Organization and DMing

I've read some tips for DMing for first timers, but I'm struggling with how to keep myself organized as my campaign grows. I'm starting out with an Adventure Module, but even that has a lot of info that I don't wanna stop the game to go searching for. I know a lot of the game is about having fun and literally having to make stuff up as you go, but I'm talking about organizing NPCs, towns, prepared narrative, encounters, treasure hordes, etc.  So my question to the DMs out there. How can I keep it all organized to easily access it at the right time? How do you keep yourself organized? Do you use Pen and Paper and binders? Do you use word docs? Are their any websites out there (for free!) that'll be useful? Any organization tips and tricks would be awesome! Thank you :)

I, myself, put a lot of notes in tokens on the game board. Make a token or choose one that corresponds, then in GM notes I Bullet out the various things into categories so that I can see info I need at a glance. I use this for traps, NPCs, and general story notes for the area. Also the various headers can draw your attention,  and there is always color coding. which is not available in the forums, but is in the GM notes of tokens. Oh and I type all over the GM layer with DC checks and other pertinent info. None of the players can see it. Finally Handouts are great for keeping story notes and giving them to players at applicable times, just have a labeling system so you don't get lost in your handouts. And lastly, nothing beats a good old spirial for back up.

Thanks Voth :)

Binders and dividers. I'm a bit old-school, but since I do live tabletop as well, they're still my staple and so I use them here too. Depending on the campaign and the depth it's evolved to, I've got subsections for maps- big areas usually involving travel and big-scale movement, then subdivide those by smaller areas that the PCs explore, (Most of that for Roll20 stays here on Roll20). I've got sections for NPCs, usually sorted by location, I've got history sections- both global notes and local notes. I usually keep a PC section (recommended this to a DM not too long ago and they seemed surprised by the idea- set up a spreadsheet on your PCs so you can see what their AVG hps, saves, ACs, etc are. This makes scaling combats much easier-- it can be as hard or easy as you want it to be based on what they're likey to be able to endure and it's nice to know things like the rogue's modified disable device ability before you use a mod that has a trap the rogue can do nothing but set off because his skill is too low...), and track inventories there as well. I sometimes have a house-rules section, and some notes on cool ideas or things I've taken from other systems or from publications. Depending on the campaign, I sometimes have a "Running Timeline" in which I track not only the party's activities, but some of the potential bad-guys/organizations' movements simultaneously-- this allows various evils to develop "unopposed" if the party (or some NPCs) don't stop it, and there are always schemes going on at different levels to deal with. All that said, I don't see why you couldn't keep most or all of this in the Roll20 notes/journals-- the sorting isn't very convenient right now, but that seems likely to improve here soon enough.

You might try GM communities on google+.&nbsp; A good one :&nbsp;<a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/115293460193268073217" rel="nofollow">https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/115293460193268073217</a>

One idea that's too good to have forgotten (just remembered as I was working on a campaign on that page): set up a token page to store tokens on that you're not using but are likely to use again. If you don't want to journal a million NPCs, you can stick the tokens on a separate page and leave them there until you need them again. Makes it easier for you to level up that annoying rogue that keeps pestering the party and have the same token when it's time for him to show up again.)

Cheat sheets, I set up grids to look at things at a glance. You should be able to have one for the players, then another for each set of npc/monsters each session. A player sheet looks like this (I plugged in some random things for general format): Player 1 Player 2 Player 3 Player 4 Player 5 Player 6 Name Character Race Class Abilities 18/16/12/10/8/15 ability bonus save 2F/6R/2W bab 1 hp /14 AC/t/f 18/14/14 init +5 melee +4 longsword 1d8 (19-20) Melee +2 dagger 1d4 (19-20) p/s range +3 shortbow 1d6 (x3) range armor leather (+2ac) shield feat improved init " augment summon " language common, orc, elf alignment NN skill Concentration 4 Survival 4 Spells Special Notes I tend to do session monsters as landscape (turn sheet on it's side), you don't need as much detail, but useful. page/book init Name AC/t/f attack range F R W HP speed special other You get the idea

Thanks for the great ideas guys! I'll try to use them while preping :)

For my gaming group I host a wiki on my personal domain that keeps track of their quests, every single NPC they've ever encountered, every monster, and summaries of all their adventures. I've even opened some pages to be editable by the players themselves so they can put in their own journal entries and update information about their characters. Wikis work well especially if you have a tablet for instant information fetching on the fly.&nbsp;I personally use&nbsp; MediaWiki &nbsp;for total control, but Wikia &nbsp;might be a better choice for the less tech savvy. Obsidian Portal is a very popular solution, and is RPG-centric.

