No time to take notes while DMing? Try this! // D&D Tips

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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 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!

"The human mind is fallible and D&D sessions are long" This needs to go on a T shirt.

"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)

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).

Oh uhhhhh... I don't I was supposed to see this. Welp! I'm not arguing with some early advice, especially since my notetaking is subpar at best. Alright, post video. Hear me out: give your session a cool title. Seriously. It works, at least for me. For some reason, just reading “Black-Eyed Bastard” instead of “Session 18” helps me recall a lot of what happened.

As a DM with memory problems, I've found that taking voice recordings during sessions ( fairly easy, considering I mostly DM online) and take time to listen to the recordings later at double speed (triple, if it's a long session) and take notes then. I try to do this just before/during my typical prep times. I tend to delete them after a few more sessions to save drive space. Before doing this, though, just make sure to discuss it with your players, since some people aren't comfortable with having their voices recorded!

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. 🤗

Tip of the Day: Something I've done for quite a while is have a quiz at the beginning of the session instead of a review. I would literally go around the table and ask people questions about the previous session/s. It was very effective at opening up the memories of the players and helped get them get their game face on. And the group would get a little bonus XP for good answer and insights. And secretly it helped solidify my own recollection and told me what players may have missed and what they cared about. Bidet

These are some handy tips. What has saved my bacon over the last few years is using my phone to record the audio of the session (with everyone's permission). Obviously, it isn't podcast/livecast quality but it still allows me to re-listen to the session and take notes that I may have missed (like improvised npcs). This also really helps me keep my npc voices straight as well.

I just thought of a neat idea. A dm character kenku that joins the party and takes notes of everything going on, maybe make him a level 1-3 bard who tells storys of things that have happened. The dm can use this as a way to help newer players who dont pay as much attention as they should or have a hard time with puzzles because you can just use the Kenku to try to help the party if they need it with previous knowledge. Kinda like a hint button. I'd use this idea myself, but I dont actually have anyone to play with

On of the best habits I started doing was saying “one second I need to make a note” . It slows things down a bit giving you time to scratch out a line or two and when used dramatically it can add to the moment. If after your players have done something awesome or awful you pause for just a minute to write a note it really cements that moment as something that will affect the future of the game.

Before the video starts: As a blooming new DM with ADHD I easily get distracted or is forgetful after a certain milestone of the game like after a battle or encounter. I allow a short/long break in game and real life (if and when eligible) so I can write in notes talk to the other players in group or personal, bathroom/lunch breaks, etc. Then get back into the game which usually is about 15-30 min. To in rare cases (1-2hrs) if things are big or complex. Downside, things can happen and you may loose the atmosphere of the game, completely leave the game and get distracted for you or everyone or loose some players for good, bad or important reasons.

I applaud those who took meticulous notes of the session

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

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

I've found it very useful to record my side of the discord call, that way I can refer back to lore dumps easily, and just mute myself to talk into my phone's mike

Ohh, Wisteria is such an adorable disaster.