I want to tell you all a story about how I got all mixed up giving character creation details to the wrong party.
It happens to the best of us: you’re running multiple campaigns a week or month, and one for both of them is beginning brand new. In my case, it was both of them. As a result, I am starting two brand new campaigns: my Tuesday group and I’m resurrecting my monthly group. It’s a long story on both but just know that the group makeup on my monthly group is half different and my monthly group is mostly different.
I’ve been doing a lot of work on my Tuesday game since it seems to be the more pressing of the two campaigns I’m chatting on an online message platform with my monthly group. It should be noted that membership in these two groups overlaps. in any case, I forget which group I’m talking to as I start giving character creation guidelines for my Tuesday group to my monthly group. This is got to be frustrating as I know half of my group were planning characters based on the criteria I laid down for my Tuesday group.
Two different kingdoms. Two different towns. Two different character creation guidelines!
When you are running multiple campaigns, how do you keep track of everything and avoid the pitfall I found myself in?
Physical Storage
This can take multiple forms.
I tend to use different notebooks to keep track of different campaigns. I make sure that I use notebooks that have pockets in them. This way, I have all of my notes printed off or written out (as the case maybe), maps drawn or printed, etc… I also tend to use graph paper notebooks over standard notebooks.
Electronic Storage
Another option is using software to separate everything. You can use different computer file folders, different thumb drives, different removable hard drives, whatever suits you. I actually have a file folder on my hard drive called Campaign Folders, containing a separate file for each campaign I’m running holding much of the same kinds of things I put in my physical folders. oftentimes, I’m printing off what is in the electronic file to put my physical file.
Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is another option, and although also electronic storage, I differentiate, as it’s not stored on your PC generally. There are multiple websites that have the ability to create and maintain campaign information. I could list off all of them, but this website does a great job already. I would only add dndbeyond.com, which has similar tools, as well as resource sharing for all of your DnD Beyond purchases. it also make sure that you have a place for each of your players to keep their characters handy for you to reference when needed. I cannot tell you how nice this particular option is when trying to create adventures based on your player characters back stories. It’s kind of funny, as Sam Riegel, a player on Critical Role, actually did a song for D&D Beyond that sums this up.
In Closing
There are several ways of keeping track of your games. You can do it electronically, via hard drive, thumb drives, or even via website or other cloud computing methods. Of course, you can also go “old school” and just keep old fashioned notes and graph paper maps. Whatever method or methods you choose, keeping track of your various games is integral to ensuring your games are well tracked and organized.
Until next time, Dear Readers…
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