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There are plenty of tools available to organize campaign notes. I've tried 4x6 cards, files on my computer, notebooks, and more. I have thought of trying mind mapping software such as FreeMind, note taking applications like Evernote, or even setting up a wiki somewhere. What tools (electronic or not) have you used that let you keep track of what has already happened in your campaign, including settings, events, NPCs, and PCs, as well as what you are planning for future sessions? |
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The original poster wasn't clear if this was designing a campaign or running live sessions with this tool... Assuming it was designing/planning, I'm co-authoring a campaign with my illustrator/daughter and we're using a hosted wiki (DokuWiki, to be exact). I like the ability to work asynchronously in parallel and I can write simple PHP plugins to add new tag-types for formatting - for example, I made a tag that translates phonetically-spelled text into a graphical font she created, including the ability to scale it. Was also working on an XSLT translator for the D&D Insider tool file formats... We haven't had our first play-test session yet, so I'll report back here after attempting to use it - though I'm expecting that the ability to create a page of links on demand will definitely help. We'll see... |
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I started with lots of notebooks like the ones I used in school. I graduated to using file cards in a box with pretty specific formatting -- consider it to be like a hand-maintained relational database. (Yes, it was as horrific as it sounds.) I then hacked together a database on Access along with a whole bunch of forms and queries. I switched over to a personal wiki running on my notebook computer. Now I use mind mappers like Freeplane. This is likely to be how I continue to do things for the foreseeable future. |
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This is a Mac-only approach.* I keep the entire campaign in a single OmniOutliner Pro document. I really enjoy OOP because I can lay out all of the notes for an upcoming game session, then as the play occurs in that session I can quickly add notes about what actually occurred. I can open and close the outline with as little or as much granularity as I like, and it's got lighting fast search, so if I'm trying to remember something that occurred a few sessions back, I can easily grab it. One thing I really like about OOP is the fact that I can create headings for things like random NPCs, found items, and even towns and villages. Later when the players run across one or more of those things, I can drag and drop them into the appropriate spot in the session notes. This eliminates redundancy and makes it really easy to keep my narrative together. OOP also allows for attaching of images, sound clips, and URLs. It can also export to a variety of formats including HTML. *Omni Group is coming out with an iPad version, which I can't wait to try. |
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I use an online mindmapper called MindMeister, especially when I am brainstorming. I've always liked mindmappers, and this one is:
So, I can get to it from wherever I am thinking about it. For free you get a limited number of maps. I also use the XMind mind mapper, which runs on your local PC and is much more featureful than MindMeister, and is also free. The big disadvantage is that it's not available online. My players keep in-character game blogs for most campaigns, which frees me from having to keep detailed records of what happened, allowing me to concentrate on what's going on. EDIT: As my dresden-files game has grown, it has shown me the limits of Mindmeister. I will be using XMind and Scrivener until something better comes along. Because I can't export other mindmapper formats from MM without a paid membership, I won't be starting other projects in it. |
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Corkboard.me is a freeform virtual corkboard that you can put sticky notes on. It has the advantage of being able to place information organized in a visual way. We used a corkboard to keep campaign information for our Alternity game. It was especially useful in that we had a remote player Skyping in and we could all enter info on the board and view it in realtime, making it both a play aid and a note keeper. |
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I built my own online character sheets (never forget your character at home is the talking point). You don't have to go that far, there's a lot of existing ones out there, and PDFs work great as well. I like D&D Character Folio. Auto-fill, and even auto-rollers, plus massive databases of existing spells make these resources great for players and DMs. Hosting your own stuff has it's benefits, but it can be overwhelming at first. You'd be surprised how cheaply you can find webhosting even preconfigured sites with Wordpress or PHPBB Because I host my own site, my GMs are provided with sections of the forums where only they can post to give lots more details about the world. Face it, not all players are going to want to know everything about your world, but some players enjoy that part of the game. They like to base backstories on major events in your world and hold close to the existing story. These resources make everyone's life a little easier. If you're the only DM, and you just want to post about your world, you can get a free site from Google. The biggest pitfall to always watch out for: Be careful with online resources. Security is always going to be an issue. |
