First up, thanks for the previous help dealing with a tricky player situation. The party is now co-operating much better, and the game is moving forward. We've even had some pretty epic moments predicated on the players coordinating and cooperating.
Now I have another situation though. One of the players is complaining about keeping track of information they get out of NPCs, like side quests, etc... They are asking to have such information typed up, printed and handed out. My gut reaction was "heck no, I have enough to do, without writing your notes for you. If you want your notes typed up to file it in a folder, be my guest." Note this is LMoP, with a couple of sentences describing each side quest - not some ludicrously complex homebrew adventure with NPCs reciting War and Peace in every exchange.
Am I justified? Or am I the one being a wangrod in this situation?
I would not make hand out notes for Players. I agree 100% that that is their job.
However if you let them just flounder about, it can be frustrating for the GM when the Party misses obvious options and parts of the adventure for no other reason than the Player wasn't paying enough attention.
One thing I absolutely do is have a recap speech at the beginning of each session, which I do, rather than letting the Players do it, as it allows me to stress points that I feel they might not have caught, or even subtly nudge a Party toward potential solutions to the current issue, if the seem to be getting lost and frustrated.
So maybe I do make notes of a kind, for them.
A possible alternative is to keep in mind the difference in what the Player knows, and what the Character knows. We don't have any issue with the Character knowing more Medicine, History, or Arcana than the Player - we might extend that to remembering details about the Adventure, making them roll Intelligence to remember items that we know they should have remembered or noticed. I would not automatically give the facts to a high-intelligence Character, however ( no matter how you feel about resolving Knowledge-based skills ), because you want to leave room for them to fail to remember here, unless they - as Players - take good notes.
That's a real pain-in-the-ass to do, and can slow down the pace of the adventure, so consider that before deciding if you want to adopt that strategy.
But ultimately, no - I would not make neat hand out cheat sheets for my Players.
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.
I wouldn't hand out notes, that is going a step too far unless the DM has the time and really wants to do so.
However, the player has a real concern in that he can't remember everything that happens and even if they do make a note of some obscure fact, at the time they hear it the player's don't know if it is something important or fluff that the DM just made up on the spur of the moment that they will never need to know again. Names of NPCs when you first meet them are a good example. If their character should remember the name of the shopkeeper or informant that they talked to in the last session but the player has forgotten then the DM should just tell them the name rather than making the player feel bad for forgetting something that their character would have remembered.
Making notes can be onerous for anyone, if there is campaign important information that you want the players to record then tell them that they think this information is particularly important - then you have a basis for action if they don't record it. However, most of the time, out of all of the facts, names, dates, places, descriptions that whizz by in a good D&D session, probably less than 5% are worth recording but the players don't have the DMs perspective to decide which 5% are important so you should let them know.
If the players get stuck because they can't remember something then the DM really should step in to help them out if it is something that the characters should remember. The abilities of the players are not the same as the abilities of the characters.
I'd say this is a common enough thing that there's a pretty good reason several companies out there sell campaign journals for players to keep their notes in.
They should get a notebook and take notes when things seem important.
Thanks Vedexent, thanks David42. It really helps to get reinforcement of this stuff from more experienced DMs, and helps me more confidently push back on players without feeling like I'm going to ruin everyone's fun.
I'll move forward on the basis that notes are the player's responsibility, but at the same time there's no need to be a complete wangrod about it and refuse to offer any reminders. Ironically, the inciting event for the player's frustration was me reminding the players of the outstanding side-quests they had available from Phandalin NPCs, while this player leafed through their notes getting frustrated that they hadn't adequately captured them in an organized way. I think maybe the frustration was born as much from their own perceived failure to record things properly. I'll make it clear to them that within reason, and with 'standard' information like locations, names, quests, etc, it's reasonable to ask for a reminder. Heck, I'll even point out that in society, it's not unusual to ask someone to remind you their name if you've only interacted once for five minutes, as with most Phandalin NPCs. Roleplaying "I'm so sorry, I have a terrible head for names, can you remind me..." is not going to cause the NPC to flip out and murder them unless perhaps they've been married to them for 10 years.
