D&D Note Taking: we're missing the point

How do YOU take notes? 💥 Lore Frog Notes: lorefrog.com/

the double-sided conclusion at the start hit me like a bolt lmao. that it is both true that 1. notes are important as you will forget but also 2. you can absolutely have so much fun without them that you play for 40 years

I am a blessed DM. One of the players is playing a bard, who is on the adventure simply to find inspiration for his next big hit. So every session usually ends with him reciting the lyrics to a song he’s written during the session. These have served as the groups notes for what has happened during the campaign

Was showing both my son and nephew notes I took as both a player and as a DM back in the mid 80s. I have several dozen spiral bound notebooks to this day. My son and Nephew both started playing during the pandemic and wanted to know morr about ite history of the game. Being able to show notes from sessions 38 years ago made me feel like I had bridged the gap between new and old players.

"Subsequent to" had me rolling Edit: All my DM notes are in the private notes on my dndbeyond campaign and all my post session notes are on the public notes, and none of my players ever look over them and that is okay.

Truthfully, I've found I have to write the entire adventure out by hand. My brain just doesn't get inspired by staring at a screen.

2:01 - ouch! You have no idea how much of my approval seaking inner child you just wounded

ONENOTE!!!! I love it. It's already set up for how anyone would organize a campaign with folders, sections, subsections. So easy!

the whole "before, during, and subsequent to" gag made my day. Thanks for the video!

Bob, i think you'll love something like Obsidian as a tool. It's a markdown editor (tldr: quick formatting) which has some awesome functionality for linking pages, subjects and chapters. (So you can find stuff and linked stuff to that quickly.)

Very funny, Bob. Baiting us into "after" while saying "subsequent to."

1:54 AFTEEERR!!!! Well done sir, i see what you did there. And fell for it anyway.

I am horrible at taking notes as a DM (and, honestly, as a player), and this is exactly the kind of video I need.

The idea of the multiple page prep document is brilliant! thank you! I'll start doing one of those for each session... I often feel bad that I forget to incorporate moments for each player or elements of their backstories... this will help a lot.

I laughed at "subsequent to" Thank you for that, Bob. 😅

I love using onenote, adding images and having lots of freedom to organize text and tables is really useful and keeps everything very organized

I will say, Lore Frog looks very nice. Personally, I prefer Notion, as I'm already using it, it allows cross-referencing and it's incredibly flexible (if you know how to use it). On top of that, I can sort and view my data in all sorts of different ways, which really helps if I need to look something up during a session.

I love that moment in the session when everyone starts looking for a place to plug in their laptop.

While we're playing I take notes with a pencil and a notebook, the way my character would, sort of like a diary. After each session I go back through them, highlight what I feel is important to remember and maybe write a small to-do list as prep for the next game, but that's about it. That means my notes are messy, full of doodles and misspelled names, but it helps so much with immersion and I'm having tons of fun with it! Previously I tried a more structured approach with binders and notecards, but it became a chore and really didn't help me remember things either 😅

Would love to see a video on those current campaign notes 👀 great stuff Bob!