What to you use for your GM notes for your in-person games? Thanks so much to WorldAnvil for sponsoring this video! Visit www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike and use the promo code SUPERGEEK to get 51% off any annual membership! www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike
Barlow Keep has a video for "One Page, Less Stress" prep. Using drawings and index cards to compact things down into quick reference documents. It's not going to be for everyone, but I feel like if I prep more than I need, I really too much on it and it takes away from the focus I should have on my players.
I know we're in a weird in-between space with editions at the moment, but when convenient to do so I SUPER recommend picking up some of the official monster cards. They are so convenient, and save time from screengrabbing dndbeyond and printing out basic monsters. Also, towards the end of my video you can see a session notes page that has the following questions on it; - Where did we go? - What did we do? - Who did we meet? - What did we find or learn? - What is our next goal? I HIGHLY recommend having something like this that you can give to the group in the last 5 minutes of the session and get them to fill out because it basically eliminates the need for you to keep a lot of notes as the session is happening and let's you just be ultra present (which is my favorite aspect of in person play).
You might have luck finding a 6-hole punched notebook at Jetpens. A5 is a funky size for US paper. As you saw, it’s not quite half-letter size. You can also glue fancy paper or cardstock to the backs of your current printouts to spruce them up without hanging to print out all new. I recommend glue sticks or double-sided tape.
To make your life a little easier, you can also look into buying printer paper the size you need. Most household printers can be adjusted to hold A5 paper, and you can format many programs (like Word or Google docs) to be A5, so you can see the exact space you have to work with when pasting in pics. Not sure why you are using photoshop exactly 🤔
So my normal notes approach is one notecard for prep (two max in an extreme case) per session and a notebook to take notes about what happened in the session. It's how I force myself not to overprep, but I think it drastically overestimates my improvisational capabilities. One alternative that I'm interested in, and am actually hopefully going to try for a spooky season one-shot*, is the method described in the GM guide for the indie sci-fi horror TTRPG, Mothership. It starts by telling you to buy a cheap notebook you won't get too attached to, putting a table of contents on the first page, a dramatis personae on the back page, and then gives pretty detailed instructions for what the designer recommends putting on the next couple of pages. I'm very intrigued because I don't normally see such detailed guides to making your GM notes like this, so I really want to do it by the book and see if it works better than my old method and if I can adapt it to D&D. * I'm not *just* procrastinating. I also don't want to start making invitations until my non-D&D TTRPG group meets so as not to feel like I'm stepping on toes since one of the candidates to run the next short campaign has never GM-ed before, but as soon as we meet, or at least as soon as we confirm what we're doing, the feelers are going out.
Love this! I got one of these binders for a PC journal a few years ago and it works great! I got a bundle of loose paper for that binder size with the six holes on Amazon, and it works pretty well for scratch paper
I also like keeping papers in the clear sleeves cause then you can use wet erase pens to mark them up, tick off resources, or add notes in the relevant section. For my very first in person campaign I kept my character sheet in a clear sleeve to it was easier to mark off spell slots and erase the tick marks after a long rest without having the actual paper get messed up.
I had different small plastic boxes with loose pages(absolute chaos), filing folders (way too big for my backpack) , loose files on my hardrive that i print out (was way too unorganised and led to the boxes above). All failures, partially because it was unorganized very quickly but also because it was way too detailed. Now i have a small notebook per campaign for details like names and descriptions, both are kept to a minimum and things i might reuse like maps go to google drive. My most used one is for a 4 year almost weekly game and its 120 half size pages are only half filled. Less is more. Good notes are like cheat sheets, only the things you actually would look up.
Rocketbook makes planner pages as dry-erase D&D pages (DM notes, character sheet, etc.) in A5 format. Note: its just plastic-coated paper (*hint-hint* D&D entrepreneurs!) and an app to save pics of the page before you wipe it down to reuse. Adding new holes seems to make it rip easier around the already cut holes (they have a cover where it magneticly attaches).
I recommend picking up some cardstock from your local craft store. You can find some that would be compatible with your printer or just glue your printed pages to the cardstock. Gluestick works well for this and you can absolutely still cut it out after gluing. I've definitely thought about doing a whole deck of magic item cards for a magic item shop, I definitely run games with a focus on magic items, and so I've done a lot of prep to get this idea flowing. Execution has been on the backburner.
I might also recommend a standing pencil case, like a Sonic Sma Sta or a Lihit Lab Blooming Stand. Leaves all your pens and pencils in one spot, and your phone in easy reach (for the Sonic)
I like to dabble with making a "GM's Notebook" too and ultimately decided to go with arc ring-style notebooks. I appreciate the flexibility it affords me. Recommend investing in some heavier-stock paper to print any material with longevity, like multi-session dungeon maps or key npc pages etc. Also, as I like to use 2D standees etc instead of miniatures, I like to put THOSE into the binder pockets (vs. the item cards you mentioned).
What to you use for your GM notes for your in-person games?
Thanks so much to WorldAnvil for sponsoring this video! Visit www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike and use the promo code SUPERGEEK to get 51% off any annual membership!
www.worldanvil.com/supergeekmike
Barlow Keep has a video for "One Page, Less Stress" prep. Using drawings and index cards to compact things down into quick reference documents.
It's not going to be for everyone, but I feel like if I prep more than I need, I really too much on it and it takes away from the focus I should have on my players.
For the spell cards - You could also use cardsleeves with a cheap trading card or just a playing card behind.
