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.
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!
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.
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" 👀
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.
"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.
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*.
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 ...
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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
@@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 🤗
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
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'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’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'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. :)
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.
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’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".
"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)
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
Possibly the nicest, most wholesome person on RUclips. 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.
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.
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 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
One of my friends just started GMing, and he knows I take killer notes, so I actually share my session notes with him AND I make a condensed version of all events within a session (sort of Lore Keeping) based on those notes. It helps him fill in the dm note blanks and it helps me remember everything that happens in sessions and have easy-to-search notes.
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.
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 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.
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'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.
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
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
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
Good video! Note taking is truly simple, but I think some DM's get overwhelmed/burnt out from multitasking, so notes are one of the first, non-required tasks to drop. Personally, I love notes/writing in general. As DM, I use a Hybrid Model: Pen/paper in game for bullet points plus using a Campaign Tracker Google sheet on my computer post-session. Doing it for a couple years, I've got it down to a science. There are even eraseable notebooks that are connected to the cloud so you can upload your handwritten notes to your computer. There's no shortage of resources out there. "The human mind is fallible and D&D sessions are long". Thanks Ginny, I'll make a note of that!
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 😄
If I may toss some advice into the void, something that I've found incredibly helpful as a DM with ADHD and an inability to effectively multitask, I record all of my sessions by streaming them to a private youtube video, both when they were in person and now that they're primarily digital. In person I had an admittedly overkill setup of a good omnidirectional mic placed centrally and webcams on both myself and my players, so I could capture physicality and emotions so I can later go back and watch each player for signs of discomfort or anything else I might have missed in the moment so I can address it with them if needed, or to look for when they really engage so I know what to include more of! Players don't always know exactly what they enjoy the most and don't/can't always vocalize it when they do know, so looking for cues like that has been very helpful. In digital games, I've taken to having a secondary account on discord on my laptop that just sits in the call, muted with video off, while I run the game from my desktop (admittedly this is also a little overkill, but I have a lot of things open and the resources of streaming and everything else is a bit too much for my desktop). The ability for me to then go back and take good, detailed notes about what happened in the last sessions is infinitely useful to me, because I can pull direct quotes or pick up on small things that I can bring back in later. That and if a player misses a session and we play without them, I can just send them the recording to watch back! And sometimes when things are really funny or a good memory that I want to remember, I essentially have a hard copy of that memory. If you like this idea be sure to inform your players of it! I have a form that I have players fill out before even session 0 that goes through a bunch of different comfort things re: topics that come up in game and anything that might be upsetting or uncomfortable in an unfun way and the very first question informs them that I record sessions privately for my own memory purposes and asks if they're comfortable with it, and then I let them know when I start and end the recording every session so they know when things they say are "on the record" if they have any need for that information. TL;DR: Record your sessions to take notes afterwards if taking notes during is overwhelming! Video is helpful but good audio is essential! Make sure your players are comfortable with being recorded! Inform them when you start and stop recording!
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 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.
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 😁
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 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.
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)
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.
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.
Once we started recording our sessions and putting them up on RUclips we can always pull up the previous episode and grab notes from that. Makes it much easier to keep track of things and remember stuff. We have a pretty extensive setup but a single Omni directional mic and a webcam could be an easy starting point. Also I know that when I em with a computer makes it much easier to take notes when I have an actual keyboard vs pencil (I can type much faster than write)
since the games i run are mostly improvised, i do a combination of 2 things. i note down only things that are coming up again in the same session (place names, details, npc names/details), AND for campaigns, i do an audio recording (with clear consent from all participants) and take notes from the recording after. Sometimes there is a LOT of worldbuilding in a single session, and i'd hate to forget important details!
I take notes in one campaign I'm in (as a player) in a very similar style to this! Quick bullet points, usually while it's others are talking or it's someone else's combat turn. Granted, I take them in quite a lot more detail than is really necessary, but I have the time bc I'm not the DM and also I type very quickly. But I want as much details as possible, bc after the sessions I compile the notes into a kind of prose format and upload that onto our discord server. We sometimes have long breaks between sessions, and having a short story of what happened last time is a great way to get reimmersed into the world and moment.