There is one place where it seems reasonable to draw the line. If a single player is, for whatever reason, given information separately from the group, then I like the idea of imperfect memory or misinterpretation as a game mechanic. I think I heard about that in one of Colville's videos and it really resonated with me. Up to a point of course - it would seem churlish to let them march 2 weeks in the wrong direction to the middle of nowhere because the eaves dropping rogue heard 'East' when you said 'West' - no one's having fun with that. But if they overhear from an NPC that the lightest guarded entrance is to the East, but they tell the group to go in the heavily guarded West entrance, that seems a fair consequence. I'll be sure to point out to them if they're in a 'no reminder' or 'intelligence check for reminder' situation, so they know it's on them to relay the information accurately.
I'd say this is a common enough thing that there's a pretty good reason several companies out there sell campaign journals for players to keep their notes in.
They should get a notebook and take notes when things seem important.
I gave all the players notebooks and pens at the beginning of the campaign, and if they are taking notes, I slow down and repeat myself as much as necessary until they say they got it all. It seems like they just suck at note taking, and keeping everything organized ;)
Thanks for the heads up on the campaign journal. Perhaps that will help them organize their notes better.
Regarding basic information that is readily available for campaign, like local laws or NPC's who they're likely to see really often, I will do a few general printout pages. That is also to help me so I don't have to flip through pages and pages of my own notes just to remember an NPC they made contact with, which is important, and for some reason I ended up forgetting, lol. However I will occasionally spoil my players, such as mentioned above, with journals to aid them in their ability to remember things. I rather enjoy that because collectively they all seem to pick up the important details, but then they'll also each pick up minor details that another player may not have. Makes it pretty exciting when a players says something in character and the other players are like, "You remembered that? Wtf?" and they race to scribble it in their own pages.
I'll move forward on the basis that notes are the player's responsibility, but at the same time there's no need to be a complete wangrod about it and refuse to offer any reminders. ... I'll make it clear to them that within reason, and with 'standard' information like locations, names, quests, etc, it's reasonable to ask for a reminder.
I think this is a good balance point. My wife actually complained to me about not being able to remember all the details I dropped in a session, and I told her - and all the other Players - "if it's something your Character would absolutely know, and you don't remember, you can always ask me".
The place where I'd start busting out the Intelligence rolls to remember is to remember far back in time, or minutiae the Character wouldn't automatically have noted.
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I think this is a good balance point. My wife actually complained to me about not being able to remember all the details I dropped in a session, and I told her - and all the other Players - "if it's something your Character would absolutely know, and you don't remember, you can always ask me".
The place where I'd start busting out the Intelligence rolls to remember is to remember far back in time, or minutiae the Character wouldn't automatically have noted.
Ha, funny you should say that - the player in question is my wife!
On the subject of intelligence checks for remembering back in time, when they encountered the Nothic I actually had my wife do an arcana check (she's a wizard), since I figured there'd be a good chance that wizarding schools would teach about them, if only as a cautionary tale. She rolled high, and got information that let the party decide they'd rather not chance having their flesh rotted from their bones, so they'd have the rogue negotiate with it for safe passage. Rogue roleplayed well and passed a persuasion test, and the Nothic agreed in exchange for "fresh meatses". After they established that dried rations weren't going to cut it, they delivered in the form of (you guessed it) some redbrands they'd tussled with outside.
I'd say this is a common enough thing that there's a pretty good reason several companies out there sell campaign journals for players to keep their notes in.
They should get a notebook and take notes when things seem important.
I gave all the players notebooks and pens at the beginning of the campaign, and if they are taking notes, I slow down and repeat myself as much as necessary until they say they got it all. It seems like they just suck at note taking, and keeping everything organized ;)
Thanks for the heads up on the campaign journal. Perhaps that will help them organize their notes better.
Gotcha! If that's the case, then they need help developing a system that helps them find things. I struggle with that myself - each time I start I try a different way to organize things that I stick with for a while until it devolves into just writing stuff down. The only thing that saves me is that I have a pretty good memory for details - it's probably why I (personally) stink at organizational systems.
The most successful one I've tried, though, is to start a new page (or section) per location. Set aside an opening section for general notable info about the area. (I'm just making stuff up here...)
