How to take RPG session notes
The Talehaven team5 min read
Most session notes share one flaw: they are written as a summary and needed as a reminder.
A summary answers "what happened". Before the next session you are asking a different question entirely: "what is still open and who did I promise what".
Short answer
Record three things: player decisions, promises and debts (in both directions), and threads left open. Skip combat blow-by-blow and description. A note is good if, a week later, it takes five minutes to know where the next session starts.
How to take them
During play, write keywords only
Full sentences pull you out of the game. Three words and a name are enough to rebuild the context afterwards.
Spend five minutes after the session tidying up
Turn the keywords into three lists: what the players did, what they promised or owe, what went unanswered. That is all.
Reference actual characters and places
"They talked to the blacksmith" is useless three sessions later. A note that points at a specific NPC takes you straight to their sheet and their secrets.
Separate what the players know from what you know
Private Game Master notes and player handouts are different things. Keep them apart so nothing is shared by accident.
Start prep from the last notes
Not from a new idea. An open thread is almost always a better start than something you are inventing on the spot.
A note from Alpendorf
Decisions: the party did not enter the mine, they returned to warn the settlement.
Promises: they told the innkeeper they would find out about her brother. The foreman owes them a favour for keeping quiet.
Open: who sealed the shaft three winters ago. Where the dead man’s amulet came from. Whether the blizzard closes the road before the merchant returns.
Three lines, and the next session almost plans itself.
Common challenges
- Recording the blow-by-blow of a fight. Nobody ever goes back to it and it eats the most space.
- Notes in five places at once: some on a phone, some in a document, some on paper. Whatever lives in one place is what actually gets used.
- Mixing Game Master secrets and player handouts in a single document.
- No links. A name with nothing behind it is just a word that means nothing a month later.
Take notes where your campaign lives
A note that references an NPC and a location leads you back to the source in one click.