Very few things might be worse for a DM than forgetting what has been happening in their game! That’s why this week we are tackling Session notes as our next DM tip! Get your quills and paper ready because we are about to begin!
Planning and Tracking Information
Building a Homebrewed campaign world that is both effective and enjoyable requires a lot of planning and tracking of information. Many GMs create tons of detailed information about their game world including things like:
- Maps
- NPC names and backstories
- Unique Monsters
- And details about cities and the shops within
Why Do I Need Session Notes
Unfortunately, all that information can be hard to keep track of. Sometimes it is even forgotten between your various sessions. This is why session notes can really help.
To be clear there is no wrong or right way to take your notes. But personally, I like to create bullet points during my session of what happens, and then review them each week before my groups next session. This way I give myself a quick recap. I find long paragraphs tend to be hard to keep track of and I often have to go back and re-read them a second time.
What Is the Best Way To Take Notes
I think the biggest piece of advice I can say to new Dungeon Masters (DMs) is this, find what works best for you and stick to it. If you like creating detailed “chapters” after each session, then that’s perfectly fine. Whether it is detailed notes or bullet points, it really doesn’t matter. What’s important is finding what works best for you. Hell, I know Dungeon Masters who prefer to have their players be responsible for keeping track of the game. And this is also a great idea!
Have Players Take The Notes
This kind of approach can both help alleviate the burden off your shoulders and also allow you see what your players are seeing as important. You can really get a picture for what clues they are seeing and which ones they are missing.
One suggestion with this kind of approach though, would be to establish which player will be the primary note taker and who is their back up (in-case the primary player isn’t able to attend a session or two).
Last Thing To Consider When Taking Notes
I recently read an interesting article about having 3 types of notes: pre-session, in session, and post session notes. Here is the link for anyone interested in checking it out. I felt the information was great and it was worth taking note of (no pun intended).
There are also a ton of great resources and application on the web for taking notes and storing them digitally. One which was built for Dungeon Masters is Worldanvil.com
World Anvil lets DMs not only document all the details of their world but create notes inside their world for each game session. It even allows you to decide what your players can and can’t see. And to be clear no, I am not sponsored by them but I wouldn’t complain if they wanted to!
In Conclusion
I think that’s all I got for this particular discussion at the moment. To recap, I find bullet points allows DMs to quickly stay on top of what’s happening in every session. Allowing players to be responsible for the notes gives you an opportunity to see what they are picking up on and most interested in pursuing. And finally, using resources like World Anvil to organize and track of everything going on in campaign can be very effective and organized!
Ultimately though the best thing you can do is try various methods until you discover what is the most effective for you as you lead your players into deep tunnels to discover forgotten treasures and ancient evils…