PHANDALIN Population ~ 100 Smells like cows Festival last day of every month Government seems to consist of one fairly crooked mayor and some henchmen.
Then a second section for sub-places, and then slot in info about NPCs found at those places, info about the NPCs, quest hooks dropped by those NPCs, etc. Use some kind of bullet journaling to call out types of info.
THE BROKEN DRUM Tavern - "You can't beat it." Smells like cows who have been sick. There's a menu, but don't. *SHADY McGEE - barkeep. Provides rumors of dubious quality. Doesn't seem likely to cheat you. Much. & FIND OUT WHY HIS ALE HASN'T BEEN DELIVERED - offered 100gp. And a free round on the house. But don't.
Let's see. Recently we've started having our sessions at my home. So we have food and drinks ready for our friends. Ie players.
I write and print out what's going on in the world to have content for them to play in. I very rarely give out item cards. But that's the extent of it. It's up to them to take notes. If they forget something in have them roll a history check to see what info I remind them about.
If your player wants more info have them bring a voice recorder and they can do that on their own time.
I usually send out a quick (one-paragraph) of the day's adventures by email after each session. I don't really count on my players taking notes (though some do) and I certainly don't expect players to remember important things over the ~month we might have between sessions. If they don't remember something that happened, I'd always remind them.
I don't think that D&D is a game about player memory or note-taking skill so I'd prefer to just send the relevant information rather than have the players fumble around because they forgot that some NPC said something important that their characters would certainly remember the next day, but that the players have forgotten in a month.
Like many others... There is a line for DM and Player responsibilities.
It is the players responsibility to keep track of their inventory, spells, skills and notes on what their character knows. At my table I even go as far as that when they lose the piece of paper regarding a magical item. Then in game they also lost that item. It is easy enough to just have a little notebook, or binder or DNDbeyond to keep track of stuff. So there is no excuses. Unless their house burned down and everything in it. Which would be an acceptable excuse.
As for not knowing "common" information needed to prevent slowing down. Are you guys seriously telling me that if 1 or 2 players can not take proper notes and remember what is going on. That the other players can not tell them in-game about it? What are the odds that all players at your table are horrible at taking notes and remembering things? I sure as hell aint going to tell them the info again unless they're going to bother the NPC again. with the NPC of course making a comment about it. Wondering if he hired the right people for this task. I'd just drop a new quest hook for something else and go from there.
As for notes however. If you are a DM that doesn't mind writing recaps. You can always write those and make them available. Then it is once again the choice of the player if they want to read it or not. For my table we registered a webdomain. I installed a discussion board on it. A hidden section where I have my DM notes available. And a public area for re-caps that the players can access. However that is because I do not mind writing it out extensively. Other DM's might not feel the same way. Remember it is an optional thing a DM, or perhaps another player, could do for the group.
My players seem to be pretty good at remembering key details, but as Vedexent said in the second post, a quick recap from the DM at the start is helpful to get everyone back in the game a bit more quickly.
If it hasn't been too long since the last session, I invite one of the group to summarise what happened last time out. There might be something the players interpreted differently to what I had in mind that I can run with.
It's fairly commonplace to keep character sheets for everyone, those can easily get lost! But everything else: equipment, money, artifacts, EXP etc. is really up to the players as there's no way I can keep a note of all of that and run the game. I take it on trust that they won't add an extra 100gp!
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Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
My players seem to be pretty good at remembering key details, but as Vedexent said in the second post, a quick recap from the DM at the start is helpful to get everyone back in the game a bit more quickly.
If it hasn't been too long since the last session, I invite one of the group to summarise what happened last time out. There might be something the players interpreted differently to what I had in mind that I can run with.
It's fairly commonplace to keep character sheets for everyone, those can easily get lost! But everything else: equipment, money, artifacts, EXP etc. is really up to the players as there's no way I can keep a note of all of that and run the game. I take it on trust that they won't add an extra 100gp!
I think both a GM summary, and a Player summary have use.
It all depends whether you want a diagnostic tool ( What do my Players know and believe? ), or an educational tool ( Here's what the DM thinks is going on. ) - although I agree that the Player summary is probably the better default unless you feel the Party is starting to flounder ( not go off the track you expected, but stall out ) and you want to subtly correct some misunderstandings or give them a subtle nudge.
