How To Best Take Notes As A Player In DND

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168澳洲幸运5开奖网:How To Take Notes As A Player

168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Use Your Notes To Enhance The Game

Taking notes isn't the exclusive domain of Dungeon Masters when playing 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons. Playerꦏs will need to remember what is happening in the plot and what their characters are currently doing when weeks or sometimes months oꦡf real-world time will pass between sessions. Committing some of it to writing helps deal with these long gaps.

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Notes are also important for the overall group. When somebody misses a session, they'll want a stronger r🌌ecap than "Last week we fought some bugbears". Taking ꦫplayer notes is not that different to taking minutes in a meeting, and you can use some of the same skills.

How To Take Notes As A Player

Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos Cover by Magali Villeneuve. Three students study magic in a library while a small gargoyle is bored. — Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos Cover Art by Magali Villeneuve

Session notes serve a bunch of different purpo🗹ses depending on the type of game you're playing.

A mystery game might require you to take careful notes to compare testimonies and evidence.
A Westmarch will need notes that make sense to players who weren't there.
A public game can use session notes to advertise itself and attract new players.
A game with scheduling gaps will need notes to remind people of events that happened previously.

All of these needs have different ways of taking the appropriate notes, and you'll want to carefully consider your options. If your goal is to jog your memory in a week, simple notes are often better. If you need someone to understand the full session's events from the recap, you'll need both detail and readability.

Certain details will alwayౠs be important to include:

Notes	Details
Characters	A list of which party members were in the session helps, especially for larger groups or format♒s that ౠdon't have a consistent player group. A list of characters relevant to the session is also important: Quest givers, antagonists and recurring characters.
Narrative Events	Both the plot of the session and its role in the larger campaign narrative are important. Character-specific storylines should also be noted down but may be listed separately.
Enemies Fought	Random encounters may not always seem relevant but might contain clues that become relevant later. Measuring what types of encounters you're facing in a region can allow classes such as wizards and clerics to prepare spells that better counter them.
Rewards Earned	Lots of sessions end just as the party collects their trophies but before deciding who claims what. Having details of what loot the party gained allows it to be divided fairly before the next session.
Unfinished Business	Any points raised that will be relevant to the next session. Long quests, unresolved mysteries and ongoing events are all important.

Use Your Notes To Enhance The Game

white owlin holding book and casting magic — Imbraham Dean of Theory by Ryan Pancoast

The way you take notes can also improve your player exp﷽erience, letting🐲 you get more fun out of the game for the added investment.

Use Your Notes To Roleplay Better

Taking notes is a good way to improve your game and enhance your investment in the characters. Here a♛re some different spins you can put on your note-taking technique, depending on the type of game you're playing.

Note Format	Example	Benefits
Write Notes In Your Character's Voice	Take your session notes in the form of an inner monologue or diary from your character.	Putting the notes you take in the tone of your character is a great way to practise your roleplaying. Examining evidence from the perspective of your character can also guide you in making decisions, by linking events of the current session to previous sessions and the character's backstory.
Have Your Notes Be An In-Character Document	Session notes take the form of💃 a guild ledger or after-ac𒁏tion report.	Having your notes be a prop for a document that exists in the game is another useful roleplaying addition. Keep in mind that if this is the case, the DM might impose consequences for including or excluding certain information. A report that admits "we backstabbed the quest giver for a bigger payout" is likely to lose your reputation and guild membership.
Notes As Dialogue	Session recaps might take the form of dialogue between party members, or a꧑ drunken exaggeration made t🌊o impress NPCs in a tavern.	Having the session notes be a joint effort with other players can be a fun way of staying engaged during and in between sessions.

If you exclude certain details from your notes for roleplaying reasons, it is worth keeping another note showing what information has been omitted or exaggerated. Even if you think you'll remember the differences, it is easy to convince yourself of something that didn't happen purely through repetition of reading and writing notes.

Use Your Notes To Be A Better Player

On top of improving roleplay, your notes can also help you to be a better player. This helps the other players around the table and the Dungeon Master.

Technique	Benefits	Considerations
Connect Your Notes	Apps like Obsidian let you turn a series of session notes into a map showing connections between characters, places and factions. Looking back through your notes as a map can let you identify trends you didn't see before, solving mysteries in the plot and spotting potential traps.	These tools often export in formats that are great for sharing. If you want to𓆏 create a shared set of notes or take turns with other people, agree to use the same tool.
Compare Notes With Other Players	Players and characters with different perspectives might pick up on details that you miss. This is especially true if there are sections of the adventure where the party is split up and investigating different൩ leads. Sharing notes like this can take the form of an in-character scene where the party members exchange information.	This can be complicated to do in a game where not all characters have access to the same information. Check with your Dungeon Master whether you're allowed to compare notes in this way, as in an intrigue-focused game this can spoil some mysteries.
Use Notes To Ask Questions	Most Dungeon Masters love nothing more than to be asked about the world they created. Often, you'll come up with questions in the process of reviewing your notes. These𓄧 may be details that your character would know but haven't come up in the campaign, which you can ask out of𒆙 character.	Other questions from your notes might require you to seek out the answer in character. If your notes reveal an NPC lied to you, you'll need to ask them about it in character during the next session.

Technique

Benefits

Considerations

Connect Your Notes

Apps like Obsidian let you turn a series of session notes into a map showing connections between characters, places and factions. Looking back through your notes as a map can let you identify trends you didn't see before, solving mysteries in the plot and spotting potential traps.

These tools often export in formats that are great for sharing. If you want to𓆏 create a shared set of notes or take turns with other people, agree to use the same tool.

Compare Notes With Other Players

Players and characters with different perspectives might pick up on details that you miss. This is especially true if there are sections of the adventure where the party is split up and investigating different൩ leads.

Sharing notes like this can take the form of an in-character scene where the party members exchange information.

This can be complicated to do in a game where not all characters have access to the same information. Check with your Dungeon Master whether you're allowed to compare notes in this way, as in an intrigue-focused game this can spoil some mysteries.

Use Notes To Ask Questions

Most Dungeon Masters love nothing more than to be asked about the world they created. Often, you'll come up with questions in the process of reviewing your notes. These𓄧 may be details that your character would know but haven't come up in the campaign, which you can ask out of𒆙 character.

Other questions from your notes might require you to seek out the answer in character. If your notes reveal an NPC lied to you, you'll need to ask them about it in character during the next session.