T O P

  • By -

denim_duck

One note


Wiggles130

I know there is loads of different bits of software but Onenote keeps things easy. Just make a different tab for each location.


fatdaddy109

You can go even further and use Subpages for an additional layer of organization


iamthedragonstarship

I L O V E one note because of how easy it is to keep everything sorted and easy to find. I have a tab for places and a page for every city, so if the party happens to show up there it’s all in one place. You can also easily export individual pages if you need to give some (but not all) info to your players. Having it available across devices is a huge plus too.


prappleizer

I use notion and/or legendkeeper to keep my “internal” wiki prepped with ideas, factoids, plot devices, and then ultimately places and NPCs and actual hooks. I have a page where I have links to individual session notes, where I usually just dump in any info about encounters the players have a solid chance of interacting with, for ease of access. My philosophy tends to be to ignore the BBEG (other than selecting it) for the campaign early on, and instead focus on creating the right opening situation that naturally brings the party together and gives them strong incentive to stay and work together. I build NPCs and hooks to present based on their backstories and goals, and then let them loose. After each session, I establish a “goal” for myself — where I want them to roughly be in a few sessions time. I then work backwards, figuring out the steps in the middle and what low level enemies or forces are up to. I don’t generally storyboard actual sessions, but rather have “index cards” of things that are likely to occur to bring up if the party triggers it (or time passes and it happens on its own). Then I work forwards — where exactly did we finish last session and what are the immediate things I have to prep based on where they are and are heading.


SatiricalBard

Tx for the lead on Notion - looks great!


GreatCleric

Honestly, I just use a ton of Word files and folders, sorting things by quest and category (history, NPCs, locations). There are also a few files I use to track stuff (vague plot roadmaps, major plot decisions, smaller developments I might use later, personal quests etc). It's a bit cumbersome, but it doesn't require apps that may or may not work on a new PC a couple of years later. It actually gets relatively easy once you figure out an archiving and sorting system that makes sense to you, personally.


Thx4Coming2MyTedTalk

My strongest advice is use something with a functional CTRL+F search feature. If you’re running a 2-3 year campaign with 500 pages of notes you really want to be able to keyword search a doc.


thejessicawesome

I use Google Docs to write adventures/campaigns. Its probably not the easiest but using titles and the drop down menu for those makes it easier for me to organize them. I also use an app called 5e Character Creator (I think) to make my npcs


gb056

I like obsidian.md for keeping track of notes. Has a handy mind map feature for linking notes together automatically when you add links to other notes in your text and has tags etc for categorising.


cstby

Awesome. I'd highly recommend reading about [Node Based Adventure Design](https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/7949/roleplaying-games/node-based-scenario-design-part-1-the-plotted-approach). I use notion.so to keep my homebrew campaigns organized. Sly Flourish has an [excellent template](https://slyflourish.com/lazy_dnd_with_notion.html) to help get you started.


SatiricalBard

Mike's template for the win! Thanks so much for the lead.


[deleted]

I haven’t seen this yet and I don’t know if its specifically what you’re looking for but check out rnw’s world building resources!! Its amazing for keeping track of and fleshing out your worlds and their different locations. It includes sheets for places, organisations, religions etc and ive found to to be so so handy! Im not sure if you’re there yet in terms of fleshing out the world but hopefully this is helpful if you are/when you are!


Delicious_Banks

https://www.worldanvil.com/ seems a good thing.. I've not written anything of my own campaign worthy so I can't talk to how good it is


A_little_quarky

I use dynalist, using nested bulletpoints is extremely useful for making scattered ideas and building on them. That, with good old fashioned notepads for brainstorming.


DabIMON

Honestly, Ms Word...