Okay, I had an idea. Now what???
This was, of course, my first question. How do I actually write a DnD campaign in such a way that it is useful to me Running said DnD campaign?
During the RPG Writer Workshop, I used Google Docs as my starting ground, and MSWord at my finalized versions, before converting to appropriate publishing formats. So, I once again started in Google Docs with a Notes doc, to get my ideas down on “paper.” Once I had a starting idea, I pulled up the template from the workshop to create the introductory adventure. This worked pretty well, except for Google Docs not being especially fond of all the formatting peculiarities of that, admittedly Word-centric, template.
My group always does a Players Doc in Google Drive, as well. A place to introduce the story, talk about character creation guidelines, and allow everyone to share what character they are going to make. This helps with party balance, as folk with a burning idea can respond first and call dibs, while others can wait and see what roles need filled. This became my second big document. Trying to explain my campaign idea to the group, without giving away the Big Plot. And also try to explain how I really wanted to focus on the collaborative storytelling aspect. I had a couple folk look it over, and with all positive responses, and a bit of constructive criticism, it was ready to go.
Then, however, came the Rest of the Campaign, and the announcement of the Call of the Netherdeep module. It was almost immediately decided that this module would be the creamy filling of my campaign, with my ideas bookending it, and adding color and spice. This module doesn’t come out until March, however, so more on that in a later post.
With a lot of the planning now out of my hands, I started working on the beginning and end of the campaign, which, as noted in the last post, meant characters. And not just my characters, but the newly forming Player Characters, as well. Which also meant ingesting all the lore I could, because my players love that stuff. Google docs were great for taking notes and writing questlines, but how was I going to keep all these characters, locations, and other necessary DM information accessible when it came to game time?
Enter OneNote.
I have been a heavy OneNote user ever since I got my first Real Adult Job (TM). I keep my daily activities, my projects, resources, conference and webinar notes, even To Do lists in OneNote for my job. I did a few quick googles to see what other people used, even backed a Kickstarter or two of GM notebooks. (One person even created a OneNote Bible for DMs.) Many of the answers involved resources for world building, and I just didn’t need to do that, didn’t want to do that any more extensively than some of the notes I’d already taken, and the books themselves. So, I fell back on what I know, and created my own OneNote DM’s Notebook.
My DM’s Notebook has seven sections as of me writing this: Session Notes, Player Characters, NPCs, Quest Line Links, Locations, Combat Stats, and Quick Reference.
Session Notes: I don’t expect to take notes in OneNote during the game, I’m going to have too much else going on on my little Chromebook. I have paper for in-game notes, we’ll see how that goes. What I have set up in there, so far, is notes for the different scenes based specifically on the PCs. I also have links in Session One to the various location descriptions for different parts of the first Adventure. (I do a lot of interlinking in this OneNote, especially between locations, characters, and stat blocks.) The plan is to print out the Adventure texts/have the adventure module at hand, and use this section to customize it for my players.
Player Characters: This section hosts a number of tables and notes. The first one is the basic Identity table: Player name, Character name, Race, Class, Background. The second one is Skills. I want to be able to call for skill checks from players who have appropriate knowledge. We have a big group (8), and I don’t want everyone making every skill check. I want them to be able to use their specialized knowledge and training. Third is whatever plot hooks their backstories have handed me. If I need to spice up a session, I can pull something in from here. Next is similar, with Friends and Family. If I need to play on their heartstrings, I can pull on family members or close friends. I also have a page for Requested Rewards, so I can plan out how they will come across items they really want for their characters. Lastly, I have a couple pages of notes, one general, and one that’s campaign specific. I have a few folk going through Anamnesis, so I need to keep track of where they are in this process.
NPCs: I have the NPC section divided up, as you might imagine, into a lot of smaller sections. In general, though, it has four sections. Introductory/side quest NPCs, Big Plot NPCs, Townsfolk NPCs, and Player’s NPCs. My players are joining a guild at the beginning of the game, so my first section is members of this guild for them to interact with in the first few adventures, and any time they “come home.” The next two sections are NPCs that set them on, or can help them with, quests. These NPCs are generally linked to the locations and/or stat blocks that become relevant during those quests. The next two sections, I call Taverns and Shops. They could go into one section, but I like having my taverns separate, because there is the possibility for a lot more NPCs and activities at Taverns. My Shops section also includes what’s available at those shops. The next section is for the Player’s NPCs, allies, rivals, and family, that I had in their Hooks and Friends and Family charts of the previous section. Here is where I’m fleshing out (with the help of my players) these characters who might step into the story at any point to add a little chaos.
Lastly, I have the Antagonists/BBEGs section, which is a little different from quest NPCs above. These folks are for my endgame Big Plot, and I will likely have a very similar section for Netherdeep NPCs, once the module comes out. That doesn’t mean these NPCs won’t come to play earlier, I just want to keep them together so I can sprinkle them in to plant the seeds, and keep in mind how they relate to the bigger picture. I also have a page with Random generator links, just in case the players find folk I haven’t made up, yet.
The Questline Links section only has one page in it so far. I wrote a new minor questline the other day, and this page links to all the NPCs, Locations, and Stat Blocks I would need to run it. I imagine this will fill up as I go along.
Locations: This is where I’m keeping place descriptions. The guild chapterhouse, battle maps and descriptions for fights, important places they might visit. Basically, things that should be in my printed adventures/modules, but just in case I can’t find the right page in the moment, I have them here, too.
Combat Stats: I really like books and DnDBeyond, but I’m going to be juggling a lot, both physically and digitally, so I’ve created a section for the monsters’ and NPCs’ stats to sit inside my OneNote, so it’s all in one place. I’ve also been reading The Monster Know What They’re Doing, so I’m including combat strategies in these pages, as well. I want the combat encounters to be interesting and challenging, and I’m not a strategic person, so a little bit of preplanning goes a long way. (I hope.)
Lastly, Quick Reference. This is my Digital DM Screen. One of my group gave me a physical DM Screen for Christmas, and that will be a different post. This section holds everything I think I might need to remember or reference during a game, and I’m sure I will be adding to it as we go. Right now, it has a DC Chart, Conditions, Combat Options, Cover, Death and Resurrection (I’m using rez challenges), Travel and Tracking, Random Encounters, Costs, Illicit Goods, Rewards by Level, Random Names, Book lists (for bookstores/libraries in the world), Downtime activities, and Voices.
Most of this is pretty self-explanatory for anyone who has played DnD. Voices is a whole other insecurity of mine and one I hope I don’t discard along the way, and probably a subject for another post. I have a player who wants to look at caffeine-like addiction, so the illicit goods was a request by her, as her character will be looking for stimulants. Book lists, because watching Mercer make up books on the fly inspired me to have some ready made (I’m also an ex-bookseller and current librarian). Random Names isn’t just a link to a generator, I’ve pre-generated lists of names by race to have on hand both for in-game and when I’m creating NPCs. Hopefully, there will still be names left there when we start actually playing.
I still have a Lot of Google Folders and docs, including a spreadsheet to calculate encounter difficulty, but that’s all for plotting and planning, this OneNote will be my in the moment resource, and will likely grow and morph as I figure out what I actually need.