Category: Lampblack & Brimstone: Discussion

In our dying days, a question–

How do you, as GMs, keep notes? I run my Freebooters games very very low prep, sometimes no prep depending on where things are at. I feel like I have the tools to come up with stuff on the fly well enough or roll for it. But I don’t always do a great job of taking note of what that stuff is. I have a moleskin I bring with me and jot things down–usually keywords–and it’s often enough to jog my memory when I’m writing up a session recap later (usually a few days later). Last session, though, I was pretty sleep deprived (isn’t parenthood a miracle), enough that I thought about calling things off, and I remember … next to nothing. My notes help a little, but not much, and I ended up just having to send out a message to the players asking them to refresh me on the events of the last session. I can’t help but think this could have been avoided by taking better notes on the front end?

So, what’s your note-taking process? How do you juggle taking notes with staying present in the fiction and being responsive/reactive to the players’ actions?

I wonder if this might be a future home? I recall Jason and the Gauntlet crew being fans of The Perilous Wilds, not sure their take on Freebooters but I can’t imagine they’d be against us settling in there? The Gauntlet has kind of proven itself to be the most reliable voice and community in indie TTRPGs and their policies on inclusive gaming are really important. Thoughts?

https://twitter.com/GauntletRPG/status/1105076332055195650?s=20

https://twitter.com/GauntletRPG/status/1105076332055195650?s=20