How to Take DnD Notes (for DMs and Players)

How DMs take DnD notes

Of course, there’s no one best way to take notes in D&D, but the top advice redditors suggested was to take notes after the session. Scribble the most important points down while you run the game, then write the real recap within a day while it’s fresh.

If you’re better than average at multitasking and want to write more during the session, the next best suggestion is to organize by topics such as NPCs, places, and quests. That goes hand in hand with the next popular suggestion, which is setting up those categories before the session so you can just drop them in their spot.

Lastly, a lot of DMs ask the players to handle it because if you’re a DM, we know the table is like that “Hey, Squidward!” scene with seltzer water so you could always use a hand.

If you want to see more, I talk about all the strategies here.

What DMs actually write down

Not the plot. The plot is already in your prep. DMs suggest writing down what changed: in-game time, loot, anything they made up on the spot that now has to stay canon, and the decisions and promises players made that’ll matter later.

How players take DnD notes

Players care a lot more about where to store their notes. Text editors, pen and paper, and note apps make up almost a third of everything players mentioned. Players often pick pen and paper, so there’s no screen at the table and nothing to alt-tab into. Which is fair if your table is 80% ADHD players like mine.

Players are big on making their campaign notes easy to search later because half of taking good DnD notes is being able to find what happened like 7 months ago. Use categories for people and places, and the date at the top of every session and you’ll solve a lot of your problems.

If you’re a player looking to improve your note taking, here’s how players take notes during a session.

What players actually write down

The #1 player tip is to write down recurring facts. That means the stuff that keeps coming back: NPC names, places, quests, and who owes who. My favorite rule of thumb from the comments is that if an NPC had a name before anyone asked for it, write it down.

A very interesting recurring suggestion was to write notes in character! I think this is a really cool idea to keep yourself engaged, writing good notes, and awesome roleplay. As a DM, I love it when my players are in character.

If you’re both a DM and a player (or aren’t picky)

Both DMs and DnD players mostly agree on a note taking format, so you’re headed in a great direction if you do these things:

• Before: make your sections (NPCs, places, quests) and put the date at the top
• During: Jot down a few of the most important words such as names and numbers
• After: Turn your hectic scribbles into notes you can actually read with as much detail as you want

One thing that also came up for both is recording your sessions so you can go back afterwards and get the finer details. Usually recording is an all or nothing strategy, though. 42 of the 49 DMs who mentioned recording made it their whole system, and 8 of 9 players did the same. Nobody records “a little.”

I’ll leave you with a few words of caution, and this was probably the most interesting thing in the data.

Many DMs suggested asking the players to take notes… and players suggest all the players taking notes. Lots of people, player and DM, seem to want to shove off this work or minimize it because it can be so tedious and distracting. If your table has one person who likes notes, though, let them cook.