I understand there is no capability to take notes in the adventure books you purchase, but I was wondering what other DMs are doing to work around this. Im a new DM with my first adventure and would like to personalize a few things to help bring the players backstories into the same story. I have thought about copying and pasting in a word document but that seems like a lot of work. Any help is greatly appreciated.
I use Gmail and Google docs. I quickly email myself ideas and notes whenevr needed this wherever i am, and organise all my notes in a Google doc.
I also have a Google doc version shared to all players from session zero that contains Table rules, Safety Tools, Variant Rules, Houserules and campaign backstory.
There is space for both Private and Public DM notes at the bottom of the home page of your campaign. I use those. If I remember, I'll write down all of the party's currently open quests or leads in the public notes.
@plaguescarred Really great idea! Would you mind going into detail a little more on this? How do you organize your notes and set this up for other people to view. Also, I'm trying to incorporate some of my notes to change the adventure a little bit and curious how you would match your notes to the adventure. Im not that familiar with Google docs but this sounds like it could help a lot.
@kizzoap im going to need to play around with this but I think this will be helpful for somethings like rules and keeping track what the players do during the story. Im sure it could be used for more things but I'm unsure how to keep it all organized.
Google docs have a feature for public share that can be turned on so that when you share link it can be accessible to them and even edit it. Our shared doc is a live document that include all the rules and tools mentionned above, as well as things like player's note and people and place, quests, party loot, marching order etc
In Roll20 Virtual Table that i use in another of my campaign, i also have a similar public file that the players edit and use to keep track of the same thing basically.
@plaguescarred this is good to know. How do you organize your notes in Google docs to input things you change in an adventure story? Im having trouble thinking on how to stay organized while developing everything
For things you specifically want to change from the adventure you're running, you may record the page, title of paragraph and then proceed to write the change you instead want and just consult them while running your game. For exemple when running Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure;
P31 Wyvern Thor: Add 1 Ogre outside with Orc. Inside the cave one of the Orc is a shaman Mage. Add a greataxe +1 to Brughor Axe-Biter.
P56 Old Old Well: Reduce Zombies to 8 instead of 12. Add 1 more potion of healing inside the tent.
Another thing i find useful is to note things of interest from past or future. For exemple, note any future ideas if the party go to a certain place or meet with specific NPC, and also note down previous encounter details that may be noteworthy, such as NPC or monsters that fled or were left unconscious, amy that may have witness the party do - or not do - something, places or items left behind, or disturbed by their action or magic that could have repercussion or consequences later on etc
If you already have access to Microsoft products you should try OneNote for notekeeping. You can bring in all of your spreadsheets, pictures, etc, include hyperlinks and so on.
Best part is it supports tabs and indexes to make it easier to navigate than a traditionally formatted notepad, word, or excel document.
Microsoft OneNote works well for this, as you can create multiple tabs with subsections, hyperlink sections, etc. I believe it's freely available on all Windows machines and can be downloaded as a free app which can sync with other instances of OneNote. I used to use it extensively before I started using Foundry VTT and just keep all my notes in the Foundry journals.
Foundry VTT is just better in every way. It does require a one time payment for purchase but after that you can use it on your your own as the host and other players are not required to buy it. If you want, there is also a fantastic hosting service called the Forge, and while I recommend it, it is entirely optional.
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Hello!
I understand there is no capability to take notes in the adventure books you purchase, but I was wondering what other DMs are doing to work around this. Im a new DM with my first adventure and would like to personalize a few things to help bring the players backstories into the same story. I have thought about copying and pasting in a word document but that seems like a lot of work. Any help is greatly appreciated.
I use Gmail and Google docs. I quickly email myself ideas and notes whenevr needed this wherever i am, and organise all my notes in a Google doc.
I also have a Google doc version shared to all players from session zero that contains Table rules, Safety Tools, Variant Rules, Houserules and campaign backstory.
There is space for both Private and Public DM notes at the bottom of the home page of your campaign. I use those. If I remember, I'll write down all of the party's currently open quests or leads in the public notes.
@plaguescarred Really great idea! Would you mind going into detail a little more on this? How do you organize your notes and set this up for other people to view. Also, I'm trying to incorporate some of my notes to change the adventure a little bit and curious how you would match your notes to the adventure. Im not that familiar with Google docs but this sounds like it could help a lot.
@kizzoap im going to need to play around with this but I think this will be helpful for somethings like rules and keeping track what the players do during the story. Im sure it could be used for more things but I'm unsure how to keep it all organized.
Google docs have a feature for public share that can be turned on so that when you share link it can be accessible to them and even edit it. Our shared doc is a live document that include all the rules and tools mentionned above, as well as things like player's note and people and place, quests, party loot, marching order etc
In Roll20 Virtual Table that i use in another of my campaign, i also have a similar public file that the players edit and use to keep track of the same thing basically.
@plaguescarred this is good to know. How do you organize your notes in Google docs to input things you change in an adventure story? Im having trouble thinking on how to stay organized while developing everything
For things you specifically want to change from the adventure you're running, you may record the page, title of paragraph and then proceed to write the change you instead want and just consult them while running your game. For exemple when running Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure;
Another thing i find useful is to note things of interest from past or future. For exemple, note any future ideas if the party go to a certain place or meet with specific NPC, and also note down previous encounter details that may be noteworthy, such as NPC or monsters that fled or were left unconscious, amy that may have witness the party do - or not do - something, places or items left behind, or disturbed by their action or magic that could have repercussion or consequences later on etc
My local game shop sells notebooks for DM's.
They look pretty awesome and have separate spaces for various types of notes.
Thats really cool! Any chance I can get the name of the store?
@kotath I agree and I'm probably overthinking a lot of this a might stick with word and excel to start taking notes
If you already have access to Microsoft products you should try OneNote for notekeeping. You can bring in all of your spreadsheets, pictures, etc, include hyperlinks and so on.
Best part is it supports tabs and indexes to make it easier to navigate than a traditionally formatted notepad, word, or excel document.
The store in in Central Minnesota. I don't want to get in trouble with the mods here for posting their name.
However, they do not ship.
Do a Google Search for Dungeon Master Notebook. There are quite a few out there and on Amazon
Microsoft OneNote works well for this, as you can create multiple tabs with subsections, hyperlink sections, etc. I believe it's freely available on all Windows machines and can be downloaded as a free app which can sync with other instances of OneNote. I used to use it extensively before I started using Foundry VTT and just keep all my notes in the Foundry journals.
How is Foundry VTT compared to Roll 20?
Foundry VTT is just better in every way. It does require a one time payment for purchase but after that you can use it on your your own as the host and other players are not required to buy it. If you want, there is also a fantastic hosting service called the Forge, and while I recommend it, it is entirely optional.