does anybody have a filled in example of a powerpoint or realm works/heros lab fully filled out so i can use it as a template for my first game i am DM-ing i will not use your campaign i have my own ideas i just don't know how to organize them into a format that is usable at the table. i have found templates but nothing that shows me how to set those templates up for a game. if this makes any sense. thanks for the help
I never used powerpoint for D&D. I just make a ton of notes/quests and toss my maps together in photoshop or gimp. I find it more easy to make adjustments to the game this way when players in a totally different direction. And it happens all of the time. Also just having notes makes it easy to update the game each session based on what happened in the game allowing for new ideas or paths with the next session.
I use DND beyond for mechanically tracking most things, getting monsters out quickly, etc.
For post-session notes I have a small notebook, and I have a regular college-ruled notebook for scratch paper during the session (generally for tracking HP, initiative order, etc.)
For campaign notes, I'll write down basically bullet points of things I want to cover for a smaller campaign arc, and then improvise any details I need on the spot, unless I know there is a detail in advance that will be important (I.E: Describing the lead up to a trap, oddly clean floors where a gelatinous cube has moved, etc.)
I use OneNote as well, I have multiple Section Groups for tracking 5 campaigns, I have a section group that I use as encyclopedia for my campaign with the people and places in it. I then have a section group to keep notes for Roll20 and all my API scripts I use along with troubleshooting. I then have a section group for D&D Beyond and one for notes for running the game. As others have mentioned, I have cryrid's One Note file copied into a section group within my OneNote notebook, I make custom tabs within it that I can easily copy over whenever I download cryrid's updated file.
I'll be running a convention game this weekend and I don't think I'm going to cart all my books to the hotel this time, I should have access to any rule using OneNote and D&D Beyond.
I've been using Google Classroom combined with Google Drive to systematically release things to my players. You can also schedule "classes" to add to the calendar, create threads, create "assignments", etc. It's been working real well for me.
One problem I had with OneNote is that you can't hide things from players, where as in Google Classroom I can load everything into it and just not release some stuff until it's ready for viewing.
Currently getting myself set up after years of letting tabletop gaming rest, so this thread is interesting for me as well.
Back in the day I used plain old pen and paper for all my notework, which got really messy over time and wasn't very satisfying. I was thinking about purchasing a tablet to help with the good old search function in documents but things died off before that happened.
In the coming days I will likely use World Anvil as my main ressource databank for the upcoming campaign and outsource immediately necessary information into a note-based program like OneNote/Evernote or similar products. Since these days we are playing via Fantasy Grounds I can have all of my material spread out over multiple screens which helps a lot with organizing things, but that's one of the few pros of having to play over the interwebs.
Overall I would say a well-prepped DM needs to have monster- and player-information at hand, the campaign notes with descriptions and NPCs as well as immediately necessary rules in the form of quick summaries, to avoid having to sift through the PHB. Side-tasks would be managing the soundtrack and keeping an eye over the handouts/images needed to invoke a certain atmosphere. For the former I will probably use Syrinscape.
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does anybody have a filled in example of a powerpoint or realm works/heros lab fully filled out so i can use it as a template for my first game i am DM-ing i will not use your campaign i have my own ideas i just don't know how to organize them into a format that is usable at the table. i have found templates but nothing that shows me how to set those templates up for a game. if this makes any sense. thanks for the help
I never used powerpoint for D&D. I just make a ton of notes/quests and toss my maps together in photoshop or gimp. I find it more easy to make adjustments to the game this way when players in a totally different direction. And it happens all of the time. Also just having notes makes it easy to update the game each session based on what happened in the game allowing for new ideas or paths with the next session.
I use DND beyond for mechanically tracking most things, getting monsters out quickly, etc.
For post-session notes I have a small notebook, and I have a regular college-ruled notebook for scratch paper during the session (generally for tracking HP, initiative order, etc.)
For campaign notes, I'll write down basically bullet points of things I want to cover for a smaller campaign arc, and then improvise any details I need on the spot, unless I know there is a detail in advance that will be important (I.E: Describing the lead up to a trap, oddly clean floors where a gelatinous cube has moved, etc.)
I use OneNote as well, I have multiple Section Groups for tracking 5 campaigns, I have a section group that I use as encyclopedia for my campaign with the people and places in it. I then have a section group to keep notes for Roll20 and all my API scripts I use along with troubleshooting. I then have a section group for D&D Beyond and one for notes for running the game. As others have mentioned, I have cryrid's One Note file copied into a section group within my OneNote notebook, I make custom tabs within it that I can easily copy over whenever I download cryrid's updated file.
I'll be running a convention game this weekend and I don't think I'm going to cart all my books to the hotel this time, I should have access to any rule using OneNote and D&D Beyond.
This is a great thread!
I've been using Google Classroom combined with Google Drive to systematically release things to my players. You can also schedule "classes" to add to the calendar, create threads, create "assignments", etc. It's been working real well for me.
One problem I had with OneNote is that you can't hide things from players, where as in Google Classroom I can load everything into it and just not release some stuff until it's ready for viewing.
Currently getting myself set up after years of letting tabletop gaming rest, so this thread is interesting for me as well.
Back in the day I used plain old pen and paper for all my notework, which got really messy over time and wasn't very satisfying. I was thinking about purchasing a tablet to help with the good old search function in documents but things died off before that happened.
In the coming days I will likely use World Anvil as my main ressource databank for the upcoming campaign and outsource immediately necessary information into a note-based program like OneNote/Evernote or similar products. Since these days we are playing via Fantasy Grounds I can have all of my material spread out over multiple screens which helps a lot with organizing things, but that's one of the few pros of having to play over the interwebs.
Overall I would say a well-prepped DM needs to have monster- and player-information at hand, the campaign notes with descriptions and NPCs as well as immediately necessary rules in the form of quick summaries, to avoid having to sift through the PHB. Side-tasks would be managing the soundtrack and keeping an eye over the handouts/images needed to invoke a certain atmosphere. For the former I will probably use Syrinscape.
Let chaos rain... uh, reign!