Note-Taking in D&D: Tips for Players 

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there's nothing like looking back on my notes and seeing "some gods lay eggs" written there.

I love taking notes in-character. I once played a person who was gradually becoming less sane, and while I wrote down my notes I made them more squiggly and wavy across the pages, finally writing in spirals and other shapes. Looked great, but was a bit hard to read afterwards, lol

I really like the sensation of frantically handwriting notes as my DM speaks. It makes me feel like a 1920s journalist picking up a big scoop.

"[...] and a player asks me to press pause for a second while they were noting down what I was saying, I would not be upset. I would just be glad they were taking notes." - YES. As a GM/DM of 30+ years, A THOUSAND TIMES YES. A player taking notes means they're taking an interest in the story I want to give them a part in and that's the best gift they can give me.

You'd be surprised how little there is on this topic, there's loads of videos about how to take notes if you're the DM, but barely any on note-taking for players.

When my first campaign ended after 2 years, I realized that I had no concept of how long our adventure had been in-game. We started our second campaign, and I made sure to ask our DM about the time structure. Now, every session, I track the date and time at the beginning of my notes section. I write what session it is, and track the in-game date and time at the beginning of the session, and at the end. Weirdly enough, I find it helps with roleplay.

I know a player who made a Campaign Wiki that anyone in the party can add and edit. Running sections for "current objectives" "npcs" and "locations". It's really solid.

I find my notetaking habits depend a lot on my character. The most detailed notes I take are when playing my university student wizard, who actually takes a lot of notes in character, is curious and likes to figure things out and gather knowledge. With my pirate sorcerer, my notes are much more concise and I basically just put down the most important points during a session. And with my scrappy forest child druid, I take like one note every three sessions, and it's mostly something like "gotta teach that one dude a lesson because he insulted my friend. get him alone, scare him a lot." So in campaigns where I want to take notes, I try to give my characters a reason why they would write down stuff. Characters keeping diaries works very well for me!

I write "conversation starters" in between sessions. My last session was so crazy that, for this upcoming session, I even made a *dialogue tree* for myself

That last tip about 'making a system work for you'...it gives me an idea, honestly. Because I hate taking notes, but in the past when I was drawing stuff almost every session for stuff that happened in game, I remembered tons. Maybe I should start doodling what happens in my notebook as well as the little scraps of basics I write down?

I have an equally terrible memory, forgetting conversations, names, sometimes what I had for breakfast. As a DM, I had to come up with a way to remember some of my players actions. Aside from my own note taking for story purposes. I start every session by having my players describe the last session for me. This does two things, helps me remember everything that went down ~and~ Gives me a meaningful understanding of what the players found memorable and fun, so that I can expand upon that. I'd recommend this style of recap for any DM. Also, I like to get the ball rolling by mentioning the main event that I can recall.

As someone who was terrible at taking notes & trying to listen to a teacher at the same time in school (thus requiring the need of a teacher-aide) this is a good, topical (& maybe even a slight "call out") video for me.

In my main campaign, I'm the notetaker for the party. I have just basically written out the basics of what we do in the session and sometimes some doodles separated by date. I underline NPCs and important names, but that's pretty much it. I feel like I could definitely up my game (as it were) on that front. I really like your idea of making a spreadsheet with the NPC, location, and description. I think I might implement that.

As a player, I've struggled to find a method that could help me to retain my notes. However, thanks to this video. I have a lot more insight and options I hadn't even considered! Thank you Ginny, very useful suggestions.

One thing I would suggest for those who struggle to pay attention and take notes simultaneously is to actually take the notes after session. This lets you spend as much time as you need on them while the information is still fresh and not have to divert your attention from what is going on in game to write effectively. This can also let you roleplay the notes, one idea I particularly love is having the notes be letters you are sending to a friend or family or love interest recounting what is going on.

I've begun, as our party's bard, recording a narrative recap of the previous week's session and putting it in our discord the day of the next session. It serves two purposes: A: it forces me to review my notes/become better about the actual notes I take B: it allows us to move quicker into the current session (although admittedly I do miss things that the other players think are relevant, and we'll discuss that) Plus, the other players and DM seem to find it entertaining, and it's a little bit of out of game roleplaying that I get to do.

I've found, recently, the joy of writing my DMs notes out with a fountain pen on nice paper. The visceral feeling of writing has really helped me to connect my words to my memory and I find that I have a much better internal search when I go flipping through my 11 pages of notes that I wrote for this part of the adventure 3 months ago. I got a few nice pens of different line widths and a few beautiful inks that I really like. It feels like an artistic endeavor in a new way as I'm creating the myriad horrors that my players must wade through.

