Organizing Your RPG Prep Notes

Organize RPG prep notes by campaign with pages for characters, NPCs, and individual session notes built around the eight steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. Include folders for maps and campaign support material. Simplify and tailor your own system to help you most effectively run great games for your friends.

Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master offers eight steps for prepping your tabletop RPG ��� the characters, the strong start, scenes, secrets and clues, locations, NPCs, monsters, and treasure. These components of our game prep are system agnostic. You can use digital tools or a paper notebook����� whatever works best for you.

In the past I used Notion for my game prep. More recently I use Obsidian.md because I like working in raw markdown files. I've also been using paper notes at my table again for both online and in-person games. There's something fun about using paper notes like folks did fifty years ago.

There are many great tools for prepping our notes����� physically, digitally, or a mix of both. Instead of focusing on one tool, I want to offer an approach for organizing prep notes that works with whatever tools you prefer �����be it a paper notebook, Google Drive, OneNote, Obsidian, Notion, Word, or or anything else.

Keep Things Simple

It's easy to let systems get out of control with deep folder hierarchies, categorization, tagging, linking, plug-ins, and adding more tools to the stack. Instead, keep things as simple as possible ��� just like the eight steps for Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. Only separate the notes that must be separated. Instead of assuming we'll fill out a huge NPC database, can we get away with just a single list of NPCs that grows over time? Do we need a list of locations or can we just keep a folder for the maps we're using? Which elements work best when separated from our session notes and which ones can live in our session notes alone? How do we organize our notes so it makes our prep easier and faster?

Lazy GM Campaign Organization

Here's an outline for a simplified campaign organization scheme. For the sake of clarity, a "page" is a single page, sheet, note, document, or whatever. A folder is the hierarchical organization of the material.

Campaign FolderCharacters pageNPCs pageMaps folderIndividual mapsSession notes folderIndividual session pagesCampaign support folderIndividual campaign support pages

This format makes the most sense for digital tools like Google Drive, Notion, Obsidian, OneNote, or a local file-based system.

For a paper-based system, a "folder" could be an actual folder or journal or binder. A page could be a page or section in a notebook. You could have an NPC page, a set of character pages, and a section of session notes pages. You'll need room in your paper-based system to expand these sections out. You can also use physical folders for maps and campaign support material.

For a paper-based alternative, check out Kelsey Dionne's excellent YouTube video on RPG note taking.

The Campaign Folder

Looking back at our campaign organization outline, we'll start with the top-level folder ��� the Campaign folder. Each campaign folder holds material for a whole campaign. If you're running multiple campaigns (lucky you!), you can keep one folder for each campaign. If you need to share material between campaigns, copy the material into each of these folders.

A Single Characters Page

I've tried both single sheets for each character and one big character page with multiple characters listed and I prefer the latter. It's easier to prepare and review characters when all the characters are listed in a single page instead of split out to their own pages. It also prints out in fewer pages should you want a paper copy with your game notes.

The characters page contains information such as

the group's name.the group's headquarters and its features.the group's level.any other group-specific notes you want to remember.

Notes for each character on the characters page might include

their character and player name.a link to their character sheet if you have one.important stats, trained skills, passive skills.campfire tale results (updated as you run campfire tales).new abilities the character acquired when leveling up so you can think about them for lightning rods.magic items the character has, including intelligent magic items (which might also go on the NPCs page).

Update this page every few sessions and give it a review each session before you start writing out your prep notes.

A Single NPCs Page

Like characters, we can keep NPC notes on a single page. Here's an example of some character notes from my Empire of the Ghouls campaign.

Ix. Undead Abolith of the DepthsJalil im-Tep. Emerald Order advisor to God-King Thutmoses XXIIIJiro. Underworld MerchantKaglyn Kruel. Darakhul Assassin of the Grim Harvest (deceased)Kovaks. Infernal GearforgerKranos Stross. Gearforged Scorpion Ruler of ZobeckKytharax the FlamewreathedLady Malicious. Tiefling Lich advisor to NicoforusLarowyn Striferain**. Darakhul advisor to Eyesplinter and the Serpent. Sent to Zobeck to meet with Blue.

