Looking for ideas on how to make my campaign notes more efficient

[Ronnocius]

Hey everyone. I have always been curious about how the average Dungeon Master (so not Matt Mercer or Chris Perkins etc because while they are certainly renowned DMs I am mostly interested in how your average Dungeon Master would do it) takes notes - specifically worldbuilding notes.
Here is an example of my notes on a town I expected the adventurers to visit - these were created quite a while ago and updated after the party had visited there (and murdered the mayor).
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12wwPMQ7HC8D7-Vi5XleRnBIcXauKcFoUZVJPb0DM2sk/edit?usp=sharing

The formatting is a bit messy because I do not usually use Google Docs for my notes. I am mostly wondering if there is anything you have found useful to include that is missing or anything I am including that probably isn't the best use of my preparation time.

Thanks in advance for any advice you have to offer.

[Trustypeaches]

I use OneNote.

Easy to organize information about locations, characters, monsters, etc. into different section and pages.

Lore Pages:
https://i.imgur.com/C9jvLxm.png

Locations:
https://i.imgur.com/xX1DIpJ.png

NPCs & Monsters:
https://i.imgur.com/Jkl85NO.png

[Ronnocius]

I use OneNote.

Easy to organize information about locations, characters, monsters, etc. into different section and pages.

Lore Pages:
https://i.imgur.com/C9jvLxm.png

Locations:
https://i.imgur.com/xX1DIpJ.png

NPCs & Monsters:
https://i.imgur.com/Jkl85NO.png

I'll make sure to check it out, thanks for the tip.

[guachi]

We use One Note at work at the NSA. At home I use a combination of Word and Excel for D&D notes because I own Office.

[PhantomSoul]

For D&D I've started using bookdown since it works great for script integration (including reading all files in a folder and converting them to pages!), easy formatting, straightforward organisation, and simple hyperlinks. It's in markdown format overall, so there's a bit of adjustment, but then it gets really easy and you can expand your system as needed to include whatever you need, including interactive content (my notes are html files so I can have tables that I can filter or sort inside of a page). I wouldn't say it's what I'd recommend to the average DM just getting their feet wet, but it works great.

[Mercurias]

Whenever I’ve run a story, I jotted down notes in my tablet’s note program or a notepad, then copied those notes into Evernote and later google docs to keep organized.

[Metamorph]

We are also using OneNote.

I have a book for the campaigns with all informations my players gathered so far (they can read this one) and one book for me where I organize my ideas (my players don't see this one).

[ChildofLuthic]

So there's three things that I do differently than you that help me. First, I describe how places and people look before I describe anything else. This allows me to easily find the information the players are going to find out just by walking in/coming across that person. After that I put the information that has to be discovered or asked for. This works especially well for me because I really focus on how things look in order to get across the tone and theme.

Second, I very rarely write in complete sentences. Most of my place notes are just a laundry list of what's in the room. Most of my notes on people are very brief summaries on their life story, or what information they might bring up. This might not work for you, but it makes it easier for me to read it in a pinch.

Third, I put my notes on an NPC in their own paragraph, rather than with the place.

For example, if I were to include the Four Coppers Tavern in my game, my notes would probably say:

Four Copper Tavern
Worn down tables and chairs, smell of sweat and slightly expired mead, urchins, criminals, fishmongers, mercenaries. Customers either keep to themselves or try to sell their wares. Food/drink regular price, but low quality.

Barkeep is Eviscerat, dwarf woman, one eye, one arm. Will not small talk.

[Theodoxus]

I've been using Homebrewery. I'll copy sections from pdf adventures and using Markdown, format them for how I want to use them. This lets me change town names, gods, NPCs, as well as format DM flavor text into conversation text with their own boxes. It's far superior to trying to rescript a module on the fly...

(I was running one of the AL adventures that were put out for Out of the Abyss, and the players ran across a tiefling boy... only I didn't have tieflings in my world at the time, and my players were all "what's a tiefling". So, I had to create an explanation on the fly as to where this demonic child had come from...)

Also, trying to remember the name substitutions week to week sucks... With the copied/modified pdf, I can do a quick substitution and forget about it.

I hadn't thought about using OneNote... I'll check that out.