"But my character has a bad memory and isn't very smart" - oh, hi, yes, that's me. I still take notes because I know I'm dumb with a bad memory, ffs. Also "My character has a bad memory/wouldn't take notes" - okay that's cool but if there's anyone else in the party who is, there's no reason why your character can't or shouldn't be like "hey I'll hunt for you if you share your notes with me" during downtime (and you and another player share a google doc or something). Like, yes, sometimes it's fun to use my own terrible memory to help with RPing a character with memory issues, but "I don't take notes because..." is just lazy.

I had a Blackshield Space Marine who kept an in-game journal so that he could, when he died, give his true history and confession to his battlebrothers. He used a vox-recorder so I took notes in character in real time.

"You will be thrilled to hear that this video is sponsored" I absolutely am, you're right. As for the video itself, my brain tells me I remember everything, but I always remember a critical flaw in that later. I have no real ability to pull up memories on demand, even if I remember the stuff. I really do need to take notes and so these kinds of tips will be useful if I ever learn to stop pretending I can trust my memory. >>

I'm definitely a "try to write everything down so I can reference it later" person. As someone who also cosplays as their characters, I find taking super detailed notes helps with that and knowing I have real events to reference when I'm doing things like making tiktoks or drawing any of my party's PCs. I like the idea of sticky tabs to mark important stuff. I might start using that!

My first character ever, I wrote down everything. I was new and thought *everything* would be important. It kinda worked with my character who was, I joked, a bookworm (Dragonborn Cleric, Sage background). I did notice things went slower with me constantly asking for repeats and spellings, but I'd be lying if I said our entire group (DM included) never used my notes for references. That said, I never really kept notes like that with other characters. I've gotten better at remembering, but I've also spent more time as a DM than a player since then. Now I wish any of my players kept notes.

I am the constant notetaker of our group, and for me, if I write it down, I remember it better. Even then, I could really use some of these tips, especially for things like making sections or codes for NPCs/locations. Our DM will say something like "a stout halfling with purple hair rushes up to you and shouts 'so we meet again!'" and I will gasp, and the rest of the group looks at me like blank deer in headlights, then I'm scrolling back thru 2+ years of session notes trying to remember why I remember this person. I LOVE your spreadsheet for NPCs, so even if you don't remember a name, you can look up by location, race, class, etc. Thanks!

Reading my rpg session notes it's like reading those "genius" ideas you write when you're super high.

A few years ago, I bought a decorated leather blank page book. One of those that you close with a piece of string. This was years before I ever even started playing DnD and I just stored it for "the right moment" Well, with the start of my 2nd campaign ever, that time has finally arrived. I've spent hours and hours measuring and writing down stuff in neat ways and printing and then inking over and prisicely cutting at least a hundred decorations and pasting a few in the book already. They are all themed around ravens, magical herbs, potions, gems and some magical creatures. And no, that's not because I'm playing a druid; I'm playing a sorcerer who has a strong connection to the Raven Queen and who is going to go into potion making later in the story (I made an entire guide to make that stuff more interesting and I'm gonna use it XD).

We have a "lore keeper" or two, depending. Cause when you're in RP, it's hard to take notes for yourself and concentrate at the same time. So, depending on who's RPing, one or the other does it. Cause some of us take horrible notes, others take really nice shorthand/detailed notes. Currently we have two, and it's worked out really well. I'm the DM....I'm terrible at remembering things, I usually use the recap as my notes, and it's STILL only partial, so everyone else fills in the rest. lol I personally like digital notes cause I can type faster than I write, and then I actually....read it. :P

I had such a missed opportunity to write in character notes with my fish-out-of-water triton character from my party's previous campaign. He took so many notes since he was fascinated by the surface world but I as the player took very few notes.

My whole DND group is chaos, debating over things we totally could have taken a note of just works for us 😂

I learned that taking notes during session is a huge help in letting me actually pay attention. It also lets me use a bunch of colorful pens for different sections of the session. In the end I'm always very proud of my notes because they look nice and cover a lot of the session

THANK YOU! My favorite take away is "take notes on what is important to your character". This is huge since I am not good at note taking, but this narrows things down.