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On a Mac, I've found Growly Notes to be incredibly useful. It's apparently somewhat equivalent to Microsoft's OneNote, though I've never used the latter. It lets you organize notes in groups of tabs. Each tab can have several free floating text boxes, and you can also drag/paste images and html snippets into the tab. All super useful for keeping track of campaign stuff. It's freeware, though not open source. The UI isn't the prettiest, and it's not cross platform, but definitely the best utility of its ilk I've found on the Mac. |
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I use Google Notebook, which I really shouldn't do, since it's no longer supported. I should transfer everything over to Google Docs or Evernote, but Notebook's format is really nice. |
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Ok, I am late and I am cheating. I am literally copying and pasting from a similar question. Hate my laziness if you wish. It's another wiki answer, but it includes the importance of not just linking (as any wiki does), but making it searchable, because after a while, this gets big enough to make it harder to find stuff. Like, over a thousand pages, and you don't remember where things were written when... OK, pasting away... I'm playing the "Very Late Answer" game again. But I run a very, very detailed old game. So this issue is one I am familiar with. And I am a believer in trying to create as immersed a game as possible, and this means having players be able to think 'in-character'...which they CANNOT do without having some level of in-game knowledge.
A lot of these are good answers. I also give out of roleplay experience, and tailor it around using 'in-game, immersed' knowledge. It is a good reinforcer.
But one of the most useful things I did is create a searchable wiki for the game and for pertinent data. It also includes the rules and such we use. And this is pretty easy these days. All my players have tablets or laptops, and this way, when a player or the Gm mentions the Dockside Area of Igbar or Chorm, the other players can look it up online quickly.
Wiki's also accumulate nicely over time, so if a GM puts in a little bit at a time, before you know it, you start to get a nice database for the players to use.
Wiki's can also be set up so that players can elaborate or make their own pages, which means they spend even more time on the game wiki. Here is one from an online group I run. |
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Before sessions I write down my ideas on Evernote. Between sessions I use Trello to keep notes on what has happened. During the sessions I also employ a little home-grown tool I am developing, D&D on Rails. Right now the installation process is not easy if you are not on Linux/OSX and/or a developer but if anyone wants to give it a try I would be happy to help setting up an instance. |
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If you play 4E I would go with Masterplan as another suggested. EpicWords.com and soon the makers of HeroLab will have a program similar to MasterPlan that will be system agnostic. |
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I have been using Wikidpad to keep various kinds of notes, including ones related to roleplaying. It's a local wiki, most likely similar to Zim mentioned by another answer (haven't tried Zim yet), which allows you to create multiple pages/articles and link them together easily. It provides various search features and ways to "tag" pages to group them in the sidebar tree or make them first in the list. In a sense, it's the equivalent of having a bunch of notepad text files, except the program gives you the tools to keep them organized and find the one you need very quickly. Todolist (see the Executable and all plugins link) is initially meant for task lists but its greatest feature is complete freedom in how you regroup the various "nodes" (there's no depth limit). For example I'll have a "NPCs" node with a node for each character and further sub-nodes for things like backgrounds, relationships and other "bits" I need to remember. All nodes can be collapsed to keep only what's relevant visible, assigned priorities, categories for filtering, etc... And inherently being "tasks", you can mark them completed, which I'm using for the "plot" nodes, ticking them off whenever a fact has been learned by the PCs or they have accomplished an important step of the adventure. It is also entirely searchable. In a sense it works like a vertically-displayed Freemind, which I find works better for me. |
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I have tried a number of systems over the years, including:
All of them had one or more things wrong with them (for what I wanted). I have just recently gotten onto using ConnectedText. So far this is the best solution I have found. Easy to use, cross-linking between notes is easy, powerful search options. |
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I've used blogs and googledocs to keep track of game history/world building more, but Roll20 has some great map support if geography plays a big role in your campaigns. The privacy settings for notes, etc let the GM leave some events and characters public, while notes on future events stay private until needed. |
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