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 write very simple notes. They are in my own version of shorthand. - but if things get hectic, I spend a while after the session noting down any relevant points. - Fights are all coded with dots, arrow symbols and crosses. -very speedy. The only thing I'd write near fully is quotations from my players. - Being well prepared in advance and not going too off-piste works well too. At the end I might write a few paragraphs for my records, or turn it itnto a full-blown chapter ( like a book) depending on time. - TY Gin, good insights. :)
This is amazing advice for D&D -- but also just for note-taking in general! I am a teacher and am always reminding my students "don't try to write full sentences! Don't try to write EVERYTHING, just the important stuff!" Doing that both makes note-taking more possible, but like you mentioned, it also helps you start to develop an understanding of what's actually important too. And the part about going back to those rough notes and refining them later is basically the AVID Focused Note-taking way. Its really cool to be reminded that some of the stuff I'm teaching my students (especially the stuff that I usually think of as "the boring stuff") is applicable outside of school and for fun stuff like D&D too! :D
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.
- I write any notes in point form only. It might be just a name or a concept. Literally scraps of paper. My DM notes looks like the conspiracy theory meme. - Players are assigned/choose roles at the table: Treasurer, mapper, lorekeeper, etc. The lorekeeper takes deep notes. Given their opinion of the events isn't 100% shared, other players will take their own. - I have the players recount the events of the last session. This means the opening 15 min-30 min might be the table re-hashing how they remember the last session, which is fine by me because it's a tool to remember. I only correct name pronunciation. This also is a GREAT tool for knowing what plot hooks or NPCs took. - When it comes to primary world building, if you as DM know the basics of the world to a tee, then you can predict how things will play out. If you know the major NPCs/villains' motivations, you'll know that Duchess Marie AuClaire-Mortez will approach the actions at court a certain way. You'll know Kumosh the Orc Warlord will react to the Hobgoblin Khan's mission for the PC with an equal show of force. And so on. You can improvise a lot of actions this way, and your responses to player questions will come off as legit. You can save on note keeping this way by simply being "the the groove" with your NPCs.
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.
Also, MS OneNote is amazing for organizing those notes and you can get it on your phonenas well and it updates along side your other devices making your notes available to you at all times.
I run as many as 8 games a week. The only way I can do it is this: 1. Audio recording of every session. I set up my zoom account to record, even if i am the only one in the meeting. Put your phone on the table or better yet get a usb mic and put it facing the table. Then i listen back while I am prepping at double speed to save time. After that, the rest of my notes are only the really pointed things. 2. I only write down the in-game stuff that I need in the moment (initiative, conditions) and random ideas that pop into my head. Do it bullet point style. 3. When the session is over i write down any important stuff. 4. Last part of every session is asking the players what they want to do next time and writing that down. 5. Start the next session with everyone adding one detail that they remember being important to them. If there is more they can all chime in once everyone has made a contribution, but this gets everyone thinking about what was most important to them.
I really only use one or two nouns for notes and it works out pretty well. Then from those points, after the session, I go and write out some more detail about an event or encounter just so I don't forget.
One trick that helps me reduces the amount of notes to take is linked to another kind of thing: When you borrow information/ideas/NPCs from various sources, it becomes easier to just remember this. (I don't suggest doing that if your game is public like streamed or published somewhere tho) For example, I needed an Artificer NPC who had his family kidnapped so that the villains would blackmail him into doing work for them. The Engineer is a repurposed Babenon Dosal (The Gentleman) and I don't think I have to say who his family is for people to know who they are. All I need to remember/jot down is what got stolen from the character's backpack by the little blue tiefling.
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.
Ginny, I have to say, my favorite part of the new videos are the dice palette teases. Your content? Amazing. The aesthetics? You're casting Charm Person with them.
