Like most GMs out there, I have limits on how much game can live in my head at any given time so I have to keep notes and lots of them. Everyone has their own style in terms of what works for them, and everyone’s style evolves as they GM. Here’s what I’m currently using – borrow what you like, critique what you don’t.
\nFirst off, I don’t like GMing on a computer. \u00c2\u00a0I only tried it for a few campaigns, but I found the laptop to be a hindrance, especially if I had to lug it elsewhere. \u00c2\u00a0PDFs were too slow and my screen was too small to get enough information on screen at once. \u00c2\u00a0I also felt like the laptop set up a barrier between me and my players, and that detracted from the game. \u00c2\u00a0If I were to use a computer though, all my notes would be stored in a wiki.<\/p>\n
Each campaign I write gets a notebook. \u00c2\u00a0Game sessions go in the front, long term plots in the back. \u00c2\u00a0Previously I kept NPCs in the back and did long term plots on the computer, but I’d rather keep the game all on paper. \u00c2\u00a0Plots usually get a paragraph of description and a one line summary of updates as they happen.<\/p>\n
It is important to note that plot updates should happen whether or not the players touch that plot.<\/strong> This is the key to having a dynamic, living world. \u00c2\u00a0Players can’t be the only agents in your world if you want it to be realistic. \u00c2\u00a0Now, you don’t have to update every single plot in the game after each session, just the ones that have been put in motion. \u00c2\u00a0I like to picture my plots as snowballs at the top of a hill. \u00c2\u00a0The players can start them rolling at any time, but once they start they keep going, sometimes consuming other smaller plots along the way.<\/p>\n Sessions get planned one at a time. \u00c2\u00a0Too much planning and I’m tempted to railroad. \u00c2\u00a0I’m perfectly happy to improvise a session too. \u00c2\u00a0The plans I make are simply predictions of where my players will end up rather than a script of where they have to go. \u00c2\u00a0Sometimes I’ll script descriptions and dialog, just because I’m prone to skipping details. \u00c2\u00a0Sessions that are finished get paperclipped together so that I can easily skip to the current session.<\/p>\n Oh yeah, the inside cover includes a list of what happened so far in the campaign. \u00c2\u00a0It’ll be something like “day 1, met Stubbs, stole beer. \u00c2\u00a0Day 2, downtime,” etc. \u00c2\u00a0The front few pages before the sessions start include summaries of rules that I have trouble remembering, but expect to come up.<\/p>\n Up next we come to characters. \u00c2\u00a0I’m trying something new for my NPCs this time around. \u00c2\u00a0Each NPC lives on a 3×5 notecard in a box. \u00c2\u00a0The notecards are colored by group or organization. \u00c2\u00a0NPCs get description on one side and stats on the other. \u00c2\u00a0At least in theory. \u00c2\u00a0I’m still getting used to this method and I’m still populating my NPC box. \u00c2\u00a0I’ve heard of other GMs filling up the box while they aren’t GMing, and using it to pull out fully fleshed out NPCs at random. \u00c2\u00a0I’m also trying to make sure that each NPC has a couple quirks listed in bold on the front of their cards. \u00c2\u00a0As I mentioned previously, I suck at roleplaying NPCs. \u00c2\u00a0If I see “Chesylwyck, gruff” when I pull out the Chesylwyck card, I should have an easy time just playing the gruff description. \u00c2\u00a0We’ll see how that plays out.<\/p>\n Another thing I’m trying with the character cards is tying them to plots. \u00c2\u00a0Each of the major plotlines in the story has a colored paperclip assigned to it. \u00c2\u00a0Characters in that plot get a matching paperclip. \u00c2\u00a0So far the game hasn’t progressed far enough for me to know if this is useful or if I’ve been reading too much Lifehacker. \u00c2\u00a0I don’t think this is a bad way to sort characters into their plots, but it might be overkill.<\/p>\n Finally, my GM screen. \u00c2\u00a0Over the years I’ve found the information printed on the screen to be much less useful than what I’ve added to it. \u00c2\u00a0I have a series of improv lists to help me with those areas I usually get stuck on. \u00c2\u00a0Male names, female names, surnames, and titles are a start. \u00c2\u00a0I also have towns and taverns. \u00c2\u00a0And for this most recent game I added nature and demeanor, which will hopefully jumpstart my random NPCs.<\/p>\n So yeah. \u00c2\u00a0I’m sure some of this is stating the obvious and some of it is organizational overkill. \u00c2\u00a0 Maybe when this is done I’ll get around to reading through other GM’s notes or prewritten campaigns, just to see how other GMs keep their thoughts together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Like most GMs out there, I have limits on how much game can live in my head at any given time so I have to keep notes and lots of them. Everyone has their own style in terms of what works for them, and everyone’s style evolves as they GM. Here’s what I’m currently using […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gm","category-organization-gm","tag-organization-gm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gm.sagotsky.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}