Category: How To Series

HOW TO SERIES: Lists

11/30/2020

Lists are a broad category that can help your long-term campaign note taking in various ways. From lists of NPC contacts, to items & gear, to treasure, lists can help you organize information in easy to access ways.

Deciding what needs a list

In my opinion, anything you need to reference quickly is fair game for a list. My usual go-tos for lists, regardless of campaign include XP, Contacts List, and Items & Gear. However, depending on the system that I have been playing in and what is important to capture for the future, I have also included lists of things like personal character finances, ship finances, and quests to complete. A good rule of thumb for deciding what might be important to start a list for, is something that you might find yourself trying to reference time and time again, over the course of your game. Of course, you should definitely reference your lists on your Index. Check out the HOW TO blog post on The Index for more info on that. Below are some examples of some lists.

List Best Practices

Start your list on the next available page. Don't bother separating a special section for lists. As long as you reference your list on the front index or use a repositionable tab to mark its place in your notebook, you'll always find it.
If you run out of room, continue your list on the next available page and mark a reference to where the previous list left off at the top of your continued list's page. Make sure that you update your index to include your new page number.
Keep it simple, with the bare minimum of info that you might need. Jot down a reference to the page in your notebook or rulebook where you can read more about that item. For example, your list of contacts might say something like "Mr. Jones - Head of criminal org, The City - p.25". Then, if you were to go to page 25 of your notebook, you would find the notes you took on Mr. Jones.

What lists have you found helpful in your game?
Drop us a comment below.

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HOW TO SERIES: The Index

9/28/2020

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One of the primary features of our campaign notebooks is the front index. Borrowing from the bullet journal (bujo, for short) model, it eliminates the need to divide your notebook into sections and allows you to just use the next available page to take your notes. Here are some tips that will help you get the most our of your front index.

Make it easy to reference

Make your entries as broad or as narrow as you need, for easy referencing. Do what works for you. I like to keep mine broad, so that I can maximize the usage of space in my index and prevent a cluttered looking index. Generally speaking, you will only have a handful of pages per reference, so it should not be too overwhelming to search through the pages quickly.

One quick note: DO reference that "Big Important Thing That You Know You'll Need to Remember in the Future" [TM]. Even if it is only a one line scribble.

Add symbols in the margin

Remember, the index list is not alphabetical. You enter information in it as you go along. So, if have a few entries that you want to be able to pick out immediately without having to read through the whole index list, make sure to highlight those with a symbol in the left-hand margin. You'll be able to find them at a glace. Stuff like your list of XP, contacts list, or treasures list would be good for this, depending on the system you're using to play and what is important for you to track.

Use a page numbering system

This one seems rather obvious, but make sure that you're using the designated space at the bottom corner of the notebooks to enter some sort of page numbering system. You will use those numbers next to your entries. You don't have to write in every single page's number; in fact, I only write in the odd numbers. Come up with whatever works for you for easy referencing. The point is to be able to maximize the use of your index.

Got some index tips and tricks of your own? Drop them in the comments below!

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