I keep all of what happened in one journal, and everything else on the computer. All the maps, the schedules, and the character sheets using a gurps character sheet program (forgot what its called), because I run it through discord using a text format. I hardly plan anything besides what’s in my head.
Ive been trying to use different ways to plan besides just pure vibes. like using joplin, or some wiki format or even trying to do use a mindmap? But alas most of what I do is simulating what I believe would happen and keeping character sheets of possible enemies on hand.
So, I’m curious, what do you do?
Poorly! I do it poorly! :D
Characters are in GURPS Character Sheet, an (awesome!) open source character management program. I run our games through Foundry VTT, which handles all the combat tracking, HP/FP management, maps when I have them, etc. It also imports GCS files (and GCA, if that’s your flavor of character editor). Most of my other notes (events, generated people names for unexpected NPCs, etc) go in Google Keep notes. Notes that I have to take on the fly go into my notebook, where they go forgotten until the next session, more often than I’d like…
I use the superior method, a mess of illegible scribblings in a journal. I am trying to get better about it, though. And one thing im really trying to do is focus my prep on what the region is like, and what the important actors there are doing, and not on what i think the players will do. Every time I try to predict the pc actions they completely flip my prep on its head, so I want to go for more of an “informed improv” type prep
I felt the illegible scribblings in a journal because thats what I did when I was first starting to layout the setting. Even my maps look like that. I drew most of it in tuxpaint for that deranged feeling 🫣
I think that planning and keeping in mind what NPCs do through out makes the game feel “alive”. I try to do something like that, though I’m not sure how good I am at it. At most I just make recurring characters appear where they might be when a player enters a building or a setting occasionally
Between sessions: Google Docs (one document per campaign)
During the session: I’ll print out the document and scribble on it with a pen as needed. I’ve tried editing the doc live (via laptop) during the game but it takes too long and requires too much focus to type as opposed to just jotting down/crossing out as we play.
Paper in a folder with index sheets. Old school as hell.
I tried Obsidian recently for a homebrew game and it worked really well to however.
I use Onenote, it’s free. Let’s you have a book with folders and pages. You can have blank lines dotted or graph paper. You can use it to search images uploaded to it. Combined with a surface pro to write on the screen I can do everything I want to from draw maps, edit character sheets and take notes. You can hyperlink between pages and print pdf’s into it. Fabulous piece of software for RPGs.
Yup, surface pro 9, stylus and onenote is all I need
Gm notes? what are those?
seriously though, I have someone in the party keep a journal of things that have happened. Then I keep a bullet point notes in a notepad or piece of paper that I have behind the GM screen.
Obsidian is a personal favorite.
I’m a big fan of the Notion template from Sly Flourish. You can find it here: https://slyflourish.com/lazy_dnd_with_notion.html
Thank you for the neat website! This looks so cool
This has been a lifesaver for me for years now. Just need to add some sections for world building and it’d be even better!
I use obsidian, and git to sync between devices.
Obsidian! Can’t recomment it enough! It’s simple, has everything I need and a shitton of plugins (dice roller, statblocks, Initiative tracker, fantasy calendar, a tool for working with maps with pins and everything, ability to embed all sorts of generators from generators websites, wiki styled notes and more!)
For notes during/right after a session I have a notebook where I write by hand.
For planning, loose ideas etc I used to use Trello. It was serving me well for a long time (I’m still using it to save maps I might want to buy, interesting systems, links to tools, etc) but with time I felt I’m lacking a kind of big picture view.
So for campaign and adventure planning I’ve switched to obsidian.
- I like markdown
- With plugins you can create random generators
- I like that it’s simple. It’s just a bunch of files which I sync to my cloud
- The graph view lets me take a look at arches as a whole and find loose ends/underutilized facts
I use WorldAnvil for all my GM stuff :D Got my notes in their notebook, my worldbuilding in articles, etc etc. It’s a bit of a heavy program unless you’re going hard on worldbuilding, but I do go hard on worldbuilding so it’s perfect for me.
Used to use onenote before, but those aren’t really searchable last I checked.
