No time to take notes while DMing? Try this! // D&D Tips
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
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▼ INDEX ▼
0:00 Intro
1:30 Make it easy
2:57 Your worldbuilding secret weapon
4:09 Trim the fat
6:12 Give yourself time
Are you one of the many Dungeon Masters who struggle to take session notes while playing Dungeons & Dragons? I don't blame you - it's a lot for one DM to handle! Here are three simple tips for note-taking during your tabletop gaming sessions to capture important information quickly and easily, so you can stay organized and make session prep easier.
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There is a cool too I use for taking notes. I use Co-writer. Is is an extension to your computer that you can speak into and it writes it down for you. The only thing is you have to articulate or it won’t work
Can you please give some tips on how to tell the lore of a role-playing game to somebody without overwhelming them. I struggle with this often. I either give them to much or to little. I can't seem to find the middle ground.
@@breaksthemind2881 you could brake it into multiple pieces throughout the session. Like you have your players discover the lore throughout the game
They should make a Cosplayer beverage called "Ginny Di-Lite"
In honor of your Cosplaying, Decently Made D&D youtube content and somewhat for days when you feel like Geeking/Nerding out with friends to your own Drink in a game.
Player: "What was the name of that one NPC?"
DM: ***Looks down, realizing he didn't write it down***
DM: "Oh, did you not take notes on them?"
Player: "...No"
DM: "Oof, darn, guess your character forgot" 👀
If they don't remember, then they don't know if you're making up a new name
@@Septimus_ii This is God tier wisdom
Intelligence check!
I'm more - ahhh, yeah, I don't remember either. Let's call 'em Robin.
I know it's quibbly in a cheerful discussion like this, but pretending to be never-wrong makes it less fun for the players. It's a game! It's ok to be imperfect, and play it for laughs.
The *character* lives this stuff, and we cram days of *character* time into 3 hours of *player* time.Characters see things that players don't all the time.
Me every damn time
I love stealing my players notes. I let my player give the recap of “what happened last time?” before we start our sessions. What they remember is more important to me than the notes I took because it helps me direct them down the paths they are excited about!
That’s a great way to approach it :)
This is my way to go as well. Prepare my sessions well enough, then write down what I remember after a session, and compare with player notes. Just like you said, what they remember is likely there way to go. No need to include stuff your players won't remember anyway.
Same
I do this too. I also ask my players at the end of a session of there is anything they want to explore in future sessions so I know what to note down.
Wow, I have never thought of things that way
Thank you for the unintentional advice!!
"If a player comes up with a theory that you like better than your actual plan, write it down"
This. A thousand times this. In my experience, if you do this once and a while not only do your players feel smart for being able to put threads together and connect dots, but you can use their characters fears against them!
DM, just setting the mood: "The moon is full and the air is still. The silence of the forest is broken only by the occasional distant howl"
Player, nervously: "Hey uh... what would I roll to know if werewolves are a thing?"
DM, already flipping to the page: "History please" (evil grin)
The group I'm playing with in my partner's game joked about what if this old lady in a prison cell was a elder/eldritch god out of character in random pause (I think a player had to use the bathroom really quick), and she was originally wasn't going to be that, but he rolled with it and now we have a new BBEG.
In Exalted we always called this "Paranoid Conjecture Technique", because that setting has like eleventy-billion Big Bads trying to eat you.
The number of times my players have been a quarter right but 100 percent more cool... Yeah, I change my plot to match their guesses (with appropriate twists) pretty much *every time*.
Seriously though. Some DM's forget the players can write the story for them haha.
This a million times this ... !
My best DM 20 minutes was spent carefully listening and making notes as the PC's (and the players) discussed what on Toril was going on and what they were going to do about it ...
...I knew .. but after this I altered it to better match one of the ideas they eventually dismissed ...
"The human mind is fallible and D&D sessions are long" This needs to go on a T shirt.
100% agree!
In addition to your last point, I like to make my players recap the session before we start next week. Combined with reviewing session notes beforehand, it's saved me a few times when the players mentioned something that I glanced over as being unimportant at the time (evidently not the case for them if they mentioned it).
I make a random player recap every week. The fact is, what I remember as a a DM, with all of my additional knowledge, is always very different to what my players take away.
Players don't always pick up what the DM puts down.
Honestly I might do this once I start my session with my players this year
I use a trick I learned from another video Ginny made! I offer points of inspiration to any players who give the recap or considerably contribute to the recap (if multiple of them took part in the recap). It not only gets them nipping at the bit to do the recap for me, it gets them excited for the session ahead, gives me a little more time to solidify any prep, *and* gives me some insight on their perspective of last session (like a couple of you guys already stated) which lets me know where their heads’ are and things I might’ve missed!
This definitely helps, especially when you don't meet consistently.
I award an inspiration / hero point next session for the player that took notes on the shared journal. Another point to whomever recaps at the start of session. Works well!
Oh uhhhhh... I don't I was supposed to see this. Welp! I'm not arguing with some early advice, especially since my notetaking is subpar at best.
Alright, post video. Hear me out: give your session a cool title. Seriously. It works, at least for me. For some reason, just reading “Black-Eyed Bastard” instead of “Session 18” helps me recall a lot of what happened.
As a DM with memory problems, I've found that taking voice recordings during sessions ( fairly easy, considering I mostly DM online) and take time to listen to the recordings later at double speed (triple, if it's a long session) and take notes then. I try to do this just before/during my typical prep times. I tend to delete them after a few more sessions to save drive space. Before doing this, though, just make sure to discuss it with your players, since some people aren't comfortable with having their voices recorded!
As someone who hates the sound of their voice on recordings, i would definitely be fine with the DM recording the audio if the promise not to share it with anyone outside of the dnd group.
