How do you organize?

[psychoph]

I have been reading http://www.treasuretables.org/ lately and one of the topics was organization for games.  The blog seems more focused on DnD players than generalize information so i was wondering how do Exalted ST's organize their stories?


I personally load everything on to my laptop.


I usually create a folder for the type of game, then a seperate folder for each of the story archs.  I am still working on the process.  What I am trying to figure out is where to place the common stuff like NPCs, artifacts and such that i might want to share amoung stories.  I am not sure if I should stick a file for NPCs in the story directory or the type of game folder.

 

[Forn Clakes]

This is something I've struggled with since becoming an ST two years ago.  With my current story, I hope I've found a way that will keep it organised.


I've put the overall story in its own folder, which includes the setting, chronology and main plot-lines.


In another folder, I have put detailed ST characters and other antagonists in their own folder, as well as the player's characters in their own folder.  


For each individual chapter, I've made a folder of each one, which includes the chapter's plot, side-plots and individual episodes.


Seems like we're on the same wavelength.  What I have trouble with is the way of writing each episode so it allows a structured plot without being too rigid so I'm not taken surprised by player's actions.


~FC.

 

[Flagg]

I keep most of it in my head. I'll write down game stats, names of NPCs, and maps, which I usually keep on my laptop, but the rest I trust to memory.


-S

 

[wordman]

i was wondering how do Exalted ST's organize their stories?

Like this.

 

[wordman]

What I have trouble with is the way of writing each episode so it allows a structured plot without being too rigid so I'm not taken surprised by player's actions.

When I am ST, I want to be surprised by player's actions. I think the trick is to think not so much in terms of plot, but in motivations. When players zig, if you focus on the motivation of the NPC, it will be fairly obvious how they will zag.


At the end of the session, you might find that this completely derailed your idea of what the plot was supposed to be. This is fine. Instead of worrying about how to get the story "back on track", figure out where it is going now.


I'm not the worlds greatest GM, but the best lesson I ever got in how to be one was from a D&D campaign (whose DM may have been the worlds greatest DM). When the campaign was over, the DM asked if we had any questions. We had a few. One of them was about a part in the story where they group had the choice to take one path or another. We asked what would have happened if we would have zigged instead of zagged. The DM replied "one sec" and left the room. He came back with two huge three-ring binders and said "this is the details of the stuff you would have run into".


He had all this stuff developed, but since we essentially turned left instead of right, he just ditched it all and went where we took the story. And we never noticed the difference.

 

[Flagg]

Wordman's advice is good.


I plan my games in terms of characters, and events, but with few specific times and places.


If I've planned to have the PCs run into NPC X, in City Y, but they choose to go to City Z instead, it's no big deal. I just have NPC X in City Z instead. The characters are none the wiser, and the story remains continuous.


-S

 

[Jakk Bey]

I keep everything for a campaign in one folder.


One side has sketches, NPC notes--I rarely stat out NPC's beyond the bare bones--maps, handout material--if there's anything that's written down, chances are, my players are going to get something to play with.  Find a sash with an arcane symbol--I generally supply the sash.  Find an old map?  You get a oily piece of paper that's faded and stained.  I'm big on handouts, and illustrations.


In the background there is a dry erase board, that I sketch out situations, rooms, quickly dash off numbers or other notes for the players.


On the other side of the folder, I keep my notes.  Pages and pages, and pages of notes.  What the characters did.  Who they talked to. Where they went.  Where they thought about going. What they mentioned in passing.  Who they passed.  What they bought. Who they bought what from. Who they didn't talk to.  If a player does something, chances are, I've got a note of it.  This helps me keep track of things, where the characters are heading, build up plots based on their actions.  I generally plot things out based on my notes, and where the characters are heading.  If a character snubs a waitress, that can come back on them. If a character lays a waitress, that can come back later.  Rig a game of chance?  Cheat a business partner?  Save a town?  Make a snide comment afterward?  It goes into the notes, because I am a big fan of basing plots on what the characters do, and the consequences of their actions.  Save a child?  What happens to the child afterward is often based on what the characters do in the rest of the town.  


MOST of my preperation comes from studying my notes.  I build games around arcs that start with a single story or two, and then let them grow, influenced by what the characters actually do.  


These small events can grow into much larger ones.  Not always, but it is always a shock to find little Three Bears, who you thought you'd left behind in the mining town, in the hands of the Abyssal who's been hunting you...and now, since you abandoned the boy to his fate, in a town that hates you for killing its corrupt governor and sealing the mine--never mind the Behemoth that was trapped below, the townsfolk never saw that, and neither did Three Bears for that matter--the boy is fully in the thrall of the Deathknight, hoping for his own chance to return the hurting the boy feels is the due of the PC's for ruining is life.


I build most of my worlds with a combination of notes to myself, bare bones stories that I never share with my players, but keep in my notes section, because they help me flesh out the world in my own mind, and I draw a lot.  I rarely have characters in my head until I get a sketch of them down. Once I have a sketch, the character crystalizes, and flows from there, but often I can't really get a character or their voice down until I have a decent picture.  So, in a way, my sketchbook is where a good many of my character notes come from.  Details from the setting or the world spring to life in the pad, and from there, they turn into something else.


I've had whole campaigns hinge on a plot that sprang to life from a single sketch, and a few notes about the music I was listening to at the time.  Say, a single odd ass Warhammer-esque Minionette and the lyrics to Lawyers, Guns, and Money, and I've got a whole story arc right there.  The rest is just in the details...

 

[Ker'ion]

My roomies used to go through the files on my PC (sometimes I think they still do), so I tend to wing it, planning a little bit at a time, but always keeping it pointed in the same plot direction (vaguely at times, but still).


I do sub-plots as the characters request them, but the main plot continues unabated while they wander off on a different tangent.

 

[Guest]

some of it is on the Pc and some is in my note book most NPCs go there

 

[psychoph]

What is your note taking process during the game then?  Jakk I am curious if how you do your note taking so that it doesn't cause the flow of the game to get interupted?


I have found that I get sparadic ideas during game and run with them, and i am a pretty scatter brained person when it comes down to it so if I dont' run withsomething or write it down I lose it, so note taking during game often times throughs me off I coudl use advice on how and when to do it and keep things running smoothly.  My friend who is an ST likes to say hold up and writes stuff down but I personaly find that it disrupts things and pull speopel out of the game.

 

[Kajata]

I know it's a really horrific thing to say, but I don't tend to have many notes at all.  The most notes I ever had were when I was playing the invisible fortress, when I had to keep track of time and locations of the characters.

 

[Persell]

I'd say i lean more towards jakk's style. Character concepts for NPC's villages and such always come from music lyrics and what i've doodled, sketched, or even made with the computer.  I actually don't use my laptop and keep everything in an old 3 ring binder. I use dividers for NPC's and places and such.  I'm also a HUGE fan of handouts. I actually keep some sheets of old parchment for maps and such.


One thing i started doing about a year ago is recording sessions. I borrowed a program from our stenographer and use it and the laptop to record the session. That way i don't have to take many notes except time's of when something interesting happened. Then while i'm watching football or just laying around the house i'll fastforward through to points i don't remember well, and adapt the game accordingly.


I'm such a slow writer that it's the only way i could keep good notes without slowing game play. And the laptop just sits in the corner so as not to cause a distraction or get in the way of whats on the table.