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Ozreth
Learned Scribe
188 Posts |
 Posted - 12 Oct 2012 : 02:38:25
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When you are reading material for the next session, or planning a campaign arc, or just jotting down some info about a certain orc clan, how do you do it? Notebook? Sticky pad? notecards? Computer? Hands and feet?
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31726 Posts |
Posted - 12 Oct 2012 : 02:54:42
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Primarily, pen/pencil-and-paper and/or notebooks. Volumes and volumes of notebooks of Realms notes stretching back to the early 90's.
In more recent times, however, I've taken to also having notes jotted down on either SagePhone or SagePad, depending on what's handy at the time.
Otherwise, and this has only been done in desperation because I haven't had anywhere else to record the good ideas/notes I've had at the time, I've scribbled them down on napkins, bookmarks, or scrap pieces of paper. And, once or twice, the actual table-top! [Needless to say, the Lady K wasn't exactly happy with that development.  ] |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Ozreth
Learned Scribe
188 Posts |
Posted - 12 Oct 2012 : 03:09:40
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| How are all of those notes organized? |
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Sightless
Senior Scribe
USA
608 Posts |
Posted - 12 Oct 2012 : 04:37:31
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| I tape record first, since most of my stuff is eletronic in format, it's easy to have my tape recorder hand, it's a walkman sized device, with a large speaker for recording and it works real well. Then if it's something I need that listening to a tape recorder wont be useful, like when I was actually at the gaming table, then I'd brail it, I have a brail type writer. these notes are in three ring binders, by subject, such as Orc clan, or dark elves, etc. I don't keep a lot of brail notes, because it's easy for them to be crushed, the print that is, and so I'm more selctive on what I brail. Some stuff I memorize, when I can, I'm pretty good at that. I have lots of tapes though, lots and lots of tapes. |
We choose to live a lie, when we see with, & not through the eye.
Every decision, no matter the evidence, is a leap of faith; if it were not, then it wouldn't be a choice at all. |
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Hoondatha
Great Reader
USA
2449 Posts |
Posted - 12 Oct 2012 : 14:22:10
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I type faster than I write, so when I need to take notes of what's happening, or going to happen in my campaign, or nasty tricks I want to pull on my PC's, I'll write it in a word processing document. Normally there's one big doc for the entire campaign, with subheadings to keep things organized, but if one particular area gets to be really important, I might split it out into a separate doc.
Since the only game I'm DM'ing right now is pbp, I'll sometimes use excel spreadsheets to track battles with multiple foes. That gives me an easy way to figure out who has how many HP, what spells they have left, and their combat stats (THAC0, AC, Init, things like that).
All of these documents are stored in a single folder, with the name of the game (or the character, if I'm the player), and all of my game doc folders are likewise stored in a single folder, so I only have one place to go looking. |
Doggedly converting 3e back to what D&D should be...
Sigh... And now 4e as well. |
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Eilserus
Master of Realmslore
USA
1446 Posts |
Posted - 12 Oct 2012 : 15:27:36
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| Mechanical lead pencil and paper for alot of things. within the last year or so i finally got into using MS Word as I can type way faster than I can write. Organization wise I'm not the best with as I have things dating back to 1995 or so written down. Typically, I use 2 old school boxed sets I just take the books out of and put all the loose papers in to keep them in one place. For adventures, I type them out, print them, then mark them up as we play. Most of my stuff that I do have organized is in MS Word or PDF format in various folders. |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31726 Posts |
Posted - 12 Oct 2012 : 16:13:02
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quote:
Originally posted by Ozreth
How are all of those notes organized?
Organised? Hehe.
I stopped trying to organise my notes about ten years ago. When you reach the point of having about twenty or so notebooks of compiled Realms-campaign notes and ideas, it becomes somewhat difficult to keep any kind of coherent system of organisation for them.
At most, I'd say that I try to keep certain notebooks for specific parts of my Realmslore. Notebooks specifically set aside for NPC notes and developmental ideas, while other books are designed almost exclusively for histories/current-clack material for various countries and cities that feature in my campaigns. The rest function as "miscellaneous" tomes which pretty much feature ideas and notes as they occur to me -- mostly in jumbled order, if you can call it as such. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
http://www.candlekeep.com -- Candlekeep Forum Code of Conduct
Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4687 Posts |
Posted - 12 Oct 2012 : 16:24:09
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| Envelopes and pen sorted poorly, but find them when I need them, most of the time. |
"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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xedrick
Seeker
82 Posts |
Posted - 19 Oct 2012 : 21:08:53
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MS word!