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
I've used a 'selfish' note-taking method in previous campaigns, where I only noted things that my character would notice, remember or cared about, but that's led to *huge* swathes of sessions being lost because no one else wrote it down because they thought *I* was writing it down. I've since changed my approach to note things that feel important but my character doesn't know or care about very vaguely, to jog the memories of my fellow players whom the information does matter to.
I like to do the ol voice record with my laptop. Just get audio from the whole session and work from that. I get so much info im able to quote what players said to NPCs word for word from 12 sessions ago 🤣 Leads to some funny moments and loads of nostalgia 💯
I have a pad - usually I leave 5-10 pages per character, plus locales (town, country etc) that develop in game ( I tend to wing it). But yes, I tend to keep notes, and use them at the most unexpected times. Even something as small as a chink in leather armour you can make into a story line years later. I gave up on "out of the box" DM'ing years ago. I much prefer making it up as I go along. I have written a few systems myself, and honestly been happy with the results - you don't need pre-made adventures if you have the time to invest... The systems I was playing were essentially Cyberpunk/Shadowrun/MERP/Rolemaster clones but you get what I mean - and I based the "dice" system around a deck of playing cards. So you could play the game anywhere you have a deck of cards (which just act as dice). If you want "dice" go to your local pound store - you can get a pack of 12 unmarked cubes for... £1.... mark them yourself. Save £16 (Looking at you Star Wars). I've never been into tabletop figures - I tried - I did the whole painting thing.... But to me personally the game is in the mind.
I always record my Sessions with a cam and watch it later, to note what I need to remember, whats important for the Review of the next session and what I should think about. Its a really good way, but its time consuming. So I think its just worth it, if the meetings arent weekly and ones sure, that the group is important and reliable enough.
Record your sessions! Or have a player record and put it in a google drive folder you can all access! Its not only amazing for notes but also to refresh accents and other smaller things you missed!
When I started my most recent job, I found that using plain white index cards to take notes as I went worked great for me. I have a sort of mental block when it comes to writing things down on a sheet of notebook paper or in OneNote - I need it to be organized there, but there's really no way to organize this kind of thing on the fly. But index cards? I can write whatever I want on those, then once they're filled up, I can transfer that into OneNote or Word or something in a more organized manner, cross it off the card as I move it, and toss the card when I'm done with it. I haven't DMed yet, but I'm sure I'll take the same approach when I get there, and plain white index cards are a dollar for 200 at the Dollar Tree, so it's not a huge investment either.
Learning my way the hard way. Trying to teach my little brother how to bring his storytelling to life, and now I'm gonna recommend this video to him. Thanks, Ginny.
I just jot down some key points, then in goblin notebook, have a session section, in which I will add, and link to details with more information on those things after the session ( especially while its still fresh ). I'll use that information to easily then get all the info I need to prepare for the next session. Actually from using goblin notebook from anything else, I have found this the easiest and most affective way for me to organise, and I'm not the best at doing that stuff in general. I am also new to DMing so it's been invaluable so far.
i personally record the sessions (with everyones consent ofc). it makes for a fun audio to listen to in my commute and makes it practical for me to notice certain mistakes i made with the rules and didnt notice stuff like that
Ya know what would make for an awesome video? Note-taking tips for neurodivergent DMs! As a DM with ADHD, I have to approach note taking and prep in different ways than others do. It’d be great to see you cover some tips/tools/tricks for people like me! ☺️
A bit late to the party, but I have another alternative for people: Record the game I play digitally because my friends and I are scattered to the four corners of the UK, and recording the game actually helps me stay in the moment, and to parse bad internet garbles which inevitably happen at the worst possible times. (I use OBS because it's easy for those wondering) The above is only a viable option if the table consents to it, and it has to be unanimous, no ifs ands or buts. It should also be brought up pretty much straight away, as this is something not everyone is comfortable with. For my table, I explained that it was to help me note take and make a better game for the guys and they all agreed, and it is one of the first things that we tell new players when welcoming them to the table. Once it became a normal part of the game we found that we love the fact that I have a digital archive of our shenanigans, and can theoretically look up any of our classic screw-ups to mock each other mercilessly with.
