As we all know, YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT.
Since I think time records are really just an aspect of keeping notes, I would expand this maxim to YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF NOTES ARE NOT KEPT. One of the most important things that a DM does is to keep notes during play and reflect on them in between sessions as a form of homework. Indeed, this may be the most important thing to do to keep a long-term campaign going, beyond the really basic stuff (like showing up).
I am curious about others' note-taking practices. For my own part I have never made a science out of it - my notes are just jotted down in a notepad whenever it feels like something is important to remember. This could be an NPC's name and motivation, a running tally of character XP and HP levels (I usually periodically note these down, perhaps once or twice a session), an event, a reminder to myself that such-and-such an ocurrence is happening 'off camera', the current date in-universe (I tend by default to start each campaign on 1st April and then keep a count, so that I know that at the moment it is Day 134, or whatever, and can extrapolate from there to an actual calendar date), occasionally something funny or remarkable which somebody has said.
What I typically then do, in advance of each session, is review the notes from the previous week (sometimes of the couple of weeks before that) and refresh my memory, then add some supplementary notes about where things might go in the session that is upcoming. So I might recall that, oh yes, Baron Blueflame has decided he wants to kill one of the PCs and steal his magic battleaxe, and is plotting to do so with the Gurning Goblins of Mount Gababababab, and so I make some notes about how that plot is advancing.
This has the very important practical effect of helping my poor, tired, derelict shell of a mind to retain some thin fragments of information, as otherwise it could get rather messy. ('What? We're playing D&D? Is it time for tea yet? It's egg and chips on a Wednesday. What, today's Thursday??')
But it also helps maintain the necessary fiction that the campaign is living and breathing and not merely set in aspic. What I have noticed is that, when I have properly done my homework, read through last week's notes, and put time and effort into thinking about what everything means, the next session starts with high levels of energy and focus, and goes well. If on the other hand I have not had much time and have just glanced at things 10 minutes before the session, there is more of a sense of slackness about things.
Share your own note-taking practices in the comments!
Note-taking is critical, and the games I run truly benefit from it, but my execution is inconsistent. The problems I have are a) not wanting to interrupt play and b) not keeping my notes organized. I start writing notes in different notebooks, index cards, scraps of paper, and sometimes I lose them. I need to structure the way I take notes so I can use them more effectively after the session ends.
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm really on top of things, I convert the notes into a session report that night or the following day, which works well as a recap for players and GMs alike.
Having one notebook definitely helps, but I also have a tendency to use scraps of paper too, which get mixed up or lost. I don't think it interrupts play too much though - I usually just tell the players 'Let me make a note of this' and quickly jot something down, and that seems to be fine.
DeleteAs I run games online using Google Slides, I just straight up take notes right in front of the players on the slides about what is currently happening. They don't have to be brilliant, and sometimes (for example, if I have a toddler on my lap) I delegate the note-writing to one of the palyers.
ReplyDeleteI do also have a "secret notes" document, not visible to players, but I find that less and less goes in there - I'm a big fan of McDowall's ICI and the idea of giving the players more information rather than less.
Yeah, I often scrawl things in front of the players too if we're in the same physical space or on an online whiteboard or whatever if possible.
DeleteI scratch down notes on whatever paper is handy - loose leaf paper usually, to be stored in a binder for the campaign. Usually I'm doing that in the time when the players are discussing/arguing/looking something up.
ReplyDeleteI'll definitely review them if I need to, but usually the act of writing it down sticks it in my head and if the rhythm of sessions is good, I don't have to refer to them very often.
Maybe you're not as old and drink-addled as me. ;)
DeleteI usually print my session material on paper and make notes there. If it's a commercial module, I'll take notes on scrap paper. After the session, I may or may not jot some of the stuff down in my Obsidian mobile app — it syncs up so I can later work on it on my laptop. I very, very rarely write down any PC stats like XP. It's a low maintenance West Marches game, after all.
ReplyDeleteIs the Obsidian app worth having?
