HOW TO SERIES: Lists

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?​
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