I’ve been using Notion for my D&D notes and it’s been life changing. With Notion, I can relate different Databases so I can cross reference towns with NPCs, quest hooks with loot, etc. I also carry the Bag of Holding for our party, so I kept a log of which items were who’s (before D&DBeyond added equipment containers!). I’m normally a DM, and the suggestion of recording a session to take notes on later seems perfect for those moments when you create a character or lore nugget out of thin air and need to keep track of it.

In my last campaign I was the only person who made notes (and also had bag of holding, huh) and I had very messy session notes about different personalities and locations, so on one of the last (and the most mind-blowing sessions) during coffee break I just sat down and drew a family trees for NPCs with some notes for each person, specific location maps, connections between who did some sort of things before or during campaign. It helped me to realise things we were missing during our investigation in our town. And it literally saved our lives. ✨Power of notes✨

I use hand written notes during the game as I find them more flexible for adding notes and annotating during the game. But after that, I use Evernote to break down my notes into quest information, NPCs, locations, character backstory etc... That both makes it easy to work and reinforces it into my head when I'm reviewing it.

The way you keep track of NPCs in spreadsheets is brilliant! You are a genius (or Ginny-us it is ;) ). I am a fan of note-taking and I am the one responsible for notes for my whole party. But it never crossed my mind how effective spreadsheets can be for the info about NPCs! Thank you for the idea!

I've always been the designated note taker of my campaigns when it comes to player-written notes, so it's nice to get a little insight on how to better organize my own notes. Also validates the whole "using a different note-taking technique from campaign to campaign," as I handwrite my notes on my tablet for one campaign where I *really* need to focus and type notes for my other campaigns (handwritten notes are more likely to stick in your head than typed notes, or so I've heard).

Never thought I would hear Marie Kondo referenced in a D&D video but that just makes me love this video even more. Not to mention having this come up was perfect timing because in my last session I petered out taking notes after a big battle ended and couldn't remember the important stuff that happened afterwards, so clearly I need a new system LOL.

We have a party member who made a wiki. It’s very convenient for remembering Npc’s and events

Another useful but also fun tool is the session recap. At the beginning of a session, players and the DM can spend 5 minutes talking over the details of the last session. That way it's fresh in everyone's minds, and those who are better at note taking can catch up those who are not as good. Plus repetition helps things stick. Also, it's fun and gets everyone excited!

I use alot of scrap paper, bullet points, and negative space divisions. Then, when i feel like it, i organize it all in a review of what my character knows and doesn't know

It's always been difficult for me to take notes due to my organization skills being lackluster. Even then, I'm really proud of my "journal" I had when my character turned evil in my Curse of Straud campaign. It only had 2 entries, but it was really cool to slowly delve into my character's insanity as the tomb's curse slowly inhabited my character. It was really cool to reveal it when my character turned into a vampire lord and died against the party. I feel like I want to make a journal more of a thing so that it makes an impact during my character's final moments.

As a DM who struggles to take notes, I highly recommend that players try at least some of these tactics. Then at the end of the session, give the DM your notes to 'make sure you have them next time'...

I actually started creating bullet journals with DnD in mind. They've definitely helped me keep my sessions straight and remember what is to come next. Even more fun, I've started to make them for other people!

Oh my god, your spreadsheet for NPCs gave me the best chills. I can't believe I didn't think to do that! I always love watching your videos because if I'm not learning something new I'm having fun!

When I first played, I took notes on EVERYTHING. When the party had a moment to get to know each other, where we went around the circle talking about ourselves, I was half in the moment and half writing in my journal.

Ooh! Perfect! I don't know how to effectively take notes in but I'm the only one who takes notes. This could be helpful for life in general too! I need to get better at note taking.

The moment she said"I have a terrible memory." I felt understood and connected to this video 🥲 I have a terrible memory and so, recently I have been learning to take notes on important things and seeing this video makes me realize how good and helpful note-taking can really be! Thanks for these awesome and helpful videos Ginny!

Finally! A fellow ADHD'er who color codes their information! It's so easy to take color coding information for granted, but it's so useful & helps you find specific info that much quicker. My memory isn't the greatest either, so to find info quicker I've resorted to marking various sections of my sourcebooks (such as races, classes, spells, equipment, combat rules, even tables for XP gain and modifier bonuses) with colored sticky tabs, going so far as to use specific colors for class categories (green for healers, blue for pure casters, red for pure melee & yellow for those with a mix of melee/spells or melee/spell-like abilities). Highlighting information that's toughest for me find to find &/or toughest for me to remember with different colors makes that info POP from the page.

note taking for me has always been "best intentions, worst follow through" but this does have some ideas... and making use of habits I already have is a particularly nice one. Thanks for the video.