Besides, this method is definitely used by all major D&D shows like CR (it definitely evolved into a show and and not a home game long ago) where the DM has the advantage of everything that happened is recorded forever on the internet for easy reference. (On top of what i assume to be very detailed prep on world building and good session notes but its also litterally their job to be good at running these shows)
My point about the shows is that recording for your own purposes is the easiest aspect of these shows to replicate that should be replicated. (Things like how CR C3 started would not fly in a regular game with people who want to play for fun and not spend 3hrs in the other room for dramatic effect)
I do this, too, Cranneo, and not because I don't have a decent memory; I just want to be in-the-moment while conducting games - not worrying about including some detail I might forget. Then, I listen to the session recording while brainstorming what to do for the next session. There's a lot of side conversations going on and discussion while I'm out of the room, getting a drink or whatever. I mine these for ideas and write down electronically every detail I can about people, places, magic items, lore, or whatever anyone mentions (so that I can search for it later). By doing so, I'm free to not worry about forgetting a thing or distracting myself with live note-taking and the continuity of my campaigns has improved dramatically.
Then, I write out everything that happened, as if I were making a short story form novella and can post this to my group, so they can review and keep track of all that's happened. This is great for players that miss sessions to not be left out of the loop. It also makes me damned certain I remember the events of the campaign, since I need to experience it more than once, in different ways, and make enough sense of everything to write it out. And I don't need to remember it all, because it is written down, in its entirety, in a searchable format, which I do refer to from time to time during sessions.
Y'know? I dedicate a lot of my free time to conducting games.
Do you have any recommendations for apps or software to take long and accessible voice recordings?
Tip of the Day: Something I've done for quite a while is have a quiz at the beginning of the session instead of a review. I would literally go around the table and ask people questions about the previous session/s. It was very effective at opening up the memories of the players and helped get them get their game face on. And the group would get a little bonus XP for good answer and insights. And secretly it helped solidify my own recollection and told me what players may have missed and what they cared about.
Bidet
Bidet
Bidet?
What really helped me is sitting down after each session and writing a small summary over what happened each session as well. Only keywords, but it works for me when I couldn’t get everything down during the session.
Also being honest with your players and agreeing with them that they text me what items they received after the session really helped me as well. I now have a full list who got which item and wether they know the potential special effect it might have. 🤗
Right now we are playing on Roll20. The DM has created a notes log that anyone can edit or add to. I like writing notes so I try to fill in what I can there. DM can read it too. Sometimes adding/editing/formatting notes helps me stay in the game during long combat (if I know my next turn) etc.
Yes writing a summary of what happened (usually trimming almost all that combat "fat") right after the session has really helped me aswell. We had a long break at one point and I was able to write a huge summary of all important (and some of the more funny) things that happened because I had small summaries of all my sessions. These small summaries usually take 15-30 minutes to write down, with RP sessions usually longer, but totally worth it.
I just thought of a neat idea.
A dm character kenku that joins the party and takes notes of everything going on, maybe make him a level 1-3 bard who tells storys of things that have happened.
The dm can use this as a way to help newer players who dont pay as much attention as they should or have a hard time with puzzles because you can just use the Kenku to try to help the party if they need it with previous knowledge.
Kinda like a hint button.
I'd use this idea myself, but I dont actually have anyone to play with
I run a weekly campaign for my friends and this idea is literally perfect. One problem though. Finding a way so that they don't immediately attempt to imprison and interrogate him. Kind of paranoid after the one doppelganger session.
@@mr.mechanacus162 True! My party trusts zero NPCs after some unsavory encounters... their first reaction to someone approaching them nowadays is violence...
@@mr.mechanacus162 "The Wizard's familiar is actually a Kenku under a curse that makes him really small"
@@pavarottiaardvark3431 That is both handy and precious. I love it!
@@sb308 my dragon born barbarian accidentally offed a Dobby like NPC that was supposed to be the groups tour guide and of course the elvish paladin refused to help him out in the resulting bar brawl. Sometimes paranoia makes for epic scenes and creative new back stories. I've seen magic users literally waste high level spells out of fear of shadows in the water before investigation checks to determine that it was a school of fish.
On of the best habits I started doing was saying “one second I need to make a note” . It slows things down a bit giving you time to scratch out a line or two and when used dramatically it can add to the moment. If after your players have done something awesome or awful you pause for just a minute to write a note it really cements that moment as something that will affect the future of the game.
Before the video starts: As a blooming new DM with ADHD I easily get distracted or is forgetful after a certain milestone of the game like after a battle or encounter. I allow a short/long break in game and real life (if and when eligible) so I can write in notes talk to the other players in group or personal, bathroom/lunch breaks, etc. Then get back into the game which usually is about 15-30 min. To in rare cases (1-2hrs) if things are big or complex.
Downside, things can happen and you may loose the atmosphere of the game, completely leave the game and get distracted for you or everyone or loose some players for good, bad or important reasons.
These are some handy tips. What has saved my bacon over the last few years is using my phone to record the audio of the session (with everyone's permission). Obviously, it isn't podcast/livecast quality but it still allows me to re-listen to the session and take notes that I may have missed (like improvised npcs). This also really helps me keep my npc voices straight as well.
I think if I was GMing I would have to do this - even if just so I know I can go back to check something if needed.
@@AVspectre It really helps if you miss a week or two of playing.
doesn't really help with like 8 hour long sessions though right?
@@pedrogarcia8706 I have done some 12 hour game days (10 hours of play) and it still helps. As long as you have the time to listen to it again it will help. Obviously, like all tips, this isn't a solution for everyone but it has certainly helped me as I do try and take notes during the session but if we are in the flow of some great rp I still miss stuff. Basically, whenever I do prep for the next session or just at night as I wind down for sleep I throw on the audio. Honestly, even if you are not taking notes while listening it will still help you commit stuff to memory.
