How I Organize My TTRPG Notes | GM Journal Tour

I recently started running TTRPGs in person again and I wanted to do so with as little reliance on digital tools as possible, so I made myself a GM Journal to plan and run games with and I have been LOVING it. Let's take a tour of it.
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Welcome to the info paragraph, this is a place to feed the great algorithm, and if you've made it here you have probably scrolled too far! Icarus Games is dedicated to helping TTRPG players and game masters improve their experience in roleplaying games. For RPG players, there are videos on learning games rules, as well as on character building, roleplaying, and optimization. For Game Masters, there are videos on making maps, improving your worldbuilding for your RPGs, and for creating homebrew TTRPG content.
#dnd #dungeonsanddragons #dungeonmaster

[@Pelercio]

Boy, you must receive a lot of praise from those who play with you. But here, many DM's congratulate you on your organization, teaching and dedicated work. My sincere congratulations, from DM to DM!

[@metajock]

Ten stars for this one, dude. I've tried to keep track of time for our CoC game, we never thought of using something as simple as an existing weekly planner. Keeping this to watch again and forwarding it to our other DM's, too. Very well done, keep up the good work.

[@IcarusGames]

It makes tracking time just so much easier!

[@cadenkerner4893]

What does CoC stand for?

[@IcarusGames]

Call of Cthulhu

[@cadenkerner4893]

@@IcarusGames thanks

[@yourboiFluff]

@@IcarusGamesI thought clash of clans at first lol

[@callievanantwerp6887]

A+++ from me. You inspired me to make my own binder for a homebrew game I'm running (and it already paid dividends when our digital character sheets crashed mid-session 1) . The other GMs in my gaming group even asked me to make their own versions. You started a revolution! 😊

[@BiggerinRealLife]

As someone who thinks better in analog, this is soooooo helpful, thank you!

[@macc4835]

All these years of using a notebook why haven't I thought of this. Thank you, ordering now because this is much more organized.

[@chickane5586]

Totally inspired! I previously made an A5 ring binder character sheet/book that used modular character sheet elements and scrapbooking crafts! Making it was so enjoyable. But I think I'll make a GM one - but for my brand new Blades in the Dark game - defo some aesthetics to bring to that journal! Thanks Anto!

[@Silverstar3]

Thank you so much for sharing! Id like to DM one day and I've always been a bit mystified about whats behind the DM curtain. Seems like you are a great DM that seamlessly helps the players by staying organized. Great job!

[@annereynolds7930]

I love the session summary for the players! I'm going to add that page to my player journal as well.

[@KekoaSkills]

Your library of source material is inspiring! I’m a fan of physical books, notebooks, pencils, pens etc. that being said, digital platforms like Obsidian or Legend Keeper, Owlbear Studio are amazing as well. I also like using different card decks for stuff. I’m using Basic Fantasy RPG with some changes. Anyway thanks for posting!

[@Bardic-inspiration]

I've watched a lot of dms notes videos and this is the best one by a mile! Thanks for sharing with us, have an inspiration dice!

[@IcarusGames]

Thanks, I appreciate it ☺️

[@randellomillianos4973]

I recognize the stickers from Legend Planner -- I use this for my 90 day goal player currently, too. I'm currently creating a gamified 90-day planner called MyQuest Role Play Journal, merging aspects of role play gaming with a 90-day goal planner to help journal keepers stay engaged while gaining experience to level THEIR character :) -- your videos provide wonderful insight and I am looking forward to reviewing more of your content. Thank you very much for sharing your creative insight!!!

[@raff3486]

The color code pencil is a great idea, I need this

[@ZippyZil]

I've done a similar thing with some pale highlighters: color coding to highlight the names of NPCs locations and significant events. It's useful to try as a player too!

[@UndeadBrony88]

Same

[@herpenderper]

Inspired me to start taking physical notes again. Thanks Anto

[@dogs_and_stuff]

Great idea, really practical too! Thanks for the inspiration, I’m definitely going to have a look at the stationery shop for one of those binders now!

[@ajohnson2371]

Love this. I've always tried working with a binder like this, though I'm working with the typical letter-size pages, using a disc-bound system so it's easy to add and remove pages. I'd also like to see what you would do for a Player's Notebook in this fashion.

