my players don't take notes very much...and when they do, it's normally on some scratch paper that they lose, or on the back of their character sheets which get replaced every time they level (character builder). if i give handouts or cards or something to individuals, they sometimes get lost in the fray as well. so, i'm giving each player a manila folder with which to put all their various papers and such in. i thought about providing just some notebook paper in each folder for them to take notes, but i thought it would be better if i created some kind of template where they could put stuff down but not have npc names get lost in the middle of their notes about what happened at a certain time. thoughts?

i was thinking about the following categories:

1. locations - regions, cities, specific areas
2. npc's
3. quests
4. general campaign notes

or....should i just give them notebook paper and be done with it

You could do a combination of both: put notebook paper in the folders, but have a sample sheet at the front. You could even use this to make sure they have certain information about either current or past NPCs consolidated.

Along these lines, my PCs keep notes on Obsidian Portal after our sessions by having one player do a write-up (most choose to do them in character). This something that took a little pushing at first, but they actually enjoy it.

Also, my wife was keeping her character's powers, items, etc. in a trading card Deck Box and I taped a picture of her character to it in order to help bring her character even more to life. I am hopeful that I will do the same with all the characters in the party at some point. In similar vain, I try hard to show a picture for every NPC and not just a mini. It helps them to connect the dots by putting a face to the actions/quests/events/etc.

Definitely an interesting idea. I would love to see whatever it is that you decide on doing.

Clasp folders - the ones with prongs that fit into three hole sheets, work quite well.

Cheat by putting the player's portion of the campaign bible in the folder to get things started. (Pathfinder helps with this - every Adventure Path has a player's guide. )

There are some handy dandy sheets in the Campaign Planner series by Ronin Arts, they can also help.

The Auld Grump

so here's what i've come up with so far. its nothing fancy, just some text boxes i made in MS Word. i thought the "realm" and "region" headings would be good to put up there because i'm tired of hearing "okay so where are we again?".

i'm not sure what else to add so i'm open for suggestions.

not a lot of my players take notes...only one does, but yeah it would be nice to have something like this. I'm not sure of the exact format I'd want

I could see starting at a top level and working down. Maybe start with 1 Sheet for "Country", And then have a Sheet for "City" and a third for "Unrelated". Brainstorming here. Don't shoot me down just yet.

On the country sheet, I imagine having a place to have a Country Ruler name, maybe a govornment type, A place for neighboring countries, major cities, and geographical features. Maybe even a place for rumors.

On the City sheet, I could see having City Ruler, Other Important NPC's, City Locations (Shops, Garrisons, Landmarks, Schools, etc), with enough room that you could put the name of the location, what kind of location it is, major NPC's at the location, and some notes about the location. I can see this getting large, so it may need to be broken down into smaller 'pages'...one for the city, the major locations and information, and then another 'page' for specific location, major NPC's at that location, and other notes about the location.

let me see if i can distill this a bit further and post some pics of what I come up with.



My thought is the journal would be divided into Countries, Cities, NPCs, and Locations (to start). Cities on the country page would be referenced by page in the Cities section. NPC's and Locations on the city page would be referenced by page number in the NPC and Location sections, and further referenced by an incremented number.

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Giving the players a template for taking notes is a great idea - definitely poaching this one.

Providing a structure for each section would help. For example:
- Name
- Where/When ?
- Short Description ?
- Who ? (NPCs and/or characters)
- What ? (e.g. information, items, details, etc.)
- Outcome/Lead ?

Also useful would be a sheet for tracking individual leads:
- Lead
- Source ? (optional)
- Quest/Objective ? (optional)
- Resolved Y/N ?

good stuff tatteredking, and i wish my players were that organized and wanted to take notes with that level of detail. unfortunately, my players barely want to write down anything at all...so that's why i kept my template to one page. i don't even know if they'll use it but it's a start.

one other thing that might be useful is to put an image of the location they are visiting on the note template at some point. the only problem with this is that it gets to be a lot of notes and paper to keep up with. i don't want my d&d game to turn into a homework assignment or a meeting agenda for players. it will all depend on the player group regardless i guess.

Given that people will always use notes templates differently from what you expect, it isn't worth trying to get it right at the start.

Instead, turn up with a couple of different trial versions, let them chose whichever one they want, and at the end of the session ask them what changes they want to make it something they'll really use.

It can also be useful to include prompts, at the top of each section, for the sort of things to write in that section. The biggest problem people have with writing is not knowing what to put down on the paper. Giving them prompts helps them round this problem.