I can't even take notes as a player... I always have to rely on other players bc I can EITHER listen, comprehend, & generally engage in what's going on, OR I can write down some sentences words for word without putting those words together as actual cogent thoughts in my head 😅 here's to hoping this has helpful tips to make it less painful to try to take notes! ("Hoping" bc I haven't actually watched the vid yet lmao)
I have the same thing! Can't take notes during the session or it completely pulls me out of the game. I usually take notes the next morning, when the game is still kinda fresh in my head.
I hadn't played D&D in years. When I started again I took notes (as a player) that I turned into a series of humorous episodic chapters and posted them for players to read and humor themselves with. They never read or commented about them. When the game ended I was able to turn the episodes into a novel and discovered there was so much left un done that I had enough material for three novels.
Not D&D but the RPG I am running we use Discord to play on. So one thing that helps is I record the sessions. Then I can go back and listen to the whole session and take any notes then that I missed earlier. And clear up and muddled notes.
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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
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!!
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
"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!
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?
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.
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.
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 applaud those who took meticulous notes of the session
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
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'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’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'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?
That witch hat looks sooooo nice! The material, the bow, the silluete... that makes a great art reference!
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.
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’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".
"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)
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
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.
Ohh, Wisteria is such an adorable disaster.
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!
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.
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.
Great timing! I'm starting my first time as a dm tomorrow, and I wanted to try taking notes.
Possibly the nicest, most wholesome person on RUclips. 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.
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.
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 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
This was much needed. Love your content. It really helps as a newer DM/being a better player as well! Thanks!
One of my friends just started GMing, and he knows I take killer notes, so I actually share my session notes with him AND I make a condensed version of all events within a session (sort of Lore Keeping) based on those notes. It helps him fill in the dm note blanks and it helps me remember everything that happens in sessions and have easy-to-search notes.
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.
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 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.
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'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.
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 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
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
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
Good video! Note taking is truly simple, but I think some DM's get overwhelmed/burnt out from multitasking, so notes are one of the first, non-required tasks to drop.
Personally, I love notes/writing in general. As DM, I use a Hybrid Model: Pen/paper in game for bullet points plus using a Campaign Tracker Google sheet on my computer post-session. Doing it for a couple years, I've got it down to a science. There are even eraseable notebooks that are connected to the cloud so you can upload your handwritten notes to your computer.
There's no shortage of resources out there.
"The human mind is fallible and D&D sessions are long".
Thanks Ginny, I'll make a note of that!
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 😄
If I may toss some advice into the void, something that I've found incredibly helpful as a DM with ADHD and an inability to effectively multitask, I record all of my sessions by streaming them to a private youtube video, both when they were in person and now that they're primarily digital. In person I had an admittedly overkill setup of a good omnidirectional mic placed centrally and webcams on both myself and my players, so I could capture physicality and emotions so I can later go back and watch each player for signs of discomfort or anything else I might have missed in the moment so I can address it with them if needed, or to look for when they really engage so I know what to include more of! Players don't always know exactly what they enjoy the most and don't/can't always vocalize it when they do know, so looking for cues like that has been very helpful.
In digital games, I've taken to having a secondary account on discord on my laptop that just sits in the call, muted with video off, while I run the game from my desktop (admittedly this is also a little overkill, but I have a lot of things open and the resources of streaming and everything else is a bit too much for my desktop).
The ability for me to then go back and take good, detailed notes about what happened in the last sessions is infinitely useful to me, because I can pull direct quotes or pick up on small things that I can bring back in later. That and if a player misses a session and we play without them, I can just send them the recording to watch back! And sometimes when things are really funny or a good memory that I want to remember, I essentially have a hard copy of that memory.