@@pedrogarcia8706 You could probably jot down a time ref for particularly meaty points it the game…
Regarding the "Give Yourself Time" section, I have noticed that a fantastic way to do this is really simple and effective. Just thoughtfully say "let me just make a quick note" and scribble it down. It can, if delivered correctly, have the same mysterious effect as rolling behind the screen without obvious cause, or spontaneously asking the players for one of their stats/passive scores.
I applaud those who took meticulous notes of the session
I've found it very useful to record my side of the discord call, that way I can refer back to lore dumps easily, and just mute myself to talk into my phone's mike
Ginni, as an upcoming DM for my first DND campaign, but also just as a person that‘s going through the usual winter mood swings, your videos are always something that I look forward to and really enjoy to watch start to end. I can only imagine how friggin hard it is to create these high quality, perfectly paced videos. You are truly someone special and combine not only sympathy, and all the awesomeness, but also the competence as a writer, content creator, director, . . . (Dm obviously)
I mean, just the awesomeness of your sponsored parts speaks for itself. For me, a benchmark of a great entertainer is, when they achieve, that you enjoy watching what is essentially an ad. The only other person I know, that achieves this is ryan reynolds. 😅
English isn’t my native language, but I hope most of what I wrote made sense haha.
I wish you all the best and hopefully
Inspired Greetings from Vienna, Austria
Ramy
RAMY YOU ARE GONNA MAKE ME CRY!!!
@@GinnyDi YOU CAN BE PROUD OF YOURSELF!! I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT I AM!!! Whenever you feel down or inadequate, just remember this one thing: it was you all on your own, the choices you made, the friends and enemies you made that made over THREE HUNDRED FRIGGIN THOUSAND people bond together. KEEP ON ROCKING, GINNY!! YOU INSPIRE TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD!!! 🥰🥰🥰(also sorry for spelling your name wrong 🙈😅😅😊) Maybe one day, I can give back the cheerfulness you bring 😊So if ya need someone non-judging to talk to about whatever, I'm here 😁 Have a nice weekened 🤗
oh and please don't cry haha^^
Very sweet and so true!
I would never have known English wasn't your first language! Great job and have fun DMing!
I try to take session notes as well. But I recognize that it’s hard. Two things that I do are:
1. Write a recap at the end of a session
2. I have one good note taker in the party and I will review his notes to see if there is anything that I missed
Brand new DM here. I've taken a real liking to recoding the sessions so I can be solely in the game and then note take with prep while listening to the recordings during the weeks.
Yes to players taking notes! When my group was playing over Discord, we had a channel specifically for player notes. We would keep track of all NPC names, locations, ongoing quests and clues. It saved the DM from remembering every single NPC name and helped him keep track of what we'd already done
Ohh, Wisteria is such an adorable disaster.
I’m currently in the process of writing my own campaign and one of my plans is to simply set up an audio recording. After the campaign is over and everyone has left I can take notes from that.
I'll start a new campaign in just 2 days, and i was going absolutely mad trying to organize myself and make my notes.
THAT's fantastic. Thank you Ginny Di, as a disorganized person, every single time i come to your channel i get at least 55% better at existing.
Thanks for these tips, Ginny! I'm a newbie DM (in theory not in practice yet haha)
I also started taking notes ever since Campaign 3 of CR started, I felt sad not remembering some things from Campaign 2, but that's only human lol, so I thought it'd be nice to look back on these new notes, scribbles and doodles! 😊
I've also found that recording my game sessions has been really helpful! I just use a basic free voice recording app on my phone and listen back to the session whenever I do the session write up for my players and I've found it helps me out a lot with remembering smaller details. :)
Any good recommendations?
I record all my games. Phone goes on record, sits on the table. The players even assist by putting *their* phones on record as well, and sending me the audio files afterwards. Spending 2 minutes to merge them all together in an audio editing program means everybodys voice sounds like the microphone is in front of them. It doesn't have to be podcast level, it just needs to be something you can put on your phone and listen to while you're doing other stuff. I listen back through most of my games so often I actually don't take any notes at all now. I have the entire campaign committed to memory and can tell players things they did better than they remember it, or things they've said to NPCs word for word. And because I can say it with such confidence, nobody questions it. It's liberating.
Even better is when the players want to listen as well so they can remember what they needed or wanted to do, or pick up hints that I drop that they might have missed before. So now I keep them on a google drive for the players to go through as well. They love this.
I’m on my sixth straight year long campaign running exclusively with CZcams prepared playlist music and copious iPhone notes. It makes every next game easier forever.
One of my favorite unorthodox note taking tactics is to make memes right after the session. Making stuff funny makes it easier for me to remember it and it gives a quick visual reference for later planning. Plus of you sent the memes to your party not only will it make them laugh there’s also the chance that they make their own memes which you can then use as stolen notes (it also gives you insight into what parts of the game your players enjoy).
All my stuff is in various spreadsheets and documents so when I take notes mid session I usually jot down a couple of important facts right where they belong and anything I've told the party that I can't take back. So I take all my notes about NPCs in my NPC spreadsheet and info on what the party has discovered and what info they know in my adventure document.
I don't take notes during the session, but I generally spend 15-20min either the same session or the following day putting together notes (what the party did vs what I thought they'd do, any notable loot/NPCs/encounters, player questions or requests, how party actions affect the rest of the world, etc.) and starting to prep for the next session. Helps me to piece together where the party is going (compared to my plans or expectations) and to adjust future plans accordingly.
I needed this video! It helped me realize that while I was already doing (or trying) steps 1 and 2, I wasn't giving myself enough time. Jason Carl from L.A. by Night helped me realize this as he always takes a pause and says 'Let me write a note' when he needs to.
