The Game Master’s Notebook: Three Ways to Capture and Access Ideas

What is a GM Notebook?

It would be so much easier to Game Master if we could just keep everything in our heads. But the world of a GM is constantly moving and that makes it hard to always remember every little thing. We gamers are fond of butchering a statement made by Helmuth von Moltke and saying, “No plan survives a first encounter with the players.” Many GMs have sought to prepare themselves for these types of uncertain encounters by creating a notebook or binder to take to the gaming table.So, how do you create a Dungeon Master or Game Master Notebook?

So what should your GM notebook look like? And what should it include? The best notebook reflects the needs of the Game Master and those needs vary depending on where they are in the game-running process. In the Inspiration Stage, GMs need a portable book that they feel comfortable carrying around outside of the game so they can capture ideas as they come. As they enter the second stage, Adventure Preparation, they need a more expansive binder where they can gather together rules, tables, and pictures that will help them organize the ideas in the heads and in their notebooks. This second collection will probably be the largest and require some sort of organization system. Finally, when they reach the Table, the third stage of gamemastering, they will need a thin binder or folder that doesn’t draw attention to itself but instead allows the GM to focus on the players. A Game Master’s notebooks should answer the needs of their owner by providing space and facts for them to do the work of gamemastering.

There are limitless ways that you can put together your notebooks and binders. I have put together ideas below as examples of how you might put your own collection together. You need to find the medium that is most comfortable for you, but I will make some suggestions of what works for me.

The Idea Notebook

People with great minds carry notebooks. It is a receptacle for the beginnings of ideas and an easy area to write new insights at any moment. Thomas Edison, also kept a notebook, including a list of inventions he felt the world needed. Not only was he a proponent of having a notebook, but he encouraged those who worked with him to do the same. GMs have great minds too (is that another possible meaning of GM) and so an idea notebook would help them too.

The Idea Notebook is a place to put ideas that sound fun or interesting to include in a roleplaying world. While some thoughts might be clear and well-constructed, this book is also a place for your unorganized thoughts and musings. It does not have to be coherent and it does not need to be presentable to others. In fact, you might decide not to share it at all. If you are not worried about what others would think about what you wrote in your book, you might find greater courage to record your most outlandish ideas. So do just that. Pull your Idea Notebook out whenever and wherever ideas strike you and record them. Don’t judge your ideas, just note them so that you will have them for later.

I wrote a list of Idea Notebook ideas (and gave it a title that Google would love): The Ultimate List Of DM Idea Notebook Prompts

Because this Idea Notebook works best if you carry it everywhere, you will need to pick a notebook that you feel comfortable with. Visit a bookstore or an office supply store and look at your options. Feel the cover and the pages. If you like the feel of the book, you will be more likely to open it and use it. Your comfort with your notebook and the ease with which you can write in it are perhaps the number one thing to consider when picking up an Idea Notebook.

Seeing that your Idea Notebook needs to be portable, I suggest that you start with a small notebook (Amazon has small Feela Composition Notebooks which are a great size but I suggest you find something even cheaper). Keeping it small means that you can take it with you anywhere. You can keep it in a pocket or in your bag without it being unwieldy or in the way.

Another subtle benefit of a small notebook is its limited space. A smaller amount of room to write helps you keep your thoughts short. And concise thoughts are easier to review. You can write down snippets of thoughts without feeling that you are wasting a page. You can even write several short ideas on a page and when you are later reviewing your notebook, you might make a great connection between multiple ideas.

Another reason to choose such a small notebook is the price. These are generally not high quality and will likely get pretty beat up. It’s just paper and cardboard after all. However, that is the upside to these books, because you will feel less intimidated by a cheaper book. You will worry less about ruining it. So go ahead and scribble and doodle all over it, it’s just a cheap notebook. And this will free you up to put just about anything in your notebook.

