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How I Got Started With Campaign Logger

ExileInParadise

ExileInParadise

RPG Therapist
Staff member
Adamantium WoA
Wizard of Story
Carol said:
Maybe that's why I have about 1,000 questions about how to use the Campaign Logger!
Click to expand...

For Campaign Logger, start with making the Campaign Entries you need for your next session then adventure then campaign.
The entries do not have to have content yet - you are just framing and organizing a start point you will fill in session by session over time as an ongoing "prep" loop.

Step 1: MAKE A LIST
Make a list of the following as a plain text file in a notepad app with one thing per line:
Next session you need what locations?
Next session you need what NPCs?
Next session you need what factions?
Next session you need what items?
Next session you need which open/active plots/loops/hooks/dramatic questions?
Next session you need which specific/custom system rules for tricky parts?

Step 2: CLEANUP THE LIST
Remove any special punctuation from the list entries - this makes it easier for the parser and autotagger.

Step 3: CATEGORIZE LIST
Mark each item in the list with its campaign logger tag/prefix:
For locations, put a # as the first character such as #bar
For NPCs, put an @ as the first character such as @ruffian
For factions, put a ^ as the first character such as ^EvilCo
For items, put a ! as the first character such as !sword
For plots, put a * as the first character such as *Recon
For rules, put a ~ as the first character such as ~Spellcasting

Step 4: QUOTE MULTI-WORD ENTRIES
Put " marks around any multi-word list entries you want CL to treat as a single thing
For example: #"Mount Doom"

Step 5: UPLOAD
Open Campaign Logger, create or select a campaign
Choose the "Campaign Entries" (not logs) tab
Hit the [+] to add new
The upload pane should open on the right with a list entry box for multiple new things.
Just paste your marked up idea list there and hit SAVE
Then watch as CL populates your Campaign Entries list with many new buckets to put ideas in...

You may find better ways to use the CL notebook with experience, but that should get you started.

A key point for me to remember is that Campaign ENTRIES are where I prep before a session - that's my wiki pages/notebook for all the campaign infos.

During a session, shorter-is-better log entries are the twitter-style way to capture reminder notes in the moment quickly.

After the session, mine your new log entries to update any related Campaign Entries that need it.

Last, start prepping your next session by starting over at step 1 above to add any new entries you think of, or just keep editing on existing ones.
 
ExileInParadise said:
For Campaign Logger, start with making the Campaign Entries you need for your next session then adventure then campaign.
The entries do not have to have content yet - you are just framing and organizing a start point you will fill in session by session over time as an ongoing "prep" loop.
....
Click to expand...

That's really helpful as I start to learn how things work together in the Campaign Logger! It's pretty much what I ended up doing for the game I was supposed to run last night! Too bad that one of my players set her alarm clock for am instead of pm and slept through the whole period! The rest of us just talked for two hours instead. :)

I greatly appreciate the detailed and organized list of things to do, as I can do that. I need to get my thinking here more organized and less -"Oh gee! Here is something I don't fully understand, let's add 200 questions to the chat!" lol I've been overthinking it all - a common fault of mine! All my DM's know I'll be like that for the first couple of sessions in a new game.

~Carol
 
So, once you start, the only thing to remember is to go back between sessions and mine stuff from the logs back into the campaign entries.

Then brainstorm more stuff and start new entries as needed.

You may find that the post-session updates to campaign entries kick off your brainstorming and your CL session ends up being half updates and half laying out more cool new stuff.

It gets more organic as a "review, update, improve, imagine more" repeat cycle.
 
An additional thought from the Discord chat about CL:
One of the goals is to only prep what you need "just in time" for the next session ... the empty entries are more reminders of possible things like plot hooks or whatever that you can mine from as you prep the next session. I am by no means an expert - but that's how it seems to be working out for me
 
Never mind, I searched the forum and found the url!

What is the link to the Discord channel? I hang out there a lot anyway.