"just make your players do it" YEP i offer inspiration for players who recap at the start of each session, it totally helps (and it tells me what they thought was important)
Finally a Ginny D&D where I already do everything she recommends ...
My recommendation is - DO IT! It definitely Works!
I am the note taking player in the two campaigns I'm currently in, but my note taking is the same when I do DM. I actually record all of our sessions. So, during session I jot down names of NPCs and locations, and maybe a few word bullet points for important events. But in the time between sessions, I make the session audio available for everyone through our shared Google Drive. Half of the party listens to the session again to prep for the next session. But then I also listen through it all and take detailed notes for recaps that are put into a shared campaign recap Google Doc. So the DM and all the players have access to everything that has happened throughout the session. My DMs have told me how useful this has been for them when it comes to planning for future sessions and arcs. And the bonus for me is that I have a nice outline for once the campaign ends so I can turn the adventures into a book or series of books. My party has already approved of my hopes to publish our campaigns as fantasy novels in future. So the audio recordings and shared recap notes are helpful for everyone.
I'm the player who takes notes for everyone. I have a google sheets page that I use to keep track of everything, because meeting once a week means there's 7 days for me to forget things. It's gotten to the point where the DM can usually start the session with, "What happened last time?" and I can see the "anonymous walrus" icons pop in as another player reads a quick summary from the notes.
Now to revise and automate things before our next campaign (probably mid-January?). So many new ideas and improvements I want to add. :D
Another great video that gave me a number of new ideas. :)
I've been needing this video for SO LONG!! I love note-taking as a player but as I've started DMing, note-taking is out the window!
As an exclusively-online DM, I am blessed with session recordings that I can review later while making my refined notes. Meanwhile, I have scrap paper I use each session for in session notes, which are a combo of combat tracking, rules I need to research, and quick notes of what happens. Those are on top of my formal session prep notes...it's a lot of notes.
In my experience, I've learend ways to tag the parts of my prepared notes that actually get touched on to give specific details based on what actually happened, and I would LOVE to get better about writing in the moment.
Luckily the parts where the Party doesn't deviate - or at least not by much - are easier to remember for me. The hardest stuff to make sure I write down is the entire scenes I have to birth on the spot because I didn't expect that route. I usually try to stay at the table after we end the session to jot down everything I can remember that's worth holding onto, but I still can't shake wanting to be better about jotting down notes throughout the session.
In my last session, I had an entire NPC from the previous session get mentioned and the Party ended up hiding contraband in her workshop. Based on their previous discussion at the end of the last session, I didn't expect them to do that. But based on my roleplay in the moment and their questions along the way I have entire plot thread to chase now. That note was top priority for me, but it was at the top of the session. I managed to write down "Where is ?" Then after the session, I spitballed some ideas on my tablet.
Do you have a video for helping DMs trust their gut on an angle? My Party started speculating about this NPC because she wasn't there and I left clues of a struggle, but idk where exactly she went myself. Is there any advice for that?
I've found that for me, a great way to make accurate notes about conversation and situations quickly, though granted perhaps only ones you can read without explanation is to use the system of communication similar to what's shown in the book Congo by Michael Crichton... The book is pretty good and so you get used to reading the shorthand messages, which then translates to being able to write them that way with a little practice... I was actually able to take word for word dictation in real time for over an hour using the same system, though, granted somewhat adapted to my own style.
It might not work for everyone, but it's worked for me, to the point that at one point, back in the day for work, (VERY long story) I was able to transcribe an entire two hour session of a court hearing that I'd later end up testifying at, and while my notes were challenged, when I read them back they matched word for word with what the court stenographer had taken down to the point where the judged admitted them as evidence.
Basic idea is you're looking for an accurate, decodable sentence by leaving out any unnecessary letters, and shortening words with abbreviations leaving out any information you know you'll 100% remember or abbreviating it severely. Remember, you're the only one who has to be able to read it, so use things that work in your head.
For example, Let's say the sentences in question are
"Tinky, Winky, and Blinky went to the Tube Tavern, met Prince Rex The Fifth, of Clan Congo. The Prince indicated that he was unhappy with mistreatment of the people and that he might be willing to help their quest to overthrow his Uncle"
I might scrawl it down as
"T W B mt @ Tbe Tvrn w/ PrncRx5, Cln Cngo.... PrncR sd ws unhpy w/ pple cond +mght hlp w/qst, tss hs unc."
It might be meaningless to anyone who wasn't in the game or doesn't know the format, but it's enough detail that if I was the one taking the notes and was there, my brain can fill in the missing information pretty much instantly.
It may not be an ideal system for everyone, but it's worked for me, so I hope it helps someone out there.
Helpful tip for me. I keep a game calendar and update it with DM notes that will occur in the future. '17 Ches - Alatar's Carpet of Flying ready for pickup, still owes 8000 gp' or '6 Hammer - Dumar escapes captivity and goes to report to the king on 28 Hammer'
As someone who growing up, required teacher-aide assistance in school to help me take notes as I listened to the teacher speaking & also during exams so I could get through them completely, having to do my own note-taking is the one thing that makes me hesitant about playing D&D.
Most players don't take notes or take very very few notes, and even a few DMs don't
As said in the video, 1 in 5 dms that responded didn’t take notes. It’s not a requirement, she’s just suggesting ways to make notes quicker and to ensure you don’t forget.
If you will be a player, there’s nothing forcing you to take notes. Build into your character that they forget a lot or just let your party know ahead of time that you may not always have the most accurate info.
If your going to be a DM, talk with your players and come up with a way for both you and them to highlight major events that happen. Keep in mind that most of the DM job is pre prep and smaller things like just crossing out plot points on a prewritten sheet may take you a long way
If you do play D&D, I'd just suggest talking with your DM about this! It's certainly not a requirement as a player to take notes, but if I were your DM, I'd definitely want to know so I can help accommodate you and also so I don't misinterpret why you're not taking notes. (Some DMs can interpret people who don't take notes as being not committed or not focused.)