If you like this idea be sure to inform your players of it! I have a form that I have players fill out before even session 0 that goes through a bunch of different comfort things re: topics that come up in game and anything that might be upsetting or uncomfortable in an unfun way and the very first question informs them that I record sessions privately for my own memory purposes and asks if they're comfortable with it, and then I let them know when I start and end the recording every session so they know when things they say are "on the record" if they have any need for that information.
TL;DR: Record your sessions to take notes afterwards if taking notes during is overwhelming! Video is helpful but good audio is essential! Make sure your players are comfortable with being recorded! Inform them when you start and stop recording!
I just record my sessions and listen back to them (albeit skimming through a lot or looking for specific things) on a routine bases. Works wonders.
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 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.
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 😁
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!
Oh, you've just saved my evening. I felt so bored and uninspired. And then your video showed up and life became a bit brighter 😌 thanks
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.
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)
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.
I was having a pretty bad breakdown and I needed comfort. your video was perfect for me
thank you so much
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.
Once we started recording our sessions and putting them up on RUclips we can always pull up the previous episode and grab notes from that. Makes it much easier to keep track of things and remember stuff. We have a pretty extensive setup but a single Omni directional mic and a webcam could be an easy starting point.
Also I know that when I em with a computer makes it much easier to take notes when I have an actual keyboard vs pencil (I can type much faster than write)
since the games i run are mostly improvised, i do a combination of 2 things. i note down only things that are coming up again in the same session (place names, details, npc names/details), AND for campaigns, i do an audio recording (with clear consent from all participants) and take notes from the recording after. Sometimes there is a LOT of worldbuilding in a single session, and i'd hate to forget important details!
I take notes in one campaign I'm in (as a player) in a very similar style to this! Quick bullet points, usually while it's others are talking or it's someone else's combat turn. Granted, I take them in quite a lot more detail than is really necessary, but I have the time bc I'm not the DM and also I type very quickly. But I want as much details as possible, bc after the sessions I compile the notes into a kind of prose format and upload that onto our discord server. We sometimes have long breaks between sessions, and having a short story of what happened last time is a great way to get reimmersed into the world and moment.
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 write very simple notes. They are in my own version of shorthand. - but if things get hectic, I spend a while after the session noting down any relevant points. - Fights are all coded with dots, arrow symbols and crosses. -very speedy. The only thing I'd write near fully is quotations from my players. - Being well prepared in advance and not going too off-piste works well too. At the end I might write a few paragraphs for my records, or turn it itnto a full-blown chapter ( like a book) depending on time. - TY Gin, good insights. :)
This is amazing advice for D&D -- but also just for note-taking in general! I am a teacher and am always reminding my students "don't try to write full sentences! Don't try to write EVERYTHING, just the important stuff!" Doing that both makes note-taking more possible, but like you mentioned, it also helps you start to develop an understanding of what's actually important too.
And the part about going back to those rough notes and refining them later is basically the AVID Focused Note-taking way. Its really cool to be reminded that some of the stuff I'm teaching my students (especially the stuff that I usually think of as "the boring stuff") is applicable outside of school and for fun stuff like D&D too! :D
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.
Thank you Ginny! I'm going to apply this to schoolwork aswell. Love the tips!
Double or triple space your Session Prep notes. When something comes up, write it down in the available space under the associated bullet point.
- I write any notes in point form only. It might be just a name or a concept. Literally scraps of paper. My DM notes looks like the conspiracy theory meme.
- Players are assigned/choose roles at the table: Treasurer, mapper, lorekeeper, etc. The lorekeeper takes deep notes. Given their opinion of the events isn't 100% shared, other players will take their own.
- I have the players recount the events of the last session. This means the opening 15 min-30 min might be the table re-hashing how they remember the last session, which is fine by me because it's a tool to remember. I only correct name pronunciation. This also is a GREAT tool for knowing what plot hooks or NPCs took.
- When it comes to primary world building, if you as DM know the basics of the world to a tee, then you can predict how things will play out. If you know the major NPCs/villains' motivations, you'll know that Duchess Marie AuClaire-Mortez will approach the actions at court a certain way. You'll know Kumosh the Orc Warlord will react to the Hobgoblin Khan's mission for the PC with an equal show of force. And so on. You can improvise a lot of actions this way, and your responses to player questions will come off as legit. You can save on note keeping this way by simply being "the the groove" with your NPCs.