[@dragonpuppetuk]

Love this idea! So many useful things packed into a little binder. I will definitely be making one of these. Thanks!

[@emilyr2836]

Your timing is excellent, I was just thinking of doing something similar for a new in-person game! Love the ideas!

[@tearstoneactual9773]

This really makes me wish my vision was good enough to work with a physical binder/journal like this again.

[@Phleanix]

This is exactly the kind of setup I need - Thank you Anto! I know where my "spare" money is going on payday! 😅😅 It's all already in my Basket, ready to go! Diolch

[@leanakache8361]

New DM here, so many good ideas, thank you!

[@thatcanadianguy7699]

Showing the 5e characters at 12:04 gave me a good laugh. I love the 6 very distinct player types immediately on display. Now, this is all in good fun and a joke, and also probably not entirely accurate: "Archangel" - (Of course they're a Paladin lol) Probably that player that plays the serious, gruff, almost edgelord-y type character. Either the lone wolf or party leader, no in-between. "Amy" - Not very comfortable with roleplaying, likely playing themselves or some idealized version thereof. Just likes spending time with friends. "Bad Bitcherella" - Doesn't take the game very seriously and makes lots of jokes, but definitely fun to have around. "Rainbow Dragon" - Super into their character and made them very cutesy. Would be devastated if something bad happens to their character, and prefers doing things like rescuing puppies rather than killing zombies. "Vassandra Silverleaf" - Probably the most standard "roleplayer" of the group. also likely to be the most knowledgeable about the rules (might be tied with Archangel) "Zelda" - (Could be like Amy or Vassandra, but I'm going with the following assumption) Based their character off another character from some media that they like (In this case Princess Zelda from the Legend of Zelda series), which is a classic move for players both new and experienced. Great video! Love how you have it organized. Especially like how condensed you keep your notes, I do my best to do the same as it makes it easier to find what I need and easier to run. (It helps prevent me from getting railroad-y and planning too much out.)

[@Lycaon1765]

12:11 "Bad Bitcherella" is certainly quite a name xD

[@IcarusGames]

@@Lycaon1765 give first timers the chance to be ANYTHING they want and they show you who they are 🤣

[@Goop4646]

oh yes let me see in that little black book

[@IcarusGames]

This video isn't for you, get out 🤣

[@kain50144]

5:02 Take my money. Seriously let me buy those cute stat pages.@@IcarusGames

[@Shiyaku93]

Beautiful. I use several notebooks for differnet games (shadowdark, one each for a 5e game I GM and another play in). having a binder like this would make things so much easier. You mentioned OSR, have you tried any systems? I'm particularly fond of shadowdark and its simplicity

[@IcarusGames]

I've got the shadowdark book on order and I'm eagerly awaiting it!

[@DevilmarGaming]

I absolutely love this. Is there any chance you could share your page designs? I'm unfortunately very familiar/don't have the license to the software to make them myself and I really like them

[@magicyoda482]

Fantasic video! Killed it, looks really cool!! Would you ever think about maybe releasing that binder 5e character sheet you've been working on on a platform like DriveThroughRPG/or a similar place? It really does look cool and very newbie friendly!!! Last thing, what program did you use to create that design and in general the custom things you made? Looks super nice and well thought out! Keep up the amazing work and looking forward to the next video you put out (whatever the topic is, you usually nail it in being informative with enough room and insentive for people to take the parts they like and feel ready to build whatever it is they need/want from things)

[@IcarusGames]

When I'm happy with them I'll definitely be making my journal inserts available for folks in some capacity for sure. I do all my design work in the affinity suite (publisher, designer, and photo).

[@jacobgrant8284]

@@IcarusGames Any update on this? Would love to be using that character sheet! :D

[@luciusrex]

I love pathfinder!! Wotc is just crazy these days

[@Alphunter4]

Great walkthrough for someone just learning to DM! Would you mind if I follow your examples of structure/dm tools?

[@IcarusGames]

Yes of course! That's why I share them!

[@Alphunter4]

@@IcarusGames Much appreciated!!!

[@Goop4646]

oh god the pencil :D

[@lughnacide9778]

Is that infinite pencil made from a converted LAMY Safari body? It even has the fountain pen ink window unlike the Safari mechanical pencils.