@@GinnyDi Oh yeah of course, thanks for the advice Ginny.
I prefer writing down my notes in the wind down time we always have after the session. My players love to hang around and chat after the session is over, drink tea and discuss things and this is where I often sit in the back organising the notes. It also helps me catch things that the players have taken note of as they often discuss it after the session.
That witch hat looks sooooo nice! The material, the bow, the silluete... that makes a great art reference!
All of this info is great. I'll add one more tip.
On your sheet of paper, put sections ahead of time. This can vary by preference, but mine are:
Top 4th: PC names as columns, where I jot down specific things they did or received or learned
Second 4th: plot hooks/threads, where I put clues I've given
Third 4th: loot, where I jot down items I gave players, Magical or otherwise (as sometimes a "weird dagger" can be a macguffin later)
Last 4th: NPCs and world info, where I put names, voice cues, relationships, etc
I wanted to thank you, Ms. Di, for making these DM tips videos. I'm a first time GM, and this series has really been helping me break down challenges I'm facing and how to engage with them. I really appreciate the help. Thank you.
I’m also an audio recorder. I started doing this with the campaign that I started last month and I’ve noticed a huge increase in my organization as well as my players enjoyment. I can focus entirely on the game in the moment secure in the understanding that everything is ready for review during my game prep time. I will, however note that this works well for me because the sessions are only 2-3 hours long. A recording over 4 hours or even more might be harder to find time to review.
Did this method for 2 years. For VtM Chronicle that was Weekly and about 3 to 5 hours. It is a lot to hear, but since you are "with your mind on the game", by the time you're hearing the session back, you are most likely to remember what happened in the moments you hear, so it's easy to say "okay, I know what happens in this part, it's nothing worth writing, I'll just skip forward a bit and get going".
Uni lectures have prepped me for dm notes. The quick short hand needed to keep up in a 300 person lecture where you can’t ask the professor to slow down or repeat things in has made it very easy. Here’s my tips:
Turn words to symbols if you can. “/“ means (ex: party/hunters guild means “the party is with the hunter guild) with for me and & @ # are big uses too for and, at, and number respectively
If your handwriting; get a pen that writes smoothly. Something that doesn’t stutter or skip. I recommend a fountain pen if you can get one. Bit of a learning curve but when they write they’re buttery smooth
Have your dm note book or folder open at the top of the game with the date and anything you know you need off the top of your head
Rewrite them post game. Panic writing something fast is great, but if you can’t read it later that’s no good. Take the half hour after game to rewrite down your notes in a way that is clearer and more easy for you to read.
As someone who isn't a DM, I still found this helpful. I tend to overwrite, so learning to trim the fat is something I really have to get better at.
Another option, if you're really looking for clarity: record your sessions. You don't need a high quality mic setup for each player (though if you're playing digitally, investing in something better than your laptop's mic is very worthwhile, your friends will appreciate it), just something that can record audio in all directions. Or, if you're playing digitally, something that can record your mic input and audio from Discord or whatever at the same time. There's lots of options here - physically, your phone is probably the easy option; digitally OBS is overkill (since we don't need video) but it gets the job done and is pretty easy to set up.
That way the only session notes you need to take are notes that are relevant later that session. Like if you're forgetful with names, and you name a guard Benny, you'll want to jot down something like "Benny=guard" so when the party decides they want to talk to Benny 3 hours later, you have a clue what they're talking about. Then you listen to the session after the fact and take your notes.
I would include into this a modification to her note taking suggestion: instead of words, just record the time you start session/recording, and then every time you feel like you could use some time to write down notes, just write down the timestamp. That way, you don't have to listen to the entire thing, as you know exactly where you have information you want to turn into future notes.
I usually take notes of the important things RIGHT AFTER the session. I add them to my session prep notes and then later in the week when I come back to prep I use what I wrote to build
I love the advice about taking notes based on your players and their ideas.
I killed my party’s Rogue last session, with them sacrificing themselves as a distraction for the party to flee. He was decapitated visibly by a major bad guy villain and they saw the body being dragged away. My Cleric is paranoid that a necromancer is going to reanimate the Rogue and use him against us now.
Now the party has an undead pistol wielding zombie hunting them down for the villain.
Definitely make a note for the voice/mannerisms you use for each of your NPCs. You never know when a one-time NPC turns out to be a regular (ex. Victor on Critical Role, campaign 1).
Possibly the nicest, most wholesome person on CZcams. Feels a little like being taught how to pour water out of a boot, but damned if just watching it doesn't make me feel better.
As a player I take very detailed notes and my notes have become the main "official" point of reference for what happened in sessions and so I always do our session recaps (obviously the DM is the actual official authority on her world, but my notes serve as a written reference for what the party has encountered, when, and how we responded to it). (Edit because I just got to the end of the video: yes! make your players take session notes! I was going to be doing it anyway it just made sense for our party and our DM to rely on it lol)
I have much less experience as a DM but my session notes for that are not even close to as thorough! One thing that I've found helpful though is using the same note-taking philosophy I used in college: print out the lecture slides before class and only write down anything new or important that comes up in class directly onto those slides. The only difference here is instead of printing lecture slides it's session prep. You could do this online too, but I like to easily distinguish between what was in the original plan that's printed on the page and what was obviously added later because it's handwritten.
Great video! I actually use some of these tips when I am taking notes as a player. I write bulletin points with as little info needed to remember what I'm talking about and I go back later to add them to my journal in more detail. Even when transferring these notes, I try to only focus on the important stuff. Loot gained, stuff sold, NPC names and locations, anything that stood out for some reason, etc. Thanks for the vid!
