before allowing it in my campaign

 

[Morpheus]

Re: Re: Almost the Same Except...

If this was not such blasphemy, it would be a good idea. Do you understand you are tearing apart a book? Good god man, what are you thinking!

The way I see it, I can wait until i spill a whole bottle of soda on my Masters of the Wild like I did before or I can put the book in a protective sheet of plastic that is easier to access and use. I'll go with Choice #2...

 

[Sir Whiskers]

A couple items others haven't mentioned:

1. A 1/2" binder with monster sheets for all the common monsters for Summon Monster spells. When a character summons one (or more), we just pull out the appropriate sheet and hand it to the player.

2. Index cards for expendable magic items. It's almost impossible to keep track of potions, scrolls, and the like during play when everyone is focused on the encounters, so I started giving players a card for each such item their character has. When the item is used, they throw the card to the side. We collect the cards after play for re-use.

Otherwise, I try to keep the binder to a minimum - the current adventure, including npc's and monsters, maps, notes, etc, plus a separate pad of paper for game notes. I'm still converting to using index cards for initiative - it's a great idea.

 

[grodog]

Yep. I did feats, skills, classes and prestige classes for...about 11 months (briefly tried to do monsters as well). It was a lot of fun, but I found I was spending too much money on stuff I really wasn't interested in -- I bought everything that had something to index in it -- which is why I stopped.

Edit: I just noticed your name (as opposed to your handle), and it sounds very familiar. I think we had some email contact while I was doing 3oni, and I remember it being positive -- but that's about it. Am I way off base?

No, you're on target. We talked about some ideas I had about building a 3e/d20/OGL reference db (in my day job I'm a knowledge engineer, and it kind of bleeds into my gaming life from time-to-time....).

 

[haiiro]

Index cards for expendable magic items. It's almost impossible to keep track of potions, scrolls, and the like during play when everyone is focused on the encounters, so I started giving players a card for each such item their character has. When the item is used, they throw the card to the side. We collect the cards after play for re-use.

This is an excellent idea -- thank you. I will definitely be giving this one a shot in my next game -- players always like having cards for their items, so why limit it to the cool ones?

Otherwise, I try to keep the binder to a minimum - the current adventure, including npc's and monsters, maps, notes, etc, plus a separate pad of paper for game notes. I'm still converting to using index cards for initiative - it's a great idea.

I first saw index cards for initiative at last year's GenCon, and thought it was pretty neat. The DM in one of the games I'm in right now uses it as well, and seeing it in action again pretty much convinced me that it's the way to go. Based on my experiences thus far, I'd recommend it to anyone.

 

[haiiro]

No, you're on target. We talked about some ideas I had about building a 3e/d20/OGL reference db (in my day job I'm a knowledge engineer, and it kind of bleeds into my gaming life from time-to-time....).

That brings it back for me, thank you. Unfortunately, I'm embarassingly bad with names and remembering people, and I have a fairly sieve-like memory at times.

Did your db ideas pan out, or get shelved? My current back-burnered project is a professional-quality index of Dragon Magazines (#274 onwards, the 3e/3.5e issues), which isn't all that different from my last project on 3oni.