I had most of this figured out but couldn't figure out how to sort the information and your idea to highlight different things like locations, npcs, etc. with different color highlighters is just the ticket; thanks!

I'm late to the party on this one, but I found that texting with your DM about the game can be a HUGE benefit when it comes to note taking, because instead of just having your notes, the DM's thoughts and phrases become part of those notes. This is actually why I love using Discord to play D&D and Pathfinder

Aaaah, another great informing video with yet another hilarious ad, how I've fallen in love with your content!

My Evernote is loaded with random D&D ideas. It's pretty disorganized but it's easy to access on my phone if I think of something and just write out some ideas before they're gone.

"Slapping Me In the Face for Fifteen Minutes" No jokes though this is the vid I needed to turn my life around

My biggest struggle is splitting my attention between what's happening and taking notes down, that might have more to do with my ADD then my actual habits but a few of the things in here are definitely going to be game changers! Appreciate you Ginny!

Ginni D, awesome video and thank you. Our group finds that the "my character is too dumb to remember so I don't need to" is also a cop out as well as a sign of who is being a good Player. We are each responsible for note taking, some are better than others but it's amazing when others start. Kind of like real life where others on a team pull their own weight. Also, some in our group get new journals for each campaign we are in. On another note, we have also found Kanka online a way for us all to contribute to the world building, by inputting our characters and backgrounds as well as the NPCs, organizations, monsters, locations, and images, location descriptions, etc, etc, etc. A good hub of info that all can reference and have up. Thanks again!

Symbols- I've done this in my history and literature classes in college. Usually initials, but same idea.

Marie Kondo is my goddess, my queen!! I love how you applied her philosophy to note taking and gaming!

This is the only youtuber who's adverts I actually watch... just as entertaining as the actual video!

Ginny, you are a fountain of information for us new players, I can’t thank you enough for all the info, ie-where to buy things, costs, your enthusiasm, your love of the game. You make it a lot easier for the people not in the know 😊😊

Reviewing your notes into a shorter synopsis is very handy to quickly read over at the start of the next session to get back into the flow.

What is the square root of pizza?

Bless this video, I needed this. The tip about writing down timestamps if you're recording the session is GOLD bc my sessions are long and I know I wouldn't listen through it all. Seriously, this is really great stuff

way to go ginny for making a youtube sponsorship ad that i am actually happy to watch

This is a gold mine for all kinds of organization, not just dnd notes.

You just changed my life, I was like "yes, recording us would help alot but sitting trough it fully would probably not work either. But time stamps! Frigin time stamps! My life has been saved thank you

For me, the physical act of writing down a note is what makes it stick in my brain, and the fact that the information now exists on paper is a pleasant side-effect. Once I've taken a note, I can often recall it without having to reference the paper itself. However, because of this, my notes are just an endless stream of consciousness of unrelated facts and names, so God help you if you ever need to actually reference them.

I just stumbled over this video and love it! I usually take Notes from the perspective of my characters, so like a real journal for Session notes and every Session gets a Headline. Besides that I keep a section for every PC and NPC and for my Lore heavy campaigns I also have a section for every important lore. I also highlight everything I think it's important and make little sketches that are just fun.

Excellent video! As a DM, I use a spiral notebook for sessions. That way I have plenty of room and can easily skip to the next page if I need to track initiative and other combat logs. It's the fastest thing for me. Then I transfer everything to Google docs later, where all of my world building, and permanent, notes live. As a player I use a journal book. I simply write the date of the session and write things down as needed. Apparently I use bullet journaling, because I make symbols, underline, bold and circle things based on importance and what it is.

First time my hubby (boyfriend at the time) played D&D I was DMing. Forgot to tell him to take notes, but he just did it. His notes were written exactly as his character would have interpreted them. It was greatly!

Holy moly, lots of new ideas that I never even thought of. COLOR CODING?! Game. Changer. I, my dm, and my table, thank you for this. As the table note taker whenever someone asks for something from a few sessions ago it does take some time to find these things. Yes! So much yes! Thanks again!

I'm a first-time DM. We barely finished session 2 yesterday. Everything is, so far, fresh in my mind because I'm running a module. I'll try the digital notes and see how it goes.