Number your pages, divide things into folders by campaign, then session...some things like maps might have their own folder. If you're using loose sheets so write ups aren't taking up your screen...label and number them, they can end up all over when leafing through or if they get dropped. I know you really like roleplay, so a few focused on that: Label areas with GM notes, have macros set up with flavor text. Make sure not to put in things that will change to fit scale (you don't want to say 4 hobgoblins leap from the shadows, as you might reduce this to 3 if a couple party members don't show up). Outsource - Still keep your detailed notes of each session, but offer bonus xp if the player writes up a in character journal as an adventure log...offer them a small amount of gold for doing a recap of the previous session for players that missed or just refresher. You can stick this in on the next corpse they search, describing in whisper about the blood stained satin pouch of silver if it's only for them and not group. Compare with your notes, fill in the blanks aloud, add what you missed to your notes. Shop stock - Rather than writing up every item for every shop, you can write groups, others with percentages, and the few special items. This is going to tie into the wealth/size of the town for what's on hand. Lets say the there's no smith and they have all light/med armor with a 10% chance of having masterwork of any of those that's asked for. In the next town, a little larger but maybe their smith isn't very skilled and only makes blunt weapons, so 50% chance of having exotic blunts...and has 30% chance of having any simple/martial weapon that has pierce or slash, 5% chance of exotic having piercing/slash.&nbsp; If the +1 on armor is rare for the town, roll/pick one or two and list it, something the shopkeeper would want to advertise that is available because it's not usual for his shop (could be proud if he made).

I personally don't use macros, but then again I don't do text games so I simply say what happens aloud. I have run into some interesting tools in a recent search that I plan to try and make use of (and would love opinions of). power2ool.com I am finding handy for sticking my custom monsters into an editor (I know there's a lot of them out there but this was the first one to pop up and was just so quaint I couldn't go without trying it!) Of course tools like this are wonderful if you have a multi-screen (or just really big screen) setup. I had just gone over this with another DM and it is a fascinating idea that I wish I had thought of several sessions ago and am now trying to implement. Of course it strongly leans towards players with a creative flare and a bit of spare time it can be of immense help and even give you an insight on just how that player feels about your campaign. I suppose the third suggestion (shop stock) is sort of what I do but to explain that here would spoil it for any of my players that stumble upon this thread hehe.&nbsp; All excellent suggestes James.

If you don't wanna spoil anything you can always PM me :)

I am about to try and see how many people are lurking around to have a sort of at-random discussion over hangout for various DMing things. While I prepare for my session tonight.

Forgot to say...&nbsp; I use &lt;3 (center) for HP, right (lightning bolt) for AC if people aren't using for any type of points, and left (heart monitor bleep) for temp hp, ability damage reminders sort of thing. I'm still tweaking this, but I've not done full character sheets yet.

I'll probably make a cue card with some of the basic CS info on it so that it's easy to access but that's a great idea!

Either by Word doc of handwritten, use one, two-sided page to keep all the pertinent info for each encounter and/or location. Give each such page a descriptive title and perhaps an alpha-numeric designation that corresponds to a larger key on a&nbsp;separate&nbsp;map and/or story outline. The separate larger sheet does not have to be linear. Also, the story outline could be set up like a "conceptual &nbsp;dungeon lay out. For instance, The first point of the story outline could branch out into three possible courses of action the Party takes, then each of those secondary branch points could lead to one of the other two and/or even to a&nbsp;tertiary set of branch points, and so on... Now for each encounter/location page include the following *Summary of encounter and/or location&nbsp; *Flavor text *Any special rules that you are not that&nbsp;familiar&nbsp;with that might be central to the encounter. Example, main points of swimming/water combat rules for a flooded location. *Stat Block info for Monsters and/or NPC's in the encounter. Include notes on any abilities/powers/skills you are not that comfortable with that these characters may posses. *anything else important about the encounter such as TRAPS, MAGIC/HIGH TECH ITEMS, PUZZLE INFO, ETC... NOTE: IF YOU CAN, KEEP IT ALL ON ONE SIDE OF THE PAGE. If you can't use as little of the other side of the page as possible, if possible Hope this helps and Good luck with you game. Let us know how it's going.

