4th & Dragon : Dungeons and Dragons...and stuff

Well, I personally am going to be making some form of an organized binder for DMing. I figured that while I was in the process of organizing this I would share it with you and look for ideas. This is not meant as a player aid (like power cards), but instead a DM aid. So far my list is as follows (short, but only until I add more):

NPC Name List
Business Name List
NPC Mannerisms.Quirks Table (DMG pg 186)
Player Handout Section (organized by session/adventure)
Campaign Notes
Attained PC Gear (includes purchased and found items, usually magic/rare only)
PC Stats Page
Conditions Page (list of Conditions effects)
Combat Crib Sheet (turn sequence, bonuses and penalties for things like cover and charging)
Spare Character Sheets
XP Table (DMG pg56)/ Difficulty Class and Damage by Level (DMG pg42)/ Fall Severity Table (DMG pg 44)/Treasure Parcel Table (DMG pg 125)
Maps (At least one map of each of the various terrains: Dungeon, Cave, Underground, Ship, Forrest, etc.)

The basic concept of the above is not to decrease time in campaign creation/encounter building/etc., yet rather it’s purpose is to increase the speed of gameflow at the table. The point is to stay out of books when looking up common things (like conditions) and staying away from those “umm” moments as a DM by having things “prepared” for when PCs do the unexpected.

The idea is to keep the printed resources to a minimal amount for both ease of reference and cost of printing. Pages are required to be useful and thought provoking. For instance, a list of names should inspire creativity for other names. I personally don’t like the idea of random treasure or random encounters, so those won’t be included, but to each their own. I also have my players track initiative in dry erase, so that could be a page that others might require but won’t be included.

Some links I found while typing this that might help:
387 Free D&D Maps
Random Fantasy Business Name Generator
7 Quirk Tips & 40 Quirks For Your Reference
Useful Links for Dungeon Masters

The order of the things above is definitely jumbled, but I’m off to bed.

What I have found to be very helpful is to take everything that is printed out or hand written for my reference, and put it in a binder in alphabetical order by topic.  The most important sections include:

Adventure Notes—either adventures I’ve written or notes on changes to adventures that have been published.

Atlas—maps of the setting

Encounter Tables—I do use random encounter tables, and these are usually handwritten

Events—I like to generate events to occur during the campaign

NPCs—Alphabetized by name

PCs—I keep copies of all the PCs’ character sheets

I also have a separate binder for the players to reference that includes information on the setting, races, prestige classes that are available, notes on how the classes fit into the setting, the religions in the area, etc.

I’ve been using google groups to keep all my campaign stuff organized, and you can share with the players whatever you’d like.

It’s pretty useful, check it out DM’s, I think you’d like it…

Stuff like a history of your setting…
Common knowledge PC’s would have…
Maps....
A Campaign outline…

Chad I think mentioned some kind of wiki format for your campaign. How could I set one up on my computer?
Anyone?

I lack programming skills so it needs to be simple.

I don’t need to have it open for public use, just as a way to organize information.

I tried Tiddlywiki for that, but honestly I didn’t like it.  I think I got the idea from Martin Ralya at the old TreasureTables website.  Anyway, it’s a decent enough idea if you think it will help.  I didn’t think it helped me much, though.

Hey guys.  I use VoodooPad to keep everything organized.  Pretty much a self contained on my computer wiki so I don’t have to worry about any sites hosting it or other people looking at it.  I tend to use my laptop a lot to help me keep track of all my D&D stuff.  While I have a folder with notes, written up character sheets (or like the 6 pieces of paper per character I use to list options for it then slowly put it together from those pieces) and other stuff I write or draw while I am away from my laptop.  But most of that gets converted into some text file on my computer.  Finished character sheets all get typed up, maps get scanned and touched up, DM’ing ideas get put together and revised.

But kinda got off topic on a little spill there.  Ha ha I use the free version of VoodooPad, you get like 15 (? I think) pages per wiki, which is plenty even if you keep things spread out.  Only downside (for some people) is that it is for Macs only.

[EDIT] And to answer Rothe’s question yes it is very simple.  You just type your stuff up, and when you want to make something a link you just highlight and click the link button at the top bar and it makes a new page.  Even has a little paint kind of program if you want to sketch right on your wiki.

Mac only is kind of killing this for me. I wonder if there are similar applications for PC’s?
Must be, I have to apply my google-fu on this.

Zulupad

Supposed to be very similiar to Voodoopad or Onenote and is cross platform with a free version that is open source and the Pro for 15 dollars.  Haven’t tried it just googled it up for you to possible check out Rothe.

On topic.  I used to have a File cabinet with files for each player and each campaign.  I also had a file for maps by type, npc’s by level and type(melee ranged, arcane, divine,).  I had a name generator on my computer and a tavern generator. 

this was of course easily done because I had my desk next to were we gamed for most of my games.  Laptop would carry for the other games. 

Before that I had expanding file folder that contained campaign stuff like you have listed and a homemade dm screen with the tables on it.  There was also the important sheets like status and combat tracker sheets and then extra sheets like character sheets, player tracking sheets and combat trackers for the pcs.

Ha ha yea well it’s ok, Windows only kills me for some stuff so I get that problem sometimes too