How to organize your homebrew setting

[crayzz]

How do you guys organize your homebrew campaign settings? I mean in terms of physically keeping track of all the choices/decisions/npc/details you've come up with?

I'm running a game with a few friends. The first few sessions went fairly smoothly: they were introductory. But the current plan is to set the players into the world with the gist of the overarching conflict and a small continent to explore.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

I've found Obsidian Portal (obsidianportal.com) to be incredibly useful. It's a site for hosting campaign wikis, with separate areas for setting details/houserules/etc., character writeups, and session logs, and every page has a DM-only section so you can post information for players and notes for yourself on the same page. You can host a certain number of campaigns for free (I want to say 3?), and if you want to keep old campaigns around while making new ones there's a pretty cheap yearly membership option for unlimited campaigns.

[JNAProductions]

I too am curious.

[Darth Ultron]

Well, I take lots of notes. Everything that happens in the game gets notes.

I will have one blank page for group notes, one of each player, one for anything of current importance, and one general blank page.

Each NPC gets a write up of at least two pages, often who they are and their mechanics...though major one can be several pages. For the game itself, I often make 'index cards' with the important things for each NPC just for that game. Once upon a time...this was all done by hand, but in 2018 it's all on a computer and a online wiki. So I can print off anything or even look it up online.

The adventure has a basic 'time flow chart' of what will maybe happen, if the PCs don't change anything.

In the past I have done voice recordings and videos of game play.

Some good players like the level of game detail so they help out by taking their own notes and writing an adventure journal...and giving me a copy, and putting it online.

[Kaptin Keen]

I remember ... everything.

That's not really true, but it remains the only method I have. I do keep a cast of characters, and thankfully I have a wonderful memory for locations and creatures I dream up. It's about the only thing I remember, sadly, and in my old age I'll likely be like Johnny Weismuller, sitting in some forgotten corner of the retirement home, mumbling on about Madripore and Æhrengaard and Ul-Haq and so on.

But yea. I (try to) remember. And to help with that, I keep it simple. There are only three really major human settlements. Well, unless you want to count the fourth, but ... trust me, you don't want that.

[Firest Kathon]

I started to use RealmWorks (http://www.wolflair.com/realmworks/), but it's more on the pricey side.

[Bubzors]

If i am designing a dungeon or specific adventure, i usually use a google docs to keep all the descriptions, traps, enemies, etc.
I also keep brief notes of what happens every session on a scrap piece of paper.

When I first start a campaign I usually write up a couple pages of stuff for world building, locations and NPCs just for my reference
Besides that, I do everything from memory

[PhoenixPhyre]

I went whole hog and have a shared hosting server and run a blog-like thing. 100+ articles so far. They get revised as I go. I also have things in a google drive folder--maps, documents, creature stat blocks, etc.

I'm not as organized (with anything) as I should be though.

[RazorChain]

Eidetic memory helps alot, especially when you are like me and don't bother to write too much down.

But the top of the cherry is you'll remember your PC character sheets better than your players!

[Nifft]

Private wiki, with full editing permission for all players, except one directory which is visible only to me, and has my DM-only stuff.

Character sheets & journal entries go up there, too.

[LordCdrMilitant]

How do you guys organize your homebrew campaign settings? I mean in terms of physically keeping track of all the choices/decisions/npc/details you've come up with?

I'm running a game with a few friends. The first few sessions went fairly smoothly: they were introductory. But the current plan is to set the players into the world with the gist of the overarching conflict and a small continent to explore.

I have a MS Word document that I use to take notes on everything that happens in case something comes up again.

The rest of the time, I just make things up as I go along. Eventually, everything takes shape and it's easy from there.

[King of Nowhere]

Pages and pages of notes. A neat folder with several word documents detailing the npcs, the various factions, the stuff that's happening...

Luckily I have good memory for things that are can be lined up in a logical chain of events, so I can remember the story and the main npcs backstories pretty well by myself. All the things that happen behind the scenes, not so much.

[Jama7301]

I've been using GM Binder for creating handouts and documents that look nice, but I'm running into a similar issue where updating things as they happen isn't working. The site is great for like, known stuff, but updating it live can be a pain. I used to use Google Docs, but ended up splitting my stuff up between several accounts/documents that were poorly named.

I've thought about using EverNote to make linked pages, but I'm not sure how well that works.

[Mendicant]

Flickr for keeping images, a private Facebook page for sharing home brew docs, and wikidot for slowly, slowly migrating most of my mess of notebook entries, masterplan/realm works entries, and text docs to one easily navigable place.

[Beleriphon]

I've found Obsidian Portal (obsidianportal.com) to be incredibly useful. It's a site for hosting campaign wikis, with separate areas for setting details/houserules/etc., character writeups, and session logs, and every page has a DM-only section so you can post information for players and notes for yourself on the same page. You can host a certain number of campaigns for free (I want to say 3?), and if you want to keep old campaigns around while making new ones there's a pretty cheap yearly membership option for unlimited campaigns.

Its two campaigns. I have been using it for my campaign in progressed. Check my signature for the link. I find it works pretty well, although the free account has limits like how much storage they offer for images and what not. Also it has limits to the style of each campaign which can be changed a bit so each wiki looks different. My main one, Pegbarrow, is pretty typical D&D and I like the theming it has so far.

[Keltest]

Mostly I just remember things. I have a good head for that. If I need something really specific or don't want to risk forgetting it, I have a notebook I write things down in specifically for my D&D sessions.

[crayzz]

So with the mention of Obsidian Portal and using an online wiki, I remembered of a desktop wiki software called Zim (http://zim-wiki.org), which turned out to be exactly what I needed for personal notes.

I have made an account over at Obsidian portal and will probably migrate once I feel comfortable with the interface. Thanks for the suggestion!