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.
Also, MS OneNote is amazing for organizing those notes and you can get it on your phonenas well and it updates along side your other devices making your notes available to you at all times.
I run as many as 8 games a week. The only way I can do it is this:
1. Audio recording of every session. I set up my zoom account to record, even if i am the only one in the meeting. Put your phone on the table or better yet get a usb mic and put it facing the table. Then i listen back while I am prepping at double speed to save time. After that, the rest of my notes are only the really pointed things.
2. I only write down the in-game stuff that I need in the moment (initiative, conditions) and random ideas that pop into my head. Do it bullet point style.
3. When the session is over i write down any important stuff.
4. Last part of every session is asking the players what they want to do next time and writing that down.
5. Start the next session with everyone adding one detail that they remember being important to them. If there is more they can all chime in once everyone has made a contribution, but this gets everyone thinking about what was most important to them.
I really only use one or two nouns for notes and it works out pretty well. Then from those points, after the session, I go and write out some more detail about an event or encounter just so I don't forget.
I've been waiting for a video like this for a while! Thanks so much for sharing your insight!
One trick that helps me reduces the amount of notes to take is linked to another kind of thing: When you borrow information/ideas/NPCs from various sources, it becomes easier to just remember this. (I don't suggest doing that if your game is public like streamed or published somewhere tho) For example, I needed an Artificer NPC who had his family kidnapped so that the villains would blackmail him into doing work for them. The Engineer is a repurposed Babenon Dosal (The Gentleman) and I don't think I have to say who his family is for people to know who they are. All I need to remember/jot down is what got stolen from the character's backpack by the little blue tiefling.
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.
I prioritize doing game prep after a session instead of before. Write/fill out my session log and then incorporate/file information the day after.
Ginny, I have to say, my favorite part of the new videos are the dice palette teases. Your content? Amazing. The aesthetics? You're casting Charm Person with them.
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
I've used a 'selfish' note-taking method in previous campaigns, where I only noted things that my character would notice, remember or cared about, but that's led to *huge* swathes of sessions being lost because no one else wrote it down because they thought *I* was writing it down. I've since changed my approach to note things that feel important but my character doesn't know or care about very vaguely, to jog the memories of my fellow players whom the information does matter to.
I like to do the ol voice record with my laptop. Just get audio from the whole session and work from that. I get so much info im able to quote what players said to NPCs word for word from 12 sessions ago 🤣 Leads to some funny moments and loads of nostalgia 💯
Great tips! Not sure if this has already been suggested, but doing audio recordings of your sessions would be super helpful.
I have a pad - usually I leave 5-10 pages per character, plus locales (town, country etc) that develop in game ( I tend to wing it). But yes, I tend to keep notes, and use them at the most unexpected times. Even something as small as a chink in leather armour you can make into a story line years later. I gave up on "out of the box" DM'ing years ago. I much prefer making it up as I go along. I have written a few systems myself, and honestly been happy with the results - you don't need pre-made adventures if you have the time to invest... The systems I was playing were essentially Cyberpunk/Shadowrun/MERP/Rolemaster clones but you get what I mean - and I based the "dice" system around a deck of playing cards. So you could play the game anywhere you have a deck of cards (which just act as dice). If you want "dice" go to your local pound store - you can get a pack of 12 unmarked cubes for... £1.... mark them yourself. Save £16 (Looking at you Star Wars). I've never been into tabletop figures - I tried - I did the whole painting thing.... But to me personally the game is in the mind.
I always record my Sessions with a cam and watch it later, to note what I need to remember, whats important for the Review of the next session and what I should think about. Its a really good way, but its time consuming. So I think its just worth it, if the meetings arent weekly and ones sure, that the group is important and reliable enough.
I think these are great advice for taking player notes too. Thank you!
