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7-Day GM Organization Challenge

ChimpMasaki

New member
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
This time I'm following day 5, but I'm finding that when I copy/paste Johnn's code from the first page into Campaign logger I'm ending up with a page that still looks like the code, instead of the table + Header that I see in the video. Is there a setting somewhere that needs enabled to allow the conversion from code into tables etc?
 

JohnnFour

Game Master
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one question I had was whether Groups would belong in Johnn's Cast bucket or his World bucket? I suspect it would be the Cast Bucket, though for myself, I might want to make Groups its own bucket. Just curious.
Hi @Hiruma Chico!

I used to put them in ^Factions. I've had to use that tag symbol for another purpose now though, so I put groups and factions into #World Pages, and put indivuals into @NPC Pages.

In this use case, the #World Page is like a Wikipedia entry about the group. I describe its goals, dress, beliefs, resources, etc. To me, that's an encyclopedia entry. The 101 on the group.

I also put the faction pyramid and listings of members and leadership etc. into the Page.

But for individual group members, I'll use @NPC Pages.
 

JohnnFour

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Also, I've used the Sources section in the old tool RW, to put my pre-mission briefings, post-session recaps, plus links to rulebook PDFs, etc. Sounds like these would be separated with the first items in Johnn's Timeline bucket and the rulebook links going to "Files". Would I be correctly interpreting that?
I put all this type of stuff into my *Plots Pages.

I'll give each plot thread its own *Tag. For example, I give each PC a private plot thread, then a thread for the villain, and then a thread for the main story line if that's different from the villain.

Then I pile and file details relevant to that plot on its Page. I'll add links to stuff, images, file references, etc. as well as ideas and plans.
 

JohnnFour

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So in CL, are "bucket"s Pages or Logs?
This will be a bit confusing, but bear with me.

Buckets are Tags.

Tags are the symbols you use to make something into a link or Page. ~ ! @ # $ etc.

For example, @"Johnn Four" is a Page that has info about that NPC. To link to that Page you just "tag it" as you type. You type Johnn Four, then put an at sign in front to turn it into a link that takes you to the Johnn Four Page. e.g., @"Johnn Four".

So, in effect a Tag and Page are the same thing. The @"Johnn Four" Tag is also a link that takes you to the @"Johnn Four" Page.

Now, all the Pages that share a Tag - that's a bucket.

For example, the @ Tag is a collection of all your NPCs and PCs.

My main Buckets are:
  • Cast of Characters
  • Gazeteer
  • Quartermaster
  • Timeline
  • Plots
  • Rules
These translate to these Tags or symbols in Campaign Logger:

@Cast of Characters
#Gazeteer
!Quartermaster
%Timeline
*Plots
~Rules

So in this context, Tags are like the chapters of a GM book. There's a chapter with all the people in the story. Another chapter describes the world and its locations. There's a chapter with treasures, stuff to buy, services, new equipment options and other item info. Another chapter covers the history and present day, plus thoughts about the future. And so on.

That's how my brain works, though. You can use Tags, Pages, Logs, etc. however you want. You can rename and color all the Tags in the Preferences area, for example.
 

Hiruma Chico

New member
Gold WoA
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
This will be a bit confusing, but bear with me.

Buckets are Tags.

Tags are the symbols you use to make something into a link or Page. ~ ! @ # $ etc.

Hello and thank you for your answers to my questions @JohnnFour! You nailed it, I'm still a bit confused by this part, but I'll research it on my own for a bit. I'm brand new to CL, so that's my main stumbling block, but I think the most confusing bit that you wrote is that there are multiple symbols one can use to "make something into a link or Page." I'll have to do some more reading about CL to figure out how each of those symbols is somehow different and yet the same in that they all make some type of link/Page. Thanks again!
 