[Zhorn]

Another vote for OneNote. While I say I bought a copy of Office for using word/excel and stuff for work and uni, deep down I know the truth that I wanted OneNote for my d&d prep.

Also migrating my nc and encounter notes to an index card system for when at the table (plus for handouts and stuff). Do lots of my general prep in OneNote for the organisation, but when I get to the table, I want to have everything in shorthand, dot point. Idea being prep for a specific session shouldn't be over the top. General prep, world building, sure, but not the notes for play, keep those brief.

[thomaszwanzinge]

I have been using excel mostly, and Word.

Excel for structure information on locations, NPCs, Random Tables etc. I like it because I can get a lot of information layed out in a simple way. I use a sheet for each location and use rows for each room or NPC in a town etc.

Word I use for less structured thoughts like One-Shot ideas or Documents to hand out to the players e.g. "Diaries" or "Letters".

[Laserlight]

In the sense of "what information do you actually need to keep", see [URL="https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37916/roleplaying-games/universal-npc-roleplaying-template"The Universal NPC Template[/URL] from The Alexandrian

I generally just put everything in a word processor document. My players generally don't keep track of things and go haring off in odd directions when given the slightest chance, so there's not much point in doing a lot of prep. A couple of years ago I carefully designed a home base for the campaign, a city with internal walls separating the various districts, defined government bodies and their powers, all the major spell casters, the main temples, etc. The players got themselves exiled within a couple of sessions.

[DrowPiratRobrts]

I use Evernote because I like the app. OneNote is also great. I'd highly recommend either of these. Evernote is free though, so that's a plus. Not sure if OneNote has a free version now, but they didn't a long time ago. I had it with Office 2010, but then I discovered Evernote and liked it a little better.

As far as layout goes, I have one master notebook with different sections. Here's some examples of how I organize. If this is overwhelming to you, keep in mind that I've been compiling things for years. I work on this stuff even when I'm not actively DMing. I'm constantly adding and tweaking over time, so don't think you need to do something like this in one sitting. It's not realistic and it becomes discouraging. Just take your time and implement things like this slowly as ideas come to you. You also don't have to do nearly this much if you're running a published module. I know it's a lot but I hope it's helpful:

-Session 0: Everything I need to run a session for players who have never played. We've created characters before this session, so this serves as a way to get the party talking about how they met/why they're a party. It also has some basic encounters that teach about different types of rules (attack roles, initiative, skill checks, death saves, etc.). I have several questions I've collected over the years to ask players individually or the party as a whole so they can start forming their collective identity.

-Session 1: I usually have this pretty well planned out. I want to be as prepared as possible for the opening of the story and the adventure hook. I write out several paragraphs of information, some of which I'll likely read aloud.

-Session X: I briefly note what's happening (as a reminder to me) and provide a short list of potential encounters and routes the players might take. This is substantially less than Sessions 1 or 0 because players end up baffling me with their decisions so often and I have to immediately go off script. I love that though, so I've learned not to put too much effort into planning things out encounter by encounter.

-NPCs: This is where I write about all my NPCs, especially more important ones. Even shopkeepers often have a little info. in here though. This is how I manage to DM in a more freeform style. If I know the characters in the world and their motivations, it's not that hard to figure out how they'd respond to any number of circumstances (threats, bribes, persuasions, criminal activity, goblin attacks, theft, etc.).

-Places: Sometimes I'll actually group NPCs inside this tab. I write about cities, dungeons, temples, castles, farms, etc. that the party is encountering/may encounter in the future. I think about some foundational aspects such as population, politics, law & order, threats, goals, and the like. I don't usually go too deep here, but I like to know what can be found in a place and the sorts of people that are there. This in turn makes it easier to create NPCs on the spot if there's something I've overlooked that the party is interested in, and there often is.

-Magic Item Shop: I like to keep a running list of fun and/or powerful magic items. The party may encounter a shop with these things in it at some point. They don't always have access to them, but as I hear of magic items I just price them and add them to one master list so I've always got it ready for any campaign.

-PCs: Here's where I write out any relevant information from the party character sheets. I usually keep those anyway so nobody forgets to bring it, but it's nice to have the important bits in one place. These are things like backstory elements I want to play with, player class abilities (especially unique or powerful ones), spells known, etc.

