How does /tg/ prepare their notes? It seems one of the esoteric sagely GM subjects that never gets much discussion. Everyone seems to develop their own methods and indeed it seems a very personalised process, but that shouldn't stop us from sharing and stealing good idea from each other.
I usually do some incremental world building stuff, basically jotting down how NPCs and factions are reacting to the PCs and their actions or how they're continuing to enact their plans if the PCs have had no effect on them. This involves some annotated maps and dot-points of motivations and enacted and future plans. I'll do this every three sessions or so.
For each session I usually dot point goings-on or adventure hooks that the PCs are likely to run into, and top it off with some story questions like "How will PC A react to NPC B defiling the church?". I'll stat any thing I think they're likely to run into but I tend to go for rules-light systems so I can stat on the fly anyway.
Most of the time these session notes are a third of a A4 page or less, as lots of the session I improv. This seems to work pretty well for me but I'm often finding my notes disorganised if I go looking for something, or just too sparse if I don't have enough energy for good improvisation on the night.
>>44218707
I have a single page of paper with different factions, and a key for my shorthand in case I forget what something means.
Then I have a bunch of index cards with characters or locations on them
>>44218918
I see index cards recommended a lot. I guess it'd stop me digging through pages when some thing I wrote a few sessions ago becomes important. And you'd wind up with a sort of priority heap as the most-used cards keep getting placed on the top
>>44219188
I use index cards for all of my character sheets notes and maps. That includes both Savage Worlds and 3.5 D&D characters.
>>44220868
Hell, I'll dump an example, an NPC table I made for mid-level fighting in 3.5.
Each corresponded to a rank. btw, so the PCs had context for fighting tougher bugbears. It wasn't just "level up the bugbears when the PCs level up" garbage.
>>44218707
I do a combination of Media. Ill draw out maps and certain locations/concepts to give my players an idea of where they are and what it looks like. Ill put up campaign and basic nps ideas on laptop, then ill print out npc/ character sheets and keep those on hand throughout campaign filled out in ink and pencil so i have a random npc when i need one, or when i need to plan out an encounter, but want to be able to fall back on a different item in case the orignal idea doesnt go to well. Thats how i do it at least in that order when it comes to being a gm.
>>44218707
This is actually discussed quite often among people that actually play and run games. Not so much on /tg/.
We're more interested in discussing our fetishes and sexual deviances here.
>>44218707
Well lets see.
Lots of worldbuilding, have some trains set to run into each other.
Place players in between/driving one of them and start the campaign.
Have a few rough statlines and some paper to scribble on, a general map amd then ad lib it all around goals while pretending to read the rulebook and make rolls.
>paranoia gming is best gming
Notes are for things i may forget that may be important.
Like in one game (only war) a one off eldar encounter has become a massive plot point just from how the players have been handling everything, so all of a sudden his name is important, as is how he came into contact with the pc.
Any other details get filled in as needed.
I don't like to use plot hooks, at least deliverately. Shit happens, and if the players miss it or aren't interested then the fallout may be unexpected.
For example, in the same game there is a whole backstory involving ][ shenanigans, primarchs, xeno dickery, commissarant dickery, generic dickery and a side of every type of heresy known to man, and a few more for taste.
Total notes for 9 seperate fubars all tangled together?
Maybe a half dozen lines, purely the big bones.
They saw a few odd things and decided to not see them, so as things are degenerating and becoming more exposed they will have to make judgement calls without knowing what is happening.
Guess it captures the IG essence then eh?
I do love the way my players are seeing something that can explain everything, then remembering what the commisar is for and walking away.
>>44221116
What if this is my fetish?
>>44218707
I'm experimenting with a new way to do it right now. A while ago, another Anon recommended MindMup as a way to organize notes. It's browser-based and connects to GoogleDocs, which is good, since that's what I'm using to manage character sheets and the rest of my materials (NPC name tables and stuff).
I'm only a session in right now, but it seems easy enough. Hopefully it ends up less of a mess than my Notepad files usually do. "Ideas" is just a general dump for situations I think are cool, and I've been dumping outlines of what I plan to do this week in there as well.
In detailed dungeons.
Separate list of all NPCs in dungeon with stats and details.
List of what's in areas. Aka the dungeon stock.
List of all monsters and NPCs. So it's easy to just put marks beside whatever is killed and how many. With xp points. Also on the list is placed chests.
Sheet for wandering monster tables along with whatever page they can be found on.
The total monsters killed sheet is nice when wrapping the game up. Some quick math and boom. XP award right there at the end.
I find it gets the players that just leveled all riled up for the next session.
Had a wizard tonight that was literally 225 xp away from leveling. And 2 fighters that both leveled. One rolled for max HP and the other was one point off. So they're high 5ing and stuff.
The elf fighter/wizard is realizing it's going to take them another session if I wanna play hardball. Another 2 if it's easy play to level. First time player. Now thinking they should have rolled a cleric/wizard.
Regardless it keeps the paperwork in 3 piles.
Any NPCs who escape, are pissed off, ripped off or left the party on a good note get's thrown on an index card for future use.
I usually write out a short summary on whatever happened in the session like old school adventure notes. With a "special" line on the side for medium to big world changes. Important ones anyways. Like faction reactions. If they managed to piss off or please the local lord. If the bandits were helped or routed.
I keep everything on paper though. Cause laptops die out and I have a strict no electronics rule at the table anyways.