~Carol

ExileInParadise said:
An additional thought from the Discord chat about CL:
One of the goals is to only prep what you need "just in time" for the next session ... the empty entries are more reminders of possible things like plot hooks or whatever that you can mine from as you prep the next session. I am by no means an expert - but that's how it seems to be working out for me
Click to expand...
 
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ExileInParadise said:
For Campaign Logger, start with making the Campaign Entries you need for your next session then adventure then campaign.
The entries do not have to have content yet - you are just framing and organizing a start point you will fill in session by session over time as an ongoing "prep" loop.

Step 1: MAKE A LIST
Make a list of the following as a plain text file in a notepad app with one thing per line:
Next session you need what locations?
Next session you need what NPCs?
Next session you need what factions?
Next session you need what items?
Next session you need which open/active plots/loops/hooks/dramatic questions?
Next session you need which specific/custom system rules for tricky parts?

Step 2: CLEANUP THE LIST
Remove any special punctuation from the list entries - this makes it easier for the parser and autotagger.

Step 3: CATEGORIZE LIST
Mark each item in the list with its campaign logger tag/prefix:
For locations, put a # as the first character such as #bar
For NPCs, put an @ as the first character such as @ruffian
For factions, put a ^ as the first character such as ^EvilCo
For items, put a ! as the first character such as !sword
For plots, put a * as the first character such as *Recon
For rules, put a ~ as the first character such as ~Spellcasting

Step 4: QUOTE MULTI-WORD ENTRIES
Put " marks around any multi-word list entries you want CL to treat as a single thing
For example: #"Mount Doom"

Step 5: UPLOAD
Open Campaign Logger, create or select a campaign
Choose the "Campaign Entries" (not logs) tab
Hit the [+] to add new
The upload pane should open on the right with a list entry box for multiple new things.
Just paste your marked up idea list there and hit SAVE
Then watch as CL populates your Campaign Entries list with many new buckets to put ideas in...

You may find better ways to use the CL notebook with experience, but that should get you started.

A key point for me to remember is that Campaign ENTRIES are where I prep before a session - that's my wiki pages/notebook for all the campaign infos.

During a session, shorter-is-better log entries are the twitter-style way to capture reminder notes in the moment quickly.

After the session, mine your new log entries to update any related Campaign Entries that need it.

Last, start prepping your next session by starting over at step 1 above to add any new entries you think of, or just keep editing on existing ones.
Click to expand...
Very useful! I started someway similar and was afraid I was not doing it the best way.

Thank you!
 
Note that since Exile posted this, we renamed "Campaign Entries" to "Pages" in the app.
 
I just started with campaign logger and really dont understand how it should work. I created a campaign and I created a log for each player, each city and some items. Somehow some of these logs appeared inside the campaign, some others outside. But I found no way to move them in. So I deleted them and mede them new in the campaign. I used the tags @ and # in my logs, but somehow I cant search for them. Sometimes I got all logs doubled or thriced.... I used the new UI, might that be the reason? Is there a tutorial how to use that right?
 
Campaign Logger "Campaigns" hold two different kinds of entries:
A "log" (on the Logs tab) is a short message you enter, as a reminder to yourself, while GMing a session.
In the log, you can tag various keywords as NPCs, locations, items, more plot ideas, rules clarifications etc.

A Campaign also has a "Pages" tab.
Each page is intended to be a much longer, encyclopedia-style source of reference for that topic.

How I use Campaign Logger:
For prep, I create pages for the @NPCs, #Locations, !Items, *plotideas,.
The pages each have a "Player visible" area and GM only area.
If I put nothing in the Player part, that entry stays hidden for players.

But, I can put stuff for the players to know into the Players part of a page, and GM-only reminders on the same page.
Then, when I look up the page, I can see what players see AND my GM reminders.
When the players look up the same page, they only see the player part.

So, pages are your "reference" or "source of truth" for a topic throughout the campaign.

Log entries are made during sessions to link the events of that session TO the pages.