I love taking in character notes. Sometimes I have shared bits with the group (Ooglat Hammerthorn's Thoughts) when there was something we did in gameplay that my character didn't know how to dissect. In one session a character killed a non confrontational, though arrogant, NPC who was a priest. They had their reasons, as I'd find out the next session, but in that moment it really jarred my character and she became very quiet. I wrote half page about what I was trying to process. It was great. I'm currently going beyond notes and writing a journal that takes place about 6 months prior to our group meeting up. Quite enjoyable.

I want to be a good note taker but I have struggled with it. This video is hands down the best video I've seen in helping with my note taking. Thank you so much for this video!

Truly one of your best videos by far! Super informative, you talk about many different approaches on this subject and you provide both digital and non-digital solutions. I took many pointers from it as far as my poor/non existent note taking abilities. Keep doing those! :)

I absolutely love how tips with a game I've never played in my life also make sense for writing

Perfect timing! I've been the only one taking notes in our Waterdeep campaign for over a year. The other players have recently committed to stepping up and now I have a guide to share with them!

I take extensive notes, both digitally and on paper. Your video gave me even more ideas for how to manage my note taking. Thank you!

I've seen your stuff here and there but I recently subscribed and am seeing more of your content as a result. I take descent but garbled notes and I found this video very helpful. good job!!

As a DM, I also use Google Drive and spreadsheets to make sure I keep track of everything. I have a sheet for the PCs so I have their most important bits ready (like a list of their passives), some background notes, and any personal quests or stuff. Then I also have tabs for recurring NPCs, one for taverns and stores, and one for current and future quests/plot mechanizations. I'm rarely a player, but I tend to get a little deep in the woods with notes when I am one.

Loved this video. Thank you for this. I wouldn’t have narrowed the title down to just D&D as this would apply to most TTRPGs. I think you’re awesome and thanks for the videos.

I find it helpful to [TAG] my computer notes to help find things faster. [edit] Oh I also colour code the entries (gaining/losing objects, spending stuff, names bolded, places, organisations, etc.) to make skimming easier.

I don't know if I should love you or be afraid of you... Your takes on advice and extension of other professionals and applying them to DnD make me want to rewrite and reorganize two of my games. Then I think about the daunting amount of work and start to cry inside... but it'll be totally worth it... I guess I LOVE ya! THANKS GINNY!

Still watching but had to say that your ad spot for Kobolt was the best add I've ever seen on yt!

Those are great tips! I constantly take notes during the session because when I don't, I'll forget everything instantly after the session ends (this is no overstatement, sadly, my memory is REALLY terrible :( ). Taking notes _after_ the session is no option for me ... But recently, I started sharing my notes for everyone in a little extra channel in our Discord and it works great! It spares us a few minute of the beginning of the sessions because people can read it beforehand and when we want to start, the other players can just add details I overlooked (they are usually only writing details down). We only play 2-2.5 hours during weekdays after work, so this really saves us time :)

I have these little three by five dot notebooks that I use during sessions that fit in my pencil case. When I complete each book, I use that as an opportunity to reflect on my character's growth. I write how my character motivations and their thoughts of their fellow party members have changed since the last book. I also try to update a timeline of key events and lore.

For items used by players and also for some skills I recommend using notecards for taking notes. When I was a DM I prepared notecards for each special item I gave to my players which included a description of the item and of the rolls and the rules involved in using it. I made it a thing that having the possesion of that notecard would represent having the item, so players could physically pass along the notecard, if they wanted to hand over a magical item in game and that way whoever was using an item had the neccesary info at hand. Some goes for spells or skills that might involve complicated rulings (like the commands Ginni was talking about) write the commands on a notecard and you have them at hand when you want to use them without having to search through books or papers.

I found that the most valuable notes I take are "Questions", which is where I write something, whenever there is a bit of mystery implied. This is really nice because it's basically the place where all the hints and things to pursue end up. Let's say you meet a noble and the mention of another NPC makes them uncomfortable. Write down: "Why was Lord Irving uncomfortable when we mentioned Zac?" You go on a mundane quest, but there is a body in the sewer, covered in rats. "Why was there a body in the sewer with rats all over it?" I know that the impulse is to just write down in your session notes: "Found body in sewer with rats." The problem is that the mystery is going to disappear between the facts you learn. I found that if I take a look at all the questions every few games, that the questions already imply a story. Even better when you read them before every session. Cause that way when you learn later that Zac is blackmailing nobles, you will immediately have a lead on Lord Irving being involved.

