I'm curious as to how people keep track of their campaign info. 

I'm only playing my first one and we have use both Todoist and then SharePoint to keep track of NPCs, quests, random information and rumors, distribute loot and that sort of thing.

Is this sort of thing common? Do the players do it or does the DM usually manage it? What other programs do people recommend?

My campaign uses chronica ventures. I’ve heard great things about world anvil.

Usually we players do it. DM has enough work. We track group gold, and then just worry about who is holding which items, in case it matters (like someone gets disintegrated or something). In our case a player, usually me 🙂, keeps up what happens in sessions by writing recaps. I figure it’s better to come from the player’s perspective, so DM doesn’t accidentally tip his hand about what’s happening, and give us information we didn’t actually get. And I’d rather let him work on the next session than spend time on the last session.

I use World Anvil. But it costs a small sub fee to get the full features. I find it worth while, but not everyone does.

I use Notion. It's free, and Sly Flourish has a great video explaining it and even a template to get started.

I used (paid) World Anvil for a while and found the user interface to be cumbersome and occasionally not particularly intuitive, although it's been about a year and that may have changed/improved somewhat, YMMV. Now I use OneNote which has worked very well for me: quick creation of sections and pages, easy linking between content, free on Windows (not sure about MacOS) desktop and mobile versions, automatic synching between devices, etc.

I use Google drive. As a DM I have a folder created my players can all share, I put handouts etc in here. Each player then has a personal folder for there own use that I can give personal handouts in. One player maintains a spreadsheet of loot to be distributed and the contents of the 2 bags of holding the party has. I also post the player version of the journal in here, sanitized to remove all my notes. 

I then have my area in which I have a folder for each area of my world, then sub divided to folders as required. I keep lists of my NPCs in a spreadsheet. I have a folder in which I store lists of names, people, places, buildings, in case I need to create on the fly. This then gets populated into the relevant spreadsheet. 

I have a Google doc per encounter, might just be 2-3 bullet points and then as the players show me where they are going, what they are doing I will expand it out and turn it into a fleshed out encounter. 

I tried world anvil, couldn’t get on with it. I use the boat are for my maps. 

I use onenote. Used to put everything on notepad++ but OneNote proved the better choice for me. 

I have gone old school and I keep my notes in a hand written diary. I'm also keeping the campaign journal. I then write it up in Google Drive which is shared with the group (minus my personal notes)

I mostly use notebooks but i totally need a new system!

When I DM I keep a wiki going. It's fairly easy to maintain, easily linked (just double square bracket around anything that needs a page), and non-linear. Probably doesn't work for everyone, but is free and it works for me.

I haven't tried it as a player, but now that I'm thinking about it, I totally should.

https://tiddlywiki.com/ is probably the easiest way to set up a wiki.

Notion is really great for organizing with databases that link with each other, here is a template that has a bunch of features: https://minvarpg.com/products/lorekeeper-5e-notion-template

I keep track of my campaign with the use or Google Doc 

Gold and Loot are down to the party, I keep a rough eye on it via this place.

The rest of it I (mostly do via Foundry Journal/Quest Log which I find fantastic.  Again, player responsibility, but I keep an eye and clarify things if I feel it needs it - but that's kinda subject to what their character might know.

Foundry's also super useful for the world map, I've kinda gotten to the point where I've made a handout template and can put those together quickly + flavour text, which the party seem to quite like. Ex. Icewind Dale/Rime Campaign - each town (supplementary area) has a pin with notes attached (these develop as the party learns of things) that the players have constant access to and I can add pins in without the players being able to see them/reveal as and when necessary.

* There's some wonderful things that can be done with GIMP (free) (quickly), AI-art and I also use Dungeon Alchemist which is crazy for adding/making/taking screenshots (+video).  I'm kinda aiming for a Quest Log/world map in the style of the OG Baldur's Gate games + having a perpetual game online means the players can look at their leisure.  Again, it seems to work well and I get positive feedback on it. 

Interesting. I always just used pen and paper notes, but my memory used to be much better 30 years ago. 

I certainly find Map/Tags the easiest.

Sorry to prosetylise for one particular VTT - I'm sure you can do similar in all the (main) other VTT *ymmv etc.

Maps tags/pins where you (DM) have control over what's visible + players can access.  For me is optimal I can have a whole bunch of Notes (Personal) and some Notes (Public). 

I'll add stuff here + there as the party discovers it to spur them to actively use the Notes Section (set to Public) + depending on if I have free time/inclination - I might pad the player notes out for them with stuff like a Main Cast of NPCs in say - Bryn Shander with images + nice presentation OR use it to maybe clarify things like NPC names, details of the town, "flavour" and it really can be as basic as "The are 5 Orcs here" (set to Personal).  I do find setting it up like old school Baldur's Gate game with Pins easiest - but that's me, it helps me visualise the game.

I've added a calendar on one side of the screen that can expand with a rough timeframe of World Events that occur and I consult that in my session prep, stuff like "Barbarians soon, or White Dragon flies East to West (too high to attack)".  I had to learn word processing at school, but if you're using a paid VTT it'll most certainly have a notes section and you only need to get your head round finding and actively using that setting and I think it'd save any DM time IF using a VTT, as others have mentioned World Anvil (didn't personally get on with), there's plenty of software available.

- I'm not sure what the Collective Noun is but I'mma go with a "Camaraderie" of Nerds and we are Nerds on the internet, find the appropriate Discord and there'll be other Nerds desperate to show you just how much they know ;)

BUT I do have time on my hands and pre-made a bunch of image/page templates again, this is do-able in note form easily, it's just that visual style helps me "get into it" during prep.

Since I started the thread almost 2 years ago now, I've since switched to OneNote. Its pretty simple to use with lots of functionality, I believe it is Taking20 on YouTube that has a 30 some minute demo for how he uses it for his campaigns that is very useful.

I use it for personal notes, but I had one GM who was able to set some sort of Microsoft community where we could all have access to it, along with other (than OneNote) features.