Thanks Jose... Ill keep my notes to the important stuff! :)&nbsp;

I use a combination of Jose James, and Voth's systems. &nbsp;Well, I hadn't tried the cheat sheet yet, but in hindsight that's a really great idea (some of my players are new so it helps me look up some of their less common skill checks). &nbsp;Definitely going to incorporate that into my next game. Instead of word docs or physical pages I tend to use Journal entries for encounters. &nbsp;I typically have text numbers on the GM overlay for each room/encounter and page and I name the Journal entry accordingly, i.e. if an encounter was on sheet "4 Dungeon of Doom Level 1" and the encounter was room 6 and had one of my favorite DnD traps* the Journal entry would be named "4.6 Darkness Wall Instant Death Trap". &nbsp;I just name player handouts normally and they all fall below my encounters. &nbsp;I haven't run anything complicated enough to require it yet but I imagine you could just archive all the handouts not related to your current page and bring them back when you change pages. &nbsp;Obviously archive entries as they are completed. &nbsp;In my test this seems to work pretty well for quickly having access to encounter info. For NPCs/Monsters I usually make Character entries rather than Journal entries or using the tokens. &nbsp;I found having to scroll down to the bottom of a token's stat page every time I wanted to look up the stat block was annoying. &nbsp;I just archive all the monsters I'm not currently using and name them with a 'z' in front of their name (i.e. z Kobold, z Goblin). &nbsp;That way they're always at the bottom of my list (if a snarky player names their character something that starts with a Z, just use zz instead, same effect). &nbsp;This makes it easy to pull up stat blocks for combat. &nbsp;The other advantage of character sheets for monsters is you can build in ability macros for their common attacks. &nbsp;When an encounter starts I check "use in macro bar" for the monsters I'm currently using, then unless I need to use some unusual ability I can just click the rolls during combat and don't have to open the stat block if I forget the modifiers. &nbsp;Obviously you'll need to change this for special conditions (flanking, bless, etc.) but nothing stops you from either manually rolling or just using math the old fashioned way =). Incidentally, James, that's exactly what I ended up using the first two Bar items for. &nbsp;For the third (red) bar I use it for time counters, useful if you have a spell that lasts a short number of rounds. &nbsp;Longer spells I keep track of the old fashioned way (GM note on the character sheet, sometimes I even remember to keep track of the 1 hour spell). &nbsp;Good for buffs/debuffs that only last a short amount of time. &nbsp;If you have multiple buff/debuffs you can use periods or slashes to keep track of multiple values (anything more than 3 gets pretty hard to read though). &nbsp;For example, the wizard casts shield and has 10 rounds, first number is 10, then gets hit two rounds later with a minor slow that lasts 10 rounds, the value in the red bar is 8/10. &nbsp;You can't use addition/subtraction on the values but it keeps a counter, next round just have the player (or you) alter the value to 7/9. /end wall of text. &nbsp;Hope that helps some people. &nbsp;Good luck, and keep up the suggestions! *a hallway with a permanent deeper darkness spell followed immediately by a permanent prismatic wall...watch your step! CR Players-Stop-Rushing-Blindly-Down-Hallways =)

I take a snapshot of each monster's data (whether it's custom or straight out of a book) and keep all of the snapshots together in a word document. Then, when I'm running an encounter, I flip to the appropriate page and reference data there. Everything else is done internally in roll20. I add dialogue possibilities with NPCs in the GM Notes area of their token or Journal entry. I label treasure chest contents on the GM Layer. I keep hidden monsters lurking on the GM Layer as well. It's a lot easier for me to form a world in my head when I have a thoroughly labeled visual representation of it in front of me, and Roll20 provides an excellent interface for doing that via the GM Layer and GM Notes sections of the app. Added bonus: I don't have to translate anything from paper to digital. :)

Evernote is a great tool also. Free, linked to all your devices and easy to navigate. Easy to add photos and drawings, text, hyperlinks, etc.