Choosing to use a soft cover makes the book a little more expandable. You can use your Idea Notebook as a small file folder to keep track of the evidence of your life. Did you go to a museum? Grab a pamphlet and mark it up as you wander. When you leave, fold up the pamphlet and put it in your Idea Notebook. You might also tear certain parts out of the pamphlet and just keep those. Then the next time you look in your Idea Notebook, it will remind you of the things you saw at the museum that inspired you. In addition to pamphlets, you can include other small items: a picture from a magazine, a flower petal, ticket stubs, etc. All of these things will help to spur your imagination when it comes time to create an adventure.

What about a digital idea notebook?

Seeing that many of us carry our phones everywhere, it serves as a great substitute for a physical notebook. Many apps assist the organization of ideas which would greatly assist the Game Master. I have found OneNote and Notion to serve as great bulletin boards as they accept many kinds of ideas. Both apps readily post words and pictures allowing you to keep them in one place.

Using your phone to record ideas also allows you to do it hands-free. Many apps transcribe your words as you speak. If done safely, you could record ideas while traveling or even while out on a walk. I think it would be wise to limit the length of these notes so they will be easier to bring back into your mind. You will be more likely to review a short message than one that is hundreds of words long.

Finally, your camera app will help you snap up pictures of things that inspire you. It could be places, monuments, or natural wonders. You can use it to record your pamphlet from a historic site or a painting that inspired you. Snap your photo and then put it in your notebook.

What is the place of the Idea Notebook at the game table?

Seeing that you keep your Idea Notebook with you all of the time, it certainly has a place at the table, albeit a small one. Keep it out of the way but available. When players mention interesting things about their characters, you could jot a quick note in your journal. If the players suggest a solution to a problem or a possible relationship between two characters that are better than your initial thoughts, write it down. (Although you might want to be subtle in your writing so the players will not make a connection to their words and your note-taking.)

The Idea Notebook is a small place for inspiration. They collect your ideas and then make them easy for you to access again. I encourage you to use a small notebook but one that you like to write in. Take it everywhere and write in it when an idea comes to you.

The Adventure Preparation Library

Looking at the examples of Game Master notebooks online, the presenter usually shows what I am calling the Adventure Preparation Library (APL). It is often a thick binder of documents that reflect all of the various things that could happen in a game world, such as random encounter tables and tavern menus. It might also contain rules for the technical side of running the game–from ship travel rules to monster stats. Then there are pictures and maps and other idea-sparking ephemera to inspire the GM. This library might also include modules or campaign books, where the Game Master can steal ideas. Basically, anything that deals with running a game could be included in this library.

To put it another way, your APL will be the resource you turn to as you plan your adventure. As you break up the encounters and story arcs, your APL will help you translate your ideas into the rules and mechanics of the game. It can even help you fill in the gaps of detail that provide your encounters with greater verisimilitude.

So, how do you whittle it down to the most essential items?

The goal of the APL is not to limit your resources, it is to organize them. While you are reading a game book, you might come across a helpful table. When you do, add it to your binder. Here are just a few ideas of lists and tables that you might keep in your binder (you might have other ideas as well):

Your Idea Notebook
Character Profiles
NPC Profiles or Generator
List of NPC Names
Random Monster Generators
Dungeon Creation Tables (like in Chapter 5 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide)
Location Attribute Tables (like in Book 1 of Matthew J. Finch’s Tome of Adventure Design)
Tavern Menus
Puzzle Ideas
Maps
Robin Law’s List of Player Types
Short Adventure Anthologies (like Ghosts of Salt Marsh)

The Lazy Dungeon Master’s Checklist (check out Mike Shea’s book, Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master; it is incredibly helpful as you prepare your game)
A List of Adventure Hooks
This is just a few ideas . . .

You may have noticed that this list is quite expansive. That’s the point. Your APL includes all of the books and PDFs you have accumulated to make your adventure design simpler. Take everything that helps you and put it in your binder. Just make sure to organize it so that you can find something when you need it.