As for keeping a Character sheet, that's one benefit of having all my Campaigns on DnD Beyond - I have real time access to their Character sheets at any time.
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I've made classes, subclasses and races. I've also done some homebrew mechanics, although my players don't typically remember them, even when their on a google doc they can check out any time.
I like publishing homebrew anyways though, its always fun if someone else uses your creations.
The only notes I keep that are for the players is a list of the names of people they have interacted with with 4 or 5 words as a breif decription (i.e. 'Elf shopkeeper from Waterdeep). I don't know how much they use that in session but I know at least one player uses it to make sure that they got the NPC names correct in their notes.
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Hi all,
First up, thanks for the previous help dealing with a tricky player situation. The party is now co-operating much better, and the game is moving forward. We've even had some pretty epic moments predicated on the players coordinating and cooperating.
Now I have another situation though. One of the players is complaining about keeping track of information they get out of NPCs, like side quests, etc... They are asking to have such information typed up, printed and handed out. My gut reaction was "heck no, I have enough to do, without writing your notes for you. If you want your notes typed up to file it in a folder, be my guest." Note this is LMoP, with a couple of sentences describing each side quest - not some ludicrously complex homebrew adventure with NPCs reciting War and Peace in every exchange.
Am I justified? Or am I the one being a wangrod in this situation?
I would not make hand out notes for Players. I agree 100% that that is their job.
However if you let them just flounder about, it can be frustrating for the GM when the Party misses obvious options and parts of the adventure for no other reason than the Player wasn't paying enough attention.
One thing I absolutely do is have a recap speech at the beginning of each session, which I do, rather than letting the Players do it, as it allows me to stress points that I feel they might not have caught, or even subtly nudge a Party toward potential solutions to the current issue, if the seem to be getting lost and frustrated.
So maybe I do make notes of a kind, for them.
A possible alternative is to keep in mind the difference in what the Player knows, and what the Character knows. We don't have any issue with the Character knowing more Medicine, History, or Arcana than the Player - we might extend that to remembering details about the Adventure, making them roll Intelligence to remember items that we know they should have remembered or noticed. I would not automatically give the facts to a high-intelligence Character, however ( no matter how you feel about resolving Knowledge-based skills ), because you want to leave room for them to fail to remember here, unless they - as Players - take good notes.
That's a real pain-in-the-ass to do, and can slow down the pace of the adventure, so consider that before deciding if you want to adopt that strategy.
But ultimately, no - I would not make neat hand out cheat sheets for my Players.
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.
I wouldn't hand out notes, that is going a step too far unless the DM has the time and really wants to do so.
However, the player has a real concern in that he can't remember everything that happens and even if they do make a note of some obscure fact, at the time they hear it the player's don't know if it is something important or fluff that the DM just made up on the spur of the moment that they will never need to know again. Names of NPCs when you first meet them are a good example. If their character should remember the name of the shopkeeper or informant that they talked to in the last session but the player has forgotten then the DM should just tell them the name rather than making the player feel bad for forgetting something that their character would have remembered.
Making notes can be onerous for anyone, if there is campaign important information that you want the players to record then tell them that they think this information is particularly important - then you have a basis for action if they don't record it. However, most of the time, out of all of the facts, names, dates, places, descriptions that whizz by in a good D&D session, probably less than 5% are worth recording but the players don't have the DMs perspective to decide which 5% are important so you should let them know.
If the players get stuck because they can't remember something then the DM really should step in to help them out if it is something that the characters should remember. The abilities of the players are not the same as the abilities of the characters.
I'd say this is a common enough thing that there's a pretty good reason several companies out there sell campaign journals for players to keep their notes in.
They should get a notebook and take notes when things seem important.
Thanks Vedexent, thanks David42. It really helps to get reinforcement of this stuff from more experienced DMs, and helps me more confidently push back on players without feeling like I'm going to ruin everyone's fun.