I mostly have trouble with NPC names so this is generally all that I need. You can add other notes to NPCs when important.

I also like to split NPCs up into "current" and "past" NPCs so I can keep NPCs out of the way when they're no longer relevant. Sometimes they come back, though, so it's worth keeping them around.

Update this list every few sessions.

Maps

I used to have a "locations" folder with individual pages for each location. In practice, I only need to keep a place for maps so I've switched to a "maps" folder with JPEGs of the maps I use in my game. Location info, random monster tables, and other information go in my session notes in which the location is relevant.

Session Notes

Each session I write up the list of the eight steps from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. I omit steps if I don't need them. Our notes serve us, not the other way around, so you're free to modify your session notes to suit the session you're going to run.

Organize session notes with a nice sort-friendly date-based filename such as "2024-03-11 Empire of the Ghouls". Our notes stay nice and organized by reverse filename even as our campaign grows.

Campaign Support

A "campaign support" folder can contain separate pages of information for our specific campaign that don't fit anywhere else. This might include

a campaign faction list we want to refer to.lists of gods and deities.larger atlases of locations.campaign timelines or calendars.anything else that doesn't fit into the other categories.

The campaign support folder is the junk drawer of our notes but don't let it get out of hand. Only put things in here you know you need to write down and reference later.

Write Down the Stuff We Can't Remember

One purpose of our notes is to keep track of the things we can't remember. If we can remember something �����or we don't need to remember it�������we don't have to put it in our notes. Our notes are just for us. They don't have to carefully capture and record every aspect of our campaign as though we were going to hand it to someone else. We only need the things we need to run great sessions for our friends. This philosophy keeps our notes clean, fast to create, and easily referenced when prepping and running our games.

Make It Your Own

This structure is one suggested hierarchy. Your own needs, your own desires, the way you prep your games, and the way you run them all factor into how you organize your material. Hopefully this article gives you a path for building the perfect structure for organizing your game materials to help you run awesome games for your family and friends.

More Sly Flourish Stuff

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.

Last Week's Lazy RPG Talk Show Topics

Here are last week's topics with time stamped links to the YouTube video.

5e Artisanal Database Updates, Key of Worlds Scenario 11Dragonbane Arkand & Book of MagicLGBTQ+ TTRPG Bundle on Bundle of HoldingDaggerheartTrack Monster Damage with Xs and SlashesPatreon Questions and Answers

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

Telling Players About QuestsKeeping a Campaign's Tone ConsistentTying Character Backgrounds to Published AdventuresTalk Show Links

Here are links to the sites I referenced during the talk show.

Hang On LooselyHow to Get Your Group to Play Other RPGsDragonbane KickstarterPride Games Bundle of HoldingDaggerheartTallying Damage ��� Patchwork Paladin

Last week I also posted a couple of YouTube videos on Avoid Getting Caught Up in the D&D and RPG Zeitgeist and Returning Greyharp ��� Dragon Empire Prep Session 26.

RPG Tips

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

Keep the pace moving when a session tends to avoid combat. Move from scene to scene quickly to keep people engaged. Set the stage, offer options. Note dissenters to popular decisions, ensure they���re ok going forward anyway. Give the characters the comfort of home every few sessions. Use portals to connect home bases. Write down new character capabilities each level up. Get consensus on paths ahead at the end of a session so you know what to prep next. Related ArticlesUsing Obsidian for Lazy RPG PrepWrite One Page of Prep NotesUsing Notion.so for Lazy RPG Campaign PlanningGet More from Sly FlourishArticlesNewsletterBookstorePatreonPodcastYouTubeBuy Sly Flourish's Books City of Arches Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master Lazy DM's Companion Lazy DM's Workbook Forge of Foes Fantastic Lairs Ruins of the Grendleroot Fantastic Adventures Fantastic Locations

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