I've never been able to figure out Evernote... then again I've never really gave it a hard try so maybe I should :P

This may not exactly flow with the type of game you're running, but something to keep in mind is that if you have a hard time keeping track of all the details, it's very likely that your players&nbsp;do too.&nbsp; Don't get me wrong -&nbsp;giving everything details is what makes a world come alive, but I try to only give focus to those things that my players&nbsp;give attention to.&nbsp; I've been running a campaign that was started in 2010 in which we've encountered dozens of NPCs and villians.&nbsp; We used to maintain a lot of the detailed information for what happened week to week in a google site that we created.&nbsp; If fact, we'd offer bonuses to players who created posts in the form of "Previously on Khybers Nose [name of our campaign]...".&nbsp; In that way, it's all organized in a site for reference and you didn't have to spend the time to do it.&nbsp; This concept would work perfectly&nbsp;using r20's campaign posts.&nbsp; Think of some sort of insentive to offer players and let them do that work :) Building a vivid world full of detail takes a lot of work, and if you end up putting effort into things your players never deal with or just breeze past, then that's essentially time wasted.&nbsp; I've burned out and I've seen other DMs burn out by taking too much time putting details together...especially if they don't go anywhere.&nbsp; When my players encounter a new NPC, I make sure to come up with a name and a motivation (something like to grow his business, or to take care of his family) which gives a DM enough to work with and play off of.&nbsp; People may disagree and that's fine, but I would suggest thinking in terms of situations and how they will unfold in a world where you're players don't exist.&nbsp; Then it's as simple as letting those (often crazy/bad) situations unfold and letting the players react.&nbsp; The idea is that because the players&nbsp; do exist in your world, they will affect the situations you've designed (often in unexpected ways) and thus help create the story through play. I do still take notes during play, but only to jot down&nbsp;a name I throw out or to track things that will snowball if not addressed by the players.&nbsp; I also let the players offer up details about certain things and just jot those down (they'll remember better if they come up with&nbsp;it and I've&nbsp;given them the opportunity to help create the world in which they play). As for enemy stats and the like, we keep a blank map in r20 and 'stage' monster tokens there.&nbsp; Often, we build the stats (we use masterplan for this) and just paste the stats in the GM notes section in the token.&nbsp; Now if we need 5 muck monsters to drop in on the players, it's as simple as copy/paste.&nbsp; Similarly, treasure can be recorded in notes that you just show to your players when they get it. Some of the info above may not jive with your play style/preference and that's totally cool.&nbsp; But I hope some of the info is useful.&nbsp; The best approach might be to have the players post recaps of everything that happened on the campaign page so that you only need to worry about what's next. Cheers.

Here are the tools I use and it's been working really well for my pathfinder game, roll20 and the Google product family - Hangouts, Drive, Calendar, Groups, and Sites. &nbsp; I like the synergy between apps. &nbsp;I'm starting to document my system here . &nbsp; Blog is rough around the edges, but I wanted to start getting my workflow down on digital paper. &nbsp;

For my 4e game, I make heavy use of iPlay4e -- I bring up all the PC's sheets on iPlay4e as browser tabs, so I can quickly see at a glance exactly what their powers, items, etc. do. I have the monster details in the GM's Notes on the tokens, but I also keep a separate text file that summarizes their actions and the macros that go with them.&nbsp; I track logistical information on a Google Docs spreadsheet.

For my campaign I use Scrivener to organize everything into binders (house rules, history, locations, NPC's etc.) I mark these with colors, icons, and I also add game art directly into the pages. I would be completely lost without it. Here's a link and no I don't work for the company :D <a href="http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php</a>

I have binder-based notes, but players are going to form new plans and go off on tangents. &nbsp;I was able to note how things were going as a transcript in shorthand -- although that skill takes serious amounts of time to learn. &nbsp;I made a tutorial about it. &nbsp;It LOOKS like it's slow writing because I was occupied with the camera and didn't want to shake the image, but fast speeds can be achieved. &nbsp;In the old days people routinely developed it to the speed of speech, 150-180 words per minute, before the advent of audio recording made it less necessary. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjoigPf4IzE" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjoigPf4IzE</a>

Awesome Pierre... I wont be able to learn that hahaha, but I'm watching it all anyways.