Listen, let’s talk a little bit about note taking. I have been very bad at it for most of my D&D career. I have a lot of notes that don’t make sense that I do not want to revisit and wouldn’t understand if I did. I’d start new campaigns with high hopes and then do nothing differently in how I take notes and then get disappointed that I still wasn’t magically getting more organized by the sheer virtue of wanting to be. You see where this is going.
Bullet journaling became trendy a few years ago as a life/productivity/ADHD hack and (I’m not the first one to point this out by any means) it pairs really, really well with TTRPG campaign play. It’s easy to start (you can start very small) and adapt to your personal interests, and it solves a lot of common problems
- You arrive at every session with a to do list, which can answer any questions along the lines of “Wait, what were we doing again?”
- Most things you can write in your journal instead of your character sheet (character sheets are brave pieces of paper that in my experience get worn quickly. Especially around the Hit Points.)
- It’s fun, so you’re actually incentivized to take notes.
- It’s quick. Your notes are items on a list they should be concise and to the point. Nothing that takes you out of the game.
- The resulting notes are something you might actually want to hold onto and look back on. This is where having a designated character journal enters the equation.
If you’ve been thinking of getting into character journals but been intimidated by the prospect of actually taking notes in one (been there!), here’s a really good place to start. In particular, bullet journaling is something you can just start on page 1 (or whatever page you happen to be on) and keep going; if you have new organizational ideas you can add them as you go.
This is a brief summary and guide to bullet journaling for TTRPG campaign play specifically.
Have fun journaling!
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