I've got OCR digital copies of all of the books that I own, so I use copy and paste a LOT. In fact, it's a rare occasion that I ever have to crack open a book at the gaming table, because everything I need for the week is included in my prepared notes.
I've got a handful of binders that contain notes. I write my game week to week, and once we get to a new 'chapter,' I take the old notes and pile them into a larger binder on my bookshelf.
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Derulbaskul
Senior Scribe
Singapore
408 Posts |
Posted - 21 Oct 2012 : 13:40:21
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Once I am running a campaign, I go to obsidianportal.com and set up a campaign-specific wiki and use that for the bulk of my notes. For brainstorming, these days I typically use one of my blogs.
Ultimately, everything ends up where it has ended up for the past 15 or so years: in a Word document. That way I can always search for something I have written or copied before simply by using the search function in Windows. Fortunately, I have practically all the FR books as OCR-ed PDFs so I can also search them the same way.
Like the poster above, I type faster than I write so I would never go back to pencil and paper again plus, as the Sage's post shows, there is no simple way of searching for keywords when your source material is all handwritten. |
Cheers
D
NB: Please remember: A cannon is a big gun. Canon is what we discuss here. |
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Varl
Learned Scribe
USA
284 Posts |
Posted - 22 Oct 2012 : 22:03:20
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quote:
Originally posted by xedrick
MS word!
Word for MS Word!
I have a file folder structure specifically set up to cover all manner of topics, both for the Realms and for AD&D. I'm in the process now of compiling repetitive documents I've collected over the years into a few (spells documents for example with one spell in them, etc.). |
I'm on a permanent vacation to the soul. -Tash Sultana |
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Andrekan
Seeker
65 Posts |
Posted - 25 Oct 2012 : 03:50:17
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| Write down important Names, Places, Years, Items, and Events. Then I make sure I know the History of the area People, Customs, majority Religious respects and important Power Groups or possible intrigues outside the scope of game objective ( a lot happens in the Realms). Make up some Wandering Inhabitance charts and draw some speculative maps. I also like to make a list of important NPC Names and Places (this is where a few spaces in a notebook come in so I can make note on how I ended up playing the NPC). I also like to use particular voices and characteristics for the important folk. After 35 years of this, one can develop some great styles of Game generation, I try to keep things fresh so as not to become predictable with my Game Crafting. The Players will show or tell you the way to go in the end. |
"Those two talk only of drink, riches, women, brawling, and magic, so ye've a one in five chance..." Quote from "Elminster in Hell" |
Edited by - Andrekan on 25 Oct 2012 03:53:28 |
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xedrick
Seeker
82 Posts |
Posted - 25 Oct 2012 : 07:54:28
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| Obsidianportal.com is a GREAT idea!!! Thank you, Derulbaskul! |
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JohnLynch
Learned Scribe
Australia
243 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2012 : 06:46:23
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quote:
Originally posted by xedrick
Obsidianportal.com is a GREAT idea!!! Thank you, Derulbaskul!
I've installed WAMP and media wiki on my personal computer. I can take regular backups and I feel more comfortable knowing the data is with me in a portable format.
So to answer the original question, I use a wiki. I use it for world building (documenting what I learn of the Forgotten Realms as I read sourcebooks, website articles and forum posts. Furthermore I also use it for a collection of my ideas expanding on the source material). I also use it for campaign and adventure ideas (campaigns typically get "backstory" section and then turn into a series of adventures with notes on how to connect each adventure together when appropriate).
I was using Word Documents for campaigns and leaving the wiki for world building only. However I'm developing one campaign at the moment where I have an ever growing mountain of information. As such I've moved it to the wiki for easier sorting and reading.
That said, not all of my notes are appropriate as a wiki. For example I've got a table that I'm using to document which eras the gods were active in as a quick cheat sheet. As such that will remain a word document. Also potential player handouts typically stay in word documents. |
DM of the Realms: A blog for my Forgotten Realms adventures. |
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Derulbaskul
Senior Scribe
Singapore
408 Posts |
Posted - 27 Oct 2012 : 11:25:56
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quote:
Originally posted by xedrick
Obsidianportal.com is a GREAT idea!!! Thank you, Derulbaskul!
