How to organize your D&D campaign notes
Find the NPC, promise, or clue you need without making the table wait.
The short answer. Keep a small index, one main page for each recurring person or place, dated session notes, and a short list of unfinished business. Link those pieces together, and keep GM secrets separate from what players can read.
The party wants to visit the ferryman again, but you can't remember her name. You remember her voice, the argument about her missing boat, and roughly which night she appeared. Your notes should get you from those fragments to the answer before the table loses momentum.
This approach works in a notebook, shared documents, a wiki, or a campaign manager. It works for D&D and other tabletop RPGs.
Make the first page useful tonight
Put the party's current location at the top of your index, followed by unfinished jobs, people nearby, and the latest session. Use links in a digital tool or page numbers on paper.
For a game set around Ashwater Ferry, the index might be just four lines:
- We are at: Ashwater Ferry.
- Still owed: Help Mira recover her boat.
- People nearby: Mira and the Reed Council messenger.
- Last session: Session 7, A Letter Under the Seat.
Keep links to the full world history elsewhere. When someone says, "Could we ask Mira?", you need her page within reach.
Keep one page for recurring people and places
Mira should have one main page, even if she appears in ten sessions. Put the details you'll need to play her near the top: she is the Ashwater ferryman, her boat is missing, and she thinks the party owes her a favor.
Add the names your players actually use. Put "ferryman" or "boat lady" on Mira's page so you can find her by either nickname. Link her ferry and her employer if those connections matter in play.
A guard who gave directions once can stay in the session notes. Give them their own page when the party returns, takes an interest, or makes a promise involving them.
What to put in a useful NPC entry
Let session notes keep the history
Mira's page tells you where things stand now. The session log tells you how they got there.
Suppose the party learns in Session 7 that she carries messages for the Reed Council. Add that to her page, with a link or page number for Session 7. Keep the original account of their first meeting in Session 3.
If the ferry burns down, update its page too. The session log still tells you who started the fire.
Use recognizable titles such as "Session 7: A Letter Under the Seat" alongside the date. You may remember that letter long after you have forgotten the session number.
Keep promises where you'll see them
Put "Recover Mira's boat" on the list of unfinished jobs, with a link to Mira and a note about the last development. Once it is done, move it out of the active list and keep a note of the outcome.
Keep possible adventures in your prep notes. A dragon you might introduce next month should not compete for attention with a rescue job the players accepted last week.
After play, check which people changed, which places changed, and which promises were made or settled. Update those pages before polishing the prose. Even a rough line such as "Mira will not speak to Joss after the argument" is useful next time.
Label what the party knows
Label confirmed facts and suspicions clearly. Two notes about the same person can carry very different levels of certainty:
- Confirmed: Mira carries letters for the Reed Council. The party saw her deliver one.
- Suspicion: Joss suspects Mira is working for the smugglers.
Keep the second as a suspicion unless play confirms it. If the letters' destination is a secret, put it in private GM notes. Before sharing a page, read it through and check the material it links to as well.
How to share lore without spoiling it
Common questions
How much old campaign material should I reorganize?
Start with what the party could ask about next session. Keep your old notes available and bring earlier material across when it matters. You do not have to reorganize three years of adventures before using a better index on Friday.
Putting it into Storywright
In Storywright, give Mira an NPC entry and link her to the ferry and the Council. Mention her in the session notes when the party meets her. Her page holds the current situation, while the sessions preserve what happened.
Make her entry visible to players and keep the secret destination in GM notes. If recovering the boat becomes a larger adventure, a Story Arc can hold its objectives alongside the relevant people and places.