[@IcarusGames]

No idea tbh! It was an impulse purchase from tiktok shop 😂

[@JapanInDan]

I love this! Do you have a template that you use to make those PF2 cards?

[@IcarusGames]

Unfortunately not as I made them super quick. I was basically just copy/pasting the info in though so it should be easy enough to replicate :D

[@PsychesGamingAddiction]

Really cool to see other GMs notes! How do you deal with pre written adventures? For example I run a Call of Cthulhu campaign and preparing a certain part of the campaign would take a lot of page count. Do you just do short hand references on your notebook and use the adventure book?

[@IcarusGames]

I've got a video on how I would run a prewritten module on my list of videos to make, but the TLDR is I treat the adventure book itself as a notebook and write in it directly, fill it with highlighted segments, post it notes, and tab markers.

[@PsychesGamingAddiction]

@@IcarusGames interesting! I fear murdering the good ol’ adventure book with notes but if all else fails i will try that out

[@IcarusGames]

@@PsychesGamingAddiction a lot of folks do, but in my experience it's the best way to interact with the physical books. Treat them like a school textbook and write in the margins! If it's a limited edition copy or an old rare edition, I can understand not wanting to, but if it's a normal mass printing copy I say go for it.

[@PsychesGamingAddiction]

@@IcarusGames thanks for the advice!

[@MelanieVick]

Any chance you'll make the finished character sheets from the end available for others to use?

[@Centurionwolf18]

What application do you use to make your templates? Love the way you have your dm references made and I’d like to try and make my own for 5e

[@IcarusGames]

I used the Affinity suite 😊

[@lugialover09]

So this is super amazing, but I do have one question. How exactly do you plan out what's going to happen within the session? I see a general summary, but I don't see a list of encounters or narrative progression. Or is this a set of notes for a published adventure that you're just following? Because I'm trying to write GM notes, but I don't know what I should be doing. I'm just writing down things as bullet points (e.g. if the players go to this area, this encounter will happen. if they are nice to the NPCs in that encounter, this will happen. If not, this happens instead.). It might be getting too granular, but I'm not sure how else to write notes. If I didn't have them that way, I would be floundering the entire time because I don't know how to just think of things on the spot.

[@IcarusGames]

I run a totally homebrew world, so not a prewritten adventure, and how I structure my session planning notes specifically will depend on what we're doing that week, but I rely on a lot of improvisation. Before we started our campaign I spent 6-8 months building out the world in livestreams so I know a lot of contextual information about the world and can use that to help my improv feel like it was planned all along. If the players arrive in a location run by a specific faction, I'll have most of the important information for that faction stored in my head (or in my campaign notes in Legendkeeper) so I use that knowledge to make choices about how the NPCs act, what their goals are etc. If there's a really important bit of info I need to remember, I'll write it in the critical info box but otherwise I rely on a lot of informed improv.

[@lugialover09]

@@IcarusGames Okay, wow. That's impressive. I struggle to even describe or portray stuff that I already have specifically detailed in my notes.

[@EposVox]

This rules

[@IcarusGames]

Glad you enjoyed 😊

[@michaelmurphy19]

how did you make the 5e table of your players abilities? i really like the look of that

[@IcarusGames]

I made it in affinity publisher like the rest of the stuff. I used boxes with curved corners for the boxes themselves, and then just normal text boxes to add the player info.

[@michaelmurphy19]

@IcarusGames thanks for the reply. I love your videos. You're chronically underrated. Keep up the great work

[@dungeonmaster16]

With someone who have horrible handwriting and google doc becoming a mess what’s a good site/program to take gm notes with?

[@IcarusGames]

If you're looking for something free but that doesn't have great visual/picture support, Microsoft OneNote works really well. My personal preference is Legendkeeper, but it is a paid subscription option.

[@dungeonmaster16]

@@IcarusGames would legendkeeper be ideal for me that runs two campaigns?

[@IcarusGames]

@@dungeonmaster16 I think it's the best digital campaign management tool out there right now. I've got a bunch of videos using it here on the channel if you want to get a sense of what it's like to use.

[@GeekOutStudio]

Are the page dividers paper or plastic?

[@IcarusGames]

The page divides are made from card. The journal came with 5 and I made some extras.