[1ed-3.5ed] How do the experienced DMs organize their games?

[newbDM]

Lately on this and other forums I have seen a number of people mention their notes, offer them up, and others asking for them. One person even mentioned having notes for a campaign/setting he has kept since 2nd edition (decades probably?). I have just read someone on here mention a "flow chart" (me dumbs, so not know what this be). This has all gotten me wondering how others organize their games, and how I can better organize mine. Maybe this will even preserve them for me.


So, can any of the pros here please give me some advice on how to organize and keep track of a game/adventure/campaign?

Can you please tell me how you do it?


p.s. Oh, and I am trying by best to be a DM who runs "sandbox games" where the world is much more "open", and is not a a-z dungeon like game. Sort of MMORPG style I guess. So I am not sure how this would affect things.

[Thane of Fife]

Perhaps the best way I can think of to help you would be to direct you towards the link in my signature. The advice given there tends to be of top quality, although it may be a bit overwhelming (it helps set a nice goal, though)

I recommend this one in particular.


To answer your question personally, though, I tend to use a three-ring binder, which I organize into sections based on faith, locations, npcs, etc. Generally, new monsters will get added into the section they're mot likely to feature in.

For example, my Althuan Archipelago setting basically consists of a few pages on gods, a few on empires, some notes on organizations and new monsters, a page on languages, one on each new race, and at least one page per major city (or, it will when I finish it). There's also a page that says "The Archipelago cannot be mapped - the fog makes it tricky, and the fact that some islands actually move around makes it impossible. It is only possible to find one's way between certain, major islands." This is my way of noting to myself that, if I need an island, I should add it in.

Were I to run a game here (which would certainly be nice, but is not necessary for me to enjoy making my setting), I would add pages in about plot hooks, current plots, important npcs, and so on.

A play-by-post game I'm currently DMing, on the other hand, has a Word Document on nations, a document/spreadsheet on deities, and a map. The rest I will manufacture as I need it.

[Lert, A.]

Lately on this and other forums I have seen a number of people mention their notes, offer them up, and others asking for them. One person even mentioned having notes for a campaign/setting he has kept since 2nd edition (decades probably?).

I've seen it myself. I usually don't hang on to notes for too long, but what I keep is:

1)event log - dear diary, today the PCs killed a shopkeeper and looted his store. A little silly considering that the shop owner came from a warrior culture and are now his tribe is obliged to avenge his blood.

2)houserules - if you decide to do something different from the rules in any way you mark it here (no "but last week you said it worked this way")

3)notable characters - can be relations to the PC's, kings, local sheriff, etc. Keep them around (with stats is best) so you can drop them in whenever you might need them.

4)enemies - you will want to pre-make enemies and encounters ahead of time. These can be the BBEG, random mooks, traps, etc.

I have just read someone on here mention a "flow chart" (me dumbs, so not know what this be).

You not has teh dumz, you just don't understand. Flow charts work like so:

-PC's meet man in bar with secret to tell. They <
- follow the man to a secret place to get the rest of the story.
- leave the bar to explore the caves outside of town
- kill the man and take his stuff

Each branch has its own sub-branch of possibilities. At some point you will encounter the "I kill him" possibility, so you might want to prepare alternate scenarios based on that.

p.s. Oh, and I am trying by best to be a DM who runs "sandbox games" where the world is much more "open", and is not a a-z dungeon like game. Sort of MMORPG style I guess. So I am not sure how this would affect things.

Not sure how much would change. If the PCs don't have a large effect on the world itself, you don't need as many notes in the event log or for notable characters.

Hope this helps.

[Return of Lanky]

I tend to keep a cue card handy. Every session, I allot myself that one cue card (and one cue card only) to summarize the events of the session. The card then gets filed with the rest of the cards. The cue card notes when the characters have gained a level, when they've gained a significant item, etc.

Basically, it allows me to go back and read through the entire campaign in an hour or two, or refresh my own memory. Notes on dungeon layout and such are transitory, though I've got about five or six binders full of old quests, complete with NPCS, that I keep meaning to scan and upload. Those binders are the second place I go to if I ever find I'm GMing at the last second, as I've got them seperated by quest.

I'd also recommend keeping cue cards handy for your PCs, notable NPCs, as well as for several recurring monsters.

Okay, I've got a cue card fetish. Sue me. They're dead useful, stand up to time and repeated use much better than paper and come in an ideal format for information storage. Combined with an extensive Microsoft Excel database, I've got everything I need at my fingertips.

[erikun]

I have a few links for you. (Not written by me.)

http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.ph...-west-marches/

West Marshes, and open game world that was apparent run through the internet. Basically, several different groups were ran in the same time frame, and actions from one group affected another.

It's probably a bit more ambitious than what you were going for, but there are lots of tips for creating an open-ended world. Like, making descriptions for different areas different, even if they are the same kind of terrain. (ie. The forest in the northern mountains probably look/sounds/feels different than the one in the west.) Write out the areas, but you don't need to put specific locales until you're ready for them. Each area has their own encounter table, with a little spill over.

http://www.errantdreams.com/static/rpg

BIG, long list of DM tools.

[valadil]

I'm pretty organized but still learning.

What I usually do is start with a notebook. NPCs go in the back, sorted by their affiliation. For my next game I'll be trying a box of index cards instead. I like having one card per NPC and having them sorted by color, but I'm not sure a 3x5 is enough space. On the inside of the cover I list each session as we play. They don't need a fancy title, just enough info to tell me what events happened and how much time was taken up. If I'm new to the system or if my players are using rules I'm not used to I summarize the rules I expect to look up in the first couple pages.