Then between sessions you can update your Pages to reflect the changes needed from the Log notes you made while GMing.

Hopefully this helps sort it out a little?

If not - keep asking questions, and I think Johnn or Jochen have some video tutorials or other resources around they may be able to link in and share too.
 
Thx for your advice, that helped a lot! So I deleted all my logs and created pages for places and persons. Now they link well. Thats fine. But writing logs, it do not responds to # or @ Tags like the pages. But that may be intentially.
At the moment I use it to make notes for a campaign in that I am a player to get used to it, before I will use it for DMing.
 
I may know what is happening... on the Logs tab, you create log for the session by filling in boxes on the right hand side of the screen.
Those boxes are not going to auto-tag.

Once the log is created - then you click *into* the log itself, and you will see an empty timeline with a [+] box next to it.

That creates a new individual note within the log you created.

Those inidividual notes are meant to be short, like tweets, contained within the log of the entire session.

So, let's say for a 4 hour game you might enter dozens of entries all in the one log for that session.

If you create a log and see the big icon of the book on it - that's the "container" for the individual tweet-style log entries.

Click into that (like opening the logbook) to see the entries within.

The entries within are where the auto-tagging to link to your Campaign Pages happens.
 
@heiko-m Thanks for the questions. FYI I am planning a series of short videos that demo Campaign Logger as I set up and prep a brand new campaign.

I'll be emailing the video links to Campaign Logger GMs and Wizards of Adventure. Stay tuned.

@ExileInParadise thanks for the great answers!
 
ExileInParadise said:
I may know what is happening... on the Logs tab, you create log for the session by filling in boxes on the right hand side of the screen.
Those boxes are not going to auto-tag.

Once the log is created - then you click *into* the log itself, and you will see an empty timeline with a [+] box next to it.

That creates a new individual note within the log you created.

Those inidividual notes are meant to be short, like tweets, contained within the log of the entire session.

So, let's say for a 4 hour game you might enter dozens of entries all in the one log for that session.

If you create a log and see the big icon of the book on it - that's the "container" for the individual tweet-style log entries.

Click into that (like opening the logbook) to see the entries within.

The entries within are where the auto-tagging to link to your Campaign Pages happens.
Click to expand...
!! That works fine. Now 2 Issues are still pending. Perhaps you know how to solve them:

1) I created a campaign and logs in safari on my mac. When i use chrome on the same computer and log in to the same account all is empty. Where is the data stored? In the specific browser?

2) I created five log entries, but If I open the log later I still have 5 entries, but 2 are doubled and the two newest were missing. The doubled ones have the same tag number.
 

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We'll have to summon @JohnnFour and @JochenL for these last two.

My understanding is that Logger stores things "somewhere in the cloud" and that the app sends and syncs data between that and your browser.

In the Chrome browser, try the orange circle of arrows and the pulldown next to it to reload all into the other browser.

The doubled entries could just be a hiccup of some sort from the networking.

Maybe switch to a page and back to logs to see if it reloads just one entry - or maybe just a regular browser refresh on the page.

If they are truly doubled, don't delete them until Jochen can take a look.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your data issues @heiko-m. :(

The data and operational "client side" app code is stored in your browser's cache. In the background the data syncs with our servers.

Follow @ExileInParadise's advice on hitting the refresh data cycle button Top right.

Also try a hard browser refresh (CTRL + F5).

If that fails @heiko-m please file a quick support ticket. Instead of writing up the problem, just paste a link to this thread. @JochenL might need to do a deeper dive with you.
 
I participated in @JochenL 's Cl walktrough on Friday and am quite happy with the new insigths. Thanks! Only one thing is missing: Zorgon! I do not see the Zorgon-prompt, trying on Safari and Chrome. Is there a setting to activate him?
 
have the first bug report. I asked Zorgon for some encounters, and it answered well. But it seems his answers were truncated at the end, just missing half the last paragraphe (tried on iphone in safari)
 
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