Organizing Digital RPG Materials

One effective way to organize digital RPG material is by making a directory structure of "RPGs", then system, then publisher (if needed), then product. It should look something like this:

/RPGs/5e/Sly Flourish/lazy_dms_companion.pdf

Skip publisher if there's really only one publisher for the system:

/RPGs/Shadowdark/Shadowdark_RPG_V1.pdf

How do You Do It?

Often on the Sly Flourish Patreon I get asked how best to store digital materials — mostly PDFs of RPG products. I didn't have a very effective system so I put up a YouTube post on the topic to find out what systems others use to store digital files.

Many don't have an organized process, which can work just fine if you have a good desktop search (see below). A few mentioned the directory structure above and, after switching to it, I love it.

"RPGs"", System, Publisher, Product

Create a set of directories starting with "RPGs", then game system, publisher, and product.

Here's an example:

/RPGs/system/publisher/product.pdf

and here are some examples:

/RPGs/5e/Kobold Press/scarlet_citadel.pdf/RPGs/13th Age/13th_age.pdf/RPGs/Numenera/weird_discoveri... Publishers/knave_1.0.pdf (for companies that produce basically one product)

You don't have to use the publisher name unless many different companies write for one system. This is only 5e for me. I also have a /RPGs/5e/DM's Guild/ directory holding all my single-publication DM's Guild products. Both my /RPGs/ directory and /RPGs/5e/ directories have "Independent Publisher" directories with PDFs of publishers who only produced a single product.

This system is flexible enough to hold lots of products and simple enough to find what you want when you want it.

One organizational trick is to sort by last opened. You're likely to look for the same files often and sorting by last opened means the files you need are often on the top.

I spent a few hours reorganizing my PDFs this way and love it, but it probably wasn't worth it. How come?

Because we can use our desktop search.

Using Search

Sorting through piles of files in a directory isn't great when we know what we want. Instead, both Macs and PCs have a desktop search built in. I'm on a Mac so I use Spotlight for search. It never worked particularly well until I spent the time to learn some tricks for it.

It's definitely worth the time to learn how to customize the search tool of your computer. For example, you'll want to:

Limit searches to just PDF. On a Mac, you do this by typing "kind:pdf" in your search query.Limit which directories your computer indexes. On a Mac, you can find this under your system settings for Spotlight and its privacy settings to turn off directories you don't want to search.Limit which types of files and data you want to search. On a Mac, this is under the system settings for Spotlight. Uncheck the stuff you don't want returned.Figure out how to open the directory containing the result instead of the result itself. On a Mac you do this by holding the command key down when you double-click the file.

Spending a few minutes learning how to customize and use your desktop search tool saves a lot of time when hunting down RPG PDFs. It's worth the time to learn how.

One final thought. Don't spend too much time worrying about PDF organization. You can waste a lot of time renaming files, moving them around, and organizing stuff that really doesn't need to be organized. Keep your system simple. Keep it flexible. Put your time into preparing and running awesome games for your friends.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

This week I posted a couple of YouTube videos on Designing Interactive Monuments and Prepping Scarlet Citadel Session 23.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Each week I record an episode of the Lazy RPG Talk Show (also available as a podcast) in which I talk about all things in tabletop RPGs. Here are last week's topics with timestamped links to the YouTube video:

Owen KC Stevens Bundles on DriveThruRPGOwlbear Rodel 2.0 Official Release in JulyKobold Press Tales of the Valiant Monsters Playtest2024 D&D Players Handbook Playtest 5Mass Effect Style Preludes and WarsTuning the Lazy Encounter BechmarkPatreon Questions and Answers

Also on the Talk Show, I answer questions from Sly Flourish Patreons. Here are last week's questions and answers:

Chat GPT and AI For Adventure GenerationRunning Ship Battles in Light of XaryxisCharacter Grabbing the Wrong HookRPG Tips

Each week I think about what I learned in my last RPG session and write them up as D&D tips. Here are this week's tips:

Monsters don't always behave optimally. Chaos affects both sides.Run waves of monsters in big boss fights.Run some super-hard battles and let the characters get away with lots of shenanigans. Let the characters (and players) get a glimpse of the environment in which they're going to engage in a big boss battle.Keep track of what magic items the characters have. Know who's due for another one.Give the characters their opportunity to shine when they've prepared something really fun.Think through the eyes of your villains. There's a time to fight and a time to run.Related ArticlesTwenty Things to Do Instead of Checking Social MediaDescribe your GM StyleBuild from the Characters OutwardsIdentify Good D&D Adventures and ProductsConverting Adventures Between SystemsGet More from Sly FlourishRead more Sly Flourish articlesBuy Sly Flourish's BooksWatch Sly Flourish's YouTube videosSubscribe to Sly Flourish's PodcastSupport Sly Flourish on PatreonBuy Sly Flourish's Books Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master The Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Fantastic Lairs Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures

Have a question or want to contact me? Check out Sly Flourish's Frequently Asked Questions.