I have been thinking how to organize my notes lately. I have been using OneNote since I started running for my kids in June. I have shit everywhere, OneNote, Excel, Word, Bookmarks, Apple Notes on my phone, scraps of paper here and there.
I am pretty set on OneNote as I think it serves my needs. My main dilemma is how to group the notes themselves. My overall plan is to have a campaign world notebook and then a story notebook for story and session notes. With OneNote’s hyperlinking this is very doable. I am thinking about the following structure for the campaign world notebook. I may add sub-sections, but I’d like to get some input from you all to see if this structure makes sense and if I am missing anything.
Notebook Organization
Almanac
Calendar
Astronomical Events
Weather Events
Regional weather
Local weather generation
Atlas – the set of maps for the campaign
World
Regional
Local
Site
Gazetteer – the index of places on the maps with their short descriptions
Bestiary – the list of monsters (flora & fauna) in the world with descriptions
Compendium
Player
NPC
Glossary – the sets of descriptions for the campaign world
Culture
Religion
Governments
Non-Government Organizations
Encyclopedia – articles providing more in-depth information
I am currently in the process of moving the material for my active games over to WorldAnvil. I find the fluid nesting structure and linking ability to be very helpful.
World Anvil is AMAZING once you do the painstaking work of getting everything in there. That said, I still don't love it for plot. So my campaign is split between OneNote where I have session planning and plots, and World Anvil, which has nesting hierarchy of:
Continents
Countries/Independent Territories
Regions
Settlements
Other Featuers
Unincorporated Territory
Settlements
Other Features
Buildings/Locations
Castles, Government Buildings, Guild Halls, Temples
Districts
Inns & Taverns
Libraries & Schools
Important Shops
Factions/Organizations
Pantheon
Prime Deities
Evil Gods
"Main Cast" NPCs
Minor NPCs
The linking features allow for great movement between these categories, and it reads just like a Wiki. It also lets you tag people with locations and relationships, so a single Faction might have links to locations they operate in, shops/inns that they control, people within their organization etc, and conversely, a single NPC might have links to other NPCs they have relationships with, factions they're a part of, locations they live in, shops they own etc. I imagine you'd be able to accomplish the same kind of structure in OneNote as well.
OneNote is nice, but WorldAnvil lets you create a "handout" for the PCs. Heck, you can even give different information to different PCs.
How is it for Wikipedia style cross reference links? Can I mention that "Joster the Mighty was born in Elbonia" and have Elbonia be a link to my article on that country?
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OneNote is nice, but WorldAnvil lets you create a "handout" for the PCs. Heck, you can even give different information to different PCs.
How is it for Wikipedia style cross reference links? Can I mention that "Joster the Mighty was born in Elbonia" and have Elbonia be a link to my article on that country?
Yes you can. "person" articles in WorldAnvil have sections for Current Location (if you want to track NPC movement within your world) and Home Location, and anything that doesn't have a built-in spot to tag another article can be linked in your prose description through WorldAnvil's code. As you're typing in your description, you can use the @ symbol and begin typing "Elbonia" and by the time you get to "Elb" it will appear in a dropdown list and you can just click it. Then when you look at your page for Elbonia, you'll see all characters and places within that location
OneNote is nice, but WorldAnvil lets you create a "handout" for the PCs. Heck, you can even give different information to different PCs.
How is it for Wikipedia style cross reference links? Can I mention that "Joster the Mighty was born in Elbonia" and have Elbonia be a link to my article on that country?
Yes, you can use the @(insert name) and it will hyperlink to that part of your articles. It is slow going for me so far on my "Age of Savage Adventure" game because I am restricting what I build to what the PCs are likely to encounter or are interested in. My Southern Heartlands campaign is only a couple of sessions old, but will be quite robust by the end of the year. WorldAnvil is amazing and gets better all the time.
I have been thinking how to organize my notes lately. I have been using OneNote since I started running for my kids in June. I have shit everywhere, OneNote, Excel, Word, Bookmarks, Apple Notes on my phone, scraps of paper here and there.
I am pretty set on OneNote as I think it serves my needs. My main dilemma is how to group the notes themselves. My overall plan is to have a campaign world notebook and then a story notebook for story and session notes. With OneNote’s hyperlinking this is very doable. I am thinking about the following structure for the campaign world notebook. I may add sub-sections, but I’d like to get some input from you all to see if this structure makes sense and if I am missing anything.
Notebook Organization
Semper Fidelis & Good Gaming All
-Eric
Well you could save the file to your device/computer in separate folders.
I am currently in the process of moving the material for my active games over to WorldAnvil. I find the fluid nesting structure and linking ability to be very helpful.
World Anvil is AMAZING once you do the painstaking work of getting everything in there. That said, I still don't love it for plot. So my campaign is split between OneNote where I have session planning and plots, and World Anvil, which has nesting hierarchy of:
The linking features allow for great movement between these categories, and it reads just like a Wiki. It also lets you tag people with locations and relationships, so a single Faction might have links to locations they operate in, shops/inns that they control, people within their organization etc, and conversely, a single NPC might have links to other NPCs they have relationships with, factions they're a part of, locations they live in, shops they own etc. I imagine you'd be able to accomplish the same kind of structure in OneNote as well.
"To die would be an awfully big adventure"
OneNote is nice, but WorldAnvil lets you create a "handout" for the PCs. Heck, you can even give different information to different PCs.
How is it for Wikipedia style cross reference links? Can I mention that "Joster the Mighty was born in Elbonia" and have Elbonia be a link to my article on that country?
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Yes you can. "person" articles in WorldAnvil have sections for Current Location (if you want to track NPC movement within your world) and Home Location, and anything that doesn't have a built-in spot to tag another article can be linked in your prose description through WorldAnvil's code. As you're typing in your description, you can use the @ symbol and begin typing "Elbonia" and by the time you get to "Elb" it will appear in a dropdown list and you can just click it. Then when you look at your page for Elbonia, you'll see all characters and places within that location
"To die would be an awfully big adventure"
Yes, you can use the @(insert name) and it will hyperlink to that part of your articles. It is slow going for me so far on my "Age of Savage Adventure" game because I am restricting what I build to what the PCs are likely to encounter or are interested in. My Southern Heartlands campaign is only a couple of sessions old, but will be quite robust by the end of the year. WorldAnvil is amazing and gets better all the time.