Keeping it all together

[shipwreck]

Hello, all. My question today is directed to the Loremasters: How do you organize your session materials?

This is strictly a practical question. I found myself shuffling a bit during our game last week as I bounced between the Tales book (and various parts within it) as well as my own pre-written notes and those kept during the session. I use my own Loremaster cheat sheet in addition to notes (usually read on my iPad) and the books. It's gotten to be a bit much and inefficient. So I'm curious to hear how the rest of you keep your materials organize. If you're using a prewritten adventure do you summarize it in your own notes (or copy/past bits if you have the PDF) as one master document? Do you use sticky notes? A binder?

Thanks in advance for any tips and suggestions!

[Wbweather]

Well, since I host using the Fantasy Grounds client, I have a bit of an advantage. I generally write out the story and save it with an index for the various parts. I then cut and paste relevant material from the PDF's and insert them into the story for easy access. I try and preplan the journey phase as much as possible so that I have a general idea of what rolls are required. I put all that into the story file as well. I also have created a library/reference database within the client that lets me avoid a lot of page flipping, but I keep the books all at hand for emergencies.

I have also done the same thing but created a Google document that I can read off my iPad, instead of using the FG client.

[Falenthal]

I print the adventure in black&white, 2 pages per sheet, both sides of the paper. So I have 4 pages in one sheet. Saves lots of flipping.
In this prints I can write down in pen everything I want to add, and underline whatever seems important and that I foresee I might forget during the adventure (colorfoul details of the NPCs, mainly).

I also have a sheet with all the stats of the types of enemies they can fight (including a description of how every special ability works. This is also included in the LM screen, however).

I calculate the possible journey routes at home, but also have Glorelendil's Journeyometer opened in the laptop, just in case.

A blank sheet of paper to write down Tolerance and Successes in Encounters, Endurance and Hate in Combats.

A print of the table of effects of failed Journey Hazards, and a homemade summary of all things possible in Combat (taking of a helmet, combat actions, weapons damage, steps of the onset,...).

The Travel and Battle Mats, by Voidstate, are also a must (which should go official, btw ).

..and my Legos for the heroes, the NPCs and the adversaries. Fighting a Lego Troll is double impressive.

[Stormcrow]

OneNote is a good, free choice for organizing everything in a game. For instance, one section of my One Ring notebook is for Rules, in which I put clips of various important tables, one table per page. Another section is for Adventures, and is where I write my notes for the adventure. If a particular rule comes up in the adventure, I link it, wiki-style, to the page with the rule. I've got a section for Adversaries, where I clip the adversary stats, and another for Loremaster Characters, where I either write up stats for important characters or take notes during a game when I invent a new character. One character per page. One section is for Session Notes, where I take notes on what happens during an adventure so I have a record: one page per game session.

If I were going to use a pre-written adventure, I'd copy and paste it into OneNote, which would let me link various parts, highlight, annotate, and rearrange as I choose.

OneNote is free and available on virtually every platform.

[damiller]

I used just a doc file for a long time (google docs in fact) Then I found Google Keep, and it has been my organizing Go To Tool. I can color code each "sticky" label them (and then show only notes with that label) I found it very nice and very user friendly.

Plus it is browser based so computer OS is not relevant.

d

[zedturtle]

I hardly do. I have all the pdfs open on my computer, plus a wiki for each campaign. All the physical books are to my left, within reach. And I have my notes, which may or may not be all the exists for that campaign. Sometimes the notes are only in my head.

I get interrupted (by kids, mostly), double-check myself before committing to something to the point of paranoia and a whole bunch of other things that would be annoying. But they're not... I'm running my games via PbP and my players have almost no way of knowing all of the things I just mentioned (unless I tell them, ).

To be serious for a moment, I do think a certain level of preparation is good. I would probably just sticky-note relevant info into the premade adventure, if I ran it face-to-face.

[shipwreck]

Problem there (my problem, anyway), is that I think I've "got it" but I mess up a particular rule. For example, they wanted to do the forced march bit to escape Dwimmerhorn but I did not explain the rules properly and had to go back and reread it briefly. It's not a big deal but it did interrupt a tense moment.

I will definitely be trying One Note or Google Keep.

As an aside, I do like that I get to feel like a true Loremaster, keeping all the setting history and material in my brain and bequeathing it to my players. I just don't want to screw it up

[Wbweather]

There is no harm in stopping and looking up the rules. It is a good learning experience and no one will mind waiting a few minutes. You don't have to have everything perfect, after all the point is to have fun. If you get it wrong, then do it right the next time. At least that is my philosophy.

[Robin Smallburrow]

It is much easier to 'keep it all together' if using a laptop with USB stick, but a new problem with having many windows open onscreen is the time required to scroll down to a relevant page is actually slower than the old method of flipping thru pages!

U still need hardcopy prints IMHO of:
- the adventure you are running
- all maps
- adversary & LMC stats
- encounter notes if there are any
- the excellent fan made resources such as Voidstate's battle mat, there is a LM session summary sheet (I forget by who) that I find indispensable
- plus I have the rule book and azrapse's character generator open onscreen as a minimum!

Robin S.

[Majestic]

I run face-to-face, and my normal set-up is:

Both maps take up the middle of the table (one for the players, one with hexes for the LM), and the Travel Map and Battle Map by voidstate (I've used glass beads, miniatures, or cardboard counters to represent the PCs). I also have a bunch of glass beads that I use for the Fellowship Pool (a literal small paper plate marked as such) and an Eye Awareness one (so everyone at the table is continually aware of the exact counts of both).

I have all of my rules (so the Revised rulebook, a few cheatsheets, Rivendell, etc.) on a chair, to use as needed. But the main thing I need is the adventure book itself (so lately that's been Tales, which we just finished, or Darknening), and a few pages that I've prepared (sheets that I've posted here before, both for tracking Encounters and NPC sheets for tracking any adversary's stats in battle).

I queue up appropriate Middle-earth music in my stereo system and we're all good to go! Just add players for fun!

I've found that TOR requires less prep than many (most) other games. When running a published adventure, I read through once thoroughly, then I make up all of my NPC sheets, then about a day or two before the game session I'll read the entire adventure again, to familiarize myself with all of the details. Tales from Wilderland already does a lot of the work for you, but sometimes there will be some calculations (like for travel) that it's helpful to think through before the game starts, to cut down on match and players waiting while everyone's at the table.