I just make my players wait. They don’t get it till years later, then they couldn’t be more grateful... Revenge is a dish best served cold!
Another option is making an audio recording. Whenever something you want to remember comes up, say a specific word or phrase. Then, when you go through it, listen for those markers. That way, you can do whatever chores you need to do while reviewing.
It's weird, I know. I used to do it when I played more often. I plan to do it when I have the time to get back into it too. I'm not a GM though.
I ask the players to take notes prior to the start of our current campaign. They were surprisingly okay with it, since in theory it gave them some power to help shape the narrative around what they deemed important. And already it's working.
For instance, I asked the players to name the very first inn they came across as a means to let them engage in the world. The first name was something like "The Sleeping Turtle" since it was on the beach. The next session to follow we realized no one wrote it down and I couldn't find my note since I had 10+ other documents scattered around my computer. So we renamed it to "The Stacked Shells" and kept it even after I found the original name. Worked out beautifully.
I love how your examples of the types of session prep were all highly detailed. My session prep notes tend to look far more like this:
Gladiator Games.
Dragon nests for the egg. Gotta get it AND escape.
Edgelord Tiefling
Bard with fife and drum, kinetic stones
Half giant is entering
Badass dwarf fighter lady
Mantis monk, fires spines from legs
Halfling Barbarian, total marshmallow when not fighting
And that's one of my longer prep notes.
A few things I do that aren't exactly for taking notes but fall in the same vein is:
- giving a recap at the beginning of sessions about what the general theme of the past few sessions were, then ask the players if there was anything they think I missed (somethings that are minor to the DM feel more important to players)
- At the end of the session I calculate XP & give it out to everyone, I go over why they gain XP (i.e. 1000xp for the combat 200xp for how they roleplayed with the lost child, 800xp for cleverly disarming that trap etc.) this also helps me remember the big points of the game.
Great timing! I'm starting my first time as a dm tomorrow, and I wanted to try taking notes.
One thing I usually do is have my session outline pulled up, and i'll highlight it in green as they accomplish stuff
I still have to add in notes when my players do something crazy, but it really helps me save time
This was much needed. Love your content. It really helps as a newer DM/being a better player as well! Thanks!
Great tips, thank you so much!
I'm a trained interpreter, and the first two tips were suprisingly similar to stuff I was taught for consecutive interpreting.
One of my players has a shared Google doc for notes and it's honestly one of the biggest blessings i've ever had
I've taken to recording my sessions with a simple phone app, then playing them back later to take notes. It can be really rewarding to re-experience the session as a third-party observer, and there's plenty of time to go back and review important parts for notes. Since I lived it once, it's no trouble to go through it at 2x speed the second time around. The recordings aren't high quality at all; it's just a phone sitting in the center of the table. But it captures more than enough to review. At your discretion, you can also upload the recordings into a shared drive or some other location your players can access if they're the type that would also like to go back and review or relive things at a later time.
I had a minor bit of time travel in a recent episode (party went back about a week), and honestly without all the recordings of past sessions, I probably wouldn't have been able to accomplish that. By re-listening to the week-ago-game-time recordings from a few sessions ago, I was able to go in and portray things as they actually were. There were parts that I hadn't taken notes on, but with the high-fidelity of the audio itself it didn't matter.
I'm the person in our campaign who takes the notes, refines them and shares them with the group. Partly because I love the homebrew world our DM has created, and partly because my character is the type who actually might keep a diary and write stuff down. He definitely sometimes writes letters home and tells his parents about his adventures.
Some DM's are blessed with great memories , l am not so l make pre session notes , session notes , post session notes , luckily my kids and thier friends ,( the group l DM for), are also taking notes . Key words are the key for me.
I can usually remember pretty much everything that happens in a session except for the last half an hour or so, the adrenaline tends to be running out by then. So a handy note-taking cheat that I've used in the past is not take notes in the session at all and instead to use my phone to record the sessions (with everyone's permission, of course) and then listen back to them whilst doing some other task. I can then catch relevant stuff that slipped through the cracks in the heat of gameplay and write it into my outline for future sessions. It also lets me take an audience's/player's perspective on my GMing style and improve through self-reflection, and if you happen to do voices for lots of NPCs, having a recording of that voice to use as a reference is invaluable!
All great advice as usual Ginny! Love your content.
I found the perfect solution! I just write recaps in a discord channel under the guise of helping my players remember what happened, and then I read it back before each session in whatever character voice they vote for. Literally, they all look forward to it and it helps me remember the plot!
The upside of my players taking almost no notes at all is that sometimes it's okay for me to take crappy notes and not remember certains things right, because they won't know better anyway xD
Seriously though, I have a really hard time taking notes during a session (I'll definitely try to implement these tips!) but I try very hard at least to take notes as soon as possible after a session when I can still remember things. And I put them in two categories: Stuff that happened (most of which I would probably remember anyway, so these aren't as important) and "Things to remember" which is information about the current state that we ended the session at (e.g. "late afternoon, it's raining, just finished fighting the carnivorous plants, this character still has Alter Self on, another one is still covered in goop") and all kinds of details such as names, items etc. that may be relevant for the future. When I get around to it shortly after the session, that's half my prep for the next one already done. When I don't... well, see above 😄
You know what would really fun to watch (though a LOT of work for you)? A video in which a lot of your cosplay characters, past and present, meet each other. Can you imagine Jester meeting Aisling, or Fearne meeting Crysta? It would be awesome!
I am a lucky, lucky DM because my friend is a wonderful note-taker. She takes meticulous notes and I can steal them (consensually, she shares them) after session ends.