Your APL does not need to be portable. It might be comprised of several binders and a few books. The goal is accessibility so that you can make your preparation easier. Perhaps take the ideas above and turn them into your binder categories: Characters, NPCs, Monsters, Locations, Puzzles, Adventures, DM’s Checklist, etc. By arranging your binder in a way that is intuitive to you, then you have an easier time finding the things that you need as you create your adventure.

What place does the APL have at the game table?

To be brief, your APL does not have a place at the game table. Take anything you need out of it, and move it to your Game Table Binder. And even then, you will need fewer pages than you might think. Just grab the bare essentials. Leave the rest of it behind until the next time you sit down to prepare your game.

The Table Binder

Now that you have your adventure prepared, it’s time to take it to the table. That is what your table binder is for. This is the series of documents that will help you to run your game. My suggestion is that you keep it lean and unobtrusive. I don’t take much to the table at all.

Here are the things I take with me to the table:

brief adventure notes
A list of NPCs I expect are running to that night
Secrets and clues (see Mike Shea)
Maps of my encounters that I have written all over
Paper handouts for players
Brief monster stats
A brief rules reference
A list of game master moves from powered by the apocalypse
A visual NPC creator
A list of possible NPC names

During my last game session, my Table Binder pages were two pages long. I included the names of important NPCs and short five- to six-word descriptions, bulleted descriptions of possible scenes, the most basic stats of the monsters in the encounter, PbtA’s GM Moves, and my ten Secrets and Clues.

Part of my adventure preparation time is trying to identify which documents I will really need. By spending time looking for those things during preparation, I will have them at my fingertips when it is time to run the game. Particularly I will grab rules that I have a hard time remembering. In the past, I have included the 5e skills list, improv prompts, and the names of the seven dwarves (for use when describing impromptu NPCs).

Seeing that this notebook will change from time to time, I suggest that you use a binder where you can easily change pages. You may even decide to choose a half-inch binder to remind you to limit the number of things that you can put inside. (If you get the binders with the view pockets on the front and back you could keep certain pages available without even having to open your binder.)

A small folder helps you focus on the players. Knowing that you have the specifics of a rule or a character somewhere in the binder in front of you encourages you to look for it. The temptation will be to take your eyes off the players and look for the correct answer. However, when you only have a few notes, you will focus more on those in front of you and just come up with an answer (which will be the correct one for now). Keeping up the pacing of your game is usually the right decision anyway. Remember, your table binder is there to assist you and to help you focus on the players.

Where does your Table Binder belong on the table?

Lay it front and center on the table. Make it easy to access and easy to ignore. You might look down at it frequently to help you run your adventure well but also allow you to keep your focus on your players.

How about a digital Table Binder?

I would suggest against using a digital Table Binder for several reasons. One, you want to be able to see as much of your binder as possible without turning pages. Most digital screens are not big enough to allow you to see two full pages with writing large enough to read. Two, some digital screens do not lay down flat and would, therefore, impede your ability to ignore them. Three, you likely have many of your APL documents accessible from your digital device, so it would be tempting to search for rules or specific facts. So, while a digital Table Binder would be serviceable, it might not be the best choice.

Conclusion

The purpose of a Game Master notebook is to help you run your game. However, running games is more than just table time. As that is the case, I encourage you to have multiple GM notebooks. Keep an Idea Notebook for daily use. It will allow you to record your ideas at the moment so you won’t lose them. Choose a small but comfortable notebook. The second notebook is much bigger. It is your Adventure Planning Library, which includes your entire collection of pictures, maps, adventure books, dungeon master tips, rules references, and anything else that will help you access the game rules and mechanics. The main obstacle here is organization and familiarity. The final GM notebook is your Table Binder. This book only includes a small number of pages that will help you focus on the players during the game. Ideally, it will not contain much; only the things that will prompt your memory during gameplay. These three notebooks each have their own place and time of use. They will help any Game Master prepare and run their best game.