Templates to Help You Get & Stay Organized

It can be easy to start taking notes for a game, but things can get messy fast. Walls of text can be difficult to skim quickly. Search functions can be a lifesaver, but they won't help you take notes that are easy for others to share in or follow. As a campaign expands, important bits can get lost. That's why I'm presenting the templates below for you to use for your games.

They're just examples of how information can be organized and shared; edit them as you see fit. Some fields will be useful to many groups; other fields might not be to your taste. The colors and fonts may not be to your liking but they're easy to change. If images lead to slow loading times, feel free to remove them. And if you do try them out for your games, please let me know how it went for you!

decorative swords divider bar by Ramona at Alderdoodle

For Game Masters

Has a player ever handed you a 5+ page background story for their new character? Have you ever wondered how to keep organized notes on important backstory details that come up during play? The first template below will help you, no matter how many pages your player wrote!

Medieval Golden Character Backstory Template

For Players

Session Note Templates

Taking notes during a session can help everyone remember everything better and create a record of your adventures with your friends. It's a good way to track what needs to be updated on character sheets, which stories were completed, and which new plot threads were introduced. A shared document can help absent players catch up, as well. I've found special joy in jotting down jokes and quotes at our table. You can see a beloved old campaign journal a player kept for us here.

This template series is in Google Docs for easy sharing and updating. Asking players to be responsible for particular sections - or rotating the duty on different days - can help spread the workload around, but talk it over with your group first. Some may be happy to oblige, others may hope for an XP reward, and a few may not want to do it at all.