You're welcome. It's seriously brilliant. I wish I had an offline version of it also. |
Cheers
D
NB: Please remember: A cannon is a big gun. Canon is what we discuss here. |
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Cbad285
Learned Scribe
160 Posts |
Posted - 30 Oct 2012 : 06:41:11
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| Composition books...lots of composition books. And lots of pens. |
"Beware the Dream Fever!" |
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Vaeldroth
Acolyte
USA
25 Posts |
Posted - 13 Nov 2012 : 09:20:06
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| I use a Powerbook 160 with a program called DM Screen 1.1. It's an old program, but does the job admirably. It has something that lets you create your own sort of calendar/day logs so you can track what's happening on what day in-game. |
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Halidan
Senior Scribe
USA
470 Posts |
Posted - 13 Nov 2012 : 18:57:32
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My overall FR organization system probably looks a lot like Ed's - page after page of odd notes, written on whatever is handy atthe time - including menu's, back pages of my current day-by-day cat calender, and even a few actual notebooks shoved into magazine boxes.
For the curent campaign, I'll have all my notes and pages on the starter town or village, and a good description of the types of characters I will ask my players to create. This can be as detailed as telling them they have to make a character who works in a traveling sideshow or is a slave in an orc camp, to as general as each player must be from the Daggerdale region or that each player must know at least two others in the group.
Once the characters are finished, I'll fit them in the starter adventure. My starter adventurers are short (usually no more than 2 4-5 hour sessions) and often have nothing to do with the main campaign arc. They're just a chance to work out any bugs in the initial charecters, start the inter-party emotions, gain a little local reputation and maybe a bit of loot. I'll often choose a section of a longer published adventurer that I really like and use it without anything else from that module.
After that, I try and keep a timeleine going - at least for the bad guys. I use 8 1/2" by 11" calender pages, noting different events in different colors. Actions for the bad guys go in red, weather in green, festivales and local happenings in blue, purple for when PC's are contactted by NPC's, and PC actions in orange. This stays behind my screen and is updated as we play. It's a very easy way for knowing when the PC's will get a reward for rescuing a merchants daughter or when villians raid a nearby town. This allows me to have a world that carries on - even without the PC's doing something I planned on them doing.
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"Over the Mountains
Of the Moon
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied,
"If you seek for Eldorado!"
Edgar Allen Poe - 1849 |
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Ozreth
Learned Scribe
188 Posts |
Posted - 15 Nov 2012 : 05:55:54
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quote:
Originally posted by Halidan
My overall FR organization system probably looks a lot like Ed's - page after page of odd notes, written on whatever is handy atthe time - including menu's, back pages of my current day-by-day cat calender, and even a few actual notebooks shoved into magazine boxes.
For the curent campaign, I'll have all my notes and pages on the starter town or village, and a good description of the types of characters I will ask my players to create. This can be as detailed as telling them they have to make a character who works in a traveling sideshow or is a slave in an orc camp, to as general as each player must be from the Daggerdale region or that each player must know at least two others in the group.
Once the characters are finished, I'll fit them in the starter adventure. My starter adventurers are short (usually no more than 2 4-5 hour sessions) and often have nothing to do with the main campaign arc. They're just a chance to work out any bugs in the initial charecters, start the inter-party emotions, gain a little local reputation and maybe a bit of loot. I'll often choose a section of a longer published adventurer that I really like and use it without anything else from that module.
After that, I try and keep a timeleine going - at least for the bad guys. I use 8 1/2" by 11" calender pages, noting different events in different colors. Actions for the bad guys go in red, weather in green, festivales and local happenings in blue, purple for when PC's are contactted by NPC's, and PC actions in orange. This stays behind my screen and is updated as we play. It's a very easy way for knowing when the PC's will get a reward for rescuing a merchants daughter or when villians raid a nearby town. This allows me to have a world that carries on - even without the PC's doing something I planned on them doing.
 Pics or it didn't happen |
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Yospeck
Acolyte
9 Posts |
Posted - 18 Nov 2012 : 15:21:22
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| I play VTT through Fantasy Grounds :D |
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How do you take notes for games when preparing?