Lmao, just lost all my dnd notes to the hurricane, perfect timing Mike
I'm so sorry. You in NC?
Glad you're okay! ❤
Yikes
OOf, my condolences. Hope you and all those you care about came through it okay!
I know we're in a weird in-between space with editions at the moment, but when convenient to do so I SUPER recommend picking up some of the official monster cards. They are so convenient, and save time from screengrabbing dndbeyond and printing out basic monsters.
Also, towards the end of my video you can see a session notes page that has the following questions on it;
- Where did we go?
- What did we do?
- Who did we meet?
- What did we find or learn?
- What is our next goal?
I HIGHLY recommend having something like this that you can give to the group in the last 5 minutes of the session and get them to fill out because it basically eliminates the need for you to keep a lot of notes as the session is happening and let's you just be ultra present (which is my favorite aspect of in person play).
You might have luck finding a 6-hole punched notebook at Jetpens. A5 is a funky size for US paper. As you saw, it’s not quite half-letter size. You can also glue fancy paper or cardstock to the backs of your current printouts to spruce them up without hanging to print out all new. I recommend glue sticks or double-sided tape.
This! Kokyuo or Maruman I think also just make a bunch of different paper that's a5 too
To make your life a little easier, you can also look into buying printer paper the size you need. Most household printers can be adjusted to hold A5 paper, and you can format many programs (like Word or Google docs) to be A5, so you can see the exact space you have to work with when pasting in pics. Not sure why you are using photoshop exactly 🤔
So my normal notes approach is one notecard for prep (two max in an extreme case) per session and a notebook to take notes about what happened in the session. It's how I force myself not to overprep, but I think it drastically overestimates my improvisational capabilities.
One alternative that I'm interested in, and am actually hopefully going to try for a spooky season one-shot*, is the method described in the GM guide for the indie sci-fi horror TTRPG, Mothership. It starts by telling you to buy a cheap notebook you won't get too attached to, putting a table of contents on the first page, a dramatis personae on the back page, and then gives pretty detailed instructions for what the designer recommends putting on the next couple of pages. I'm very intrigued because I don't normally see such detailed guides to making your GM notes like this, so I really want to do it by the book and see if it works better than my old method and if I can adapt it to D&D.
* I'm not *just* procrastinating. I also don't want to start making invitations until my non-D&D TTRPG group meets so as not to feel like I'm stepping on toes since one of the candidates to run the next short campaign has never GM-ed before, but as soon as we meet, or at least as soon as we confirm what we're doing, the feelers are going out.
Oooooh, I think my local craft store has that disc-bound bullet journal stuff on clearance... 👀
Love this! I got one of these binders for a PC journal a few years ago and it works great! I got a bundle of loose paper for that binder size with the six holes on Amazon, and it works pretty well for scratch paper
I also like keeping papers in the clear sleeves cause then you can use wet erase pens to mark them up, tick off resources, or add notes in the relevant section. For my very first in person campaign I kept my character sheet in a clear sleeve to it was easier to mark off spell slots and erase the tick marks after a long rest without having the actual paper get messed up.
I had different small plastic boxes with loose pages(absolute chaos), filing folders (way too big for my backpack) , loose files on my hardrive that i print out (was way too unorganised and led to the boxes above). All failures, partially because it was unorganized very quickly but also because it was way too detailed. Now i have a small notebook per campaign for details like names and descriptions, both are kept to a minimum and things i might reuse like maps go to google drive. My most used one is for a 4 year almost weekly game and its 120 half size pages are only half filled. Less is more. Good notes are like cheat sheets, only the things you actually would look up.
If you do make proper cards in the future, you can use the pockets on the left to hold them.
Weird question. Do you stand up or sit down when you DM?
Or used cardstock in the printer.
Rocketbook makes planner pages as dry-erase D&D pages (DM notes, character sheet, etc.) in A5 format. Note: its just plastic-coated paper (*hint-hint* D&D entrepreneurs!) and an app to save pics of the page before you wipe it down to reuse. Adding new holes seems to make it rip easier around the already cut holes (they have a cover where it magneticly attaches).
Happy 6 months to the little one! Similarly today's a big one for me! I've been on HRT exactly 1 year today!
I saw the map and immediately yelled "THE DELIAN TOMB!"
I recommend picking up some cardstock from your local craft store. You can find some that would be compatible with your printer or just glue your printed pages to the cardstock. Gluestick works well for this and you can absolutely still cut it out after gluing.
I've definitely thought about doing a whole deck of magic item cards for a magic item shop, I definitely run games with a focus on magic items, and so I've done a lot of prep to get this idea flowing. Execution has been on the backburner.
I might also recommend a standing pencil case, like a Sonic Sma Sta or a Lihit Lab Blooming Stand. Leaves all your pens and pencils in one spot, and your phone in easy reach (for the Sonic)
I like to dabble with making a "GM's Notebook" too and ultimately decided to go with arc ring-style notebooks. I appreciate the flexibility it affords me.
Recommend investing in some heavier-stock paper to print any material with longevity, like multi-session dungeon maps or key npc pages etc.
Also, as I like to use 2D standees etc instead of miniatures, I like to put THOSE into the binder pockets (vs. the item cards you mentioned).
September 30th is my mom's actual birthday :P
I print all my handouts on cardstock. Much more durable and easy to use.
Would you look at that! That's the system I'm using!
This is a good channel. I like Mike.
Great job. thanks!!!!
Don’t play dnd play dc20 it’s better. Or cairn that’s a good one
Woke person stealing other peoples ideas how original