I’ve built a heavily opinionated tool for keeping track of the games I run and decided to put it online thinking it might be useful for other people. There are currently sections for hooks, quests, NPCs, factions and session notes, each with their own fields designed to keep useful information accessible and track how they evolve as the campaign goes on…
It is currently made to work using the local storage of your browser, so your data is only ever present on one browser only. The next big step is to develop a backend server with a database but I wanted to put it online to get feedback before building all the backend. I should also note that it is not mobile friendly at all. I personally do not intend to use it on my phone but if folks ask for it I’ll probably do it. It shouldn’t be too hard.
If you have a look, tell me what you think! There’s more information on the main page.
See it right here → The Campaign Journal
2 Likes
Interesting. The basic utility is obvious. I’m wondering what sort of additional elements might be useful. I’ve not explored any apps that purport to do this sort of recordkeeping, so have no idea what features I’d like or not.
I’ve made it specifically because I couldn’t find something I liked. The tools are either complicated worldbuilding software (but I’m not worldbuilding, I’m running a game) and other tools I’ve found are too “free” and you still have to come up with your own way of organizing the notes. That or they have a limited free version with a subscription based model.
I was thinking that a locations section could be useful. Something for recurring places in the campaign. I wanted to add a map with keys but that might be too much, a simpler version could be effective.
1 Like
It looks nice. It feels straightforward and simple. It prompts the DM for major items. Not sure it’s not something to just say, yes this works.
Whether it’s something I’d adopt? Less sure. Only because I’m quite prone to pen and paper and it feels as though this is largely designed around making what is in my notebook more legible so I don’t lose track of things.
Which leads me to ‘the problem of losing track of things’. My major issue is not so much that when I make my notes I can’t separate them in the way you have: faction, hook, etc. My major issue is -as the campaign drags on-, how do I not let what was become lost. There is a feeling of slippage as my note pages for any given campaign build-up that I’m confronted with, where flipping back through previous session notes, etc, feels … dangerous? Like there’s too much there or something? Double that with the fact that things, times change, and revisiting each and every detail can be unnecessary, I end up with a graveyard of my own information in which I’d swear bodies with bones made of gold lay.
So I am perpetually, as a game maker, caught between looking into the past and simply writing new information, directing in a new way.
These are all fun questions to try to probe with technological solutions, but it is also a broader philosophical question which is: what are we trying to hold onto, and what should we let go of? How can we release something to the compost pile. When is an idea done?
3 Likes
I like the philosophical question you are bringing here. It was a deliberate choice to not be able to delete any of the entries made, kind of like in a real notebook (unless you rip off the page I guess).
I feel like the tools answers your questions though. The way I intended the journal to be used is post-session tracking of the world in a way that allows me to be consistent with the less amount of work possible. So, for example, a faction does not enter the tracker until the players have met them. In that sense it is not a tool for “ideas”.
Then there are different ways of managing the entries. You can bookmark them, which adds them to what I call the “index” (the left column), so they are at the forefront. Then they can simply be active in their respective lists. And finally, when an “idea is done” they can be archived and pushed to the background.
There’s nothing wrong with pen and paper for course. But the more I tried to organize my notes, the more I felt some restrictions. That’s why I tried to reproduce a pen and paper note experience with some advantages of it being digital, again, strictly for tracking what happened. Wether I achieved that or not I’m not sure.
I’ll give it a proper spin then, if the proof of point is in the tools.
Even just entering a few notes, bookmarking it, closing it, and returning to it to find the notes still there excites me. I’ve found Notepad has a nice feature, the same: start a new doc, type, close window, open Notepad, new doc is still there, no save.
For a world where tabs close easy, this addition is nice. Local browser storage, I believe.
Anyway. Session 9 was, oh, a week and change ago. I’ll do my self-debrief with your tool and see how it pans, then report. Probably later today. Duties call.
2 Likes