DeleteI'm running from a laptop[1], and take probably too many notes in a GoogleDoc as we play. A day or three later I read over these to get the XP totals, make sure I've updated the notes on adventure sites they might have disrupted or settlements they'd interacted with, and then type up a more complete-sentences written session summary.
ReplyDeleteTwo spreadsheets: one for XP per-character, the other a calendar tracking party actions but also with weather, moon phases, other major events in the region noted, future events pencilled in.
[1] we're mostly face-to-face in London but in a room with a big screen that I can use for displaying images or maps, and occasionally my players will join remotely when they're a bit ill or travelling in a compatible timezone.
'Too many' notes may be a good thing as it probably helps internalise/memorise things?
DeleteI don't have *data* (yet) but I've started wondering whether it's slowing play? And we're playing 5e; I want to speed things up this year. 400-600 words of raw notes for a 2-hour session with 3-6 players.
DeleteI tend to take notes in Obsidian when playing online. When playing in person, I generally don't want to have a screen in front of me. I just take notes on a sheet that I keep with my character sheet. I'll add pages as needed. But I agree wholeheartedly - notes are a critical part of immersing myself in the world.
ReplyDeleteDon't know if this helps, but I will put my hat into the ring.
ReplyDeleteThe first big piece of notetaking is to read the damn module/adventure/campaign etc. I know a lot of folk just run their own stuff and that's great, however I like the feeling of being a cast and crew doing what they want with a screenplay, with the intended play's vision being wildly different to what we put on. Another reason is I fear my players can read my own mind and know what's up or what to do when it is my own stuff, so having a secondary person, so to speak, giving ideas makes me breath easier.
Print the module out and write in the margins or get some paper, any size, line, scrap and put that in the book and write there. Keep those notes in the back of the book or in a paperclip.
One criticism of mainstream publishing, and my experience mostly comes from R. Talsorian and Chaosium, so small compared to the big guys, is that they write modules as if they are speaking to someone whose never run a rpg before, which is good, because everything is someone's first time, however, it gets exhausting when the module tries to cover every possibility on what the players might do.
Before game, read notes and re-read the module, try to make sure you only read the important parts for the game. If players are in the Cthulhu temple, then you don't need to re-read the stuff about the pub on the other side of town.
Other note taking/preparation advice, always take the choice where you have to do less work. Ambition is good. However, you are going to be hosting for a whole bunch of people with limited attention spans, going to have to act and make tactical choices as NPCs (Hence, there are ways of getting around it, but fundamentally NPCs are stupider than the PCs because the PCs have a whole person's brain behind them, while the NPCs only has a fraction of someone's brain behind them), and also know how the damn thing is played. So if you can cut down on labor, do it!
Here are my notes from my last Under Illefarn D&D session, a bit more detailed than I usually do but it established several major NPCs:
ReplyDeleteSession 21
4/4/331: Journey to Arrowood on a sunny day, meet Baroness Lyra and Thalia Hornthym the Druidess.
5/4/331: Enter the Twisted Wreath, close the Necrotic Rift. Celebrate that night at Castle Arrowood.
The Grove Spirit had been turned undead by a Necrotic Energy Rift & the death of her home tree, the result of a failed ritual by some priests of Silvanus. Ax was able to get her to fight the evil inside her while Gorim closed the Dimensional Rift using Turn Undead. With the Rift closed her goodly nature reasserted itself, though she remains undead. While this was going on Little Fang found a handsome Wild Elf warrior, Malethil, lying wounded beneath a tree in the Wreath, and tended to his wounds. He's very grateful.
6/4/331: Return to Daggerford. 8 days downtime. Ax seeks to recruit crew for his ship, the Fortune's Favour.
15/4/331: Planned diplomatic expedition to Illefarn.
I would never take notes during play, other than monster hit point tallies sort of mechanical stuff. I usually write a few lines that evening to summarise what happened. Sometimes players write detailed accounts.
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