I'll move forward on the basis that notes are the player's responsibility, but at the same time there's no need to be a complete wangrod about it and refuse to offer any reminders. Ironically, the inciting event for the player's frustration was me reminding the players of the outstanding side-quests they had available from Phandalin NPCs, while this player leafed through their notes getting frustrated that they hadn't adequately captured them in an organized way. I think maybe the frustration was born as much from their own perceived failure to record things properly. I'll make it clear to them that within reason, and with 'standard' information like locations, names, quests, etc, it's reasonable to ask for a reminder. Heck, I'll even point out that in society, it's not unusual to ask someone to remind you their name if you've only interacted once for five minutes, as with most Phandalin NPCs. Roleplaying "I'm so sorry, I have a terrible head for names, can you remind me..." is not going to cause the NPC to flip out and murder them unless perhaps they've been married to them for 10 years.
There is one place where it seems reasonable to draw the line. If a single player is, for whatever reason, given information separately from the group, then I like the idea of imperfect memory or misinterpretation as a game mechanic. I think I heard about that in one of Colville's videos and it really resonated with me. Up to a point of course - it would seem churlish to let them march 2 weeks in the wrong direction to the middle of nowhere because the eaves dropping rogue heard 'East' when you said 'West' - no one's having fun with that. But if they overhear from an NPC that the lightest guarded entrance is to the East, but they tell the group to go in the heavily guarded West entrance, that seems a fair consequence. I'll be sure to point out to them if they're in a 'no reminder' or 'intelligence check for reminder' situation, so they know it's on them to relay the information accurately.
I gave all the players notebooks and pens at the beginning of the campaign, and if they are taking notes, I slow down and repeat myself as much as necessary until they say they got it all. It seems like they just suck at note taking, and keeping everything organized ;)
Thanks for the heads up on the campaign journal. Perhaps that will help them organize their notes better.
Regarding basic information that is readily available for campaign, like local laws or NPC's who they're likely to see really often, I will do a few general printout pages. That is also to help me so I don't have to flip through pages and pages of my own notes just to remember an NPC they made contact with, which is important, and for some reason I ended up forgetting, lol. However I will occasionally spoil my players, such as mentioned above, with journals to aid them in their ability to remember things. I rather enjoy that because collectively they all seem to pick up the important details, but then they'll also each pick up minor details that another player may not have. Makes it pretty exciting when a players says something in character and the other players are like, "You remembered that? Wtf?" and they race to scribble it in their own pages.
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I think this is a good balance point. My wife actually complained to me about not being able to remember all the details I dropped in a session, and I told her - and all the other Players - "if it's something your Character would absolutely know, and you don't remember, you can always ask me".
The place where I'd start busting out the Intelligence rolls to remember is to remember far back in time, or minutiae the Character wouldn't automatically have noted.
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.
Ha, funny you should say that - the player in question is my wife!
On the subject of intelligence checks for remembering back in time, when they encountered the Nothic I actually had my wife do an arcana check (she's a wizard), since I figured there'd be a good chance that wizarding schools would teach about them, if only as a cautionary tale. She rolled high, and got information that let the party decide they'd rather not chance having their flesh rotted from their bones, so they'd have the rogue negotiate with it for safe passage. Rogue roleplayed well and passed a persuasion test, and the Nothic agreed in exchange for "fresh meatses". After they established that dried rations weren't going to cut it, they delivered in the form of (you guessed it) some redbrands they'd tussled with outside.
Gotcha! If that's the case, then they need help developing a system that helps them find things. I struggle with that myself - each time I start I try a different way to organize things that I stick with for a while until it devolves into just writing stuff down. The only thing that saves me is that I have a pretty good memory for details - it's probably why I (personally) stink at organizational systems.
The most successful one I've tried, though, is to start a new page (or section) per location. Set aside an opening section for general notable info about the area. (I'm just making stuff up here...)
PHANDALIN
Population ~ 100
Smells like cows
Festival last day of every month
Government seems to consist of one fairly crooked mayor and some henchmen.
Then a second section for sub-places, and then slot in info about NPCs found at those places, info about the NPCs, quest hooks dropped by those NPCs, etc. Use some kind of bullet journaling to call out types of info.
THE BROKEN DRUM
Tavern - "You can't beat it."
Smells like cows who have been sick.