Haha, that last tip was actually what I was going to suggest: You need a Chronicler in the party 😁 At least that gets rid of the need for notes like "party entered city X, offended guards and had to flee". It does add the need for the DM to identify crucial information that won't be chronicled because teh players don't know them, like whether the guards' officer will hold a grudge or even place a bounty on them. It's possible it won't save a lot of time in the end after all.
I don't take many notes during a session (mostly just npc names I came up with on the spot and (magic) items I handed out)
but I do have a couple of additional things that help me:
- I always have 1 person (usually a player, on rare occassions myself) do a session summary in the games discord (running multiple games with different discords for each)
- I do handle xp (yes no milestones, but my players in all games asked for it) in a shared google sheet where I write down (after a session) what the group and each player individually did for xp
- Players are making additional lists (npcs important to them, magic items they know about, assignment they've taken on, their stronghold (including maps), ...) in channels on the discords
- I start all sessions by having one of the players do a recap of the last session, it helps get the group back into the game too and lightens my load :D
- I encourage my players (but don't demand it, because it's a big time commitment) to write and share with me a in-character diary, which I do also utilize for stuff happening during the sessions .. (e.g.: a character got into possession of a couple of "soul stones" used to create warforged in my setting and came up with names for each one of them in his diary .. later they met a powerful being that had created the exact amount of warforged bodies waiting for souls, matching the names and descriptions in that characters diary)
basically I "outsource" a lot of the notekeeping to my players, partly because it does give me the players perspective, partly because I'm lazy and partly because in my experience it makes players more invested, but I'm also very glad about the notes I do end up taking myself
It's super great knowing when you give advice on these things, it's coming from somebody else with ADHD so they may actually be applicable for me, not the exact invisible barrier I'm trying to over come.
I use my recap as my notes. I write it after the session or the next morning, and I rely on my Players for the rest of the nitty gritty random details. I made it plain that I'm terrible at taking notes from the start...so we came up with collaborative note taking as a solution. Whoever isn't RPing at the time...takes the notes. We have two people that are really good at it and take really detailed notes, while other's do short hand. It really helps take the stress off me as a DM. I do occasionally write down things that they're thinking about...and anything they're thinking about doing. I ask for those things from them ahead of time before the session that it becomes relevant, so it makes it on to my "To do" list for the session. So far so good :P I've only been DMing for little under a year lol
Gonna throw this in there as well, as something I learned from teaching history (not too much difference between teaching and running a D&D game, I've found): recap with your players immediately after the session concludes. Something like: "OK, so during this session, you all (and let *them* fill in the blanks on what they did, where they went, with whom they spoke, while you add notes from anything you missed in the session). What's next for the heroes? Come back next session to find out!"
This is also a good time to ask them what they're planning to do next time, which makes it a helluva lot easier to incorporate your game notes into your planning for the next session.
I feel so lucky that my players take turns writing down everything that happens every session. I keep my own notes, but in times of high intensity when I forget to take notes, they have written down everything that happened anyway. It's helpful for everyone, they get a complete log of what has happened in every session, I input these notes to our wiki(kanka) as journals in the in game calendar, so if someone tries to remember something that happened 3 months ago, they can look it up at any time.
We run our sessions online. I used to take notes in-session, then write up a session narrative afterwards. Realizing that we could capture our online session as a video stream, we just started capturing the stream (using a private Facebook group, of all things) and then writing up the session narrative from that.
All session narratives are available to the GM (me) online via Google Drive. Since we also post the narratives on a Facebook Group, the players have access to them, too. Not the easiest way to retrieve notes, but at least everything is reasonably accurate.
I might try to implement some of these tips, very solid advice here. What I've been doing myself is having players keep a public session log wherein they surmise the session's events and everyone can discuss it. I also keep a DM log with my non-player knowledge, and I've found the player log can help me highlight what they remember that I didn't see as significant at the time. The main potential for problems here is that I do it all post-session. Makes actually writing notes easier, but also opens up the opportunity for missing bits that don't stand out to me or the players (but do those things even matter?). I've been using a d4 to determine who gets to write the log. With the exception of one particularly...we'll say lazy player, it has gone over well. I also do session surveys which both ask questions for my sake and to remind players of stuff they should be considering.
I use my notes and prep to create my intro for the next session. This gets me into the prep for this week and bring me back into the game. The game intro then becomes the campaign 'novel' so I can easily find something later on.
I wanted to run my first, original mystery for my players to solve.
Initially, I was worried about all the info I'd have to keep track of like what the players know, what they found and where, who they've talked to, etc.
But I ended up making a rough outline with pseudo bullet points for all the clues and NPCs I had for them to solve the mystery.
Whenever they found something or got a piece of info, I would cross it off the outline!
I know I had to take notes BEFORE the session, but for something like a complicated mystery, I found it really helped me keep track of who knew what and when.
I have a little story. Once we were on a dungeon crawl, and we got into a room with a pulley in the center. We tried so hard to figure out what the pulley was for but we couldn't figure out any use for it, so eventually we just forgot about it and moved on.
It was until later that the DM figured out that he had scribbled a note on his map that said "pelea" which is the spanish word for "encounter". But at the moment of reading it he thought it said "polea" which means "pulley". So he just went ahead and described the room with the pulley that not even he had any idea what it was about.
We had a good laugh at that and the room with the pulley became a running joke for years. Good times.
Double or triple space your Session Prep notes. When something comes up, write it down in the available space under the associated bullet point.
This is a LIFESAVER. I've mentioned this before in other comments, but I like to do little session recaps for my party that we read before session so we remember what happened last week, and since I'm taking over as DM soon, I was so worried I'd have to stop for time reasons! Thanks again, Ginny!!
