Role Playing Tips - By Johnn Four
7 Tips For Fast & Effective Note-Taking, While Game Mastering, Part I - Don't Record Everything - Just The Important Stuff
The goal of note-taking is to record whatever important
information that occurs in the game session that isn't
already documented.
Don't try to write down everything, just the important
stuff:
Names, dates, distances, other similar facts
Good ideas you or the players come up with, for
future use
Great character/player quotes
The course of events that take place during the
session
Heroic or important PC deeds and actions
Results of scenes, encounters, parleys & battles
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Use Abbreviations
Use abbreviations while writing because they will let you
take notes faster--especially for the game system stuff,
statistics and common words that you use.
Here's are few of my shorthand abbreviations:
w/ = with
att = attack, attacker
def = defend, defender
tw/ = talk with, speak to, parley
dif = difficult, difficulty level
s/a = smart ass :)
KO = knockout, to win a contest of some kind
I also use different pen scribbles to represent "the", "at"
and words that end in "ing" and "tion".
When GMing Rolemaster recently, for game system info, I used
"DB" for defensive bonus and "OB" for offensive bonus. For
my upcoming D&D campaign I'll be using "HP" for hit points,
"TH" for to hit rolls and results, and "DAM" for damage,
among others. Look at your own game rules and make
abbreviations for the common terms you use.
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Use Character Initials
A great time saver is using initials for character names.
That trick came in really handy when I was recording combat.
Every round I'd write each character's initials on a
separate line. I'd put their initiative scores in the left
margin, their intended actions to the right of their
initials and the actual results after that:
"9... D.H. ...sneak attack thief #2; hit for 23DAM & thief
TKO'd 2 rnds"
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Record All Combat Details
I found recording all the combat details round by round to
be more than worth the effort. I was able to handle combat a
lot faster, believe it or not, because I had all the
important information right in front of me to reference.
It made a huge difference, for example, writing down all the
characters' names (just their initials actually, see Tip #3
above), their initiative scores and their intended actions
for the round.
When each player's turn came along (which I determined by
quickly glancing at my notes), I got their attention and
either explained how their action turned out in detail
(because I already had their intended actions written down
and had time to think about it) or I had them make some dice
rolls, then did some calculations and then gave a detailed
explanation of results.
That sure beats the way I used to do it, which was to ask
the whole group "who's turn is it?", then wait until that
got sorted out, and then ask each player "ok, what are you
doing now?" when their turn came up and then wait for them
to decide. Whew!
Also, the day after each session, I was able to go back and
write a very detailed campaign log with specific references
and details of all the combat highlights.
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Write Down Your Thoughts as Soon as You Get Them
You're doing so many things at once when game mastering
that, when you get a good idea, if you don't write it down
it will probably get forgotten.
However, writing ideas down in-game as I thought of them used
to be a hassle because I wanted to keep them separate from
my session notes and combat logs, but didn't want to use
page margins or separate pages.
The solution, I found quite by accident, is to use brackets:
"[ ]". As soon as I get an idea now, I write it down right
in the middle of my notes and put brackets around it to make
it different than the surrounding notes. After the session,
I can do an fast scan of the session & combat logs and I can
easily spot the ideas.
I've also started using "[ ]" to write DM-only information
in my notes. The brackets let me know not to tell the
players that info by accident (i.e. [goblin flees
successfully to tribe] ), and to not include that info in
the campaign journal which I send to my players.
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Use the Style That Suits You
I write my game notes in a very linear fashion with lots of
indents:
1. Main idea 1
- detail 1
- detail 2
- further detail 2.1
2. Main idea 2
- etc.
You might prefer spider style or mind-map style in which you
write down a point in the middle of the page and write
related notes nearby with circles and lines joining threads
together. Here's a couple of links for more information
about these styles:
http://world.std.com/~emagic/mindmap.html
http://www.mindmapper.com/whats-mindmapping.htm
http://www.inkspot.com/feature/bartlett.html
Or, you might prefer the speedwriting style:
http://www.speedwriting.co.uk/sample.htm
Pick a style which doesn't cause you to hesitate while
taking game notes and which you can read and understand
afterwards.
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Use Lots of White Space & Neatness Doesn't Count
Paper is cheap. I'd rather have 3 pages of spread-out notes
than 2 pages of tightly-packed notes. Leave lots of space in
the left and right margins. And, if you like to write out
your notes versus mind-mapping them, double space each note.
Not only does the extra white space on your page help you
scan your notes faster, but it also allows you a lot of room
to add comments, note additions, and forgotten items later
on.
Yet another tip on note-taking is that you don't have to be
neat. Just be legible enough so you can read your notes
later.
Have more fun at every game!
Johnn Four