-Encounter ideas: As I come up with ideas for encounters I put them here for future use. That way I've got them written down and I can start thinking about how to incorporate them into current campaigns or future ones. I also copy good ones I find on the internet and put them here.

-Plot ideas: Similar to Encounters, but these are big ideas for the campaign. This tab includes things that powerful NPCs are doing, places I might want to take the players with a hook, large quests I might dangle in front of them, large adventure arcs that fit within the campaign but last for several sessions. An example would be a several session arc where the players arrive at an enchanted map with models that look like them. As they ponder the board, they get sucked into the pieces like Jumanji or something, but then they realize that they're not inside their character's piece. Time to switch character sheets with your neighbor for the next 4 sessions! Muahahahahahaha! I don't usually record specific details much more than that unless it's to bullet list encounters under and adventure arc.

-Campaign Notes: Here I just briefly summarize what happens each session. I'm talking brief. Since I'm the DM I know what's important, so I just take note of those things.

-D&D Funny: This is where I keep all the most dangerous D&D memes I find on the internets.

-Homebrewery: This is where I make stuff up or store other people's homebrew content that they've published.

-Setting: This is where I write out different world/adventure settings.

[DrowPiratRobrts]

Also migrating my nc and encounter notes to an index card system for when at the table (plus for handouts and stuff). Do lots of my general prep in OneNote for the organisation, but when I get to the table, I want to have everything in shorthand, dot point. Idea being prep for a specific session shouldn't be over the top. General prep, world building, sure, but not the notes for play, keep those brief.

This is another very important aspect of how I use all that info. I listed above. I absolutely rely on note cards and a couple of loose sheets of paper for each session. I have my computer open and my adventure book there if I'm using one, but ideally I won't need to use those except in the most particular reference cases. I summarize all that I can about the current place on a sheet of paper, put a list of current NPCs in the proximity on another, and I'll draw a map if appropriate to give to the players. Then I use notecards for monsters and initiative. Beyond that I don't typically need anything, unless we have to look something up like an obscure rule or spell.

[TheDungeonTomb]

I use OneNote.

Easy to organize information about locations, characters, monsters, etc. into different section and pages.

Lore Pages:
https://i.imgur.com/C9jvLxm.png

Locations:
https://i.imgur.com/xX1DIpJ.png

NPCs & Monsters:
https://i.imgur.com/Jkl85NO.png


how did you get ononote to add pictures to the new page section to the left side ? and i sent you a PM Message

[Oramac]

I use a combination of google docs, gmbinder, and world anvil.

Google Docs: this is for my location notes and stuff I'm likely to need mid-session. See my town description here (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Lxu8EJkDY3TxRjbf3J7MT291NdAw1Q467fQ1VYrcEN8/edit?usp=sharing).

GMBinder: This I use specifically for taking notes during the game. And for writing homebrew, but that's a whole different topic. For the context of the OP, it's just a note-taking tool.

World Anvil: This is pure world-building. It's amazing for keeping the whole damn world really well organized and makes it easy to find obscure or rarely used info quickly. I've got well over 30,000 words written for my homebrew world on world anvil, and no plans to stop any time soon.

[Mastikator]

I second World Anvil. If you're world building and/or designing large campaigns then it's a must. The benefit here is that you can link everything together and you can decide what is DM visible and what is player visible, so you can actually link it to the players for when they become interested in the lore/world/cities/options/etc.

[Martin Greywolf]

I recommend notion (https://www.notion.so/). If you're willing to put in a bit of time to learn it, you can fairly easily create an interconnected custom set of tables and databases and whatnot for all the stuff you need. The best bit about it is that, since it has nothing to do with TTRPGs, it's entirely system-agnostic, and doesn't force you to fill out things you don't need or want.

As a result, you need a bit more time to set it up, and need to put thoughts into how to organize your things, but that;s not necessarily a bad thing to think about.

[ScoutTrooper]

Things to be shared with players - Google Docs
Established Lore for Referencing - OneNote
Day&time Tracking/ On-going status tracking - old fashion notebook

[Peelee]

The Mod on the Silver Mountain: Multi-year gaps in conversation are not more efficient.