Google Docs is amazing for taking notes. Everyone can have it as an app on their phone. As DM I set up a "Journal" document for each player that is viewable by me and just them. This creates a place for the player to write down their thoughts (as a player or their character), take notes of the things that interest them, and write down their plans for their character. As DM, I can go through these and see what is standing out to the player, what they value, what elements of their past I can weave into the story (without other players having prior knowledge of their entire background). I can even communicate directly with the player! All of this also allows for the players to do things between sessions to further flesh out their characters, which gives me a wealth of information to tie into the campaigns that weave the characters right into the setting. For my homebrew world I have a master timeline only viewable by me, where every player who has every played in my campaigns have left their mark (plus just lore history I've created myself). This is the history of my world. For every campaign I create a second timeline that is viewable by all players. As they discover the history of the world, I copy paste over notes from the master timeline into the viewable timeline. This is also where I add session summaries so these are always easy to reference by the players. I find these methods take the pressure off of players to actively remember everything.

Great video! I've only played a few sessions so far and my notes have been all over the place, and since everything is fairly recent it's all still in my memory. This inspired me to actually transfer all that to something useful while I still remember it

I usually take notes during session per hand but I like them searchable and I do after session journal entries digitally. For this usecase I found rocketbook really helpful which lets you take notes manually and you can scan and even process them via OCR if wanted and upload them to your favorite cloud storage or e-mail. My in session note taking and also a bit of session prep as a player consists of the following sections: - big general section for what is going on during the session - tracker for life points, magic castin, etc - inventory changes (I dont' really like shuffeling thorugh pages during session, so I try to collect everything in one place to update my sheets after session) - more general section for things I need to go over after a session (I often get ideas during sessions what I would like to do or talk about when the time is right for it, which usually is not in the same session. This way I don't forget about them) - to-do list for the current session i prepared before (I often forget about things I wanted to do so this keeps those thoughts present. If something didn't fit it maybe it will next session or just get deleted when things developed differently)

I am DMing a campaign, and I typically take notes that are basic summaries of the sessions or of the arc my players are in, kinda like an "episode recap/previously on" thing. I also have a separate document that involves brief information on NPCs who my players have met along the way. I leave the rest of the note taking to them, tracking their loot and quest information etc. Splitting the duties in half like that has worked so far. It gives them in charge of cataloguing treasure and loot, and keeping focused on the current objectives in front of them, while I stay fresh and current on where the campaign as a whole is going and what NPCs I've brought in as the story progresses.

8:49 hey, thank you for the idea! i didn't even think about trying to write journal entries from the character's pov - but now i see it as a very useful tool for the type of game i am about to play

That’s some pretty brilliant stuff. I’ve actually used the character POV notes and found that it was helpful to bring my mind back into the game after time off.

I have a main Google Doc for each campaign's notes, shared with the entire group so anyone can read & contribute. It's mainly OOC bullet points, with a few detailed bits or quotes where appropriate, and things like NPC names in bold. Having it all in one Doc means I can CTRL-F to check our entire history without leaving the document. It's saved our butts several times.

I have been rewriting my notes into an in-character journal entry in a blank paper book. I could be writing this entry based on my notes a short time after playing, but I could also write the journal entry a day before playing when I can compare my notes with the summary of last session. In the campaign I'm playing we as players take turns on writing a summary for each other. This summary helps us and the DM to start the next session. I like my choice of making a journal entry because it helps me roleplaying my very first character. And the refelctive nature of a journal entry helps me setting goals for the next session as well as reflecting about what NPC's said and how the heck that fits with what is happening in the game.

Love the idea of voice recording and jotting down the time stamps for reference back later. We voice record our sessions but I'm not the one doing it and we always forget to send it out to the rest of the group. Will have to try this during our next session. Really enjoyed this video. :)

Holy cow this was so helpful. Your NPC spreadsheet blew my MIND. I take notes from the beginning to end in a physical notebook in each session, and I am quick enough to write down everything I need, but finding it later is often really hard. Hmm…!! I’ll think this over!

This is a valuable and under-discussed topic - thanks for the detailed tips! And, very entertaining video, as usual!

With online dnd taking up so much digital screen space (I use two, one for roll 20 and one to the side for my character sheet) I found a system of taking notes on paper during the session and then typing those up after the session to be really helpful. Gets the benefit of rewriting the notes to change things I want to add/remove without the time pressure, and means I don’t need to keep flipping back and forth between character sheet and notes page during the session.