ChimpMasaki

New member
Wizard of Story
Wizard of Combat
This time I'm following day 5, but I'm finding that when I copy/paste Johnn's code from the first page into Campaign logger I'm ending up with a page that still looks like the code, instead of the table + Header that I see in the video. Is there a setting somewhere that needs enabled to allow the conversion from code into tables etc?
If anyone else is having this issue the trick is to remove the indentation on the code. When I copy straight from Johnn's forum post into Campaign Logger I get:

____# Loopy Plans
____|| __Loop__ || __Next Actions__ || __Impulse__ || __Objective__
____|| Loop A || || ||
____|| Loop B || || ||
____|| Loop C || || ||

Note that the forum was automatically removing the blank characters in this post so both the above and below code looked identical - I manually added some underscore symbols "_" to stress the point - in Campaign Logger they will just be blank spaces.

This won't format correctly and look like the above. If I then delete the blank spaces at the start of each line I get:

# Loopy Plans
|| __Loop__ || __Next Actions__ || __Impulse__ || __Objective__
|| Loop A || || ||
|| Loop B || || ||
|| Loop C || || ||

And this formats perfectly (like in the video). If you don't like having to manually delete the spaces for each line then I found copying from the forum into notepad and then copying from notepad into Campaign Logger also sorts the problem.
 

UbiquitousRat

Member
Platinum WoA
Are there any beginner’s training videos for Campaign Logger? I would like to know how it is supposed to be used but I can’t find anything obviously for newbies. If not, I guess it’ll be trial and error.
 

JohnnFour

Game Master
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Adamantium WoA
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Last edited:

ExileInParadise

RPG Therapist
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
DAY 2: Protect and Grow Your Energy

My wife has a chronic, progressive illness that makes some days extremely hard for her to accomplish.
Years ago she ran across The Spoon Theory as a way to explain how her daily energy levels work.
Your discussion on protecting and hoarding your energy and attention definitely reminds me of this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoon_theory
 

UbiquitousRat

Member
Platinum WoA
DAY 2: Protect and Grow Your Energy

My wife has a chronic, progressive illness that makes some days extremely hard for her to accomplish.
Years ago she ran across The Spoon Theory as a way to explain how her daily energy levels work.
Your discussion on protecting and hoarding your energy and attention definitely reminds me of this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoon_theory
Thanks for sharing this. As a person who suffers from anxiety and depression, I can relate… although I am cautious to appropriate Spoon Theory from those who have the chronic illness it was designed to explain. But the point is valid: we have limited energy per day and must marshall it with intention (which costs us a spoon in itself).
 

JohnnFour

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DAY 2: Protect and Grow Your Energy

My wife has a chronic, progressive illness that makes some days extremely hard for her to accomplish.
Years ago she ran across The Spoon Theory as a way to explain how her daily energy levels work.
Your discussion on protecting and hoarding your energy and attention definitely reminds me of this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoon_theory
I was not aware of this! Thanks.

It's quite similar to my approach. I think of it as having 100 units a day.

State of Health can knock of points from the start.

So does quality and quantity of sleep.

Lack of purpose, mission, or plan knocks off more points.

Lack of daily structure and productivity techniques whack more points.

Other factors remove more.

Leaving a person with a starting score to wield each day.

And then the game becomes improving your starting score and then phase two: point multipliers.

Point multipliers are how some people seem to accomplish more with the points. For example, Musk spends 10 points on SpaceX today and that translates to getting closer to Mars, whereas another person spends 10 points and that represents some useless meetings at work. How we leverage our available resources to create even more resources at our disposal creates multipliers.
 

OptixGhetti

New member
Hey all, just wanted to share my layout in Notion. I recently switched from One Note, and this layout seems to give me everything at a glace. Far more suited to the "bucket" mentality for me. Was glad I didn't really need to do anything for day one. I was a chef for a long time, and I have applied the principle of mise en place, or to gather and place, to my GMing style. Having every element for a session, prep or otherwise at hand where i need it to be.

View attachment 2873View attachment 2872
I currently use Notion for all three of my campaigns, however, haven't used this type of layout before. I really like it.
 

JohnnFour

Game Master
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
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Barbarulo

Member
Gold WoA
I'm enjoying the challenge and up to date 3. In defining sources of truth I thought, great! I'll use our games bookshelf. Sorted it only to discover I've made room for the board games that didn't fit there and have created no space for my RPGs! At the moment it'll be books on a different shelf and playing aids will have to go into a bag until I can find a better solution.