After that I start writing out ideas for plotlines. Each one is usually a paragraph long but I give it a whole page. I like coming up with plotlines long before the game starts. That way if I don't know what to do I can just pull one of these hooks and toss it to the players. I leave lots of extra room so that as the players progress I can note what they do and figure out where to go from there. Once I get backstories from the players I write out any plots that come from the players' hooks and see if any of those can be merged into the stories I have. I also see if any NPCs from the backstories can be merged together to give 2 PCs a common past. It'll look like there are a lot of coincidences, but that's only from a birds eye view. When the players encounter these one at a time they won't notice how many there are. They'll also miss half of them, so whatever.

Next I start writing sessions. I prepare the sessions one game in advance. I do a guided sandbox style game. The players are free to go where they want and they can shape the world, but I like to give them goals because they aren't always motivated enough for a sandbox to work. I'm happy to improvise, but I write up ideas for where I expect the players to go. Each session has page numbers for any monsters or other rules I'll be looking up. I don't usually write out full dungeons, but I'll draw a series of rooms and interconnect them on the fly. Recently I've also started writing out descriptions because I suck at improvising those. I estimate that each page I write is an hour of gameplay. Usually it doesn't work out quite like that (social interaction goes 3x as quick and combat is 3x as long as predicted) but 4-5 pages a session is usually more than enough, so that's what I aim for. So yeah, my sessions are a series of paragraphs explaining what I expect to happen. I'll write out an outline for a speech and improvise around that. What I write wouldn't explain anything to anyone reading the notes, it's just enough to keep me on task.

After each session I like to go through the plot pages that have been touched upon and write down how the PCs influenced them. I also go through the plots that are in motion but the PCs ignored and write down what happened without the PCs around. I'll write the session in the days leading up to the next game.

I've never used my DM screen for rules, but I like keeping lists of things on it. Male names, female names, family names, noble titles, tavern names, and town names are all there. I cross them off as I use them. I'm also experimenting with lists of traits for NPCs. It's recently come to my attention that I'm not a very good actor when it comes to NPCs. I try to play them all way too deep but since I'm always switching off I never get into the proper depth of character so they all come off as flat and uninteresting. What I'm doing to combat that is roleplaying them from the opposite approach. Each will get a nature and demeanor chosen from a list and I'll play those traits. I haven't done this yet so I can't comment on how well it works, but those lists were damn fun to come up with.

Also, since I moved characters to index cards I'll probably put plots in the back of the binder so they have more room to grow.

The only other noteworthy thing I've been doing is giving each player a folder for their character sheets. I also print out copies of their classes and PRCs and any maps they may have. They also get common knowledge pamphlets, which may or may not contradict each other. Yeah, I'm a jerk like that.

[Oracle_Hunter]

Laptops.

When I run a game, I have my laptop open (note: instant DM screen for notes) and all my game notes in various Word documents. I usually have my World Information, NPC List (list of NPCs by location, with a one-line description for each), The Adventure, and an Excel spreadsheet which lists my PCs Passives (yeah, it's 4e, but you can do the same with Spot/Listen), an initiative list, and a section for Monster HPs.

I can usually read 2 of them at a time, and I can tab through to the relevant document if need be. Plus, I can CTRL-F to locate entries rapidly. Best of all, when I name a new NPC, I can add him right to my NPC list and save it!

Woo technology!

[elliott20]

Because D&D itself requires a lot of general book keeping, I used to have this binder full of notes I typed up, and a notepad in there for notable actions, characters, places they come across. This is helpful for building the story off of them since they will have more empathic reaction to their own doings and it also means that they will in some way a direct impact on the game environment.

In notes section though, I try to have a couple template sheets for things like towns and NPC stats. Seeing as in most cases, most NPCs you won't see more of them than just the one function they serve, it saves a lot of time to have those template stats. A good rule of thumb for me is to just assume most people are level 1 commoners with 4 HP, no combat skills, and a +4 to whatever profession they choose. (with the occasional +6 for skill focus)

combat encounters i tend to keep a bit more notes but even then not that much more. because of the level of detail that is involved in D&D, this can easily be the most time consuming part of the prep work. you'll need to frame the encounter in a way that is interesting, but not impossible for the PCs to overcome and that can become a challenge.

the flow chart concept is not a bad one. it's basically a kind of pathway that the characters can pick and move down. The thing is though, there is a catch to it. the higher level the characters, the more options they'll have and the more likely they can take an option that you simply did not see.

[Raum]

Lately on this and other forums I have seen a number of people mention their notes, offer them up, and others asking for them. One person even mentioned having notes for a campaign/setting he has kept since 2nd edition (decades probably?). I have just read someone on here mention a "flow chart" (me dumbs, so not know what this be). This has all gotten me wondering how others organize their games, and how I can better organize mine. Maybe this will even preserve them for me.

Flow charts are essentially a series of if - then statements. A more formal definition is on Wikipedia.

So, can any of the pros here please give me some advice on how to organize and keep track of a game/adventure/campaign?

I used a pair of three ring binders for a long time, one for NPCs and one for plot information. These days I prefer a wiki. The wiki makes cross linking nonlinear information easy.

[potatocubed]

I have a two-ring binder.

Bascially, I write down everything that happens and the names of important NPCs, places, stuff like that, and stuff it in the binder. After some period of campaigning, the binder is now a chunk of setting. It's not very organised, but then again that's never been a problem for me.

[EvilElitest]

Damn this thread is tempting, i want to comment, but i don't have time for a massive thread.....oh well i'll come back later. Basically, i love sand box games and i tend to make big worlds with lots of different options
from
EE