As a relatively new DM I do a few things to keep the party on track. One, I run a "support" character within the party. A Goblin Artificer that can provide some healing, hide well and tonkers with stuff. Pops in to keep the party from selling plot hook articles or look somewhere during a dungeon to keep the plot on track. Also has mother issues and his mom is a big baddie in the campaign. Another is the have a base and work for a town leader. He provides mission for them and helps keep them on track yadda yadda.
And invalid weekly reminder email, I revisit what has just happened, where the party is, and what is currently going on.
I also have a former DM playing that helps me with rules, and kinda keeping an eye on the player that doesn't track how many spells cast, or the guy new to a class and how to tweak it or wats to play it.
Taking notes is a necessity for me anymore. I used to be able to write things down AFTER the session but nowadays, I have write EVERYTHING down DURING the session! I blame my lack of brain space and attention going WAY downhill the last 2ish years. I do take lots of notes and getting better at compacting notes (especially when I'm tired) but I still like to write down almost everything that happens. Gonna be my turn to DM next year for the first time ever and I am a bit nervous, but my friends are pretty chill about taking the time to make sure things are right and going at our own pace. Just about to finish the first ever campaign we all started last December! Lost a player due to school, scheduling, extra activities earlier this year so things have been harder to play without her.
Everyone takes session notes b/c of the time schedules, job schedules, needing a week off (or several), just easier to have all of us take notes so we can fill in the blanks after a long break or someone forgets what happened last time. We didn't even really talk about this during the first session either, we all just decided to start doing that. I do get distracted sometimes when there's a lot of talking and not a lot of RPing or action happening so I have lots of doodles in my notes as well. I can tell when I get particularly distracted or tired by the amount of doodles on any sessions notes.
I do a 1 page or less session summary at the end of the session, sometimes the next day, but by doing this, I have volumes of session notes and it works well for me. I then use this summary to craft the next adventure, its worked well for me for 20+ years.
I am the note taker in one of my campaigns. I post on our group's shared board and the other players add bits that I may have missed. I hope it helps our DM. (She's amazing with the homebrew world she created for us.)
Notes when I have DMed have been sort of haphazard. I'm not terribly experienced as a DM so I get overwhelmed. Appreciate the tips and "permission" to take a minute (both as a player and DM)
Great video and I'm glad it popped onto my feed. This is something I've been struggling with as a new DM, and is a skill I have to unlearn from my seat as a player (I am my group's note taker, and I take note of e v e r y th i ng).
Since quarantine started, I've taken up to writing very detailed, extensive notes for our sessions, because I noticed I paid less attention and got way too fidgety. It's been a great help for me to stay focused and even remember what's happened, because my memory is shit. And since my group is full of DMs and we all take turns rotating the games every weekend, it helps the players refresh our memories/catch up if we're taken away for a bit, and helps the DMs keep track of what events have transpired/what information they've dropped as an impromptu. It's tiring work sometimes and gets in the way of my roleplaying, but I love doing it for my friends. Plus it's a great road down memory lane!
I've been waiting for a video like this for a while! Thanks so much for sharing your insight!
I used to be notetaker for the sessions my sibling tried to conduct from a 4e kit. They were good notes, but too time-consuming to write down.
Since I am co-dm'ing with another person and both of us take far too literal notes to make it efficient and fun, we both asked whom among our Players would do so, especially since it's more for their rememberance than ours. Thankfully, there was one person willing to step in and now we have great sessions and good notes to refer to. 😁👍🏻
Before our DM quit he did take notes but as a group we also took notes and wrote things down that stood out to us, by the time we all came back together we had all the notes we needed! We were in charge of keeping track of our own money and inventory and since it was mostly couples we paired off and helped each other. Those that weren't couples picked a friend and helped keep track so nobody got left behind. We were usually pretty good about keeping the person to our right and left in the loop 😁
Can confirm this works well, I do it very similarly to this. I write down almost nothing during the game, but I have a sheet of paper for things like names that I might actually forget in 5 minutes. Everything else I will still know immediately after, so I write down some notes then, before going to bed. Not the next morning! Letting a whole night pass first has historically not gone over well.
Hi, Ginny! The importance of taking notes can’t be overstated. At our table, whichever of us is DM gives inspiration to the player who is taking notes for that session. It is awarded at the start of the next session when they provide the summary/recap. This works for us and provides a useful incentive.
I try to make a note of placenames, people names, and lore snippets as I create them, then after the session while everyone is congratulating me on how much fun they had, I'm busily making notes of any major events that might have consequences later on that weren't in the original plan (i.e. player-led derailments!) and where in the plot we've got to. I know if I rely on one or two words, by the time I come to write things up later (let alone next session) I will have forgotten the context and the note will be meaningless, so I often *do* need at least a full clause, if not a whole sentence! Spider diagrams/mindmaps are SUPER useful for establishing details connected to the NPC/location that I just had to make up on the fly - like, if I need to keep track of motivations and suchlike.
Fantastic video. Like you describe here, I find names to be the hardest thing to remember. I still suck at taking notes but these ideas are great.
I also find, as a player, taking notes is the number one way for me to stay engaged in the game and offer some good value to the DM and the other players. If you’re a player, take the time and effort to journal your session. It pays a ton of dividends.
The only time I make/take a note is if something specific/odd/strange happened that I know I will crucial later, but that's pretty rare.
What I do is a quick recap at the beginning of each session. I open up with either by asking what happened last week or I'll just start recapping and letting them fill in the blanks. Not only does this remind ME of what happened, it gets the players talking and remembering things they forgot individually and they start remembering them as a group. This also really helps set the direction for that current session. And the best part? All that comes from the players, not the DM, meaning they're driving the campaign. I mean let's face it, we're all real people with real lives and actual things to take care of. We really don't need to be wasting precious brain space on a dnd campaign and what the evil king's favorite snack is, so this helps everyone at the table. Everybody just has to remember a "little bit" and you put all the pieces together before each session.