How can I organize my DM notes in such a way that I have access to necessary information but not too much?
I have a lot of things I need to keep track of for a game: NPCs, monsters, the different cities in the world, the lore and history of the world...
Of course, I'm unlikely to need to know the name of the mayor of a town across the world from where my party is currently staying, but I don't know exactly what I will need; there are different establishments in each town, each with an established NPC that I have notes written down on (including reminders on details such as what accent I used).
How can I organize my DM notes in such a way that I'm not overloaded with information I don't need at the moment, such as excessive lore, while still having easy access to the lore and details that I need when it becomes necessary?
I've tried using a single document for all of my notes; 35,000+ characters later I'm realizing it's getting hard to manage and find information easily. What other methods can I use?
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This is a great application for a wiki!
Any wiki will do, but I especially recommend one in which you can offer logins for your players so that you can classify information for yourself, for the players en masse, and for each player individually.
The categorization features of a wiki are important, but not as important as good full-text search.
I like Dokuwiki myself. I put different versions of maps up for my own reference and for players. NPC lists, economic notes, geopolitical features... If you play the sort of game where players journal their accomplishments, it's a good place for them to store that.
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I recommend Joplin
Joplin is a note-taking program that allows you to sort notes into notebooks (which you can nest), individual notes, and to-do lists, letting you can organize your notes like this:
- My campaign (Notebook)
- World (Notebook)
- Summaries (Notebook)
- Session Recaps (Notebook)
- Session 1 (Note)
- Session Recaps (Notebook)
- Plans (Notebook)
- Session 2 (Note)
- Places (Notebook)
- Kingdoms (Notebook)
- Cities (Notebook)
- City 1 (Notebook)
- Quests (To-do list)
- People (Notebook)
- Mayor (Note)
- Mayor's Spouse (Note)
- Local gossip (Note)
- Map (Note)
- City 2 (Notebook)
- Quests (To-do list)
- etc.
- City 1 (Notebook)
- Cities (Notebook)
- Kingdoms (Notebook)
- Summaries (Notebook)
- World (Notebook)
Reasons I like it:
- It supports markdown for formatting (it does have a basic rich text editor as well)
- It can make a temporary file you can edit with any editor you want (and can even open that file in your editor of choice with a button)
- It has a system of tags for notes
- It can sync to OneDrive, DropBox, NextCloud, and more.
- It supports end-to-end encryption if you want to keep your synced notes private
- It allows you to export your notes in various formats including .json, .pdf, .md, and .html
- It allows you to embed pictures, PDFs, and more into your notes
- It allows you to make hyperlinks to other notes (see here: https://discourse.joplinapp.org/t/can-i-link-between-notes/49)
- It has plugins for things like note templates, tabs of notes (which you can pin for quick access), tables, and more
- It has "Go to anything" - essentially a search feature for all your notes, everywhere, all at once.
It also has an app for android and iOS, though I've not used it myself.
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I almost never use computerized tools for gaming, instead favouring a variety of note-taking that is nowadays called "bullet journalling" (though the technique long predates the popularization of that term). A brief summary (you'll have to dig up "bullet journal" on a search for full details) follows.
Equipment: notebook (make it cheap and nasty if you like, or horrendously expensive and fancy—whichever suits your fancy!), and writing implement(s). Optionally a collection of unobtrusive paperclips or things like so-called "book darts" can be useful.
- Open your notebook to the first page. Number that page "1" if you're using an unnumbered notebook. On that page write "Contents" at the top and put down a bullet point.
- Turn to page 2. Number it if necessary. Write down a title for the contents on that page. Put that title next to the bullet point on page 1, along with a page number. Add a new bullet point. Start filling in your content. (Keep numbering your pages as you write if you're using a plain notebook.)
- As you find new things to write about, put the title next to the current bullet point, along with the page number, until you fill the content page. The last content bullet point should be some form of "continued on..." marker with a page number where you start a new content page. (If you use book darts, or some such, I'd recommend marking your "Contents" pages for rapid access. If you have colour-coded markers, the additional ability to identify things by type of content is helpful, but can start getting distracting.)
What you have in the end is what amounts to a linked list of content pages (which you can rapidly flip through if marked conveniently) to locate your content each referencing detailed information that you provide for your game. Because you tend to document things at need, related information tends to be grouped together under the same Contents pages making localized access quicker as well, while keeping "distant" information still in accessible and readily locatable space.
There's as many approaches to bullet journaling as there are people who use it, so be sure to look around. You can even get books specifically made for it (though I personally find that a bit weird).
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This depends heavily on how you are running the game.
For a sandbox I just had each location in its own folder on my computer, with a map or the original adventure I used for that location there, and then a text file with notes and changes, and another for random encounters.
Cities had a rumour table, too.
Folders on a computer have a natural hierarchy, which makes this fairly reasonable approach.
While in case of Apocalypse world you would organize your game in terms of fronts, and in case of Sorcerer you would have the diagrams and those would be renewed when new kickers would be created, creating an episodic structure where only that stuff which is in focus in this story is considered in detail.
There is no general solution. You may want to specify what kind of game you are running and how you are structuring it (sandbox, railroad/flowchart, relationship map, etc.) and then we can help more.
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