I am a little bit torn about session and campaign notes. I'll probably wind up using CL because it really is the best solution I've found. One Note has never jibed with me and likewise Notion. (If I'm taking notes I really like the simplicity of Apple Notes - it's just convenient.) I tried Kanka but players don't read notes(!) and world building apps aren't great for campaign notes.

But I also like the idea of pen and paper and have found bullet journalling helpful which may be a solution... just can't make up my mind.
 

JohnnFour

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Adamantium WoA
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I am a little bit torn about session and campaign notes. I'll probably wind up using CL because it really is the best solution I've found. One Note has never jibed with me and likewise Notion. (If I'm taking notes I really like the simplicity of Apple Notes - it's just convenient.) I tried Kanka but players don't read notes(!) and world building apps aren't great for campaign notes.
If you have a minute, what would you change about CL that would make it a no-brainer solution for you?


But I also like the idea of pen and paper and have found bullet journalling helpful which may be a solution... just can't make up my mind.
I work on RPT from 5am - 9, then go to the day job, which involves more computer work. So at end of day, I just want a break from computer monitors. So I use a pencil and tablet a lot, or CL in the tablet's browser. I also have my trusty Leuchtturm that I haul around.

Use whatever medium you are in the mood for. As long as you consolidate what you want to keep and reference into a Source of Truth regularly, it doesn't matter
 

Barbarulo

Member
Gold WoA
If you have a minute, what would you change about CL that would make it a no-brainer solution for you?
Nothing, really. I'm always flip flopping and trying new things (it's me not you). Partly it's that I haven't used CL for a while and when I tried to use it in my last game there was that weird glitch and my notes wouldn't save, so I couldn't test if it will still work for me.

But as I process this some more, I think I'll just settle with CL. I do really like it and it helps I can touch type. Also, I can download notes so I don't have to fear losing everything.
 

JohnnFour

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Adamantium WoA
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Nothing, really. I'm always flip flopping and trying new things (it's me not you).

I'm that way too. I've tried many note and info management apps over the years. I'm the same way with mapping software, always trying the latest thing.


Partly it's that I haven't used CL for a while and when I tried to use it in my last game there was that weird glitch and my notes wouldn't save, so I couldn't test if it will still work for me.

Did you get support on that? If not, when that happens to me on the rare occasion, I log out and log back in. There's a bug where it can log you out mid-session once every 50 sessions but not tell you.

Also try clearing cache and cookies in your browser in case a source code update was not pulled correctly from the server.

Note that every character you type should be saved to local cache or the server as you type it. If a browser crash or something happens, return to your Page or Log Entry and look for a triangle warning near the save button let you know you can resume your previous journey with content temporarily saved for you.


But as I process this some more, I think I'll just settle with CL. I do really like it and it helps I can touch type. Also, I can download notes so I don't have to fear losing everything.

There's also daily data backups. File a support ticket if wandering monsters eat your data and you want a backup restored. However, even though I'm using our preview server to test beta features, I have not had any data loss.
 

Barbarulo

Member
Gold WoA
Did you get support on that? If not, when that happens to me on the rare occasion, I log out and log back in. There's a bug where it can log you out mid-session once every 50 sessions but not tell you.
No, it's all good. Happened while I was transferring notes so nothing lost and I could add them the next day.
 

Barbarulo

Member
Gold WoA
A question and a comment.

Question: Assuming CL as the Source of Truth (and that you're a subscriber) - what do you do about ideas that don't fit in a current campaign? e.g. ideas for a campaign or just NPCs, plot lines and encounters that don't suit the current campaign? Is it worth setting up an 'Ideas' campaign or something?

Comment: I read some questions about organising DriveThruRPG files earlier in the thread. I've decided to leave these in the DTRPG app and use the app's folder system to sort them according to the categories in my pile and file list. The disadvantage is I have two places for PDFs. The upside is it should save time. Apple Notes is my go-to note taking and ideas dump so I've created a control document in that so I don't lose track of my system.
 
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