There's a menu, but don't.
*SHADY McGEE - barkeep. Provides rumors of dubious quality. Doesn't seem likely to cheat you. Much.
& FIND OUT WHY HIS ALE HASN'T BEEN DELIVERED - offered 100gp. And a free round on the house. But don't.
Those sorts of things. :)
Let's see. Recently we've started having our sessions at my home. So we have food and drinks ready for our friends. Ie players.
I write and print out what's going on in the world to have content for them to play in. I very rarely give out item cards. But that's the extent of it. It's up to them to take notes. If they forget something in have them roll a history check to see what info I remind them about.
If your player wants more info have them bring a voice recorder and they can do that on their own time.
I usually send out a quick (one-paragraph) of the day's adventures by email after each session. I don't really count on my players taking notes (though some do) and I certainly don't expect players to remember important things over the ~month we might have between sessions. If they don't remember something that happened, I'd always remind them.
I don't think that D&D is a game about player memory or note-taking skill so I'd prefer to just send the relevant information rather than have the players fumble around because they forgot that some NPC said something important that their characters would certainly remember the next day, but that the players have forgotten in a month.
Like many others... There is a line for DM and Player responsibilities.
It is the players responsibility to keep track of their inventory, spells, skills and notes on what their character knows. At my table I even go as far as that when they lose the piece of paper regarding a magical item. Then in game they also lost that item. It is easy enough to just have a little notebook, or binder or DNDbeyond to keep track of stuff. So there is no excuses. Unless their house burned down and everything in it. Which would be an acceptable excuse.
As for not knowing "common" information needed to prevent slowing down. Are you guys seriously telling me that if 1 or 2 players can not take proper notes and remember what is going on. That the other players can not tell them in-game about it? What are the odds that all players at your table are horrible at taking notes and remembering things? I sure as hell aint going to tell them the info again unless they're going to bother the NPC again. with the NPC of course making a comment about it. Wondering if he hired the right people for this task. I'd just drop a new quest hook for something else and go from there.
As for notes however. If you are a DM that doesn't mind writing recaps. You can always write those and make them available. Then it is once again the choice of the player if they want to read it or not. For my table we registered a webdomain. I installed a discussion board on it. A hidden section where I have my DM notes available. And a public area for re-caps that the players can access. However that is because I do not mind writing it out extensively. Other DM's might not feel the same way. Remember it is an optional thing a DM, or perhaps another player, could do for the group.
My players seem to be pretty good at remembering key details, but as Vedexent said in the second post, a quick recap from the DM at the start is helpful to get everyone back in the game a bit more quickly.
If it hasn't been too long since the last session, I invite one of the group to summarise what happened last time out. There might be something the players interpreted differently to what I had in mind that I can run with.
It's fairly commonplace to keep character sheets for everyone, those can easily get lost! But everything else: equipment, money, artifacts, EXP etc. is really up to the players as there's no way I can keep a note of all of that and run the game. I take it on trust that they won't add an extra 100gp!
Sir, the possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1!
Never tell me the DC.
It all depends whether you want a diagnostic tool ( What do my Players know and believe? ), or an educational tool ( Here's what the DM thinks is going on. ) - although I agree that the Player summary is probably the better default unless you feel the Party is starting to flounder ( not go off the track you expected, but stall out ) and you want to subtly correct some misunderstandings or give them a subtle nudge.
As for keeping a Character sheet, that's one benefit of having all my Campaigns on DnD Beyond - I have real time access to their Character sheets at any time.
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.
I've made classes, subclasses and races. I've also done some homebrew mechanics, although my players don't typically remember them, even when their on a google doc they can check out any time.
I like publishing homebrew anyways though, its always fun if someone else uses your creations.
Also known as CrafterB and DankMemer.
Here, have some homebrew classes! Subclasses to? Why not races. Feats, feats as well. I have a lot of magic items. Lastly I got monsters, fun, fun times.
The only notes I keep that are for the players is a list of the names of people they have interacted with with 4 or 5 words as a breif decription (i.e. 'Elf shopkeeper from Waterdeep). I don't know how much they use that in session but I know at least one player uses it to make sure that they got the NPC names correct in their notes.