Record your sessions! Or have a player record and put it in a google drive folder you can all access! Its not only amazing for notes but also to refresh accents and other smaller things you missed!
When I started my most recent job, I found that using plain white index cards to take notes as I went worked great for me. I have a sort of mental block when it comes to writing things down on a sheet of notebook paper or in OneNote - I need it to be organized there, but there's really no way to organize this kind of thing on the fly. But index cards? I can write whatever I want on those, then once they're filled up, I can transfer that into OneNote or Word or something in a more organized manner, cross it off the card as I move it, and toss the card when I'm done with it. I haven't DMed yet, but I'm sure I'll take the same approach when I get there, and plain white index cards are a dollar for 200 at the Dollar Tree, so it's not a huge investment either.
Learning my way the hard way. Trying to teach my little brother how to bring his storytelling to life, and now I'm gonna recommend this video to him.
Thanks, Ginny.
Continuing to enjoy the message and the medium, Ginny! You excel at taking to an invisible audience and still be engaging.
Ginny, you are a gem. Thank you for this - note taking is the first thing to go when I'm overwhelmed. Which is pretty much all the time.
The one thing you said reminded me of a Darkest Dungeon quote: "The human mind, fragile.. like a robin's egg."
I just jot down some key points, then in goblin notebook, have a session section, in which I will add, and link to details with more information on those things after the session ( especially while its still fresh ). I'll use that information to easily then get all the info I need to prepare for the next session. Actually from using goblin notebook from anything else, I have found this the easiest and most affective way for me to organise, and I'm not the best at doing that stuff in general. I am also new to DMing so it's been invaluable so far.
i personally record the sessions (with everyones consent ofc). it makes for a fun audio to listen to in my commute and makes it practical for me to notice certain mistakes i made with the rules and didnt notice stuff like that
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!
I audio record my sessions. Then, I listen to the session again later and take notes. Works great!
Ya know what would make for an awesome video? Note-taking tips for neurodivergent DMs! As a DM with ADHD, I have to approach note taking and prep in different ways than others do. It’d be great to see you cover some tips/tools/tricks for people like me! ☺️
A bit late to the party, but I have another alternative for people: Record the game
I play digitally because my friends and I are scattered to the four corners of the UK, and recording the game actually helps me stay in the moment, and to parse bad internet garbles which inevitably happen at the worst possible times. (I use OBS because it's easy for those wondering)
The above is only a viable option if the table consents to it, and it has to be unanimous, no ifs ands or buts. It should also be brought up pretty much straight away, as this is something not everyone is comfortable with.
For my table, I explained that it was to help me note take and make a better game for the guys and they all agreed, and it is one of the first things that we tell new players when welcoming them to the table. Once it became a normal part of the game we found that we love the fact that I have a digital archive of our shenanigans, and can theoretically look up any of our classic screw-ups to mock each other mercilessly with.
AWESOME JOB! love all your videos but this one is absolutely wonderful. thank you so much.
I feel very called out during this video. Not in a bad way but in a "You Can DM Better" way...
Thanks for sharing this.
I can't even take notes as a player... I always have to rely on other players bc I can EITHER listen, comprehend, & generally engage in what's going on, OR I can write down some sentences words for word without putting those words together as actual cogent thoughts in my head 😅 here's to hoping this has helpful tips to make it less painful to try to take notes! ("Hoping" bc I haven't actually watched the vid yet lmao)
I have the same thing! Can't take notes during the session or it completely pulls me out of the game. I usually take notes the next morning, when the game is still kinda fresh in my head.
I hadn't played D&D in years. When I started again I took notes (as a player) that I turned into a series of humorous episodic chapters and posted them for players to read and humor themselves with. They never read or commented about them. When the game ended I was able to turn the episodes into a novel and discovered there was so much left un done that I had enough material for three novels.
Not D&D but the RPG I am running we use Discord to play on. So one thing that helps is I record the sessions. Then I can go back and listen to the whole session and take any notes then that I missed earlier. And clear up and muddled notes.